Messages

I believe this is the line in question...




Nothing else to add really, you're doing a fine job.  In useless news, that little red bit was the very first use I got out of my new tablet...I've never used a tablet before.  It was AWESOME. =D Carry on.

PS: theRedPress, please do not write *tilts* 'cause I read that in a different way you know

Haha sorry homey, I can see how that could have been read with evil intent =p

On topic, excellent additions to the piece there, I really dig the floating ring.  I know I said I wouldn't be interested in playing an all blue game, but maybe if it's a Final Fantasy game, I can make an exception.  *slash-slash* 9999! =D

I think that shadows do "multiply", as in if you have a light that's not that strong and farther away and light source that's closer but more directional it would make for a darker shadow in the area of the softer shadow...wow, this was probably confusing to the rest of you.
But all the same, I don't think that level of detail is needed here.

Ah I see, it's that multiple light source detail that I didn't quite get.  I will remember that.

[The Game]

Looks like this thread was massively pruned.  Oh well, I still need some help so if anyone is interested, hit me up in this thread or PM me:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=33685.0

-------

The Game:  Police Quest II - Extended Edition

I could use help with the following:

Background assistance - Someone who can produce basic sketches or better, of backgrounds with proper proportions, a good grasp on value.  Must have a decent understanding of perspective, and it would be highly beneficial if the person also understood composition.  --- You will be doing thumbnail sketches and we'll pick the best choice for the scene together.  I will be doing most of the final work on the backgrounds, but a boost in production time would rock.  Res is 640x400.

Animation assistance - There are a lot of things to draw, and even more frames of those things to be drawn as well.  So help here would be great, it would get the game done a lot faster.

Art style changes!
I'm switching from photo-realism to a high-resolution version of Sierra style paintings.  You can see samples on the thread linked above.  The photo-realistic version is still going to be done, but it's taking the back seat right now.

If it helps you to know, I am skilled at coding, background art, graphics, animation, music, sound, and really only need a little bit of help with those things mentioned above.  I have a hardcore work ethic and I do like to get things done.  If you're that kind of person, we may work well together and finish this remake quickly - if not, you may want to pass on this.   There's also no pressure to join theRedPress team, but I'm also looking for individuals to stay on and help create oodles of classic adventure games, ala' Sierra's "Quest" games.

That's it, thanks for reading,
-Brent

Well...I tried to come up with an edit to fix some of the problems with the tree and such, but the more I kept screwing around the more I felt like that window either had to be humongous (like something from a very tall ceiling in a living room) or you'd end up with something like a bit of light shining down, possibly hints of a tree out in the yard, more like partial branch shadow, with a window border shadow around it.   Right now that light, to me anyhow, just makes no sense.   Anybody more experienced wish to chime in?

Also, someone suggested using multiple shadows, but shadows don't multiply, do they?  It's a very clean background, multiple tree shadows would become really distracting.

Looks good but the wheels are really missing those mechanical sections, and it looks pretty naked.

Maybe this will help show what I mean:
Wall-E Side view

Nice job so far. =D

When a one-degree tilt of my laptop monitor makes the difference between me seeing a load of blobs and seeing a woman... then I think some more contrast is needed. 

Oh yeah! =D *tilts* I see it now.  It's like one of those magic puzzles from the newspaper. =p

Well done, but really wasn't very entertaining.   Not even lolwut, that's reserved for the humor that is really awkward, like you need to cough or something - your body doesn't know what to do, because it's so unexpected or weird.  But the only close to funny moment for me was the fish (I think it was a fish) in the intro.  That was almost a lolwut...but then the blood shooting out of the arm moment was pretty much the norm from then on, so it wasn't really awkward anymore.

To me it looks like a woman standing under a starry sky who's just been hit in the head by a meteor, with her brain exploding in a cloud of of gore. Is that not what you intended?

That's funny, I followed the line of the planet as a trail of a projectile of some sort, smashing into the woman's head.  Well actually, I couldn't tell a woman was there for some time...like five minutes...seriously had no idea.

It looks like a neat idea, but I wouldn't play a game in all blue like this.   Bleh, I can make all my games look all blue whenever I want by adjusting the display, but I can't see why that would be good. =/

I have never been interested in fan games or remakes, considering them a waste of both development time and creativeness. I can understand that some of the older titles could be improved with a face lift and added features but overall all it is still the same game. However this project does in fact look promising but I wonder why you simply do not try a different approach? Why not introduce a completely new character as playable? This way you can retell the same story but from a different perspective. Introducing new events as well as providing players an alternate view of familiar events. You can, in fact, keep most of the original story and characters while expanding the scope by featuring an original playable character. Just my two cents anyway. I apologize if this has already been brought up. Thank you.

Actually as one of the extras it was part of the plan that you would be able to unlock a different character after finishing the game in a certain way.  What you would be capable of doing with that character after unlocking is still being worked out.  Good suggestion though.


Edit:
In other news, I will soon have a tablet for the first time.  That's right, no more mouse for me!  I can't wait to bridge the gap from my copic markers and pencils to working digitally in a similar way.  This will make it a lot easier for me to work on art, especially for games.

Here is an experiment.  I've started doing a more painted style on backgrounds before I go over them with realistic textures and such.   Some people have expressed the desire for a more cartoonish remake, this is what that might look like.

Burt Park - painted VGA WIP

Maybe you could throw some shadow on the edge of the door frame.  Also, hinges or something could be cool? I don't know.  Just some suggestions - nice background =D

$400 per background!! har har! Arrr pirate I be.  I jest. 

I forsee this thread being moved, but I will volunteer my thoughts.  What's so stale about the recruit a team thread?  I can understand that it's difficult to find an artist who doesn't have their own things going on or has time to spare.  It's tough...but put yourself on the list, you might find something.

The other approach is the "scratch my back, I scratch yours" method.  Maybe you can learn some scripting and help out an artist who has backgrounds but no knowledge of scripting, and then in turn maybe they'll be kind of enough to do some backgrounds for you.  No guarantees but it's worth a try.  Cheers.

If that's the artistic style of the game, I'd say go make more potatos mama!!!

Haha man...I hope that's some kind of compliment =p  I'm not very good at making potatoes, I usually just throw them in the microwave.


For Marie's house, I thought this house here was kind of cute, seemed appropriate.  The only sprites are the note on the door and the tree in the yard.  If you can think of anything to improve these - you're free to PM me your suggestions.

Marie's House WIP


And off I go.

This is a pretty cool idea - but to me it'd be way more awesome if you redrew everything to a new standard or style and combined the stories in that way.  But even then, there's nothing gained by smashing them all into one game file, why not just keep them broken up? 

The PQ2 remake you referenced from 2006 is long dead.  The only remake going that I know of is my Extended version.  I had toyed with the idea of making a Sierra style-VGA remake an extra in my game - but I don't know the extent of the game resources, there may not be room.  Regardless I've redrawn many of the backgrounds already in a painted style.

But I wish you luck in your game development - my suggestion ultimately would be to redraw the PQ2 backgrounds in Sierra style first, and then consider redoing the others as well.  Or hell, if you're really up to it, redo PQ1 in VGA but make the game feel closer to the original.  That would rock.  But if you're not an artist, that would probably be somewhat difficult a task.

It has been a couple months, and I've been working on a record for most of the time that I haven't updated.   And, I'm starting the second half of the record, which is only one out of fourteen....so progress is going to be slow.  For now, I'm working on the sewer and there are no sprites in this one yet - and there are things I need to think about really before I continue working on it.

Sewer WIP (4/16/09)



This sewer section has a lot more painting in it than usual.  I don't know how you'll feel about it, but I really like it.  I think instead of straight on sewer sections, I'm going to put something different into that portion of the game to make the sewer area a bit more exciting...while still basically holding to the plot and purpose of the original at that point.

Dude....niiiice.  =D I likes that one a lot.  Except the character feels really out of place to me on that one man.  =/  I dunno why.

First of all, you said you're using photoshop?  This is a fine start for just roughing out an idea before you really get started.  It's all very blurry at the moment, so now you need to go in and start painting in a little more detail to give it depth and clean that up.

Second, you adjusted the hue and altered the entire image? Are you painting each area on layers?  I would go so far as to put every separate object on its own layer.  Take the time to find a good tutorial on using photoshop layers (probably google "photoshop layer tutorial" or something).

Third, some general tips.
1. Whether you decide to go with the greener grass, or the brighter sky, is up to you.  But, you can grab your color picker and take some of the color from the sky - set your brush to low opacity (like maybe 5-15%) and paint some of that color onto the surface of your river.  That way you're reflecting some color from the sky.

2.  Remember to separate your foreground, midground, and background layers.  The foreground will have your darkest darks and the color will desaturate as you go from foreground to background.  Meaning your background should be a bit of a haze, less strong, while the foreground (what is up close to the camera or viewer) will be crisp detail and stronger color.

3.  [ ] keys in PC Photoshop are hotkeys to change brush size.  It makes it easier to switch from small to large brushes quickly.   I read that apple hotkeys 1-0 are opacity settings, but I have never tried this on PC....I probably should check it out.

Anyway, good start...keep at it.

Well there were a couple of things that didn't seem right to me.  To be fair, I didn't quite understand your helmet design...but I did my best.

First off is the helmet opening.  The front views and side views seem to feature different openings.  To start the opening goes from being narrow to a wide gulp from top to bottom, and then you have it cutting out on the side on the side profile.  If you want to cut it out, you might want to let more light into the sides maybe to show that.

The X on the helmet shouldn't be seen in side view, I mean unless it is entirely wrapping around the front of the helmet, it would only be seen in like a slight-turned view maybe.  Even then, you have the X going up higher on your side view than it is in front view, which seems odd just by looking at it.





And that's about all I could see that made sense to me.  Nice start, keep it up. =D


Edit: Oh is that glass that you're trying to show with the white? Because when you use a white background and throw white on the image, it becomes a HOLE in which nothing seems to exist.  Maybe use some brighter grays or pick a more natural light color and shade with that.  Sometimes helmet glass can be blue or another hue, and that could be a good color to introduce there to make it seem more like a clear surface.

Looks awesome!  Is Corel the one with the life-like brushes?  I'm not sure if it is or not, but I downloaded a demo of something like that, and it just blew me away.  It felt very similar to photoshop but it just felt a bit better.

Well, may be I'm barking up the wrong tree.  I just poked around the bitmap fonts section on Dafont and found some interesting ones there.  They are crisp and clean at their appropriate size.  They are a little old school but perhaps that's what is needed.  The two I like are Lunchtime and Venice Classic.  However, I think, Mister Pixel is the easiest to read.

From those, I liked first or last...but the last one was a bit cramped vertically from line to line.  Otherwise fairly compact and easy to read, dig those two.