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This will have to serve as my final version. I guess an extension isn't possible? A couple of months only? 


As for voting and stuff, I don't care, but will do if it's wanted.

Great idea!

Also; how about this for a song title:

I have no folder that I can find

EDIT

Unfortunately too much work elsewhere these days, so I'll have to pass. Liked the topic though.

Thanks for the nice comments, Misj'. I have some more details to work into it before I'm letting it go.

I'll supplement some more comments too.

Zyndikate: An extreme sense of atmosphere, which I like. Some of the structures (particularly in the vegetation) almost have an abstract quality which ads to the mysterious feeling this piece have, greatly helped by the fog and lightning. It might be just a little too heavy though, but the warmer edit you put up in the end helped lifting the mood. Btw; I am a little puzzled by the lack of any signs of a path on the left side of the bridge (It almost looks like possible visitors changed their mind while on the bridge). I'd love to see your work in a game, maybe one where you pushed in either the "candid" fairytale direction, or darker, more mysterious areas. I feel this bg is a little bit of both worlds, but maybe that's a result of the contrast hinted at in the script.

Exsecratus: Definitely one of the better 3D-backgrounds I've seen. From the little modeling experience I have I know how hard it is to get things looking right, but you've managed this very nicely. I think the joint between the bridge and the path is the only thing that looked a little odd to me. Also I find the position of the sign a little strange. Very nice job, solid atmosphere, and should work great in a game.

Loominous: I agree with Misj' on the house design, It'd be a rare find in the real world, but in eg. a Disney movie it would not be out of place (As a funny sidenote, I have also observed unemployed alcoholics in the neighbourhood where I grew up, who always expanded on their house in strange ways, and ended up with interesting shapes). I think the coloring is fine. I'm usually asleep at sunrise, but the red tone reminds me more of sunsets. I'm also a little puzzled by the very bright light in the horizon, while the lightning clearly is coming from the left. Aside from that, I think there a lot of great little details in this pic, and I especially adore the steps leading to the back of the house.

Misj':A very strong cartoonish quality to the linework, everything looks right for the style, and the shading follows up on this. I was a little bothered by the repeated "Y" shapes at the top of the tree in the foreground. There are five of the lined up, and it just drew my attention. I think maybe the lighting contrast between the right and left hand side is pushed enough by now, it's appearing like different times of the day. It underlines the "flower in a swamp" metaphor, but at the cost of almost becoming distracting. I think maybe some clouds to the left would help this point through in a more realistic way, but then you're not finished yet, so maybe you had something in mind. Still it looks awesome, and you certainly nailed the comic book feeling.

I agree on Mordalles, I'd love to see that crazy design developed further.

I'm more disappointed by the low number of participants in the end, despite the promising start. It's been going on for three months now, it should be possible to find the time to create one background. With more entries, there'd be surely be more variation, and maybe - I can only speak for myself - more inspirational for the ones taking part.

In order to be 'run-down', or 'worn down to almost unusable state' something has to have been around for a while, that's why I went with the old-timey-ness. I wanted the shape to be interesting, to create some sort of naive charm, that also made me think of old houses. There are of course other possible solutions, but I went with something that made sense to me after reading the script. I didn't have any urge to be particularly original or bring some "unexpected" twist into it, rather to work as I usually do and see if I could learn something new. Which I have from valuable input in this thread. Maybe other blitzes are more varied due to more vague specifications.

Coloring underway.

Searching for "definately"...

...26 pages of hits..

Thinking about moving on to stage 3, so just wondering if anyone needs more time in this stage.

I'm fine with that. I'd enjoy seeing some practical tips on going from value sketches to actual values, as I am unsure if the way I do it is very effective.

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Nice to hear mentioning of Triplets of Belleville, one of my favorite animated films. Such great characters and awesome style. I think maybe the 3D-bits could've been cut though, I feel it crashes just a little (looks impressive though), and would preferably see only parallax techniques used. But: awesome film. I saw it again the other day, and will re-study some stills for inspiration.

The results will look much better if you draw natively for that resolution; ie, use a 2x1 brush for all your art.

Will you have to always make sure you're drawing on even x-coordinates with this? Or can you make sure the program takes care of that?

In Photoshop (and probably other applications as well), there is an opportunity to set pixel aspect ratio to 2:1. This way, you can draw at 160x200 with no distorted side effects. To finish up, you reset the pixel aspect, and stretch the image 2x horizontally for AGS use.

Yeah, copy protection! And insanely slow "loading..."-screens

I think was the best graphical-funnybutshort-game in the orow, but Is really that isn't a standard adventure and maybe is the reason that not win any of the first prizes.

Need.. more.. coffee, now...

I loved this game, it was my OROW-favourite. Keep on keeping on!

[Neil & Exsecratus]

Neil & Exsecratus
I like the fact that you can clearly see how a personal style can affect the way a script is interpreted. The one thing that bothers me is that both of you (and I) had a problem with the 'open' background. In a way I prefer the open background to the solution used by both Loominous and Zyndikate (they both more or less closed it up by confining the distance the player can look...simply adding trees in front of it). Somehow that doesn't feel right to me...but maybe it's the way to go. I'm not sure yet.

No, I agree. I like to have some space too

I wasn't thinking of the scrolling mechanism you wrote about, but can see how that would work. Am looking forward to seeing your BG with values!

update

A few changes, a closer and slightly lower camera angle.

So good to see this being alive and well.

I haven't updated yet, but am working on it.

(the sign is rather odd looking atm though, but it's perhaps just a placeholder).

(Yes it is).

Atm the landscapes are quite flat, and you basically have a horizon line at top of which the windmill resides, and nothing really beyond them. I'm personally very fond of flat landscapes, but a few larger bumps in the landscape (coupled with some foliage) should create some more depth and interest. It also clutters the image, so I'm not saying it's a safe bet.

Am working on the landscape. I'll be putting some details into them; some foliage, but also fields around the farm. There's also a hint of the stream in the back there, I'll try to do something with that. Also, the sky seems to take too much space atm, but I didn't throw any of the furthest landscape in, some extra hills etc. And no clouds.

The viewing angle is quite high in both (the viewer is at the height of the second floor in both (just by looking at the point at which the horizon cuts the building)), and it's also quite distant. I think pushing the camera closer n lower would create more connection to the environment, instead of a view similar to looking at an area through binoculars - very detached that is. A closer camera also creates more connection with the player character, which becomes more than a few moving pixels (my image suffers from this as well).

Another thing that a lower camera provides is foreground (which they both sort of lack), which becomes easier to come up with when you're closer to the ground.

This is an interesting point. I definitely prefer the eye-level camera angle for many things, to improve immersion and get more depth; "regular" images, film/television etc. The thing here, with the little adventure game creating experience I've had, slightly higher angles have helped the functionality of the backgrounds. The walkable areas get bigger vertically, thus giving more "air" to the clickable objects and exits, and in general a more smooth experience for the player. Also you can get away with much less scaling of the protagonist character. Foreground objects can also interfere if not balanced very carefully.

A lot of games, eg. Sierra operate with high angles most of the time.

I agree 100% on the distance though, and will move a bit closer.

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Some feedback:
@Loominous
This looks very appealing, and has superb mood. I'm glad you ditched the old foreground, as I think there is enough going on in the front now. Fantastic building. Also, clever framing of the windmill. Where is the farm gonna be? The fence in the middle looks a bit dangerous for small kids...

@Misj
It looks very messy now, obviously since no values have been added. I personally think the bridge is a tad on the huge side, and will, along with the dominant tree, obstruct most of the character as he passes. Perhaps a taller tree would open it up more? Very interesting style nontheless.

@Zyndikate
Very good as usual, and i like the interaction of the surrounding lines. I wouldn't mind opening it up a bit in the upper right area though, as it might feel a bit claustrophobic. To quote our friend mr. Tiller:

It is good to have a balance or empty areas and busy areas, it gives the viewer a place to rest their eyes.

(Link) It would also give some breathing space for the farm+windmill.

Don't forget Mozart and Schubert; both dead before turning 30. (seems Schubert got to 31)

...and Mozart got to 35...

I like the tree, Misj!

small update

Hope this will be kept open for ~another week... workload's been too heavy (and weather too nice), so I haven't been able to put in much here, but am set to keep on working on it next week.

Thanks to all contributors so far, so many good ideas and thoughts here, keep it up!

I like #1 too... I looked at it for quite some time, trying to figure out what the photo was of..
#4 makes me think of commercial music.
I might do business with #5 or #6, but only for synth music.
#2 and #3 are okay, bit dull.

I would advice against this. Halo is such an overrated game.

Some of my junk:

I've been struggling with this, but think my house will end up something like the one in the upper left corner, with the front changed to something like the one right below. Also, I don't really want the house this huge, so I'll chop off some of the stuff on the left. Since there are details in the window meant to be visible, perhaps a huge house is not such a great idea.

For the farm, I'm thinking something like the tiny one, near the top middle. I want it to be recognizable as a farm, so am going for something more simple here. The bridge I haven't decided. Something that doesn't obscure the view too much, maybe the 2nd one in the top left. Windmill, the one near the middle, right, simple and effective.

I guess I'll test out different versions a bit in the composition stage.

This workshop blitz is great for sure!

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At last I had some time to start testing out the composition.

First, this one is a bit screwed, since I sat painting for ages on the wrong layer. I blame my dentist for this (he has made me dependent on heavy painkillers).
Anyways, since I want to draw attention to the window where the girl is gonna be, the idea was to create contrast on the walls (around that spot)  with the tree shadows. Typical, long shadows  - this is early in the day. This should also help showing the forest without filling up large portions of the image with trees. I pushed the shadows too far here, something I realized moments before learning I'd been painting on the wrong layer. Thinking about it, these spots of light could be used to show any important object/exit. I'll try using it for making the path around the building more clear.

So.... the plan is to clean up the mess a bit, as soon as I can find the time.

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Ok, another one

This one is far from done, but at least less messy than the previous.

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New one:
Changed some bits here and there. Major change is closer and slightly lower camera angle. Worked on some details in the back.


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Been trying out some colors.

Might be close to final. Perhaps just toy with the contrast a little.

Thanks, loom, very interesting notes again. I think I brought up the old American landscape painters at one point too. Also, perhaps you're familiar with J.M.W. Turner who did some very interesting pre-impressionist paintings.

I found the notion of details very interesting. I sometimes felt I spent so much time on getting details good, that the image as a whole suffered and turned out rather stiff. To be honest, I'm a fan of a little more sharpness though, maybe this is more noticeable in the foreground area after you put the sprite in.

Also, working in the same hue for sky, grass etc always felt safe and looked ok. But it didn't "jump out" as anything special. Good obeservation work! Any movies/TV-series you've found particularly inspiring?

You should start working on that turtorial ASAP. Also, what about the workshop there was some talk about?