Messages

I think "optical illusion" would only really refer to things that exploit the way visual information is transmitted to and processed by the human brain, as opposed to art work that merely does things impossible in 3 dimensional space.

You can look up optical illusions on wikipedia, and scroll down to paradox illusions (under cognitive illusions) to see how Escher would fit in.

@Erenan: Sorry about confusing you, I've corrected the original post

I was just playing with a paint program, and drew something, and discovered what seems to me like an optical illusion.
http://xs68.xs.to/pics/06070/opticalillusion2.png
What do you see in this picture?

Modernist painters was playing with the same thing about 100 years ago (or so).

Apart from that, I'd love to see optical illusions used in Adventure games. Backgrounds in the style of M.C. Escher anyone?

@Mordalles:

Spoiler

You take the batteries back from the vacuum cleaner. I think I made an icon for "operating items" in the inventory window, I honestly don't remember...

[close]

Thanks for playing!

I'm flattered but spoken for.  Sorry, Norway.

Speaking as a Norwegian; I don't care. Sorry... Canada!

If you step back, it looks like a duck trying to squeeze an egg out.

The main problem is that there's no sense of distance between the planets/moons, they seem tacked onto each other. Try spreading things more out. Check out this image, for ideas on shading (or google some). Remember, The dark side of the moon (great album), is the nightside. And night is pretty much black.

In the end it's your choice wether it's supposed to look realistic or stylized/cartoonish, but realism is the best starting point. Oh, and Paint is not the way to go!

Tried to do something on Elaine and George. I had to introduce another (brighter) skintone, and feel it's a bit different from your style. Hope it still is helpful.

There's a difference between difficulty level and frustration level. You might as well add an option to play the game in black&white, or in complete black (extra hard). Or in microview (5x5 pixels). Or with a gigantic pig blocking your view.

Seriously, if you want to challenge adventure gamers, work harder on the puzzles. How about implementing more hints if you play at an easy level? How about adding extra inventory items needed on the tougher level. Extra puzzles. Lock up some doors (cheap solution), introduce more dialog options, dig a hole in the street, put the couch on fire.

Great interview, ProgZmax! Finally some wisdom put into these endless torturous mp3s!

(well they are a bit funny to be honest - gotta love the news jingle and the spoiler warning effect)

Crap, I was gonna enter this, had a BG almost done, but then forgot about it. Well, screw that, and onto the voting;

Idea - mwahahaha. I found this one funny, and it was a welcome variation to the theme.
Design - Seaduck. Pulled it off very well with very few colors. Good job!
Fuctionality - LilBlueSmurf. A good BG in every category btw.
Technique - ProgZmax. A tough choice between his and buloght's, but I found the latter a bit monotonous, and the fire in ProgZ' entry gives him the edge.

Many good BG's this time. rharpe's was great in particular. @Bartimaeus: I remember your BG from the Diner competition, and it's great to see how much you've improved.

My favourites were Blackmail and Science - fresh and original, both very enjoyable. Nikolas' compsition for Heart of Abraxas was totally awesome

(I write this to compliment some of the authors, and not to try influencing the voting, as I am sure people are competent to make up their own mind)

Unless the word "definatly" means "not"

Generally a nice atmosphere in your BG's although a little too gray as others have pointed out. They are also very low contrast, just a few brighter colors wouldn't hurt. You might wanna experiment with tinting the image and/or play around with level settings in photoshop to look for other options.

Quick example:



The textures are nice, but try putting in more variation - the repetition is esp. noticeable on the pillars in the last two BG's.

I'd advice getting your character up and working, and check how he fits in with your choices of camera angles. The more tilted camera, the more problems (usually). The POV-shots should be fine.

What's the point of deimproving anyway? If you have too much time on your hands, how about checking out some drawing tutorials instead. There's plenty of links around.

If you want to make the worst game ever, you'll have to beat Dirk's Adventure, and that is nearly impossible.

It's surrently going by the names Illusion/paranoimal, I can't decide yet.  Now I just need to fill in the story details and background image, which is posing some problems.

Just a question: I noticed on the previos OROW's that all games were initially released anonymously, to avoid "favourizing" in the voting process. Is this the case this time around too?

If it is, mwahahaha and others might want to keep a little more quiet about all the megalomanic plans...

Judging by the useful diagram, his right shoulder is too high. Also, the belt isn't convincing.

Well done, Bernie! I played your game and it's beautiful!

I must mention Wretched too, who won the MAGS competition four times, with huge, brilliant games.

I'm proud to be mentioned in this kind of company.

Finally, big thanks to Klaus for running it! Hooray!

Not an entry...

But a great topic, I'll probably enter!

[Darth Mandarb]

Final results:

Best Idea: Darth Mandarb by far!
Best Design: Darth Mandarb, ahead of cpage
Best Functionality: cpage, runner-up: Darth
Best Technique: Darth Mandarb ahead of cpage and Archangel

WINNER: Darth Mandarb

Congrats, Darth, this wasn't really exciting, but surely because of your great BG! Now start a new blitz!