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For April Fools day the IT company I work for built a website where our clients could 'watch us solve their IT problems in real time'. April Fools day's over now, but I thought some AGSers might get a laugh out of it too:

http://cam.birchenallhowden.co.uk

Ben, your edit is amazing (and more than a little intimidating ). I've not yet figured out how to work on the side view without actually copying you, so I'm reworking the 3/4 view. I was hoping to have another edit for this post, but it's not done and free time is proving elusive.

There are many colours in the skin tone but they are barely distinguishable. I'd increase the contrast of the colors and maybe reduce color count.

Yeah, you're right. I've been looking at the sprite zoomed in, but when you pull back the skin just blurs into one colour.

While the skin tone itself fits the black and brown hair, blonde people usually have a lighter skin tone, unless maybe she is supposed to be a surfer that is permanently in the sun.

Maybe they dyed their hair!

I was too lazy to pallet swap anything beyond the hair colours. That's kind of like dying the hair?

It looks like the distance nose-eyes is wider in the quarter views than in the profile and front view.

The problem might be that she's still looking at the camera/screen/whatever. Maybe she should be looking left or right in the 3/4 views.

Also the hairline feels litte low in the profile.

Noted.

It seems to me the tail is too visible (i.e. placed too far externally)  as now.

Yeah, I think you're right. I'm still not happy with how it looks in the side views, so I didn't really fix it in the 3/4 views. I think in reality you'd barely be able to see it, if at all.

Thanks for the critique, once I get a free evening I'll have another go at it.

Hi all, it's been a while since I posted anything in the Critics' Lounge. I've been trying to pixel a female character and got as far as a turnaround for the head. I also did a couple of pallet swaps for her hair colour, though I think the brown one works best.

[imgzoom]http://www.onedollarproductions.co.uk/uploads/PixelLadyHeads1.png[/imgzoom]

Personally I'm fairly happy with the front, back and 3/4 views, and not too sure about the side views. I'm also really not sure when it comes to shading and lighting, especially at low res. The light source is supposed to be above and to the left of the character. And there's the ponytail, which could use another pass.

What do you think?

I was playing around with this and noticed that the minimum resolution for the height is capped at 128 pixels. Is there a technical reason for this? I was thinking of doing something at 160x100 (half of 320x200). Otherwise I'm really excited about the resolution changes!

Sounds like you're getting back on track, but here's something that a lot of people don't seem to know about. If you're on Windows 7 or 8 you may well have previous versions turned on by default (if not, and if you have the spare disk space, it's worth turning on).

Right-click your AGS project folder, click Properties then go to the Previous Versions tab. If Previous Versions is switched on for that hard drive you should see a list of snapshots of that folder along with the date and time they were taken. Pick one then click Open (don't click Restore or you'll overwrite your current version). This will open up a new window that shows you the data in that folder as it existed when that snapshot was taken. You can then browse around, copy individual files out or just copy the whole folder somewhere else, load it up in AGS and see if it works and what's missing.

Oh, and always put a copy of the stuff you *have* got somewhere else before you start trying to restore old stuff, just in case you overwrite something you did need or the backup version doesn't work for some reason.



This is not a substitute for good backups, but it might help in cases where your backup is several days old. Working out of DropBox as other people are suggesting is a good plan, though I've never actually used their file version system for cases like this where a 'good' file is overwritten by a bad one.

[TV Quest]

OK, I've played some games, cast some votes and written some short essays.

1) Played but have not yet rated: Couldn't remember any that aren't already heavily reviewed, I'll have another look later.
2) Yet to be rated: TV Quest
3) Rated fewer than five times: Ray and the Guitar
4) Lucky dip: The Witch, the Wizard and the Blue Cup

Never played it, but I'll take a stab in the dark and guess Clock Tower 2?

[Time limits]

I've finished 5 games in the last 7 years, and 4 of those were MAGS projects. Time limits are a good motivator. On bigger projects you could try the 'sprint' development model where you pick something you want to achieve then set a time limit to do it in. Just don't get depressed when you realise how long everything's going to take to finish!

The one game that wasn't done for MAGS took me about 3 years to finish, and I reckon I must have taken a 6 month break then later a 2 year break. There were two things that got me to come back and finish it. First I posted some artwork in a Release Something thread and Ponch kept asking me about it. Second I met up with a friend who was also into game development, and we had a long conversation about making games that really fired me up and made me want to make something again. People who believe in you or your game and provide encouragement or inspiration are really helpful.

I also totally agree with Ghost: if there are parts of your game that you think are really cool it can be a good motivator to focus on finishing them, then once they're done the desire to show them off is a great motivator to finish the rest of the game too.

Finally take a break and go watch or play things that inspire or help you capture the moods or themes you are going for. So, if you want to make a game with a Saturday Morning Cartoon feel, watch a bunch of Saturday Morning Cartoons. Look at art in the styles you want to emulate. Play the adventure games that made you want to make an adventure game. And while you're doing all of this think about what it is about those things that you like so much and how you could put them into your own game. Oh, and don't let yourself fall into the trap of thinking "I'll never be as good as this" - of course you won't be as good as the professionals on your first try at something, but the only way to learn and improve is by making stuff anyway.

Correct! Also known as Zoombinis Logical Journey.

Still nothing?

[imgzoom]http://www.onedollarproductions.co.uk/uploads/guessthegame5d.png[/imgzoom]

OK, hint time:

Hint 1:

Spoiler

This is the first in a series of 3 educational games, originally released in 1996.

[close]

Hint 2:

Spoiler

There's been (recent) talk of bringing this game to tablets.

[close]

Hint 3:

Spoiler

The game was developed and published by Brøderbund Software, then later remade and published by The Learning Company.

[close]

Hint 4:

Spoiler

There were 12 different puzzles each with 4 difficulties.

[close]

Hint 5:

Spoiler

There was a big focus on developing logic and reasoning skills.

[close]

Hint 6:

Spoiler

The main characters all look slightly different to each other. Most of the puzzles revolve around this.

[close]

Babar is on the right track, it is an edutainment game.

OK, one slightly less tricky screenshot...

[imgzoom]http://www.onedollarproductions.co.uk/uploads/guessthegame5c.png[/imgzoom]

I'm surprised nobody recognises these.

Try another screenshot:

[imgzoom]http://www.onedollarproductions.co.uk/uploads/guessthegame5b.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]http://www.onedollarproductions.co.uk/uploads/guessthegame5.png[/imgzoom]

The Watchmaker?

I played about with this idea, but I didn't have enough time this month. Basically got as far as a walkcycle and half a background. Maybe next month...

Is it KGB (Conspiracy)?

My mug is blurry.


That is sweet artwork Ghost.