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I think a PONG movie could be totally awesome if it was a parody of the Pokémon/ Yu-gi-oh phenomenon.  :

I'm not sure what the last movie I watched was, nor the last I saw in a theatre (don't feel like thinking right now), but the absolute WORST one I ever saw was "The Attack of the Rabid Grannies". I wanted to love it, but really couldn't. Of course, it's been YEARS since I saw it, so my opinions may change if I see it again.

I wonder sometimes what the first really good game-based movie will be. Feel free to express your opinions here, but IMO, the current title holder for the best game-based movie has to be either one of the Mortal Kombat movies or Resident Evil (though keep in mind that I haven't seen part 2 yet and I haven't seen either of the Tomb Raider movies).

EDIT: After thinking about it some more, I din't see the second Mortal Kombat movie.

I wonder, too, if it'll make a difference. Will the first REALLY big game-to-movie hit be a huge green light for companies to make more game-based movies than ever, much like Spider Man and X-Men helped do for comic books being turned into movies? And if so, will it open the floodgates for more crap than ever before?... I dunno.

I do think that it's going to happen though, and sooner than later. With the gaming industry slowly gaining finacial earnings that surpass those of the movie industry by more and more, it's only a matter of time before these projects are taken more seriously and given to (or taken by) better directors.

Until then, I guess we'll just have to wait through all the terrible stinkers.

Here's a sprite I made of a young boy.  For the keen observer, he's based on a Nintendo character.



Comments and criticism are welcome.

ALSO, I've been really struggling with drawing up female characters. Here's one that I'm not altogether pleased with, but it's about the best I've been able to come up with so far. Any suggestions as to how to make the girl more feminine (EDIT: more girly cute, is what I'm trying to say, I guess), but still look like a kid, would be very much appreciated.



I'm looking for a general body type for young, thin female characters in the game, essentially, and I'm having trouble progressing in that area. Hope someone can offer some help.

While I like most of what Damien did, the section under the door makes it look like it's standing on top of another brick wall, due to the vertical nature in which it's drawn.

What you need here is some sort of perspective cue. This is an example of what I'm talking about.



Notice how all of the bottom area's diagonal lines, if extended, would converge somewhere that's very close to the red dot, giving you a sense of depth by using the brick detail.

A couple more things:

-That keyhole is HUGE. I'm thinking that I could easily fit my hand in there.
-If the cloaked guy is meant to be human, he doesn't much look it. Consider making the lips less red and full (especially if it's a man and not a woman) and using a darkish (but not black!) outline for the nose. The eyes could afford to be a different colour, too -- less blue and more of a very light orangey pink. Also, the character would probably look cooler and more mysterious if the cloak significantly shaded at least the upper portion of the face.

The sky's INFINITELY easier to look at than in that forest one from before.

My biggest problem is with the ground of the background. It's just so very empty. Adding in a bit of texture to that area would be a marked improvement. Some patches of roughness, dirt, small rocks, cracks, etc. All would help give it personality. Some depth cues could help too -- like sidewalk lines or a path with lines that converge around the door's sides.

Then there's the metallic part of the wall/ gate. Adding some "sheen" to the metal might help it look a lot better and more interesting.

Finally, since the background isn't exactly super-exciting to look at, it might be worth your while to throw in some sort of forground object, like a lamp post or something.

As for the cloaked guy, heavier shading could make him look a lot better.

And for the lion, while I really do like the cartoony, simplistic feel of him, he is shaped a bit weird, in the way that his torso turns around to face us. That, and his front paws don't really seem to match his back ones very well.

First off, if it's only supposed to be a FEW years in the future, the buildings probably look way too futuristic. Most university campuses I've seen are fairly old, and have and have old-looking architechture to match. By that token, it'd almost have to be something from quite a lot of years away.

As far as the picture itself goes, it's very nice, but the texture of the buildings, fruit and clouds don't match that of the trees, road, bushes and grass -- the latter group is too grainy in comparison, IMO. Either make the smooth stuff more textured or the grainy stuff more smooth, and I think your picture will mesh together a lot better.

... Actually, it's the grainy things that bother me more than anything at a second glance, especially the tress and bushes.  I don't like that there's as many pixels out there that look like they're floating in space. These particles don't look like small leaves at all to me.

You might also consider a lighter outline on at least the light building, it makes for too sharp a contracts with the surrounding elements of the background.

Don't get me wrong, though -- it's very nice.

Hm. Never thought of RawDrawImage for this (yup, I'm a dummy). It just might work!

Might that be likely to bog things down badly, though?

Well, the nail in the board wasn't supposed to be anything more than a primitive weapon... Sure, it was great in its time against the evil Dr. Perforatable, but now, it's just not so impressive against modern supervillains.

Something I wanted to do in my game was have a background animate with many frames (I'm thinking somewhere around 15 or so frames would likely do the trick, though if I work it good, I might be able to squeeze it down to less).

If it makes any difference, these would occur during an old-school RPG-like combat sequence (where the player sprite dissapears and the player can't leave until combat ends somehow) , where the player would more or less be interacting with GUIs to attack, use powers, use an item, etc.

Given the background frames limitation, I'm not sure how I'd approach this problem at all. The ONLY thing I thought of was to maybe have a looping shift between several rooms, but I have a weird feeling that won't work. And otherwise, I don't know where to even start.

....in short, I thought it would be nice to have a background effect that looked something like this, only on a larger scale:

Any suggestions?

Seleceus.

EDIT: and I didn't much like mine. I totally figured everyone would think it was crap.

I'm not sure why I didn't do it, but I suppose that you should get a brighter area on the back wall and ceiling, too, in case you do use that as much of a reference.

When this has happened to me, it's usually while walking on very thin walkable areas -- when I've made them larger, it's seemed to stop happening. But considering it's only happened to me twice, I'm not sure if that's the problem or not (and that was in a pretty old version of AGS, too).

Ugh. this is awful. I'm so sorry.

I still can't find me a copy of SOL ( http://www.agsforums.com/games.php?action=detail&id=14 )

It looks good, though. And I'd like to play it.

Though I still reccomend doing some studying on your own and possibly sneaking in on some university classes, you may want to consider asking your parents to hire a tutor.

That last post madm me think, though -- Since it's not likely that substitue teachers are on strike too, they'll probably be desperate for money, so if you can get ahold of a good one, they might just take you on as a student.

Worth considering.

Yeah, if you're worried and you have all of this spare time, start doing work on your own. You probably have the textbooks, so use 'em as well as you can.

That aside, if there's a university nearby, stop by and sit in on some classes (first year ones, especially). A lot of them can be jam-packed with students, so no one's real likely to recognize that you don't belong there provided that you just sit quietly and take notes.