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[Idea: Blue]

Idea: Blue This BG is a fascinating take on the brief, nicely executed too.
Design: Tier Great design, excellent use of colour, shape and composition. A straightforward take on the brief that simply works. And works well.
Functionality: Abstauber Cool BG, and makes me want to rummage through the sacks!
Technique: Tier Awesome pixel technique.

If  you're serious about being an artist/illustrator, and you already have a strong grounding in the traditional mediums, then I'd say definitely get one. I too was unsure about digital painting, having used mostly oils and watercolors for a decade, and simply using a mouse for pixel art. But after having borrowed a friends tablet (A3 Wacom) I have found I can't live without it now. Especially for game graphics- it's an indispensible tool.  It also helps a lot for concept art and quick colour mockups, and practicing your fundamental skills without messing about with actual paints.
For actual illustration I will always prefer the traditional mediums (Nothing beats the smell of linseed oil, and having an actual painting to hang after all your hard work), and (as is the case with many professional illustrators in the field) sketching in pencil will always be my square one, but for almost every other aspect of art, especially game graphics, you can't beat a tablet for ease of use and fast turnaround.

Bear in mind though if you have little experience with traditional mediums (ie real pencils and paints), then a tablet would probably be a waste of money for you at this point, and you should instead invest in several cartridge pads of varying sizes, some decent pencils and an eraser. Use them all up, then rinse and repeat.

Thought I'd throw my hat(s) in the ring. Love the all the entries so far, (And ProgZMax entry... Just awesome).

Looks great! With the risk of stepping out of line, would you consider making a lens flare free version? The image has such great potential, and what feels like photoshop trickery kinda sullies it, and clashes with the beautiful handcrafted feel of the rest. The gradient could be replaced by a cloudscape that achieves the same tones, and adds some additional depth and interest.

Just a thought.

Thanks Loominous, I swapped out the lens flare on your advice- not sure why I put it in there in the first place really, I never use cheap lens flare effects. Not sure how well the sun works, the placement isn't great - I may do another version when i get time.

In answer to Wonkyth's question, I'm working on a game at the moment with a handful of other AGS'ers actually, although I'm putting of announcment until it's at a beta stage.

Just...wow, Pinback. I'm very, very impressed... it would be a veeeeery long shot of the scene, but still. Very nice...

Thanks man:) And yeah, a long walk to the harbour master's shack indeed!

My airship harbour-

*320 x 240

*256 colours

*Cheesy lens flare

EDIT) Changed a few details that were annoying me.

EDIT) Replaced lens flare with sun

Sad that not more people have tested/used this module.

I'm using it, great module by the way monkey, I haven't found any bugs so far and it's working a treat.
Had some difficulties displaying the time on a UI that appears and dissappears, but I solved it by having the time display move off screen when the UI isn't visible, and all is well.

Ok, but I can't import both module. How shold I make it work?

Huh, I had this same problem too.

An interesting experience- was Disquiet.
At first I thought more puzzle elements would have been nice, although upon completing it I had changed my mind, as they might have detracted from what I thought were some very well constructed and immersive dream sequences.

Loved everything about this game, and just wanted to say I thought the graphics were charming and superb.
Forget high res! Old school rules man! In higher res I think it would lose that certain something...

Oh and congratulations Theo,  I recall you saying something earlier about monumentally underestimating the amount of work required for a game of this calibre- a situation I'm all to familiar with!
So yeah, congrats on making your vision come to life!

Getting most bang for least buck is an idea as old as human civilization. Every professional artist knows this. Maybe amateurs don't...

The problem with this is, I think a lot of pro artists would recognize this guys mode of working as not acceptable in the field.
For instance he proposes payment be made after ALL the work is done- I'm yet to hear from a pro who thinks this
is the way to do things.

I guess if the article helps amateur producers get thier projects done that's a good thing, but I sure as hell wouldn't wanna work with the guy. I can smell the infinite re-drafts already...

Whoa, this module is really robust! Looks totally awesome!

Great module! I've small problem though;

I need the description module to treat gui buttons and labels as though they are objects or hotspots, ie, have a
description for them. Been puzzling over it for hours, and searched around a lot and I can't figure out a simple way to do this.

Any help would be much appreciated!

While I think the article devalues artists to a degree, I believe artists undercutting each other- especially at DA- to be
a much bigger potential problem.
For instance,- and I see this all the time there- is an employer will advertise a $50 commission, then
artists will come into the thread undercutting each others prices. "Hey I can do that for $20" kinda thing.
The guy can afford $50, why screw each other over for a chance to get the job?

Well I hear Tiger has a kind of Musical Chairs seating policy, where you just run onto the plane and grab a seat at random, could
be a bitch if you are travelling with a partner. I'd go with Jetstar for the assigned seating, but I can't really vouch for them as I always fly Qantas:)

I was just going through my old archives and came across a really old tileset and spriteset I did for a game
many years ago. The game never saw completion, and I thought perhaps someone might find these handy for thier project.
Not sure how useful JRPG style stuff would be, but what the hell, they never got used for anything else.

So yeah, theres enough BG tiles to build indoor areas and two types of outdoor area. A handful of random NPC's and
the main character (redhead). Plus some other random stuff like sprites for the main char riding a small balloon...



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So yeah, if anyone thinks they could use these go ahead! They never saw the light of day anyway, and I think there are a few decent sprites in there.

The stuff posted here is completely public domain, feel free to use it an any way you see fit.

Lookin good!

I think if you tweak the eyes a bit, you can reduce that stare. In this paint over I did some minor
shading around the eyes, but the most important part of them is the pupil/retina- I made him look left
as it's a bit easier to make it realistic that way (For me anyway). Theyre nice portraits though, I think a bit more attention to the eyes will make a big difference.



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Thanks for the upload, looks fantastic!

Highly impressive graphics! Looking forward to seeing a demo indeed.