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I think that's been done by some platformer style game...

You're not getting anything about Iraq at the moment? That's pretty shoddy - admittedly there hasn't been any real event for the last few weeks, but we at least get special reports and the "10 Days to War" series...

Everyday more people get put into body bags, stacked onto piles, etc... The "Iraq War" is more than just a waste of money, it's a disgusting atrocity that continues to pool negativity in an area of the world that wasalready steeped in such.

I'd just say vote for a little guy anyway. Screw the system - one vote won't matter for the big parties, but it will matter for small candidates like Neder and such.

The Clinton family is just as corrupt as the Bush family. I have no doubt that with her we would no longer be in a recession (at least to as heinous of a degree) but the economy was real good under Harding as well... anybody remember him? If not, look him up.

McCain used to be an individual but he's been wrung out and used against his will so many tims that now he just does what he's told. Either he's smarter than the rest of them and is hiding his true intentions or he's another puppet.

Obama is relatively clean and he's got some good plans but he's a lobbiest bitch just like the rest of them, so it's just a matter of what changes.

If Hil-Rod gets the nomination, I'm voting Ron Paul. If Obama get's the nomination, Instead of risking McCains league of justice be the same as the current one, I'll ante up to the popular pot. If 30% of the people that voted for any party OTHER than the main two  would have voted for Gore or Kerry (though Gore is a economic lightweight and Kerry would have been a bland puppet) we wouldn't have had to suffer through the worst dollar rate in years, the lowest poverty percentage in decades. We're in the worst economic slump since the great depression. I'm sorry, I just can't risk it. 364 days out of the year I will march, campaign and support reforming our electoral/political system. But until it changes, when this country as a whole DOES have something to lose, I can't see myself letting it go to chance. Maybe i'll have a change of heart and support the little guy, but I think the better solution than supporting the little guy is by trying to make him NOT so little. Until he can hang with the big boys, in this election I can't warrant a nything other than a major party.


Emerald,
Unfortunately the majority of Americans are sexist and racist. For some reason most of us think that a woman nor a non-caucasian can perform as well as as a white male. To be honest it's retarded. America needs to grow up , eh?

I sat down with someone on the baby making team and we deicded that for where we want the story to go a more cartoon/whimsy style isn't going to fit. So we redesigned the entire look of the world and it's inhabitants... but then it became to difficult to convincly pull of "super-powers" with the imagery. So we're taking it in entirely dfferent direction and we might revisit the original story later. We really like the concept of having a character that can break the fourth wall and be more than just an avatar for the player, so we're going to incorporate that... now to solidify the new story. As soon as we get that down we'll work out how we want the characters to behave and I'll post an image to critique.

The biggest issue I had with the guy was that the position he was in, didn't look natural. He's got a broken arm and he's holding a shotgun, this makes me think that he just kicked some ass, if he just kicked some ass, he 'oughta be tired, so he's not going to do zoolander poses with his shotty.



So I made his stance more relaxed. It could be better I'm sure but this isn't my sprite so i'll let you decide his final stance. After I got that finished his cast looked a little huge... in fact his right arm was being covered by it. I started trying to rework the cast, but it all looked like crap. Then I got to thinking; when I broke my wrist, elbow and forearm I had a giant cast all the way up to my shoulder. When my buddy broke his wrist he had a little wrist brace. When another friend fractured his arm they set it in a cast ONLY on his forearm. So why would he need a sling? A sling isn't for bone repair, it's for softer tissue repair, therefore his wrist doesn't need to be covered up. So I took off the hand cover, then I adjusted where the sling catches.

Then I sat back... and I thought "Is he in an Amish Death Metal Band?" Probably not. I don't know your character, so maybe the beard is essential, but I took it down to a #2 trimmer and cleaned him up a bit. He's holding a shotgun, so in an effort to make him more masculine I tried to give him a chin. Then I changed his hair all-over (beard and scalp) to a dark brown, nobody has naturally PITCH BLACK hair, but it's real close.

His eyes didn't pop out at me, so I changed them from the really light FLESH color you had to a really light yellow-green by being a color than those around it makes the eyes stand out more as a separate feature instead of just lighter skin. In retrospect I would have lightened them up even more. Changed the color of his nose to make it more visible. Gave him a neck, made him skinnier, and lastly I made the shotty a bit longer.

I tried to emulate your shading/coloring style, to horrible effect I might add, but the overall concept is the same. What do you think? What are you taking away from all of our comments so far?

How will you set up the adventure game in a FF setting? Or are you planning on making it an RPG?

Personally,i'm willing to believe any storyline for a game because usally, what happens is unbelivable anyways, so realism isn't something I think pixel adventure games should neccesarily STRIVE for, so a "magical thunderstorm" would be okay, IF and only IF the game way FUN, COMPELLING and ENTERTAINING. The first thing you should nail down is the gameplay. Otherwise, Emerald is right; we're not going to be engaged in the game and we'll be thinking... this is a little immature... *quits*

Good gameplay will make a gamer forgive anything though. On the flip side, a good story can make a gamer forgive some gameplay flaws. I.E. Gabriel Knight, pacing wasn't right for me, but I was inteested in the atmosphere and the arc.

These things will go hand in hand, BUT remember that the reason we're playing a game is for entertainment, figure out how to make the game good, make the story good, make the gameplay integral to the story, make a good game with a good story! Sounds easy, eh?

3 looks complete, but the rest were nil'd

Okay, we'll the first question we need to ask is: "Who is our target audience?"

The first step ofdeciding a target audience is figuring out the age group we're working for. Do we want little kids to be able to try and play the game (and not be corrupted,) or is this a strictly grown up affair?

I'm going to say we should set a more mature tone and therefore design the game for a more mature audience, but again the story and art style are going to determine this, knowing our audience is simply going to allow us to tailor the game to them.

Then we need to decide the player type. Casual Gamer? Hardcore Adventure Fans? Grandmothers?
I think that because it would be entered into a compeition by and for Adventure Gamers, we should make the game for them.

So, my take; A game designed for experienced adventure gamers with a mature tone and audience in mind. This means a more emotionally involved narrative, more complex puzzles/conflicts, and most likely a more realistic setting.

How do you guys feel about what type of game the community should make?

I was hoping for it to come down to a heated race between Ron Paul and Kucinich... Unfortunately neither of them are going to have the support neccesary to make even a write in election a remote possibility. Election day is not the time for me to vote for what we need, it' s time for me to throw an extra grain of rice into the bucket that will most likely serve the American people better than the other largest bucket.

The American political system, in fact the American goverment, is flawed. We are essentially forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. We need a president, or representatives, with enough gumption to change our two party system. Hell, while we're at it lets reform the presidency. One term, 6 years, that's the way F. Roosevelt wanted it after his presidency, that's the way J. Carter wanted it. Until our political system changes voting for any party other than the two main parties is essentially nothing other than supporting a cause, which sucks. I love America, but God Damn American politics... I wish I was Swedish... =P

Maybe it's just me but your images aren't loading for me Ben.

EDIT: They're working now... strange

The users could submit BGs, Sprites, the Story....

Hmmm, don't we have  abig story thing going on? Maybe we could recycle that. Haven't read it though.

A community project would be awesome, though!

I know, right? I can't draw hair so I used the liquify filter in photoshop...

A fast sketch based on your picture. It lacks good colors, contrast, details and so on but may give you an idea of what a change of architectural concept and perspective could result in.

That was a fast sketch? Jesus Ben... we're surrounded by artistic heavyweights!

x2

I forbid you to use all those copyrighted images of my body!

LMAO! I think I pee'd myself.

Story seems a little bland, in my opinion. The 'superpowers' thing is far from new, as is the 'flawed utopia' idea. Having a game world based solely around those stale concepts seems like a flimsy choice.

As opposed to the basic world of 70% of adventure games which is "the real world." Only joking, I recognized this early on, an anti-utopian society has been used and abused by every expressive medium. It has been used for a reason, however, it's compelling. If proposed to exist in a genuine way, if people can see how it came to be than they accept it as the reality of the world instead of as a cliched setting. I am of course not going to create a believable world and don't care if people find it cliched, instead the game is going to bathe in cliches because cliches are cliches for a reason, the difference is that the character arcs and the gameplay will be unique and compelling, if it's not then I will rework it until it is. This is less of a high concept gaming, i'm not trying to convey any message with my use of this society, or people that have powers, etc... instead it's being used so that I have total freedom to do whatever I want.
A.) In a society of humans with super-human abilities and contact with aliens, ANYTHING can exist. I can insert just about whatever my mind desires and it will work with little explaination becuase this is such a whimsical world.
B.) With an anti-utopian society set up I will never flounder for conflict. In this first game the conflict is mainly the characters trying to get money or else they'll be put into massive debt, the main character is abducted which will setup later stories but isn't the main story line itself.


Basically, using those cliches are an easy way out. Whatever I need can be there, something that a traditional "follows the laws of science and reality" world cannot do. It's cheap, yes. But hopefully you'll be more interested in the characters an entertained by the game than worry about the cliches unless they're pointed out to you by the game!

Itlooks as if the sand dune and the ocean are two spheres, the sand dune in front and the ocean in back. If it' s beach, where's the shore line?

I'm not sure what the character would do here, but there's not alot of room: If you draw a diagonal line from the top left corner, to the bottom right more than 50% of the BG is unwalkable, at least. Then there's an umbrella in the way, plus a palm tree and a waste basket.

I say, maybe til6 the umbrella backwards so that we can see the rest of the sand. The palm tree is fine where it is. Make a shore line, move the waste basket backwards a little and shrink it.

These are all very subjective and are just suggestions. I love the clouds, the whole "painted" feel of it is welcoming, but it just seems like it would be difficult to use this. It would probably be a place the character would go once, to pick up a radom item. You can add more versatility by adding more playing space.

That's all for me, really love it though. Good luck!

EDIT: See how much a shore line helps? =P It instantly adds more space for the character to walk. Pixel also blurred the bushes near the "camera" to give a sense of depth, which is a really nice touch.

Do you have a budget?

Cincinnati, OH; USA

6 Day Assassin

I played it and thought about the conservation of resources employed... Nevr before had I been so engaged and involved in a game, that lasted all of an hour, spanning one room. It was creative and fun, not entirely polished, but I accepted that because it was made by essentially one person.

It made me re-think what fun is and can be, and that gorgeous graphics, visceral action and thousands of places and people to interact with isn't what makes a good game; a good game is what makes a good game.

First off: I need to make the room brighter, give it more ambient light, because this is supposed to be in the middle of the day.
-it is, as I said, supposed to be day-time, so I'll brighten everything up.
-the cauldron will be more obviously a cauldron when brighter. I hope.

Now I'm not sure if PPs edit is quite what you're looking for, but the brightness is really great. It's a healthy medium between the almost "Night Scape" of the most recent screen and the "Living on Mercury" lightness of the original. Things look a LITTLE dull, not very much at all, but you can tell how they're washed out. This is probably because he/she lightened the screen shot up instead of lightening the actual work itself, therefore, your eults will probably be a little warmer. I think Pixel is really close to nailing it. There's gorgeous light rays coming from the windows. Closer to the screen chandelier is blurry, as is the wall on the left; this gives it a real sense of depth and focus. And of course, the original brilliant background is in tact and gorgeous.

- maybe there is "something" about that chest...

Great... now I know how to beat the game... =P

I thought so, but I supposed I would bring it up just in case.

-There is some light emanating from the furnace. Could be more, perhaps. Also, the stove in the oter room.

I'm not sure which is which, but I was refering to the thing behind her. Now that you say "stove" I think, that's more appropraite than the word I used. Now that the room is brighter though, it's not important anymore. Based on her clothing, I was thinking she was either cold because of the nights chill, or scared because she was all bundled up. When I think of someone scared I think of night; combine all of this with the low light and I assumed it was, in fact, nighttime. That's why I made the suggestion to have light coming from the stove AND also for putting in more ambient light. With a lighter tone you will not need that ambient light.

-The room at the end of ladders will definitely be visitable (a sketch of it exists and is being coloured), it will be fairly bright (a tower room with big windows) and needs some work to look ok seen from this room. I was aware of that, though, but I posted a bit too hastily.

I thought as much. You can leave it as it, or maybe once you finish the other room you can look at the floor boards, or wall baseboard, werever the player will emerge and try and recreate a small chunk of it in that little slit, you can make it much brighter/darker/contrasted than the rest of this room (just like with the chest) in order to draw more attention. But seeing as how there's a ladder there, that's attention enough IMO.

-The rug stays!

I don't want it to go! =D
Trust me, it's a good thing the rug is there, it more smoothly connects the two individual spaces. I really like it as well, if it's from scratch than it's excellent. I just thought it looked out of place because of how real it looked. In Pixels edit, there is an orange glow all about the room (fireplace/sun) and that washes out the vibrancy of it a little and it fits in with the scene really nicely like that. Maybe with the room lighter it's intensity won't matter as much, we'll see when you finish your re-touch.

-I'm not actually sure where her arms are. The point is that everything btw her neck and her feet is supposed to be a little nondescript, fitting her unassuming (albeit acerbic) personality. I'm not sure I've pulled it off though. I think I'll start from scratch on her again. Now she's called Clara, btw.

Good name, it fits her. If you tart from scratch, the new character better be rock solid because Clara is. She feels innocent, but corruptable. Those green eyes scream for empathy, and i'm compelled to want to see her win. She feels reluctant for any adventures and being dragged into some conflict it's up to me to make sure she does O.K. I was simply thinking that animating her walking without arms would completely ruin what she's got going for her. But I have faith in you.

I really like what I see so far, and i'm getting a big old smile on my face in anticipation! MUST... HAVE.... MORE!!!

I'm exceited bro, I want to see this succeed. Good luck!