Messages

I just saw your game advertised on the CNN website. Great going man!

[Mystic Seer: Twilight Zone Fortune Reader]

Mystic Seer: Twilight Zone Fortune Reader



About Mystic Seer:

Designed as a special Halloween tribute to the original Twilight Zone, the Mystic Seer is a replica of the fortune-telling napkin holder which starred in the second season episode entitled "Nick of Time." (remember, this episode featured William Shatner?)

(downloads using filefront temporarily - just click on "download" when you are directed to the game info page)

Download Zip: 1 MB

http://files.filefront.com/MysticSeerzip/;6088913;;/fileinfo.html


Download Self-Extracting: 1 MB

http://files.filefront.com/MysticSeerexe/;6088914;;/fileinfo.html


Or, download it off our webpage.

http://plasticostrichgames.atspace.com

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Looks very cool.

Yeah, this does sound weird. But I like weird.

We've seen the storyboard, and it has a whole lot of twists. Its great stuff. There will be a lot of puzzles, and quite a lot of rooms. Everyone is putting their best effort into this one.

The webpage is at:

http://www.freewebs.com/codpiecestudios/thehallowsendteam.htm

[Cassandra TGA:]

Here's some 3D characters, if anyone would like to use them in a game.  They are available in CHA format, or TGA images.

-----------------------------------------------------

Cassie




Cassandra TGA:

Uncompressed size: 175 MB. Includes the images needed for a complete (8 direction) walk cycle, standing and speech animations, all in Targa (TGA) format. Images are 512x512, 32 bit high color. This is the best option if you plan to use her as an NPC that doesn't need a full walk cycle.

Download as TGA images: 7.8 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Cassandra_TGA.zip

OR

Cassandra CHA:

Uncompressed size: 64 MB. For AGS (Adventure Game Studio) games, all of the walk and speech animations are automatically cropped and set up for you. Just import her, and she's in the game. You may want to check for flipped images in the view editor after importing her. Cha exported from 800x600, 32 bit high color game. She's been tested at 16 bit color, and still looks great, but won't load for 256 colors. She looks good at 640x480. She works for 320x240 (but of course with lower image quality).

Download as CHA file: 7.1 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Character_Cassandra.zip

-------------------------------------------------

Brett






Brett TGA:

Uncompressed size: 173 MB. Includes the images needed for a complete (8 direction) walk cycle, standing and speech animations, all in Targa (TGA) format. Images are 512x512, 32 bit high color.

Download as TGA images: 8.1 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Brett_TGA.zip

OR

Brett CHA:

Uncompressed size: 45 MB. For AGS (Adventure Game Studio) games, all of the walk and speech animations are automatically cropped and set up for you. Just import him, and he's in the game. CHA exported from 800x600, 32 bit high color game. He's been tested at 16 bit color, and still looks great, but won't load for 256 colors. He looks good at 640x480. He works for 320x240 (but of course with much lower image quality).

Download as CHA file: 7.25 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Character_Brett.zip

--------

Large, you say? Yup, but they compresses beautifully, since there's a lot of  repetition.

If you use them, we'd love to here from you. We thought about doing more characters, male and female. We've gotten better since  our last game, and learned how to use the alpha channel more effectively.

-----------------
LEGAL NOTE:

You are free to use them for any purpose, but be sure to credit Make Human. I use them for portions of all my character meshes. They ask to be credited as follows:


Make Human is Copyright © 2001-2005 MakeHuman team www.makehuman.org. Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

I've also had a problem connecting for a while now, but it worked fine before, so it must be a hiccup somewhere.

LEGAL NOTICE: You can use these characters for any purpose, but be sure to credit "Make Human" as listed below. I use them for a good portion of my character meshes. They are AWESOME and free, if anyone else would like to check them out, though, they need knowledge of 3D modeling to be useful to you:

http://projects.blender.org/projects/makeh/

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (c) 2001-2006 makehuman.org

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Mesh"), to deal in the Mesh without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Mesh, and to permit persons to whom the Mesh is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Mesh.

We added a male now, too.

We can also create a version where she has armpit hair... 'el natural.

I thought I would also give my 2 cents.

As some might now, we are a husband and wife team.
She create the 3D backgrounds and characters, and I animate the characters and fix up the AGS programming where she run into difficulties with it.  Since none of us can compose and play music, we have to borrow from others for that part of the game.

At first we used paint to make drawings. Mine looked absolutely horrible! Then we send months teaching ourselves 3D programs, and now my wife turns out really stunning backgrounds and characthers.
To get into 3D is quite a learning curve, since the documentation are very limited for the programs out there. But that is an aside.

As everyone said, it takes many hours to create a good game. It doesn't happen overnight. The joy is in putting it out there after it has been finished and to be jugged by your peers.  Of course it won't ever be a professional game, but it has to be evaluted in terms of how much time and effort that was put into it and what the result was of that effort. 

My thought is, if you don't like your graphics and don't have artistic skill in the sense of hand drawings, get into 3D.

 "It's all good. Afterall, we've seen a nurse with the hugest tits in the world wandering about a jungle."

Ah, what game was that? (Just professional interest of course!)

My wife has been working on a mermaid which shows must promise for those 16+ games!

Yup, it is CHA and not CHAR. Oops.

Hehehe. We're working on a male character to add here shortly. He's finished, actually, but we want to try and render him with a different color background, and then import him in the game and all. We've got a sort-of goth girl, too, and she's in cue.

We were thinking of making around 6 or so different characters, suiting different types of games, which would give people some variety if they wanted a quick character to add to a 3D game.

As for this one, LOL, she is a bit idealized in her proportions (as is the male character we'll be releasing soon), but we will also try to have some more natural looking figures too. Originally, she had a bit of, erm, bounce too, but I (wife) vetoed that addition!

It is possible to save the TGA to PNG format. Or just work directly with the TGA files if you want to re-color or change something.

Yes, the file will work with the import character feature of AGS. The walk sequence is in 8 directions, and there is a speech animation as well. (I will check tonight if it was CHAR or CHA)

The reason why we don't bother with the background color in the 3-channel (Red, Green, Blue) image is that you get a horrible outline, since there is no alpha channel. An alpha channel is a 256 bit greyscale image which set the transparency for each pixel. What is nice about this feature is that it has the background show through your character's outline. Hence, no need to worry ever again what pixel you want to select as the background color for your imported charachter. However, this will only work with nicely for 32 bit, since it supports the 4 channels (R,G,B+A).

I will discuss it tonight with my spouse, we might upload a 3-channel version (R,G,B) with a grey background for those who want that..

The TGA should work if you import them directly into AGS, despite the black background, since its just a layer/alpha. The Alpha channel makes the background show 100% through, except on the character outline, where it is partially.  This effect gives a very smooth character, without any visable outline in the game. Therefore, the black background disappers totally. In the sprite, you may see an outline, but it won't be in the came.

If you import her directly into AGS in CHAR (not as a sprite, but as a whole character), she will have no outlines in the game. 

The cloud picture with the walk sequences were taken from AGS screenshots.

[Character Art & Character Animation]

(see the above post for a sample of where we are at)

Character Art & Character Animation

Just 3D character art and character animations. We use Anim8tor and Blender. You can email us (plasticostrichgames@yahoo.com) or PM us if you have a game you have already started working on. Serious projects only, please, please, please.

I'd really like to work on projects with other women, so girl game designers, get in touch!

One caveat -- we're based in South Africa, and are working on a few things at the moment, but still like to do characters.

[Cassandra TGA:]

Here's some 3D characters, if anyone would like to use them in a game.  They are available in CHA format, or TGA images.

-----------------------------------------------------

Cassie




Cassandra TGA:

Uncompressed size: 175 MB. Includes the images needed for a complete (8 direction) walk cycle, standing and speech animations, all in Targa (TGA) format. Images are 512x512, 32 bit high color. This is the best option if you plan to use her as an NPC that doesn't need a full walk cycle.

Download as TGA images: 7.8 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Cassandra_TGA.zip

OR

Cassandra CHA:

Uncompressed size: 64 MB. For AGS (Adventure Game Studio) games, all of the walk and speech animations are automatically cropped and set up for you. Just import her, and she's in the game. You may want to check for flipped images in the view editor after importing her. Cha exported from 800x600, 32 bit high color game. She's been tested at 16 bit color, and still looks great, but won't load for 256 colors. She looks good at 640x480. She works for 320x240 (but of course with lower image quality).

Download as CHA file: 7.1 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Character_Cassandra.zip

-------------------------------------------------

Brett






Brett TGA:

Uncompressed size: 173 MB. Includes the images needed for a complete (8 direction) walk cycle, standing and speech animations, all in Targa (TGA) format. Images are 512x512, 32 bit high color.

Download as TGA images: 8.1 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Brett_TGA.zip

OR

Brett CHA:

Uncompressed size: 45 MB. For AGS (Adventure Game Studio) games, all of the walk and speech animations are automatically cropped and set up for you. Just import him, and he's in the game. CHA exported from 800x600, 32 bit high color game. He's been tested at 16 bit color, and still looks great, but won't load for 256 colors. He looks good at 640x480. He works for 320x240 (but of course with much lower image quality).

Download as CHA file: 7.25 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Character_Brett.zip

--------

Large, you say? Yup, but they compresses beautifully, since there's a lot of  repetition.

If you use them, we'd love to here from you. We thought about doing more characters, male and female. We've gotten better since  our last game, and learned how to use the alpha channel more effectively.

[Cassandra TGA:]

Here's some 3D characters, if anyone would like to use them in a game.  They are available in CHA format, or TGA images.

-----------------------------------------------------

Cassie




Cassandra TGA:

Uncompressed size: 175 MB. Includes the images needed for a complete (8 direction) walk cycle, standing and speech animations, all in Targa (TGA) format. Images are 512x512, 32 bit high color. This is the best option if you plan to use her as an NPC that doesn't need a full walk cycle.

Download as TGA images: 7.8 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Cassandra_TGA.zip

OR

Cassandra CHA:

Uncompressed size: 64 MB. For AGS (Adventure Game Studio) games, all of the walk and speech animations are automatically cropped and set up for you. Just import her, and she's in the game. You may want to check for flipped images in the view editor after importing her. Cha exported from 800x600, 32 bit high color game. She's been tested at 16 bit color, and still looks great, but won't load for 256 colors. She looks good at 640x480. She works for 320x240 (but of course with lower image quality).

Download as CHA file: 7.1 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Character_Cassandra.zip

-------------------------------------------------

Brett






Brett TGA:

Uncompressed size: 173 MB. Includes the images needed for a complete (8 direction) walk cycle, standing and speech animations, all in Targa (TGA) format. Images are 512x512, 32 bit high color.

Download as TGA images: 8.1 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Brett_TGA.zip

OR

Brett CHA:

Uncompressed size: 45 MB. For AGS (Adventure Game Studio) games, all of the walk and speech animations are automatically cropped and set up for you. Just import him, and he's in the game. CHA exported from 800x600, 32 bit high color game. He's been tested at 16 bit color, and still looks great, but won't load for 256 colors. He looks good at 640x480. He works for 320x240 (but of course with much lower image quality).

Download as CHA file: 7.25 MB
http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/Character_Brett.zip

--------

Large, you say? Yup, but they compresses beautifully, since there's a lot of  repetition.

If you use them, we'd love to here from you. We thought about doing more characters, male and female. We've gotten better since  our last game, and learned how to use the alpha channel more effectively.

For anyone who had problems with the self-extracting filefront version, here is a zip on the ags upload site:


http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/AnticipatingMurder.zip

Its fun. You did an awesome job with the brick textures on the wall. Do you create your own graphics?