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That's cool! I'll have to play around with it

@Nahuel , thanks. Glad it's not just me it's working for.

@heltenjon , unfortunately all I got was this email from AGS Forums, so I don't think I can contact the user:

An anonymous user from 188.163.110.4 reported Windows download for Tunnel Vision as broken.

Hopefully it's nothing to worry about. 

Just wanted to share and discuss tools and results from upscaling and downscaling low-res images or pixel art using various tools, because I've had interesting results. I was starting with a resolution of 320x180, with a target resolution of 480x270.

This is the image I started with (320x180):



I upscaled it 400% using the free AI upscale tool at https://www.iloveimg.com/upscale-image. I know there are much better upscaling algorithms out there, but this one was free and done quickly online. This is the result (1280x720):



I then downscaled it to my target resolution using MSPaint (why MSPaint's downscaling algorithm is still so good, I don't know, but I have yet to find a better one). This is the result (480x270):


Obviously the "pixelated" look is completely gone, so I used GIMP's dithering function to reduce the number of colors:


Much better, but it's obviously been indexed from a 16- or 32-bit image.

Finally I used LibreSprite's Jumble Tool to shake up the green fade a bit. This is the final version:



What do you all think of these tools/methods, and about upscaling/downscaling in general, and the use of AI to do so? The algorithm I used actually had TERRIBLE results when upscaling very very low-res assets.

Original (pretty awesome if I do say so myself  :


Upscale (SO BAD)  :


As the technology develops (I know there are already much better algorithms out there), it could be possible to have options like toggling between pixel art and high-res in the same game. What other possibilities might there be? Drawbacks? Ethical concerns? I find the whole topic pretty fascinating.

A user reported the windows download as broken, but it seems to work fine for me. Has anyone had any issues with downloading or running the game?

The overall number of elements and the spacing of them looks pretty good to me in terms of composition, and the details you've chosen to include are effective.

Biggest issue is perspective which is tricky for uneven ground because you don't want it to look like a flat plane.

I altering the angle of the work bench to match the perspective of the crate would go a long way to making the perspective tie together as it's the element that feels most "off" perspective-wise.

The holes might also look better if they are less wide at the back since that side is further away.

As far as color, lighting, and texture, there could certainly be refinements there but a lot of that depends on the art style you want.

Hey @Cassiebsg and @Blondbraid just wanted you to know it was a close decision for me. It's hard to choose between great puzzles and emotional impact, as your game had the former and the other had the latter. Both games had good, effective art. (Though I think yours had a better title, which I appreciate. Making good titles is hard).

In the end I suspect it came down to what mood i was in, which is pretty arbitrary. I was expecting your game to get a lot of votes! Hope to play more from you both in the future. 

NOW VOTING UNTIL SEP 21! Looks like it's between @newwaveburritos and @Creamy, both two great entries!

Please vote according to the following:
- Concept: Your background should tell us something about the place you have depicted.
- Playability: does it have clearly defined walkable areas, things to interact with, etc?
- Artistic Execution: does the image convey the wanted atmosphere? What's the feeling of the place?

Love the theme, but I already have way too many irons in the fire right now. Can't even keep up with all the projects I already started 

Last day! If anyone needs an extension, just let me know. Otherwise it will be our two entries above. 

I realized after I posted that the if statements might be in the wrong order. It may also be increasing the variable multiple times per loop, so that it is above 1 before the next line  runs. Apologies for overestimating my own coding skills.

Could be fixable but I am still away from my computer unfortunately.

Khris's code looks like it will give you more precise control over everything anyway.

I would create a global int variable called MouseOverButton which is 0 by default.

Then, in the global script, under repeatedly_execute, put something like this:

Code: ags

if (GUIcontrol.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y) != null){
  MouseOverButton += 1;
  // if you want it to animate only over certain buttons you'll need to add more conditions to the above if statement 
}

if (Guicontrol.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x,mouse.y == null){
  MouseOverButton= 0;
  //If mouse animation is repeating, add a line to stop it here
}

if (MouseOverButton == 1){
  //Animate mouse cursor here, non-blocking
}

There might be simpler ways to do this but I'm not at my computer right now. Didn't test it.
   

Two days left!    any last entries?

it's best to have every place accessible in a direct or semi-direct route from the central opening.

Would this work better?

Finally found some time to keep working on the background now that my own game launch has died down. Here's the progress so far:

@Creamy that looks awesome! Lots of details and also emotionally evocative. It's a real contest now!

This looks like lots of fun! Will definitely try it out. 

Experiment is making progress! Thanks again to @Khris for all your help and to @eri0o for the module. This is great fun.

EDIT: turns out this has nothing to do with the background, actually. This is the "sprite 19" issue from my original post. Sprite 19 was the same as the background image. Easy workaround is to make sprite 19 transparent. Doesn't solve the underlying issue, but it works.

Something extremely strange is happening. It appears that a copy of the room background image (in this case two color blocks) is being drawn on top of the mode7 ground texture. Could this an issue with GetDrawingSurfaceForBackground, or do you think the mode7 module is not drawing the texture correctly?

I found the missing piece: the module only draws to its DynamicSprite, and you have to draw that to the room:

IT WORKS!!!        Now I can actually start experimenting!

Amazing. Thanks a million.

Thanks, both of you. The issue I was having with working backwards from the demo is that there is so much there that I don't know what is needed.

All I want is to create a mode7 ground object(?) that I can move across in one direction at several different (controllable) speeds, and to be able to track the mode7 camera coordinates so that I can teleport the camera back to the start when the camera reaches a certain point, and then change the ground texture. I don't need the boat or the sky or the 360 degree movement or even keyboard control.

This feels like it should be doable with the module but I don't know where to start with the whole demo in place.