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If I understand you correctly, you're looking for something similar to this (I didn't follow the perspective, so beware). It's just to show you.

My PSU quite literally blew up last year.. Sparks, flames, the works.

Same happened to me last year, minus the flames. But from hearing your version of the exploding PSU, I wish mine had done the same thing instead of just a measly blue flashing spark and smoke.

One way is to fake perspective so it looks 'realistic' enough, but this can be quite difficult for people who don't have a full grasp on perspective.

Another solution is to not show the ceiling. Showing the ceiling will give you that great jump in depth from foreground to background.

Another solution (which i use) is to draw with a two point perspective. You have to work with a very large canvas and have the two vanishing points very far off to the left and right side of the canvas.
Take a look at this Monkey Island screenshot with Otus in prison: http://koti.welho.com/khavulin/pics/monkey1.PNG
There is obviously still a jump from the back corner to the left side of the image, but not enough to actually notice it while playing.

The other solution which can be combined with all of these, is to prevent the character from walking close to the background walls.  If Guybrush could walk right up tight to that very back corner, you'd notice a small distance above his head to the ceiling.  Then it would make it more noticeable when he goes to the sides of the image.

Those are just my two cents on the matter since I refuse to use scaling cause it looks very odd.

Taphophobia: the fear of being buried alive.

I wouldn't really say it's a fear of being buried alive, but mostly just the idea of some organ that has been inside of me my whole life is now going to be living in another persons body.
And yeah, I can't say that I haven't thought about the idea of after being dead you're still connected to your body (which I guess falls under taphophobia ).
It's definitely not something I believe but I do think about it.  Wouldn't let that stop me from willing donate my organs though.

For example, I don't give blood.

Unfortunately I can't donate blood because the first time I did it, my blood test came back with a false positive for, I believe Hepatitis C. They tell you this by mailing you a letter. It said the wide spectrum testing was the one that gave the false positive, but the actual test for H.C. came back clean. Just because of that 'marker' that set off the first test, I'm not allowed to donate.

It's funny cause they said even a simple cold or something like that could cause this. I was pretty frustrated at the time, mostly because I donated blood just to have it thrown out, and second for the knowing I can't donate blood no matter how much I may want to.


As for donating organs, it's an uncomfortable thought. I've had a donation card, those stupid paper ones Calin was talking about, had it for several years. Eventually it got removed from my wallet from being tattered and ruined, and I haven't had one since. Even though I'm totally willing to donate my organs, I'm still a little uneasy while thinking about it. Even though I have no religious beliefs. It's odd, I know. Still willing to do it though.

I disagree with the opt out idea, due to people and their strong religion. But one thing I totally believe they should be doing is having organ donation on the paperwork they give you when you get your license. Then you don't have to carry around a flimsy piece of paper, and everyone who gets their license (or renews it) is given the choice to have it added to their drivers license.

Yeah, who in the world is this man?!?!?!?!???    <=====

I don't know.  But he should be completely removed from the AGS forums!  :

Snarky, there's a few funny emails and such to the side.  If you find the spider one funny, check out the others.
I liked the one about the party invitation. lol

I want to meet this friend of yours, Radiant. $$

I'm curious how this person had talked your friend into doing this without threatening.

Hey, just purchased this last night.

It's great, I'm absolutely loving it.  Not sure which version it is, but it's definitely the most recent (downloaded it from your site).

Anyway, same issue as Steve had back in July.  That bloody parrot.  Which is confusing because you said it was corrected?

Here's the image: http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/other/agsf/tgp_crash.png

Any interaction to the parrot will cause this crash.  Interact, Talk, Look, Dan, or Inventory.  Now I need to find the solution so I can get past this glitch.


Edit:  Ok, so I used a walkthrough to find the solution since I wasn't going to go through 15 crashes in a row just to find out the solution.  Lucky it works without any further issues.

That technique also works for the pencil tool too.  And you'll get perfect lines without the double pixels that their ACTUAL line tool does, which is retarded.
I use it all the time.

For my own knowledge, what about the shadows cast by objects on the horizon (or above it?)

*cough* you fake it.

lol That's the drawback for using the horizon as the intersection point for the sun, since the sun is indeed further than that (the REAL method, I do not know, but in most cases the horizon works for the sun/moon).  It looks worse here on Jim's demonstration because he uses a black line for the horizon making it look like it's really close.

The shadow is also supposed to widen the further from the light source.  You're supposed to draw two lines from the sides of the light source, and cross them when connecting it to the obstruction to determine the widths.  So left side of the sun, to the right side of the obstruction, and right side of the sun to the left side of the obstruction. (which Jim didn't do on his UFO, or pole shadow)

I was actually just about to post to correct ya.  But you've done a better job explaining it.

If you were to use this method with other light sources (closer ones, not the sun or moon), you wouldn't use the horizon as the guide, you'd use the point of the ground the object is over.  So if the light source was a lamp, you'd use the base of the lamp as the shadow guide (instead of the horizon).

Edit:  Or rather I should say that you use the vertical intersection point of the light source to the ground or ceiling, if it's a close light source.  Shadows aren't always on the ground.

The buildings you see here are painted with a translucent brush, allowing the sky colour to show through, giving the appearance of atmosphere in front of these buildings

Instead of painting with a translucent brush, draw each background building on a separate layer with 100% opacity brush, then you can change each layer's opacity individually.  That way you don't have to keep the brush held down while drawing the entire building.


Anyway, nice tutorial.  I hope it directs people to make more Ben304 style games... or just more games in general.

I don't think Ryan's darker moon serves any purpose.

Ya, I agree that it's a wee dark (mentioned it in my post too ).  The only reason I darkened it like that, is for the heavily cloudy sky he has.  Since his moon is drawn over top the clouds, to me, it looks like it's pasted on there.

Meh. 

The sun should be higher so the shadow doesn't run the same angle as the roof and.. other roof thing.

It makes the center building look as though it's made of glass and you can see the left building through it.

Other than that, looks nice.

The mast shadow is perspectively incorrect. The upper grill on the window also.

Ahh yes, forgot to mention about the shadow of the mast.  I had moved the moon over in my edit to balance it out a bit.

I played around with your image and tweaked a few things.


(I may have made the moon a little too dark)

I didn't like how the main building was straight and parallel to the side walk, so I brought the front out, and the rear in.  Darkened the rear half as well.

I felt it was a little too bright on the right side of the image, so I darkened that a little too (forgot to adjust the fence though).

I wasn't really liking that sky.  Felt it was too distracting, so I tossed in a gradient to quickly show what it should possibly look like.  Also added a few gradients here and there as well (I know it's a pixel art type background, but it's only an edit ).

Added a shadow to that sign, and corrected the shadow on the sidewalk.


Anyway, gave a quick stab at the light post too.  Not sure if it's as fitting though.




Anyway, I like your style, it's interesting.

I totally agree.  I've always been curious why the voting was advertised as it is now, but the nominations weren't.

Also a deadline on the notification could be nice.  I haven't voted yet, but definitely will.  I just haven't played Marionette, TGP!, and a few others.  If I don't get around to it near the final days, I'll just vote for the ones I've played anyway (just like I did with the nominations). 

The separation might be completely unnecessary, but it seemed like an interesting experiment. I guess it also gives the impression that the ship is rather large, which is one I want to make.

Anyway, I had a feeling you were trying to go far that 'large' ship feeling.  The only spaceship adventure game I can think of that showed large areas of the ship (I haven't played all that many), making the ship look huge, was Space Quest 6.

Which they seem to go for the camera being low to the ground type perspective (low horizon / vanishing point) and show off the height of the walls, and lack of ceiling (since it's so damn high up ).

This one for instance:
http://www.spacequest.net/sq6/screenshots/20.html

Another good technique is to show depth, like this background:
http://www.spacequest.net/sq6/screenshots/07.html

There is always something overlapping something, which makes the composition so much more visually entertaining.  I tried to do this to the chairs in the edited image I drew earlier.  Pulling the one chair out, so it wasn't hiding from behind the other and blending in.  Also extending the center console to separate the two.

Also every empty area of wall has a decorative element to spruce things up, not just flat walls.  Separations in the wall, pipes, vents, lights, consoles, etc.  Not only is it interesting to look at but it also provokes that adventurish feeling of exploration in your mind.  "What's this button?"  "What's behind that?"  "What does that pipe do?"
Also gives the person playing something to interact with.

Actually one of the backgrounds that had my mouse moving over every single pixel was probably this one:
http://www.spacequest.net/sq6/screenshots/19.html

One thing I actually really liked were the foreground elements in that one.  Usually they are only silhouettes or out of focus items.  The cage on the right is the best.

I still remember entering that room and all I could picture were drawers and cupboards filled with high-tech medical equipment and such.  Alas, it actually happened to be very uninteractive room.

Sorry, I can be a big douche at times.  I get frustrated when people post things in the critics lounge, then get angry for the criticism.

This for example:

I understood the first eight times. No offense, but I wish you would understand that I don't want to make a pixel art game.

You think I am insulting your intelligence by trying to drill into your head, that your issue with the large resolution has given you this gigantic canvas, which you fight to fill.  But then you answer it by saying that you're not trying to make a pixel art game.

Sythe.. buddy.. Sythe.. it's not about 'pixel art' or 'painted' or 'photo'.. it's about emptiness.  And I felt the emptiness was caused by the larger resolution--and it more than likely is.  If you can manage the large resolution, then by all means.  I have no issues with resolution.  It's emptiness, I loath it.
So take an axe to all that emptiness and fill it in with your crazy imagination, and make use of that tablet you have and go crazy my boy!