Messages

[Arboris!]

And that's all she wrote.

Well, two isn't all that bad - It makes my job a fair sight easier. As I am usually wont to do, I'll drop a few comments about the sprites:

hofmeier's college degree:
I got a kick out of your interpretation of the rules - I'll admit I was more looking for rocket-skates or something of that vein, but I realize that some of us had gloomy visions of a gloomy black-and-white adulthood. As far as art style goes, I'm digging the piece - the degree itself (As it was selected as your primary sprite) kind of looks like a forgery to me: Any official degree that has the words "COLLEGE DEGREE" taking up roughly half of its space is a bit suspect, but nonetheless, good stuff.

Arboris's Back to the Future Delorean
Closer to what I was getting at with the theme as I wrote it. To this very day I speculate as to what the world would be like with time travel, though admittedly the ramifications are actually a little terrifying at times. Great reference to a great movie from my childhood, and extremely well-sprited. Bravo, Arboris.

Fact: I know of at least one other Delorian sprite that was being done for this competition.

Now, to the awarding of the title of 'Host of the second Sprite Jam of 2010': May I present... Arboris!
Lovely sprite, great use of color, instantly recognizable. All-around very well done. Get moving on the next competition!

Ahoy, boys and girls,

Just leaving a message to say that everyone has until it's the 6th everywhere to get your sprites in - Not sure if anyone is still working on a sprite, but if you are, you still have a little time - so come on! The first Sprite Jam of 2010 only happens once!

Not exactly what I meant, granted, but it's an interpretation of the rules, and I won't disqualify it. Technically, I was looking for more of the 'Hoverboards' and 'Robot Maids' and so on, but I'm happy to see creative interpretation of the theme.

For a little extra push, I thought that I'd give you all a little inspirational material to work with. I'd like to turn your attention to this fun turn-of-the-decade article on Cracked.com, which details a few of the very same types of things that I am looking for.

"Hello" is considered a salutation, which although not necessarily a proper sentence, is still considered grammatically correct. Technically its etymology lies in the High German 'halã, the emphatic imperative of the verb meaning to 'fetch'. Meaning, in a sense 'I recieve you'.

Interestingly, your "I say hello to you" would still defeat the purpose because the 'hello' in there still doesn't follow correct established grammar patterns. It would be more appropriate to say 'I greet you'.

So it falls into a separate category of grammar which is mostly outside the rest of the established precepts of the English language, much like salutations in nearly any language that I'm largely familiar with (Though the list is comparatively small).

[SpacePirateCaine]

Ahoy there, folks.

So, it's been a while since I was really all that active as a forum member - mostly because of my current job taking up most of my time, and being in the game industry, I sort of started to feel a lot less motivation to work on them in my spare time as well. What other free time I have is being spent either spending time with the SO, or playing games.

I have sunk a whole lot of time in Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead (Now L4D2) recently, but I'd have to say that the worst part of those games is the other players - There are a whole lot of asshats with microphones out there, and I've been thinking how nice it would be to be able to play together with some people that I like, and have gotten to know in some capacity other than just in the game I'm playing against them.

For that reason, I wanted to check if anyone has ever tossed out the idea of making a Steam group comprised of AGS forum members? It'd be great to be able to keep track of other AGS forum folk and play with/against some of you. I know that back in '05 there was some talk of a CS server, which is all well and good - so I know that some of you do play, but a semi-thorough search hasn't yielded any results on the forum of making a Steam Group, or people sharing their Steam IDs.

Anyone game?

Predictably, my username on Steam is SpacePirateCaine - anyone who would like to add me as a friend and play a friendly game of TF2, Killing Floor or L4D1 or 2, add me, send me a note. I'd love to shoot at ya for a while.

And if there are enough people interested (assuming there isn't one already), how about a Steam group/clan for AGS?

Hey Danman,

Good stuff. Always better to really work on ironing out all of the bugs in your technique before you have to go back and fix multiple images.

I noticed that you also mentioned water reflection - put very simply, to get a convincing reflection, all you really need to do is flip objects so that they're mirrored (obviously) and darken them -- as a general rule of thumb, water reflections will be darker - chromatic reflection will be the same color, so anything reflected in them is going to look a darker shade than its actual counterpart. Of course, having the water right at the base of your building there, without anything it can really reflect and show to the viewer as a reference, will more likely look like a patch of concrete.

I'd suggest maybe taking your little pool and extending it to the right or left (or both) to have something to reflect (Either the window to the left, or the edge of the building and sky to the right).

Alright, so this only addresses the issues of the background.



In regards to clouds, there are plenty of ways to do clouds, but I like generally to stick with the good ol' cumulus, which is usually flatter on the bottom and bumpier on top. The main thing to keep in mind with clouds is though, yes, they are basically amorphous white masses, they can still be shaded.

It looks to me like you're using a 'spraypaint' type of tool to make your clouds, and though you get plenty of spatter doing such, I generally advise against using a spray tool of any sort like that when doing pixel art - I much prefer a sense of 'controlled chaos'.

The mountains I added to the background are also mostly just for filler, but hopefully it looks to you like it breaks up the monotony of the skyline. Remember - very few places in the world are truly flat, so unless you're on a huge stretch of flatland or looking over the ocean, it's best to put something in at ground level.

Something that far in the distance doesn't necessarily need detail more than a silhouette, though more patient and dedicated artists than myself may deign to add in some shading or even more detail to the mountains as well. There aren't a lot of flat colors on your image here, so you may actually want to do that.

All up to you - this is just one set of ideas.

[SPRITE JAM 2010]

SPRITE JAM 2010

Hello folks, Sorry it took so long to start up a new competition. I was in the middle of writing this when I realized I needed to step out for a while and, well... Look at the time. Regardless, here I am - glad to be hosting another Sprite Jam, I love these competitions and I hope to see a decent turnout, though I imagine a good number of you are off enjoying the holiday with friends and family.

Regardless, here comes the competition.

So, boys and girls, we finally issue in the year 2010, but I have a question or two - Where's my hovercar? And what ever happened to Jupiter imploding to create a second sun? Wasn't that supposed to happen ages ago? I contend that the image that was painted for us as 'things to come' was sadly overstated.

Now, I'm pushing 30, so it's possible I'm a touch above the average age of the AGS user base, but I still remember watching the Jetsons when it was on TV and thinking "Oh man, that will be awesome". Well, I'm not looking for retro specifically, but The 2010 that you imagined in your childhood.

It's a bit of an open topic, I realize, but I think everyone had an idea of what the future was supposed to be like. We're making great strides in scientific and mechanical engineering, but we're just not there yet. I'd like to see what you all thought we'd have been able to see by now.

Now, for the specifics:

• Your sprite can be an inventory item, a set piece or a character.
• Your sprite should depict an item/object/person that embodies a concept of the 'future' as seen from the past.
• Your sprite should be independent of a background - please include an image with an alpha channel.
• Backgrounds are allowed, but an individual sprite should be provided separately.
• If a sprite is not self-explanatory, a text description is encouraged.
• Sprite resolution and color depth are not specified

The competition will continue for 1 week, and end on  January 5th, 2010.
Only 1 sprite will be judged, if submitting multiple entries, please specify the official competition entry.

Hi Danman,

The picture is starting to come together, certainly. I wanted to point out that the house's perspective is a little out of whack, causing it to look a little Escherian. After you sheered off the front (left side) of the house a tad, it didn't quite look anymore like it's part of the driveway, but it's still hard to get a sense of depth.

I don't want to say you should completely redraw the picture, but the house could use some tweaking to help the player understand from first glance that it's a house..

Now, regarding your background - I think one issue I'm getting out of it is that the horizon is completely flat - that also makes it harder to get a really detailed feeling of depth. There are a few steps you can take, but I think the easiest to accomplish would be to add in some movement to your horizon, maybe a few layers.

Of course, mountains or hilly regions are an old favorite. You can do wonders with some jagged lines in the background and a washed-out color that suggests haze.


This is an example that I pulled from my backlog of work. The horizon is still flat, though I pulled the sides up in a growing foresty area, and in the back, just added the outline of mountains, and a big cloud bank in the back.

Heavy, ground-bound cloud banks can help to give the feeling of a cold morning. You can also create wispy clouds with a few uneven off-white areas on your sky - if you like I can try a quick edit of your background to show you the idea.

If you don't want mountains, there's also 'ocean', but it's a little hard to pull off in some ways. Is the black area behind the house a freeway or something of the like?

Ahoy.



This is Joulia, and she is a sassy little short-circuit in your socket. Whenever a plug comes by her home, she comes out and does a little dance. She's got an electrical personality, but be careful, getting to know her too personally can be a shocking experience.

Yeah, I know that she's not specifically a device or system, but she is definitely sassy.

How about just "Malakey"? It's unique enough a name that it stands out and is suitably easy to remember. The only drawback of that is that it does sound very similar to Malarkey (Which means 'nonsense', if you didn't know already). Then again, you're just as likely getting people drawing that parallel whether it's the title or not, so I think it works fine. If you can foresee some sequels in the future, Malakey: Starfall or something like that.

I agree, the first color looks a little sunburnt - I think the more tan tones in the 'reclining' version of the sprite work a lot better. Incidentally - love the sprite. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of this project - we have a sadly small number of really interesting looking mid- to high-res projects that are active.

Of course, there's always the surprisingly rarely implemented usage of more realistic torchship design. If you're planning on doing some really convincing Sci-fi, might I recommend using the references on Atomic Rockets? It's my sci-fi writing bible.

Awesome competition. Stella was my favorite for the competition as well. Incidentally, I originally started working on Krissy as camp nurse, but she changed into a swim instructor when I decided I didn't want to add a lab coat to her. Maybe Krissy has a habit of stepping on Stella's toes with her knowledge of first aid and the kids usually coming to her instead?

Anyway, I think this was one of the most fun competitions we've had on the forums in years, and immense kudos to Progz for coming up with a great theme that everyone could do something with. I don't know about a replacement for RoN, but I seriously think that we could make a damned fun group game project out of Camp Copycat. It's easy to hash together characters and plots for a summer camp, and more than anything else, it's fun!

Congrats, Kastchey - Grand slam! Well done sprite, and great concept.

Yes indeed, 26 entries, all at least semi-visible in the group picture, which I'm posting here, as well as its original location in the first page, just so people don't have to go wading through old posts to find it anymore.

Apologies to Electro for not including Norah into the image.


I'm not missing anyone, am I?

Again, I sure as hell don't envy you your job picking the winner, Progz.

Edit: Good eye, Ben. Added Sebastian.

If you're looking to come all the way East, I know for a fact that the gaming industry here in Japan is surprisingly short on decent programmers. I just recently landed a job as a producer after months of searching, but nearly every company I applied for was searching for someone with a background in programming. If you wanna take a few months crash course on Japanese and can convince your family to come all the way over here, I'm still sore at Vince XII and Kinoko for never doing Japanettens, and want more AGS buddies on this side of the lake.

But seriously. I don't know what the deal is with the big discrepancy between the east and west, but in gaming, there's at least plenty of room for talented programmers here. No openings near your abode in the industry?

She's also the tallest girl around. I hope she's wearing some proper bloomers under that skirt, or Billy the Fiddler is going to have plenty to blank-stare at. The group photo's getting pretty crowded. I may have to think about putting them on bleachers just to get everyone in!

Loving it so far. I think someone needs to make a squirrel with a top hat and monocle or something for the camp mascot. I do not envy Progz the need to decide on a winner for this competition. 18 entries so far and still going strong.

I'm telling you, it already looks fun. And I'm sure this is some sort of record - we're already up to 9 entries on the first day, not including Progz's original Mike Higgins. I got bored so threw together this group photo. Just for the fun of it, I'm thinking of putting together a few more characters. Maybe another counselor and a proper 'kid' character as well. With a cast like this, I'm sure it'd be pretty groovy.

Oh, and the 'Butterfly tattoo = bad girl' thing was mostly a joke. Though a hot girl with tattoos would probably seem pretty badass to a prepubescent boy at summer camp either way.

Krissy Wachowski, Counselor/Swimming class instructor
I figured the game needed at least a little cheesecake.

She's an ex- bad girl. You can tell by the butterfly tattoo on her calf.

I totally think there should be some huge AGS team collaboration to make a Willy Beamish-esque Camp Copycat adventure game. It'd be awesome.

Edit: I liked Aboris's character so much, I decided to borrow the hair colors

I know it's not critic's lounge, but I thought I might point out that there seems to be something very amiss with the staff/rod/walking-stick in your run animation, if you hadn't noticed it already. It jumps back and forth a whole lot, and also I'd say when running instead of having the rod stay at a steady angle, it should either wave up and down, or the runner may want to hold it horizontally, so the end points forward while running, to keep it aerodynamic/help with balance.

Just thought I'd mention that for the sake of mentioning things. As always, the game is looking awesome. I'll definitely be downloading it when it's released. As a matter of curiosity, how many rooms are you shooting for, total? Does every room have a function? With that much meat, I certainly hope you aren't just using throw-away rooms, it'd be a shame for people to get turned off by large empty expanses. Not to say that it wouldn't fit well in a wasteland sort of environment.

And just an extra comment - I'm really feeling a groovy 'Out of this world' vibe with the way the game is progressing. Keep it coming!