Messages

Added a bunch of stuff (color, stars, bigger explosions), changed the foreground ship design a little, and made all the changes loominous suggested.

I feel like there's something else I need to work on in this picture but I can't figure out what.

I like the style of it, it's very dense and energetic. I like the arcing lines instead of straight for weapons fire- I hope that makes it into the final version somehow. Maybe they can be missile contrails instead of beams?

Unless I'm not interpreting you correctly, that's exactly what those lines are supposed to be: missile contrails.

I've never watched any of the Battlestar Galactica shows, but I'd say don't worry about copying the original designs accurately. Just draw spontaneously and it'll be much more interesting than a slavish immitation.

While I do think this is a good idea, I think references would help me a lot as my mind can only throw out boring box shapes right now.

I've noticed that the big submarine-like spaceships look like they were lit from above. I would have thought that the brightest light comes from the fighting below: the explosions, missiles and such. (Here's a messy edit in which I've changed the lighting (and coloured it a bit) to show what I mean.) Just a thought tho. I'd like to see the finished version, too

edit: oh and the left laser thing of the human ship in the foreground seems to be a bit out of perspective, I think

Yes, thanks for both your points. I had considered it, but I was thinking of using a dual light source; one strong light from a sun off to the left, and a lesser light source coming from the battle explosions.

Thanks for all your points loominous. Yes, I intended to use a sun off to the left as the main lighting source. I also intended to have the explosions cast a secondary light on some of the ships, but would this be a bad idea since it would reduce contrast between the lit parts of the ship?

Yes, Loomy's got some good points here. I wasn't too impressed with the original sketch (having seen other art by you); there's no real plan to it, no lightsource or sense of depth, and the brush strokes tend to just sketch out luminous patterns instead of three-dimensional shapes.

Yes, well thats why I'm here in the critics lounge. 

Well, thanks everybody for all the comments and critique. I'm working on an edited version which will hopefully be done in the near future.

[Size and Palette Restrictions]

Uh... bad news, I fear.

Size and Palette Restrictions

of 320 * 200 pixels and 256 colors.

Still awesome, though.  :o

It's 320x200 and it is 256 colors. I don't know how to check it right now, but that's what I set it at. Check yourself. 

It's okay Rui, I still like your entry.

My entry:
(RESIDENT EVIL 4 - The survival-horror adventure game!)


In my continued quest to experiment with techniques, I limited myself to only 2 layers while creating most of the background (which may or may not have been a good idea) and I painted it all in grayscale. After I had about the whole background finished, I added a bunch of other layers to add details, and some color layers (for what little color there is).

Also, kaioshin, you may want to note that the voting categories (at least the ones I had in mind) are not specifically for the technical and artistical aspects of the mockup. Perhaps it being more along the lines of the implementation and how well of a job it did.

Continuing in the vein of posting your work early before you realize that the composition is screwed and it's too late to change it, here is a piece that I was working on for fun.

(SKETCH STAGE)


This picture was inspired by the space fights in Battlestar Galactica, and as such, most of the designs are roughly based off of it, or my memory rendition.

In case you can't tell what's going on, the ships in the foreground are human fighters going into an epic battle between the human cruisers (long submarine looking things) and the enemy battle stations (the... spinning top looking things).

Right now I am worried about the composition mainly. I wouldn't consider the designs final, but more of a general idea right now. Also, I was wondering if I should switch to a wider lens, like that you would see in a movie, but I just stuck to what I know best, which is 320x200.

I'm afraid I've also kind of lost interest in it after initially making it, but I hope I can complete it.

Well this is now closed. Congrats to kaisohin on the victory, and thanks to the other participants for entering.

As for where to go from here, it seems like another mockup round would be the general consensus, though I don't think we should repeat the same topic. Anybody else want to have a say in the matter?

Why not do it again? If so many people liked the topic, it would be kinda silly not to repeat it, I think. 

btw: I'm kinda confused...did I won or are there still people to vote on this?

Apologies for the confusion. I think voting should continue for another 24 hours before we consider this closed. I hope there is no harm done.

I was kinda reacting to Akatosh's plea about extending. It's just such a great topic that I'm sure more people would enter if they got a shift kick in the back end. I like the movie-game thingy, but we could always just have another mockup round.

Yes, well it seems the only entries were cooked up in one day, and I thought 2 weeks was ample enough time for everyone else. I just thought it seemed if people did not muster up something during that time, then maybe we should move on instead of wait longer. It's too late to extend it now.

However, if the majority wants another round, that would be fine. Though I think perhaps a slightly different or altered topic might be appropriate.

All my votes for extending the deadline!

Oh no--I think you're too late. Sorry. Maybe we can have another round instead?

[Idea:]

I hope people haven't forget about this! Anyway, it's closed now and I guess it only needed 1 day of participation, not 2 weeks.

Voting will commence to commemorate a victor.

The categories:
Idea: The main idea of the mockup and how well it translates into an adventure game.
Background: How well the background is executed. Not necessarily the technical aspects, but what the background is trying to achieve in the mockup and how well it does that.             
Characters: How well the characters are executed and suited for the mockup.
Interface: How well the interface suits the mockup and the scene.

[Alpha Testing]

* Put a decent debug mode in your game. The standard "teleport + stuff pockets" is nice, add whatever else you can code for it.

Agreed. Use the other CTRL + Letter to trigger certain events and cut back on the waiting time to retest certain scenes.

I really don't know anything about beta-testing, but from the one game I did release, here's how it went.

- Alpha Testing -
After my game was playable from start to finish I contacted someone for music (I wouldn't recommend doing this that late, however my game was short and I thought the music could be completed quickly enough), and during the production of the music I alpha-tested my game probably 10-20 times.

Each time I tested it, I would keep a REAL-LIFE pen and paper next to me to write down every bug, or every little graphical glitch I thought could be improved in anyway. If I didn't write it down, I could only keep three things in my short-term memory before forgetting them. Writing down was a MUST.

After I went through an alpha-testing cycle, I would go back and check off everything on my list I thought could be improved. I re-did this over and over, each time surprisingly finding more and more things and adding to my list. Only once I could play through the game and not notice any small little deficiencies did I start beta-testing.

- Beta Testing -
During beta-testing, I wanted feedback on everything really, not just errors. I first had my two musicians beta-test the game and they gave me some pretty critical feedback on basic things in the game, which I couldn't believe I had overlooked. PMing was a sufficient enough way to communicate.

After that I had two more beta-testers come in and play the updated version. Once again, more bugs were found and more awesome suggestions were made. I re-evaluated the game and fixed it. The testers played through once more and couldn't find any bugs, so, I released it.

Did it work out okay? Yes, I think so. The game would've lacked several features that I never would've thought of on my own, so I owe the beta-testers a huge credit for that.

- Try losing the black outlines and either removing the outlines completely, or replacing them with darker versions of the base colors.
- Even at this point, you probably won't be able to see the whites of the eyes.
- Try adjusting his posture. I know it's based on Eric's template, but take a look in the mirror and see how you stand.
- Try to add shading and perhaps more desaturated colors.

By the way, I liked your old style and thought it was quite unique and simple while being well executed.
But good luck on this piece!

So it's been one week since the Orange Box has been released, and who else has played Portal?
It's one of the funniest, original, and all around-fun games I've played in years. I've played through it twice (once with commentary) and this game is pretty much amazing. I've also completed the advanced sections yet I'm finding the goal-based challenges a bit too tedious and frustrating for my tastes.

And Episode Two and Team Fortress 2 aren't bad either.

[MOVIES to ADVENTURE GAMES]

The Background Blitz is temporarily out of action, and instead, we are going to try something a little different.

Mockup Blitz

Your objective is to create an adventure game mockup. This means that you must create a scene exactly as it would look as if you were playing a game. You must design the interface, the main character (if 3rd person view) or any other characters, and the background.

Example: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/18137.htm#

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I thought it might be interesting if we had a specific theme, so the theme will be:
MOVIES to ADVENTURE GAMES

RULES:
Choose a movie and translate a scene from that movie into an adventure game.
Showcase the game's character and interface in your mockup.

Size and Palette Restrictions:
None

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Voting:
I thought maybe we should try different categories for this time. They would be as follows:
Idea: The main idea of the mockup and how well it translates into an adventure game.
Background: How well the background is executed.               
Characters: How well the characters are executed.
Interface: How well the interface suits the mockup and the scene.

If there are any questions, suggestions, or comments, please feel free to ask them.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

It could be even better imho if it was a little sharper.

Aha, yes. This was due in main part to me only using a fuzzy airbrush. I realized it looked blurry after it was done so I tried to sharpen it up using a photoshop filter, but you know how those go!

Before this thread is locked, I had an idea for the next blitz but I wanted to run it by everyone first.
How would you feel about doing a mockup blitz, where you must draw everything from the characters to the interface along with the background? I have a specific topic in mind, but I'd like to know if this would be in the realm of the rules and have participation.

I like the lighting scheme, however I thought the boat looked out of place with the rest of the scene due to the values of the shadows around the door frame. Based on those, it seems like this would be a night scene, but the rest of the environment suggests more of a late-afternoon feel. I tried to darken the rest of the picture (I hope you don't mind) and see what it would look like.



Now it's pretty dark on the whole, so that might make it more flat, but I thought it might help to show a different perspective on the picture.

I haven't read all the replies but:

I think you did a good job translating them into 640x480. The male's side view is much improved over the last one. The other one was a tad too feminine.

As far as the portraits go, they both look good. The male's jaw line (or whatever you call it on the side coming down on the cheek) could be more refined IMO, and his mouth looks a little bit too wide. That might just be a personal preference though. Also, you might want to check the length of his forehead being of realistic proportions. Lastly, I think a drop shadow beneath the chin might look good.

I'd just like to say that I really like your sprite work. It has a very nice style to it.

Airshipyard:



I know, I screwed the perspective up, I'm sorry.

La Croix Pan review, finally up.  Sorry about the lag.

Thanks for the review! I certainly enjoyed it.

Pretty much all of it. Halo on the PC is very mediocre.

TF2 really isn't that different from old-skool shooters apart from its art style...

Well, I haven't played too many shooters in my life (especially old ones) but TF2's gameplay style is new to me, and I'm having fun with it, so that's all I could ask for.

Similarly the online play doesn't interest me as deathmatching is not a new concept in my life - lord knows I've wasted so much of my life playing Quake 2, Unreal Tournament, Half Life, Counter Strike, Natural Selection and countless others, and now I want to experience something different which is not something that Halo 3 is going to provide. What I am looking forward to though is Left4Dead... looks like co-op heaven to me! And hopefully battling friends online in Guitar Hero 3.

Try Team Fortress 2 (There's an open beta right now). It's different from most other shooters and has a variety of gameplay. You might not like, but in my opinion, it's loads of fun.

Now I'd like to ask a hypothetical question: If the Xbox never existed, and Halo simply debuted 1, 2, and 3 on the PC in their respective years, would it be anywhere near as popular? How much of its success is due to being on a console?