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http://www.whamgames.com/images/Forumsht/hydroponicstest04.png

Here's the latest edit. Added thickness to the glass, added the tank in the background and added some detail to the floor. Also touched up the two rearmost rows of tubes.

Thanks for the tips, Misj'.

The reason for so many tubes is redundancy: even if several tubes are out of order, or in the process of having their plants harvested, the others can still work in full capacity. Also, as the plants are more effectively separated from one another, the separate plants are more safe from infections (contaminations sometimes happen during harvest or maintenance, and bacteria combined with prolonged exposures to the background radiation of the space station can cause unexpected consequences. The nutrition-fluid tanks that separate the oxygen from the fluid also disinfect that fluid before it is recucled back to the plants.).

You also mentioned the variating floor levels and that gives me an idea: the parts of the floor between the tubes could have a mechanism that elevates sections of the floor to allow easier harvest to the upper parts of the plants when the tubes are "open". In some variations of this room I could then have the tube opened (raised so that only the bottom of it is visible ner the top of the image), and the surrounding sections of floor elevated, to break the monotony. I'll have to try this out in the next edit!

Also: keep in mind that the game this is for is 640x400, and this is a scrolling background, which the player only sees a section at a time.

I wanted to break from the usual rules of biology and photosynthesis with these plants, to show the player a combination of themes:
1: Familiarity = "Hey, those look like apples! They ARE apples! I know apples and they are yummy!" (In the example pictures those are apple trees that have been genetically engineered to only grow thin branches and no trunk or roots.)
2: Practicality = The plants are aesthetic, they generate oxygen AND they generate fresh food!
3: SciFi = While the plants seem normal and produce edible foodstuffs and oxygen, they are genetically engineered to better suit their space-station surroundings. They need less light and can more efficiently spread the energy of the light across the plants whole body, maintaining green leaves and more effective oxygen production even in parts of the plant that are not in direct light. This is why everything is basically upside-down, to show the player that things work a bit differently than they might expect.

I'll have to look into the bacteria you mentioned though. For instance: can they (or a sci-fi variant of them) be stored in a dormant state and then "activated" to create a breathable atmosphere in sections of the station in cases of emergency, for example. Since it's sci-fi, nothing is stopping me, but basing this stuff on actual science is much nicer.

I wont make the surface of the liquid visible because of my idea on how the room works (will be explained in game if player wants to know and reads the files about it):

The grow tubes are, when active, filled with a fluid that is always slowly circulated between the large tanks that will be in the background, and the tubes themselves. In the tanks there are systems that extract oxygen from the liquid and the "bubblers" that are now visible in one of the tubes are used to insert CO2, that has been filtered from the atmosphere, to feed the plants.

I'll see if I want to script the bubbles automatically when I get that far. Right now I'm mostly concentrating on making backgrounds. =)

I'll see if I can get around to drawing some of the tubes, tanks and computers in the room in the next day or two and I'll post those ASAP.

http://www.whamgames.com/images/Forumsht/hydroponicstest03.png

Here's another edit. I clarified the gradient used on the glass, added a darker shade to sections of the plants and created a scetch of "the bubblers" on one of the glass tubes. I'll have to see if I want to animate the bubbles, as that is a potential pain in the ass (the game will have several variations of this room, so if I do it, there will probably be one or two different bubble patterns and a lot of copy-and-paste).

The empty space in the back of the room will be filled by two massive horizontal tanks which store the fluid the plants are floating in, so no worries there, Mad.  =)

http://www.whamgames.com/images/Forumsht/hydroponicstest02.png

Here's a new edit of the first row. I changed the glass and remade the plants to closer resemble Darth's nice looking edit. The idea about using a picture tube in PSP to make the plants was great, by the way!

Also, there will be some computers on the left side of the room, and pipes and and such on the walls and in the middle of the room as well. I'm just trying to get the plants to look good first.

Actually there is no violet light... =(
I use a bluish transparent layer to represent the glass. I am thinking of using a whitish gray with 80-90% transparency instead of blue hues, and adding an orange light to the bottom of the grow-tubes, which would then illuminate the plants from below.
The plants themselves are supposed to be floating in this sort of fluid, which is why the glass tube is required, and will be bobbing up and down a bit as they float about.

Placing the plants a bit higher might be a good idea. I'll try that next. It would also allow the player to see if there is someone / something just behind a grow-tube.

Here's a rough first version of a background I'm working on.
I'd like to hear what you people think of the plants (I added an clean extra sample to the left on the picture) and the glass tubes the plants are floating in in the actual picture.

EDIT: GOD! It probably helps to add the bloody link, eh?
http://www.whamgames.com/images/Forumsht/hydroponicstest01.png

FINAL EDIT: Here's the final version! Thanks to all who presented their ideas and feedback!
http://www.whamgames.com/images/Forumsht/finalhydroponics.png

[For your consideration WHAMGAMES presents:Infection - Episode II - The Station - Demo]

For your consideration WHAMGAMES presents:

Infection - Episode II - The Station - Demo






Suggested categories

> Best Demo
Featuring: All original background art, character art and GUI, as well as doing its best to give the player a small taste of the upcoming game of epic point'n'click proportions, and standing at over 600 downloads, the demo for Infection Ep. II is a strong contender for the award.

The darkened gradient is there to make it easier for the gunnery operators to look at the large wall-mounter targeting screens.
The gradient might be a bit too smooth though, now that I look at them...

Back after a long break. New rooms in the making. Though I'd show some around and see what people think.

I know the perspective might seem a bit off, but keep in mind that this is a wide room and the player will only see a portion of it at a time. Thus, the perspective is a pre-planned compromise.

That's another nice background! Thanks for bringing the game (and the excitement) back to my attention! I remember playing the demo very well and so look forward to seeing this game completed. Any (rough) idea on an estimated release date?

No estimate on release at this time. I'm hoping to have all the graphics done by june 2011, so best possible scenario would be very late 2011. Late 2012 might be more realistic...

Thought I'd post another background to prove I'm still here!

Finished the first yesterday and enjoyed it very much.
This second one is looking ever better! Keep up the good work!

Also: If you still need testers, I'm available!

-WHAM

Downloadable-in-game ceremony, absolutely!

As promised, here's a background! Although I must admit that its nowhere near finished, but seeing that I caught a devilish cold this weekend and have been stuck in bed for most of it, I think its coming along just fine.

There will be controls and such for the officers working the CIC on the white panels, and there will be lost of material flickerig about the monitors in the room, as well as there being some cool features in the commander's chair in the middle. I think this will be one of the coolest looking rooms in the game once its finished!

EDIT: The picture is perhaps a bit wide for the forums, so se here's a link instead.
http://whamgames.com/images/Forumsht/CIC_WIP_01.png

Think it might do good to keep this thread alive, if only to remind myself of the project.
Today's agenda: scetch and start work on the CIC and officer's quarters.

I'll probably post some sort of background art later in the weekend.

There is a perspective problem, but then again, the player will never actually see that in game, as there will be doors to cover up the doorways. The doorway will only be visible for about a second at a time.

I will probably fix that eventually, but at the moment its a pretty low priority. =)

As promised, here's a new background!

There are twelve shower rooms like this in the game (it's a big space station with lots of crew, ok?) and each will have a few differences, some pre-set, some randomized at game start. Careful not to drop the soap!

Just a heads-up that the project is still alive! I've just been bogged down with work, other projects, moving to a new apartment and so on. You all know the drill!

Latest additions: The game now has toilets! And some sleeping quarters and some showers! I'll try to post a sample background again soon, to show that I have actually done SOMETHING!

Also, I've been getting some great help with backgrounds and such, which has been a HUGE motivation booster in previous months.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!