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Well, it's very neutral and minimalistic, but I guess a lot of interesting content would make up for it :-) 

* Maybe a subtle off-gray would be more interesting than the grey that's there now? Even one of the pastels, but maybe just pick one or it'll look like my little pony.

* I think the bright yellow on white is a bit hard to read.

* Also, I don't like that the top-graphic goes off the top of the screen. Makes me wanna scroll up, even when there's nothing there, but maybe that's just me.

But nice clean overall impression, and nice font.

Hey, great job analyzing puzzle-structures.

Also, check out the Game Ontology Project, you might want to contribute :-)

http://www.gameontology.org/index.php/Main_Page

People post a lot of things w/ flickr, you could check it out, but google images is my best bet.

You can use AVI to MPEG converter for this kind of thing - it will save any range of your video's frames to bitmaps. Downside: you can only use it 30 times for free - but hey, you might even decide you like it and pay the 30 bucks :-)

Free 30-times trial version for download here

Hey guys, the 3rd World Farmer game has been updated and has a new site - some of you may have found it through my signature, but the rest should go play it right away :-) Crits are welcome here or at the 3rdWorldFarmer forums.

3rd World Farmer

The diagrams are cool, and actually somewhat reminiscent of traditional narrative models where you have periods of tension or complexity alternating with periods of relative rest or simplicity. I liked how monkey island games did this (the way I remeber it at least). Each new island had various rooms/locations, that could be solved and completed as a whole, with some one-room puzzles and other types of gameplay in between (insult fencing and such).

How do I construct good inventory-based puzzles if most locations can't be re-visited, and I wish to avoid dead ends?

Just came to think that a spell-book would be useful here (but where wouldn't it right?).
Imagine a spellbok containing spells that are perhaps incomprehensible to the player at first but are then made available along the way as he learns more. The spells could show up as individual inventory items that are unlocked along the way, or even prohibited in some locations. The spells could also require spell components, which would make it more plausible for the player to carry around seemingly useless stuff, but which may also naturally limit where certain spells could be cast. I think the spells would be a nice way of linking character deveopment through the story directly to the inventory items and give a high degree of flexibility with regard to locations. Coming to think of it, a skill system might be designed to work similarly.

It's good in the sense that it reads clearly - a house, a door, a fence, a path, the nightsky etc. So it could be used in a game.

A few detailes you might wanna fix:
* The bricks are of uneven sizes and shapes. You only need to draw one brick that fits the perspective of each wall, to copy it around and fix it.
* Add shadows from fence, house, door.
* If there's blood on the fence, make it stand out more.
*The shadow in the doorway has a rough edge. Think about how the light and shadow would fall naturally here. Also, I think it could be at least as dark as the houses in silhouette.

but nice job so far, keep it up.

I like the colors here, and nice tree :-)

A few things:
*I think the stars would be getting dimmer towards the horizon and brighter towards the top of screen (because of the angle with which the light travels through earth's atmosphere).
* The mist partly covering the moon, I'm uncertain of this - wouldn't it look dark here (because it's blocking the moon's light)?
* The character could be darker, or tinted by the bluish light, which it's easier to set up inside AGS when setting up walkable areas.

I agree that sounds and context can add as much to scariness as graphics, but pictures can still be really scary on their own (not that they should be on their own in a game, of course).

The scariest (genre) pictures I remember were from the my first copy of the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying book centerfolds (by Les Edwards):



It just seems so insanely evilÃ,  :o :o :o

Just a thought - but maybe the soft, curved shapes that dominate the bg make it unscarier (too soft). I'd suggest adding some signs of decay, like already suggested - jagged, pointy shapes (mountains or branches, thorny shrubs or spiked plants), broken signposts. Some dangerous shapes. Right now everything is round or pixel-outlined (which softens the shape). If you want to go for the soft light and the rounded shapes, I guess there's no way around putting a really scary element in there - the building in the distance is good.
I like the colder blue tones better than the warmer purplish ones in the paintover. More detail is also good for making it scarier, since everything isn't so easily identifiable.

Btw. I think the bg is already somewhat scary, and has a great mood.

Ok, I'm about ready to move on to the next image :-)

Evil, do you mean the facing wall (metallic w/ bolts), or the ribbed wall below the white lamps? Or should I put a shadow where the top step of the stairs meets the floor?

The greys are very similar, especially the low wall that encases the stairs and the floor of the room. I made these edits, hopefully they make it more clear.


fix with black outline


fix with brightness adjustment of surface

Is this what you meant? - and which version is preferable?

It makes good sense to me, but seems maybe a bit short for what I expect of an essay. Examples are good, especially if they highlight *different* aspects of the problem in consideration.

Maybe you could include something about representative (presidental) candidates being pre-requisite for any representative government - I heard a lot of Americans simply aren't voting because they feel represented by neither democrats nor republicans...

You could explore if amount of $ spent on campaigning has any relation to victory, and how the poor will ever be represented if the campaigning funds necessary to become president are very high?

You could also discuss the way the votes are counted - here in Denmark for instance (and in some other countries), all votes are added for the final count, whereas in the US, I think mandates are determined by finding a winner within each state. Sorry, I don't remember the correct terms for this difference. But does it make a difference to the representativeness' of an election? Does it make some people feel that their votes wont make a difference, because they live in a state that is traditionally overwhelmingly dominated by the party they oppose? And if very few people are voting, can the government be representative? Maybe find the percentages of voters from the last couple of presidential elections to back up the discussion.

Well, those are just some suggestions... Ã, 

I have practically no experience with photoshop - so Nikolas's point 5 still goes :-)

I think her antlers are a bit over-sized, and maybe her ears too. Colors could be more daring.

But nice job, you obviously know what you're doing.

Raggit: My respect for bringing up a serious subject like this

1. I don't know. If the Christians are really a political majority, of course they could pass a religiously based legislation, and it would be legal, within the frames of a democracy.

2. I DON'T think a Bible-based legislation should be passed, I love(d) America for it's freedom and diversity and hate to see it tense. It's almost a new kind of McCarthyism, caused by the new threat from terrorism - everybody want to show that they're on the right side, being patriots and Christians, but what is that going to help in addressing the real problems?

3. There's a moral dimension to politics, whether it be religious or not. But there's also a very real possibility of deception, that is brought about about by controlling the media and silencing the opposition. So people in power sway between DOING good and REDEFINING good, never actually doing anything bad. Religion with all it's contradictions, paradoxes and possibilities of justificaton, is a handy tool in this. I don't think an American Theocracy is inevitable, but it would mean short-term strength (at a high cost to the non-believers) and long-term stagnation in religious dogma. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

4. If a Christian Juggernaut formed, I would continue to vote, speak and act to the effect of solving the problems that cause fear and anxiety. When people aren't scared, they don't need religion as much, and they are less likely to follow irrational and warped decrees by their leaders.

There's like a greenish haze over the landscape - maybe the sun should be higher for that effect, other than that I think it's good use of atmospheric perspective.
I'd suggest you add things that make the landscape look more lived-in. If it's rural, maybe there would be stone fences, cultivated fields, olive trees, a vineyard, sheep, animal throughs, a pond, a well, a barn, vehicles or tools, otherwise maybe just flowers or something to identify who lives in the hut, or maybe temple ruins or statues in the distance, or a crossroad in front. Are the mountains covered with trees, or are they extremely steep grass-covered hills? More details to them, as to the rest.

Sorry for rambling on, hope it gave you some ideas.

I don't mind the character being just a silhouette, but must agree it was less disturbing in the darker version. I made an in-between to keep some of the bright colors but dim the white lights.



On black bg

Do you like it?

lo_res_man - use AGS, it's possible. I have those features in "Space Darling", soon to be released :-)

So here's a new version.


On black bg

*Stairs have light.
*Brighter lights overall

I agree with the crits so far - I thought of different ways of depicting a merchant, and maybe this turned out wrong (since it doesn't read too clearly), but I still think the image is worth using - maybe I should just call this career path "Trader" - all the better if the image itself cries "Thief", in my opinion.

Yurina >> the beams are for ... security ... indeed... of some sort :-) Why, have you spotted a weakness in the system?

Anghellic/InCreator >> Does this fix the lights/texture problems in your opinions?

Afflict/Relentless >> The careers are hierarchically ordered so far, junkman being the lowest, then miner, smuggler, barkeep, merchant... and five more. Feel free to come up with more amazing career suggestions - I'm still happy anything I did could bring up the term "door mechanic" - cracks me upÃ, 

Nice clean style, IMO any of the versions could go in a game.

I'm for the hills in the background.
I also really like the texture of the path in Darth's paintover. But maybe the grass looks a little flat right next to it. Could be speckled with a similarly subtle gras brush.

I hope you finish this game:
... Grab Skull ... Look Barrel...Ã, 

Thanks!

Heh - delivery boy  - I actually heard William Burroughs ended up totally possessed by his paranoia, living inside a safe crammed with guns ("prepared to use them!" too), don't know if he ordered pizzas, though.

Door mechanic  *LOL* I'm afraid the game, as of yet, doesn't afford that as a reasonable career path - don't know why I haven't thought of it...

The merchant/thief ambiguity is somewhat intentional, btw.