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I need some MAJOR help, as I want to create a 1-room game that is great.

Then you might want to start by picking an interesting location for your game. It's probably the fault of AGS that calls locations 'rooms' that everybody starts by drawing someone's bedroom or living room. Be more creative! And make use of exteriors, too.

Why not have your game take place at a market place, swimming pool, bus stop, bank, restaurant, at a barber's, castle, ruins, smithy, sawmill, game master's lodge, airport, forest, in a fairy tale, on a clearing full of orcs, in an underground tavern filled with drinking dwarves?

CheersÃ, 

Hi,

this sprite is simply beautiful! The only thing that concers me is that his torso says "I'm standing on my right leg", while his right leg is strangely twisted and says "No, he's standing on the other leg" (which he doesn't). So I tried to make his right leg look like he's standing on it. (Though I might not have succeded )



And the feet looked too small, so I enlarged them.

Great work so far!

Fat Cat from The Rescue Rangers



Size: 64x65
Colors: 12+1
Reference pic: http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fcref2iq.gif

1. Traced ref pic to get to know him
2. Redrew from scratch from memory

You decide whether it's an entry.

Hmm... nice website.

Another collection of "COOL" fonts - IMO a collection of high quality public domain NON-DECORATIVE fonts would be of higher practical value. (Fonts to include in your game as the main font - without the need of worrying about licencing issues, to use on your console or desktop...)

BTW free vector fonts on the web seldom have good hinting programs for displaying on screen

The Mines of Moria



Size: 160x100
Colors: 11

EDIT: Updated!

Do I see a cool game in making?Ã, 

If I were in that cell the bright light+sparkly walls & floor would drive me crazy real fast!

Here's my try:



- diffuse walls (add gradients to your liking, but don't make it shiny!)
- darker floor
- yellow light
- inside is darker than outside (that's the way how to keep the prisoners INSIDE and sane)
- slight color tints

You won't probably like it as a whole, but perhaps you can use at least some ideas..

Wow, when viewed in fullscreen, this background has great mood!

How about a path and some dark hills on the horizon?


(sorry for converting to 256 colors...)

[Watch out, Pamela Anderson!]

Sektor 13: Because it's fun!

Watch out, Pamela Anderson!


Beach Army

You're right Ivy,

Ron's hair had too much yellow in it, I adjusted it, however, I will keep it quite red, because it's a "cartoon" afterall, and I'm don't want his hair to look brown or something. Btw, didn't Rowling describe the Weasleys as having "flaming red hair"?Ã,  (+ some tiny fixes)

I saw somebody recommend using stickfigures in a nearby topic, so I'll show you those I used for this picture, in case somebody'd like to see them.

Thanks, Dan!

Your observations are spot on, I implemented them all:



I didn't want to let go of the white in Harry's glasses, because I like the cartoony look, but you're right, this way it fits better the other two sprites.

Sorry, at this point I'm only practicing sprite drawing, I'm not working on any game yet.

I would simply love creating a Harry Potter game (once I have enough confidence in myself), but making a fangame always has a great risk of bringing the wrath of the copyright holders upon myself.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

Well my problem is that I can't play anything by ear (except for the simplest of the simplest kids' tunes). This is a problem because even if a tune pops up in my head, I have problems playing it.

Another problem for me is determining what chords could possibly be used with a certain melody. I usually end up trying 12 major and 12 minor chords, rejecting all of them, and giving up.

Once I actually managed to compose a song that wasn't totally stupid, but I'd say it was more luck than anything else. I presume you can only use certain chords with certain scales and notes, and if I knew these rules, I would have a greater chance of succeeding.

Ok, I'll try experimenting and finding a good book.

[My current skills:]

Hi!

I realized that one day I will be faced with the problem of adding music to my games. The problem is that I am not a musician. I know I could ask someone to help me, but I'd very much like to try it myself, at least for some small games.

My current skills:
- play the guitar a bit (self-taught)
- read simple musical score
- operate several composition programs (FastTracker, Cakewalk,...)
- musical hearing not very good (can't tune guitar by ear very well)
(I also own a Commodore MIDI keyboard)

How can I learn some basics of composing? Can anyone point me to some tutorials / online / offline resources, books, etc? I have no idea where to start... something about the theory of harmony?

Thanks everyone for great feedback!

My characters are loosely based on Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint somewhere around The Chamber of Secrets, but they are caricatures, rather than 100% realistic (hence Harry's face).

ProgZmax, lots of great ideas in your paintover, implemented some of them, except for blurring the hands (why?) and I hope you don't mind that I also kept my faces. You did a great job reproducing Harry from the book cover, but for some reason I don't like this style (for one thing, you can't see his eyes).

Hermione's hair indeed is not blond, but rather something like walnut, I tried to fix it.

2x


- adjusted the colour of Hermione's hair
- changed Harry's face
- fixed Ron's cheeks and gave him a collar and a time
- shading and shoe adjustments according to ProgZmax
- made Hermione's and Ron's mouths and Ron's nose better visible

My favourite wizard trio: Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Earliest version 2x


EDIT: Latest version 2x:

Oh... good idea, should have made him fat.

DonB: You can have the characters FACE facing directly toward you and looking at you, and his body turned slightly to one side.

Even when a character's body is facing toward you, the clothes are typically asymetrical (pockets, etc.) and you can make small differences between the two sides, different position of the arms, or make him stand more on one leg, than the other.

Looks cool, the only major problem I can see is that the textures on the clothes ignore the body shape. For example, the stripes on his trousers are perfectly vertical. They should respect the shape of the legs and the folds.

Very nice, very original!

This looks like a great character!

2x


Changes:
- gave him a hawaiian shirt and creme shorts (which I think is more likely for this guy to wear - he looked like a little boy in a sailor's costume before)
- outlined the shirt
- changed the slope of the shoulders slightly

Other (non-fixed):
I think a big problem is the fact that he's facing directly toward you, which made you use the evil horizontal flip (even for the shading!) - hence the perfect symmetry( which is bad).

Another thing: His shoes are drawn exactly from profile - his ankles would probably be broken by now.

Looking good so far, keep it up!

These look fantastic!

Very quick and dirty edit:


- added global lighting(shading) - this was really missing, it looked too flat
- moved the light source from upper right to upper left (which is more habitual)
- enlarged the helmet (it looked more like a swimmer's cap before)

Great job, they look so lifelike.. and M*A*S*H-like!

Yes, I got carried away and changed it too much. Scott, I'd recommend reading a tutorial on drawing people, this is a really good one:

http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial.html

Even though it's meant for manga, it's totally general. There you can learn a lot about anatomy and shading. I spent several weeks (edit: well, at least two, I think) redrawing the images from this tutorial with paper&pencil, trying to get the anatomy in my hand.

Ok, new version:



- added a hat
- outlined the shoes
- green background (you wanted to see better where the sprite ends, right?)