Hey guys, just thought i’d toss this out here for anyone interested.  Finished a first “stable” release of my new sprite editor, It’s QT4 and written to be cross-platform but at the moment only downloads for linux are up, as I’ve yet to figure out how to use the mingw cross compiler with QT.  Tailored for my engine’s format but the toolset can also easily export to png spritesheets.

Short version of the features (full list on download page)

• Onion skinning to help with animating
• customizable palletes w/ full save/load/rip from image support
• more color picking tools than you’ll ever know what to do with
• fully integrated with system clipboard so you can freely select, copy,cut, paste, etc..with other image editors
• large undo/redo bufers, specific to each frame
• live animation preview
• fast control scheme (mouse + command keys, or hotkeys control every action, all hotkeys are listed in the edit menu)
• customizable UI, all toolbars can be reshaped, floated,  pushed behind tabs, hidden….etc

Still got a lot of bugs to work out, and missing features, but it’s at least stable and capable of image editing at this point. You can download it and try it here http://www.midnightfragfest.com/sprite-editor/

Edit: Windows download is now available, but somewhat untested, I would appreciate any feedback on how it runs.

The Main Character is ready
(Now i’ll catch some sleep, good night everyone!)

Job Description: Lighthouse Keeper at Styx River, you got to persecute souls trying to escape hell, lonely but comfy.

I decided to work on art first, since the theme made me think about a lot of artistic references, I’ll work in the mechanics tomorrow.

I posted earlier that was in for the Competition. Actually I want to change my plans a little: I’ll be part of this LD as an opportunity to improve my drawing and modeling skills.

I’m a full time game developer, and by developer I mean ONLY developer. I totally suck on the art side; I have the technical knowledge on Photoshop, Inkscape and Blender, but it stops there. When it comes down to creating something, oh please… run away.

I’m tired of only doing crap art. For that reason, I’ll stick on this LD and try to draw and/or model something minimally good for once.

And if there is still time by then, I may bake a game.

So we settled on a story and gameplay style. I can say robots and aliens are involved.  here’s a silhouette of our cast!

Hopefully you will find them as amusing as we do.

I’ve been thinking lately about how unsatisfied I am with my work. Shooter after shooter, generic RPG’s, and other sorts of recycled ideas.

I can’t go on doing that. I’m bored; I’m restless; I feel my passion slipping away.

So here’s a promise. I will make something creative, whimsical, and arty for this weekend’s LD. I’m not going to do the same old thing over again.

I thought about this earlier today. While I was taking a nap, I had a bunch of ideas for really creative games that I could make and would be excited to make. So here I am, promising to you folks that I will fulfill whatever potential I have as a creative person.

I will avoid being pretentious. I will avoid being haughty, arrogant, and deliberately obscure. I will create work that expresses what I mean for it to express.

Not everyone will like my work. I know that. Not everyone wants to play through my whimsical daydreams. Some folks would rather blow s**t up than be involved in any sort of peaceful activity. Some folks won’t appreciate the weird, playful ideas that I have.

Some people will really like my work. Some people will enjoy having fresh ideas in games that express something meaningful rather than simply giving them entertainment. Some people will understand what I’m trying to show them, and will enjoy the silly things that I have to communicate.

I’m not trying to change the industry. That’s stupid. I’m trying to bring something fresh to games; I’m trying to use this medium for something that I can do well.

I’m not trying to be morally superior, though someone, somewhere might think that. I’m just frustrated with the traditional idea of what a game should be.

I’ve rambled a bit too much, perhaps. I hope that I’ve expressed myself well, though.

Peace, love, and a new way of thinking,

— Henry

Okay I have had an hour now and I have spent it trying to come up with an art style and game ideas. I have chucked a load of screenshots down into a google doc here: https://docs.google.com/drawings/edit?id=1W7ILlCI3mODPue3oW25gb0maryxfTIo7XZRv8XlXbHM&hl=en&authkey=CIO9wIcM I think I have a rough idea of what im going for.

I really like the World Of Goo art style, plus im hoping the shilloette like style will be much easier for my poor drawing ability

As for gameplay, “Enemies as Weapons” instantly reminded me of the flash game Boom Stick for some reason. So in that game you shoot enemies flying by overhead with your shotgun. You then run around and pick up ammo that drops from them. You then use that ammo to shoot more of them, simples!

The great thing about this idea is that I have done work in the past on LieroXNA and Worms 2 Mobile so hopefully I can use some of the experience I have gleamed from doing those games to make this one

With design out of the way now, I think im going to setup my environment and get cracking!

UPDATE: Experience my poor art in a game, thanks to JonathanW!

I get peeved about things for no good reason a lot. One of those things is crappy art in games. I’m not really a great artist so I don’t know how to make good art, but I do know what I don’t like about bad art, so I decided to complain about it in the form of this exciting tutorial! I figure knowing what to avoid is at least as important as knowing what to do, so here is my guide to making really bad art for your game! (more…)

Or experimental lava / rock texture?

Got some basic graphics sorted now just need to write the actual game…

The blue army disembarking...

Just concept in art package at the moment but… I’ll be back (still 13:05.30 to go!)

Breakfast was store-brand golden grahams, cranberry juice, and a bit of leftover blackberry cobbler.

Changed the dirt image a bit, gave it some friends: Walls and floors:

dirt.png

wall.png

floor.png

Now to get a level rendered and up on the screen!

Hobnox Audiotool

The audio tool is a fantastic way to make cool sounding music all from within your browser. Make 10 short loops and randomly loop through them for a simple background track. The tone matrix tool is particularly awesome.

ColorLovers Palettes

Sticking to a palette will improve the appearance of programmer art tenfold. The palettes are only of 5 colours so try finding two matching palettes to get a good range.

If you know any other handy sites like these, post them so we can all use them

Well, I sort of have a design planned out for my game, so I decided to take out a pen and start drawing. Here’s what I sketched up in the past 5 minutes.

Notice the beautiful asset list: brainwave, eyes, hand, mouth, and nose. A more delightful art asset list I have not seen!

…sleep. Though before that I felt like doing a little drawing to get the subconscious primed on the theme before sleep.  Here’s a quick 3 minute sketch of a possible doomy world:

Woot! My article got featured on gamedev.net:

Better Programmer Art: Or how to fake it as a game artist.

I use a lot of examples from past LD48 games (mine and others), and most of this is stuff I’ve learned through doing these contests. Ironically, in the most recent contest I didn’t have time to replace the placeholder art so it pretty much ignores all of these tips. 

Hope this is helpful to the community. Enjoy!

Jovoc

I didn’t get home until ten o’clock, but I checked on my phone to see what the theme was.  Luckily, it was the one I had done the most thinking about on Monday, so I didn’t have to do much thinking while away.

I’m going to do a racing game, perhaps like Outrun or of the Night Driver/Enduro variety.  I’ve done a little mock up of the screen, just a sketch really.  I’m not sure I like the perspective, but the sprites will most likely be used.  Click to enlarge (sounds like a Viagra ad!?)

From here, I’ll probably colorize the art and then cut it up to make individual sprites.  I should probably just use bounding rectangles for now though, and get some actual game logic going…..but I have learned that if you don’t do your graphics right the first time, you’ll likely not have time to return to them later.  So take the extra minutes now so you don’t have to set everything back up to fix them.

I’m tired, but I want to get something going before I go to bed.  I’m being kept company by a neurotic kitty and a can of No Fear Energy Drink.  Oh, and my Gobstoppers!  Though I think I’m already candied out…  Listening to Iron & Wine right now cause it’s calm and quiet.  Tomorrow I’ll bust out some loudness.

Since people are posting pellies, here’s the one I made last night:

(slightly tweaked)

Well, this started as a clever idea.

One of those drinking birds, with a pelican beak, drinking from a trophy. Alas, it really looked terrible, so I hacked it somewhat, creating this slightly more carnivorous scenario.

The idea was to use something iconic embossed on a medal.

(click for full size)

Made in Gimp with a tablet. First time I’ve used the smudge tool, went a bit crazy with it =)

This is what my characters look like.

It’s just a template, since I’m going to add hands as an overlay so I can create multiple images.

I think I found a concept I like. I’m currently calling it “Pillar”, as in a pillar/tower, and caterpillar. Here’s some concept art.

A character composed of blocks, that acquires new blocks as he moves. The controls I haven’t figured out entirely, but at the very least I think it’ll be based around the idea of picking a block on the character as a pivot point, and rotating him.  Probably constanly moving, walking in to walls, until told to turn around (or automatic after a few seconds).

As blocks are collected, they become part of him, evolving in to Tetris like shapes and beyond. The rotating mechanic is your ability to get to new heights, and cross gaps. Physics wise, I think it’ll be entirely axis aligned, since it’ll be far too easy to make shapes that couldn’t normally keep balance.  Legs would sprout wherever needed, purely for look cohesiveness.  Face always moves to the front middle of the shape.  Perhaps tails and other things sprout if a shape deems it.

My only concern at this point is trying to figure out, level design wise, why you wouldn’t want to always create a long piece.