Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
121
General Discussion / Re: VVVVVV
« on: February 25, 2010, 08:41:26 am »The fucking cheek!
I hope this isn't becoming a general sentiment amongst the yoof of today. It seems like more and more people believe that all media products should be completely free without any consideration to making that a sustainable proposition.
122
General Discussion / Re: Subversion
« on: February 23, 2010, 08:10:13 pm »
Just needs about 50% more shiny on the graphics and its done I reckon.
Where do I sign?
Where do I sign?
123
General Discussion / Re: Subversion
« on: February 22, 2010, 08:46:23 pm »
I know I'm a terrible nerd now because I was thinking 'source control' when I clicked on this thread.
EDIT: Man, the rest of this post made no sense at all, I blame Hitler. I still hate the ending of syndicate though!
EDIT: Man, the rest of this post made no sense at all, I blame Hitler. I still hate the ending of syndicate though!
124
General Discussion / Re: Crisps
« on: February 22, 2010, 08:42:09 pm »
I really love ready salted crisps the best.
I've become a total anti-walkers snob nowadays. My crisp tasting palette has been totally ruined through packets of those fancy hand crafted brands like 'Kettle' and 'Tyrells' and the cheaper but comparable 'Co-op' own branded crisps.
Once you taste them regularly its hard to think of Walkers as anything but cardboard.
Weirdly, I've barely even noticed the existence of Mc'coys. Are they more Walkers level quality or better?
I've become a total anti-walkers snob nowadays. My crisp tasting palette has been totally ruined through packets of those fancy hand crafted brands like 'Kettle' and 'Tyrells' and the cheaper but comparable 'Co-op' own branded crisps.
Once you taste them regularly its hard to think of Walkers as anything but cardboard.
Weirdly, I've barely even noticed the existence of Mc'coys. Are they more Walkers level quality or better?
125
General Discussion / Re: Wytches Brew v0.9 released
« on: February 22, 2010, 02:21:45 pm »
Works over here.
I think you've got some really nice ingame tutorial stuff going on here, I really like the way that the documentation reacts to what you do in the game bringing up the closest matching recepie and all that. I did think it was a little unclear how to maximise the score (I just assumed that longer brew combos was the goal but I could have missed something). Music was pretty good, reminded me of Simsesque stuff which seems bang on for the target demographic.
Are there any experience/builder type mechanics as you play on? For example in Puzzle Quest, a close cousin of this game, as time progresses you level up and unlock more powerful special abilities which help mix up the standard match four stuff. Maybe the brews do something like this? I probably need to RTFM.
I agree with what the other fellas have said regarding the graphics though, its not utterly terrible but I think the audience these days has come to expect more from even the casualiest indie game. If you want to set to work on improving it yourself (as I know how rare those Captain Binky artist types are) then there are couple of things I could suggest right away:
- Improve pixely black outlines around a lot of the art. Really the different pieces of your scene want to blend together smoothly so they look like one artwork. I'd be tempted to try out some different opacity/alpha settings on the edges of a lot of your art so that the pieces fit together better. You could also go completely the other way and really emphasise the outlines.
- Check your text rendering code. I found a lot of the text tricky to read, I suspect half of this is the serifed font at a small size and the other half is that perhaps the glyphs aren't being aligned to pixel boundaries. You can see this latter effect where two copies of the same letter in different parts of the screen look different (one is blurry because its probably straddling a pixel boundary). Could be wrong.
- Art is too blurry inside the outlines. A lot of the art looks as though it has been put through the gaussian blur filter one too many times. Its hard to get that detail back when its gone but I recommend some careful use of noise filters for general non blurriness and dodge/burn tools to bring back small highlights and shadows. Sharper art is the goal.
- Overall scene contrast. The game screen I'm looking at right now has a bright white snowy background which is brighter than the game board. In generall I'd expect the background to be darker than the game board so that the board itself pops out and looks alive with colour. The same applies to the board cells and their respective foreground flower petals right now the colour of some of the petals is very close to the backround of their cells this makes it harder to distinguish them.
- Alpha on particles. the trails behind the cursor and the flame particles on the right hand side would all benefit a lot from some alpha, it looks a bit geocities web page circa 95 over there at the minute.
I think focusing on the graphics that you see most often (the flower petals chiefly) would be the best use of your time. If you can get those looking amazing then you'll have done 80% of what the user spends his time looking at.
Hopefully thats helpful and not discouraging because I think you've done some really good stuff in here (it didn't crash on me either) but its just a little buried under the sub-par presentation.
I think you've got some really nice ingame tutorial stuff going on here, I really like the way that the documentation reacts to what you do in the game bringing up the closest matching recepie and all that. I did think it was a little unclear how to maximise the score (I just assumed that longer brew combos was the goal but I could have missed something). Music was pretty good, reminded me of Simsesque stuff which seems bang on for the target demographic.
Are there any experience/builder type mechanics as you play on? For example in Puzzle Quest, a close cousin of this game, as time progresses you level up and unlock more powerful special abilities which help mix up the standard match four stuff. Maybe the brews do something like this? I probably need to RTFM.
I agree with what the other fellas have said regarding the graphics though, its not utterly terrible but I think the audience these days has come to expect more from even the casualiest indie game. If you want to set to work on improving it yourself (as I know how rare those Captain Binky artist types are) then there are couple of things I could suggest right away:
- Improve pixely black outlines around a lot of the art. Really the different pieces of your scene want to blend together smoothly so they look like one artwork. I'd be tempted to try out some different opacity/alpha settings on the edges of a lot of your art so that the pieces fit together better. You could also go completely the other way and really emphasise the outlines.
- Check your text rendering code. I found a lot of the text tricky to read, I suspect half of this is the serifed font at a small size and the other half is that perhaps the glyphs aren't being aligned to pixel boundaries. You can see this latter effect where two copies of the same letter in different parts of the screen look different (one is blurry because its probably straddling a pixel boundary). Could be wrong.
- Art is too blurry inside the outlines. A lot of the art looks as though it has been put through the gaussian blur filter one too many times. Its hard to get that detail back when its gone but I recommend some careful use of noise filters for general non blurriness and dodge/burn tools to bring back small highlights and shadows. Sharper art is the goal.
- Overall scene contrast. The game screen I'm looking at right now has a bright white snowy background which is brighter than the game board. In generall I'd expect the background to be darker than the game board so that the board itself pops out and looks alive with colour. The same applies to the board cells and their respective foreground flower petals right now the colour of some of the petals is very close to the backround of their cells this makes it harder to distinguish them.
- Alpha on particles. the trails behind the cursor and the flame particles on the right hand side would all benefit a lot from some alpha, it looks a bit geocities web page circa 95 over there at the minute.
I think focusing on the graphics that you see most often (the flower petals chiefly) would be the best use of your time. If you can get those looking amazing then you'll have done 80% of what the user spends his time looking at.
Hopefully thats helpful and not discouraging because I think you've done some really good stuff in here (it didn't crash on me either) but its just a little buried under the sub-par presentation.
126
General Discussion / Re: Civilization 5
« on: February 19, 2010, 09:52:00 am »Someone's not in on our forum jokes and/or not seen Red Dwarf! ;D
Oh man, I totally have seen Red Dwarf but I have this strange disease where I can barely remember lines from TV shows or films at all. I used to have to rely on my younger brother whenever I wanted to recall some hillarious piece of python.
In an attempt to correct this hideous disfigurement I rewatched The Day Today and Brass Eye about eight times until I could recall something about a man raised by puffins and that, whatever else I do, I don't do the horse.
128
General Discussion / Re: Civilization 5
« on: February 18, 2010, 08:00:40 pm »Quote from: wikipedia
"a white hole acts as a source that ejects matter "
Oh.
129
General Discussion / Re: Civilization 5
« on: February 18, 2010, 07:20:15 pm »
Thats not entirely true is it?
130
General Discussion / Re: Civilization 5
« on: February 18, 2010, 05:21:36 pm »
I does seem like a problem that could be handily solved by a massive wallchart of all things in there proportional scales. Then again, think of that resume! You could always quit after a week citing creative differences, I hear thats what they do in that Hollywood.
131
General Discussion / Re: Civilization 5
« on: February 18, 2010, 05:15:53 pm »They've made a bit of a mistake with the graphics. If you look closely it looks like the people are BIGGER than the TREES, and in some cases bigger than entire cities. You can get like three men in an ENTIRE FIELD!
Does anyone know who the developers are? Is it likely too late in development to rectify?
Perhaps they need a design consultant? Would go nicely on your resume I reckon.
132
General Discussion / Civilization 5
« on: February 18, 2010, 04:56:03 pm »
What about them hexagons eh?
I think have seriously spent half my life playing Civilization games.
I think have seriously spent half my life playing Civilization games.
133
General Discussion / Re: Cliché Advertising
« on: February 18, 2010, 09:24:34 am »
Well Girl's don't like racists so its probably all connected. Bad luck Simon.
134
General Discussion / Re: BioShock Honesty-o-meter
« on: February 18, 2010, 08:37:47 am »
I have a proper university degree in philosophy and stuff yet I still voted 'not really'.
I'm pretty sure that plasmids came up somewhere in the Critique of Pure Reason, but I wouldn't, y'know, put any money on it.
If I learned anything from that degree it was that the whole department lived permenantly in the campus pub. Especially the lecturers.
I'm pretty sure that plasmids came up somewhere in the Critique of Pure Reason, but I wouldn't, y'know, put any money on it.
If I learned anything from that degree it was that the whole department lived permenantly in the campus pub. Especially the lecturers.
135
The Dan and Ben Adventures / Re: Dan and Ben Merchandising
« on: February 18, 2010, 08:33:01 am »
Man, that is impressive.
Being just a regular peasant I purchased only the commoner or 'mug' version of this particular design.
It arrived too late for my obligatory morning cup of englishman fuel, but is providing the necessary offensiveness quotient on my desk anway.
Keep up the good work lads.
Being just a regular peasant I purchased only the commoner or 'mug' version of this particular design.
It arrived too late for my obligatory morning cup of englishman fuel, but is providing the necessary offensiveness quotient on my desk anway.
Keep up the good work lads.