look at this game

well anyways this game here http://www.secretsofgrindea.com/
very similar to the type of game i had in mind, except ours wasn't going to be as cute.  It's a trio of guys working on it in sweden and is being programmed in the same language i'm using... anyways just wanted to say i can't wait to get ours to this kind of place and i'm stoked for our game.

Editor nearly done

Haha feel like I'm posting to myself. Anyways, the editor is nearly done, putting in 4 more things and it'll be ready for distribution, probably take me about 2-4 Weeks.

Check out this post guys

Tips and Tools for creating Spritesheet animations - Game Development

update

Alright, so after completing all the databases, added in treasure chests with the items, and now you can open chests and get the items out of them, and if you try to get items out of empty chests it tells you "Empty" ... So i guess i've got that covered.  Next item adding doors.  Having them stop you and once you open them being able to pass freely.  I think it should be a simple thing, but we'll see.  Yay, it's starting to feel a bit like a game with stuff to do :) ... still quite a ways to go though

Database System

Alright, it's like 1230 am on monday and i've spent the entire weekend minus some bookstore adventure and coffee to create this... I've got a database system up and running with 0 errors and sweet stuff to mess with to create a weapon library for the game.. i implemented it into the tile editor so it's easy to use and whatever... haha my brain is kinda spent way too much info going around, but it's good to go and a rocking!  Just thought i'd share since it's all i've been doing all weekend... still gotta get the armor and item databases up, but they should be nearly a cut and paste from the weapon database.  Anyways time for a bear and some realaxin!!!!

Haha, i couldn't stop, finished the Armor Database now too, and also got it all to sort by either attack damage or defense.... wooooooooo

Modern Airships

Check out this article

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/01/28/hybrid.airship.future.flight/index.html

Anything new?

So after this week long hiatus I will start programming again tonight... Just wondering if you guys have anything new?

megaman?

I also drew this guy, I was thinking a little bit about megaman's design style.

template

It's still rough, but here's what I have going so far for the template.

Got stuff going

So I was a bit nervous after my tutorials ran out and I've still got a lot to do. This week however I managed to get the save/load to create and load a collision layer, save all layers at once and create a map file so you only need to worry about 1 file per map. The editor loads in a collision layer when you add your first base layer or loads it from file.I made it to display where collision will happen with red as well. Hopefully by this weekend I'll have it setup to edit the collision layer and display it on or off. I'd like to show you guys to get some input on it sometime too.I also want input on how to save the files... Like directories and w
hatnot. Currently they all save in the same folder that you specify.

i feel like god right now

So i decided to hit up that load method another time ... because i was sure i was just putting a bracket in the wrong place in my code after messing with it so much.... i rewrote the entire thing the old way to get the program working again and it fixed the issue which was in fact a bracket in the wrong place.  So i spent the last 3 hours looking up and figuring out the code for the xna stuff ruiz was supposed to help me with today and finally finally got it all working and figured everything i needed to out!!! hellz yeah!

Check out some of their concept artwork as well.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/media/conceptart

Here's an NPC Concept.

You can get a feel for how concepts get represented. There are some character turnarounds, equipment, beast illustrations, natural and manmade settings, and one showing setting and characters.

I'm excited to see what you guys have going on! When do you want to meet next?  Saturday afternoon?

stupid final fantasy being bad ass

So today they realesed the new trailer for ffxiv the online game that me and dan have been playing... check it out, at the end there is a behemoth howling on a plateau, the creature i was talking to you about dan... also on their site front page is a man holding a sword at you... that picture is alot like i had in mind for 1 of the 3 leader/gods in our game, so give it a look.  Stupid final fantasy making everything sweet. hahahaha
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/

So, we're doing the sprites with a magenta background and the tiles with a clear background, right?

 Here it is in PNG with a transparent background,

NpcSprite_ft1 ??????

 Thinking of making a sprite sheet with this character as an npc. Corey, will you throw this image in the game as a tile, like you did the with the rock to make sure the magenta fill was done correctly? I found the fill bucket option in photoshop that was making things blend weird. I should have the entire sprite sheet ready by Saturday. I'll start with 2 front, 2 back, 2 left and 2 right poses. We can always add more later, after we finalize our sprite movement format.

Any sugestions before I get too far into it?

*UPDATE Here is a revised version of the back view.

Check out this article

so after me and dan were chatting it up today about money and getting excited and whatnots i found this article and it was pretty sweet

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-08-19-introversion-steam-sale-saved-our-company

Test textures

A couple of test textures I was playing with.

Crude Sprite

Well, it looks like Corey's sprite tool works just fine. Here is a test with a crude skeleton sprite.

Priority timeline

So i kinda went through thinking of everything that I personally need to get going on and decided to make the layout for the game.  I'm sure alot of this will change, shit i added 4 items after i took the picture, but at least with this we will all have an idea of where i'm at and when things will start to get implemented.

Company name

So as I was at work mind blank as can be I started thinking about a company name for or studio and the perfect name came to me. SoftCarnage studio.   I think it's awesome, any feedback?

Operation, save dan energy

Hey guys just found this sweet article on a way to get transitions between tiles, makes it look great and helps a ton in the way the game looks, feels, and we don't have to make textures out our ass for something so simple.... anyways check it out, i will definately be adding this into our game.
Auto Transitions

Some stuff

 I had a revelation about the way we should do the sprite/armor template and I should have an example posted in the next few days. It will make WAY more sense than the way I was thinking about doing it before.

 Corey, I will also have a "sample sprite" ready for use by Saturday. Just a simple one to test out my work flow. I was thinking of just doing a skeleton front, back, sides, and a walking step in each direction. That way we would have something original to put in game as you are working on the programming.  Can you send that conversion tool via Email? If so, will you email it to me? ( danimalhiggins@hotmail.com) What size do you want to try the sprites at? 32x32, or did you want to try 64x64? I will also have some original textures to try out as well. You want the textures to be  32x32, right?

 Anyway, I should have a bunch of stuff ready by this weekend. Do you guys have any new thoughts, or ideas to share?

an ending

Finding a good ending to the game and then figuring out how to get there is sometimes easier than starting with a beginning then seeing where it goes.  Do you guys have any thoughts on what the story arc or ending would be? There are only so many stories, and the FF series pretty much uses the same basic story as laid out in the hero journey by Joseph Campbell.  Here's a place to start.

Thwarting (or not) the end of the world/civilization.
A question gets answered (such as the main character perhaps having amnesia and trying to figure out who he/she is).  Or why is the world dying? Why is the energy getting lost? Why are people behaving like retards? Why are all the newborns dying at birth? (the more ideas we come up with, the more we can choose from.
Someone learns something...

Are there story arcs for the general classes, like in FF1? Or are the story arcs going to be specific to the NPCs so the makeup of the classes and parties can be really flexible?

I know the story is not even really a zygote, but we can talk about the structure.  If there are 6 Properties  maybe there are 6 subplots within the larger story, where each class has a chance to shine, or the player character has a chance to put on that class for the special adventure, like the thief tower.

For example:

• I. Big Main Story
•  Gyro Property based story
• 2 Handed Sword
• Two 1-Handed Shield
• Movement/Tinker
• Gambler/Dice
• Disc/Boomerang
• Life/Death
• Berskerker!
• Tree/Plants Summoner
• White Mage/Healer/Cleric
• Life Stealer/Succubus
• Animal Summoner
• Rigidity/Elasticity
• Viking
• Two Handed Shield
• Earth Mage
• Pick Pocket
• Elastic Sword
• Light/Dark
• Shadow Knight
• Paladin
• Support Mage
• Ninja
• Light Manipulator (Magician?)
• Sonic Spectrum
• Vocal / Axe Man
• Gong Shield / Drums?
• Anti-Mage / Bass / Silencer?
• Gogo Dancer / Flute?
• Bard / Guitar-Lute
• Elemental
• Water/Trident/Hydro
• Environmental Protectionist
• Black Mage (Earth/Fire)
• Arsonist!
• Wind Mage

Anyway, that's what I was thinking about on my lunch break.

Sprite template

 Here is the way I'm thinking the template should work. This would'nt be the final version of the template, but this is close enough to show you how I would like it to work. We would have a template with all of the reference points and lines for each of the sprite's poses (Walking, sword attack, magic attack, ect). Then we can draw the different pieces of armor, or magician's robes, pants, ect over the template in each pose and scan it in to get the finished piece. We won't need to redraw each pose completely. Alot of that can be done in photoshop quite easily.

 Can anyone think of a better way to get finished, consistent versions all of the poses and armor? Obviously this template needs some refinement, but what do you guys think of the basic idea? The reference points and lines would'nt be as prominent in the working versions of the templates, so as not to be distracting.

 I have some more ideas about how the template and sprite building process should work, but they will be better explained in person. Give me some input, dudes.

The Last Story

I just read a little bit about this game coming out headed up by the original creator of Final Fantasy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Story

I read a bit about the gameplay and story, sounds pretty interesting.

Concept Style

I just read an article about this short film. A few images of the design style struck me as something we might be able to draw from. Yay or nay Corey?

http://www.monsieurcok.com/about_film.html

Also i know you wanted different positions, this is one of the characters from ffvi that has all the positions... except i just realized, these are all the battle positions, not the walking animations or anything

These were the sprites that i liked.... were these what you wanted dan?

 Here is a rough template. You can see the reference points and lines for where the feet and legs meet, head and body meet, arms and hands meet, and where the pants and body meet. There is also a rough working area for the face. The lines between soulders and hands, and the lines between knees and feet are just rough center lines for the arms and legs, not a definite spot like the points are. If you were to design a pair of pants, it could be any shape, so long as the bottom met the reference points for where the feet start, and the top of the pants ended at the reference point for the waist. This will give us a lot of freedom to be creative while designing/creating clothes and armor.  Do you guys have any input before I finish it and print a few to try working with?

sound mixer

Hey mya, or dan, so speaking of the music, do either of you have a program you know about that can record "layers" of "music" to get a rythem and put a melody on top of it?  If not i'll look one up, but if you know something that works a link would be awesome :) thanks..... yes i quoted music

Class chart!!!! woo!

heavy sprite

sprite

some stuff we covered

character skeletons to get stick figure guy for armors and stuff

Played with some color today, just to get an idea of what the finished product might look like. I'm sure this is WAY off the end result, but it's fun to get an idea of where we're going. I'd like to hear some input about colors and whatnot.

wizard and heavy

character roughs