next »

[ANtY]

Neat! It looks and works awesomely 

[kamac]

I really like your GUI.
 

[Seiseki]

Looking over the skills, will you be factoring in popularity?
I don't think all artists became famous because of their skills and having popularity could allow you to make crappy paintings but still sell them for a ton.
But at the same time, popularity could enhance your flaw. To balance it out.

Also, what about the dark side of art, forgery, theft, copying someones idea before he's finished, etc? :D

[AD1337]

Awesome idea, love the classy feel to the GUI.
The blur and parallax idea is very nice, but I think it would look better if you decreased or even removed the vertical scrolling. Since people move sideways but it's not often you move up or downwards. (if you want to simulate a person looking/walking across a scene)
Also, I think less is more, you don't want it to pull focus from the GUI and gameplay itself.

And I have to say, this makes me really excited too!
I love historical settings, especially if you get the right feel and atmosphere.
This could be really immersive with some subtle background chatter and laughing in the café, people walking and chatting on the streets, bells, etc.

Will you be featuring events and happenings, through like a news paper or something, that has an overall effect on gameplay? Like allowing you to paint something with a new theme, like a social commentary or criticism on society.

Thanks!

I've made the scrolling only horizontal, let me know how it looks: http://www.fastswf.com/NvRHdzo

Events will certainly happen. I'll try the newspaper look for them. Their effect on gameplay will be varied, but it's mostly choosing between a few options (your reaction to the event) and they will influence your stats, popularity, money and such.

The factor of the "new" will appear in the form of new artistic movements, starting with Impressionism and then others such as Expressionism, Fauvism, Art Nouveau, Surrealism, Symbolism and so on. You will be able to create your own movements as well by writing a manifesto.

Neat! It looks and works awesomely 

I really like your GUI.
 

Thank you.

Looking over the skills, will you be factoring in popularity?
I don't think all artists became famous because of their skills and having popularity could allow you to make crappy paintings but still sell them for a ton.
But at the same time, popularity could enhance your flaw. To balance it out.

Also, what about the dark side of art, forgery, theft, copying someones idea before he's finished, etc? :D

Yes, popularity is a factor that will affect the price of your paintings. It's represented by the star icon in the top right.

There are no plans to include the "dark" side like forgery and theft. Maybe in another game?

[Seiseki]

Looks much more stable now, but if the player is only going to keep his mouse over the buttons, there's not much use to the parallax in this case, especially since the buttons are aligned vertically.
But what if the player clicked on actual places in the streets? Like an actual café, academy and atelier.

[DustyDrake]

I didn't see it as someone walking down the street, I saw it as someone standing on the street looking around, perhaps for inspiration.
But maybe my eyes just wander a lot while I'm walking.

[AD1337]

Trying out new buttons. These are glued to the background and seem like they're places on the street:


http://www.fastswf.com/jYOgp1g

[kinnas]

It's a good painting but if you want to organize buttons by locations then maybe not for this menu. The Cafe button especially is in a very peculiar place right now : D I can't think of a better painting from the top of my head either though : (
 
Googled "impressionist boulevard", the resolution's going to be a problem but a street view more akin to this with more interesting and different building types might suit better if you want to place the buttons as if they're on the actual buildings. (Also if you want to go that route then there's also the effect of having the building outlined with a highlight when you mouseover it)

Though I'm guessing you want to use famous paintings in your backgrounds to subtly tickle that "oh I think I know this picture I'm totally knowledgeable on art history!" nerve.

For what it's worth I think horizontal scroll lock felt the best if you want to keep that painting as the backdrop. You can just show off that parallax by adding another set of buttons to the right : )

[AD1337]

It's a good painting but if you want to organize buttons by locations then maybe not for this menu. The Cafe button especially is in a very peculiar place right now : D I can't think of a better painting from the top of my head either though : (
 
Googled "impressionist boulevard", the resolution's going to be a problem but a street view more akin to this with more interesting and different building types might suit better if you want to place the buttons as if they're on the actual buildings. (Also if you want to go that route then there's also the effect of having the building outlined with a highlight when you mouseover it)

Though I'm guessing you want to use famous paintings in your backgrounds to subtly tickle that "oh I think I know this picture I'm totally knowledgeable on art history!" nerve.

For what it's worth I think horizontal scroll lock felt the best if you want to keep that painting as the backdrop. You can just show off that parallax by adding another set of buttons to the right : )

Thanks for the feedback. I've come up with 2 possibilities still using this painting, though the one you linked seems interesting as well.

http://i.imgur.com/KRJR9.jpg

Both try to link the buttons to the background in a better way.

Edit: making the signs look more like signs:

[Seiseki]

That definitely makes them more integrated into the piece.
But they're not really taking up enough space in comparison to their importance.

I think it's problematic because the first layout you had worked really well with the painting, due to the couple on the right side and most things in the image being vertically aligned.

Personally I love the idea of having the buttons integrated in the painting, but the best way would be if there were actual signs and maybe larger buildings with the right perspective to click on.
And that would mean heavily editing the painting or using one that better suits that purpose.

[AD1337]

That definitely makes them more integrated into the piece.
But they're not really taking up enough space in comparison to their importance.

I think it's problematic because the first layout you had worked really well with the painting, due to the couple on the right side and most things in the image being vertically aligned.

Personally I love the idea of having the buttons integrated in the painting, but the best way would be if there were actual signs and maybe larger buildings with the right perspective to click on.
And that would mean heavily editing the painting or using one that better suits that purpose.

Yes, it certainly was more evident with the big buttons. I think this subtle menu has its charm, so I've tried polishing it a bit. I don't know if it will make it to the final game, but it was a nice experiment.

http://www.fastswf.com/7Q5MfKM
New: focus blur on the text, 2x slower vertical scroll, higher quality and contrast images.

[AD1337]

I've fixed the signs and text wiggling (now they move with the background much better) and added some rain: http://www.fastswf.com/FkT2j4w

Also working on random events:

[ANtY]

Tres bien!  

rain needs some more work

[AD1337]

Avant-Garde OST - Paris. My musician sent me that song today, it's great. Check out his other songs here.

I'm working on the Café screen, where you talk with other artists to improve relationships, drink and create new artistic movements:

[Seiseki]

The rain is a nice touch, but I didn't notice the man to the right before, he looks like a giant now that he's on the background parallax layer..

Also, you could totally move the entire sign post a bit towards the viewer, that way the signs will be larger.

You really nailed the mood for the café and that song is awesome!
I never thought I'd get this excited over a game like this, but the mood and immersion is superb!

[melos]

ooh, glad there is still progress I like the song and that painting.

[billyboob]

The rain is a nice idea but looks odd when the foreground layer is in focus. And there's still something that bugs my eyes when I mouse over the signs, it almost looks like they're still moving but I know they're not :s

[Panurge]

I like everything you're doing here and I'm really excited to play the game. The only thing which jarred a little is that last painting of the cafe. It's absolutely beautiful and captures the mood well but judging from the outfits it's from a later period than the rest of the game, which seems firmly rooted in the 19th century. Or perhaps you're going to extend the timeframe into the early 20th? That would be cool too.

(PS - is the gladiator game on hold for now?)

[AD1337]

The rain is a nice touch, but I didn't notice the man to the right before, he looks like a giant now that he's on the background parallax layer..

Also, you could totally move the entire sign post a bit towards the viewer, that way the signs will be larger.

You really nailed the mood for the café and that song is awesome!
I never thought I'd get this excited over a game like this, but the mood and immersion is superb!

Yeah, I spotted the man on the right as well, he can make things look weird. I think he can have his own layer if I have time to do that.

Larger signs sounds nice, I'll see how that looks.

Thanks!

ooh, glad there is still progress I like the song and that painting.

Nice, thanks a lot!

The rain is a nice idea but looks odd when the foreground layer is in focus. And there's still something that bugs my eyes when I mouse over the signs, it almost looks like they're still moving but I know they're not :s

Hm, yeah. I think I'll just try to make that menu work, I think its uniqueness compensates for it not being so practical, I don't think going back to a standard menu would be better, even though that one isn't perfect. There's still the main menu and the game's logo - I've made some progress with those today but don't have enough to show yet.

I like everything you're doing here and I'm really excited to play the game. The only thing which jarred a little is that last painting of the cafe. It's absolutely beautiful and captures the mood well but judging from the outfits it's from a later period than the rest of the game, which seems firmly rooted in the 19th century. Or perhaps you're going to extend the timeframe into the early 20th? That would be cool too.

(PS - is the gladiator game on hold for now?)

The painting is indeed of the early 20th century, you're right. The game goes on to 1914, and, since the café exists throughout all that time, I think I'll bend time a bit and use that early 20th century painting even though the game year at the beginning is 1863.

The gladiator game was abandoned in favor of the GitHub Game Off competition, as it happened in the same timeframe as the sports competition here. I ended up being a runner-up in the GitHub one, got some shirts and cups.

Today I ust worked on the Café some more, maybe I can finish it today and move on:

[JigxorAndy]

Very smooth looking UI. Nice!