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[dukope]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

Just for funsies:

Haha. "If in doubt, keep em out." Indeed.

Played around with some basic animations for walking up to/away from the booth. It's just 2D fakery so I have to black the character out during the movement. Gonna try to explain that with some lights-off/lights-on effect.




The colors went pretty shit with my [screencap -> .mov -> frames -> .gif] capturing technique. Next time I'll write frames directly from the game.

[makerimages]

Do want! When new release?? And- I saw a Oliver Campbell there !!!

[Sergi]

Whoa! That's pretty cool!

Have you tried some kind of fade-in from black, so that it looks like they stepped from the shadows? Or would that be impossible given the limited palette? Anyway, the distortion effect looks convincing, good job!

[dukope]

Have you tried some kind of fade-in from black, so that it looks like they stepped from the shadows? Or would that be impossible given the limited palette? Anyway, the distortion effect looks convincing, good job!

Thanks!

I'm not using a palette except as an artistic limitation so there's no technical reason not to have them fade in gradually. I tried it out though and it didn't feel quite right. I think because it is a limited palette, a fade through so many shades looks out of place.

Today I got a better screencap system working and tried a shutter reveal:


*SHICK* * SHICK*

[Malky]

Ah that's a great way to make that effect work.

[Belimoth]

The vertical movement makes it look like they are entering and leaving on a staircase or something. The turning looks good though.

[Lynx]

Hmm, honestly, I liked the pseudo-fade in and out transition you had, having the shutters go up and down for each person seems a bit odd-- that's more physical effort than any bureaucrat should want to go through.  Whereas with the fade-in, it seems like they only take on life (to you) when they are right in front of you, demanding your attention.

[dukope]

The vertical movement makes it look like they are entering and leaving on a staircase or something. The turning looks good though.

Unlike nice places where the inspector sits at your height, in Artstotzka inspectors sit high above hopeful immigrants in order to maintain a downward gaze. IOW there's a small step up to reach the booth.

Hmm, honestly, I liked the pseudo-fade in and out transition you had, having the shutters go up and down for each person seems a bit odd-- that's more physical effort than any bureaucrat should want to go through.  Whereas with the fade-in, it seems like they only take on life (to you) when they are right in front of you, demanding your attention.

Here's both:



I like the hostility of the shutters. It seems a bit much here but there'll be some time between immigrants so the shutters won't be going up and down constantly. If the player has control of the shutters they could choose to make people wait or cut them off early. Might be fun. The simplicity of the fade also feels good though. Not sure which one I like better right now.

Do want! When new release?? And- I saw a Oliver Campbell there !!!

Sorry, I completely missed this post. I'm probably gonna work on the document generation and discrepancy highlighting next. Not sure when those elements will come together into something playable that I can upload. Hopefully not more than a few days.

[DustyDrake]

How would it look if they faded in after the shutter opened?
(reasoning behind this being that they walk up to the shutter after it's open)

If the shutter stays, could you possibly try to make it so that people seem annoyed or frustrated when you shut the shutter on them?
Maybe even bang on the shutter some?

Also

-The passport does not have a recognised front cover (unless it's just very worn like mine...).
-The ISS field is invalid (Lorndal instead of Lorndaz).
-The applicant says he wishes to work but is not in possession of a valid work visa.
-The applicant says he wishes to remain forever yet his permit is only for 14 days.

My recommendation is that the applicant be taken immediately to the Bureau for Intercultural Relations where his application can be formally revoked by firing squad.

These look mostly right and all but I think I see two other things wrong:
-His passport expired three years ago
-He's supposedly only about 6 months old according to the DoB

[Belimoth]

You could have the shutters slam shut when someone tries to make a run for it, might add a little to the feeling of danger.

[dukope]

How would it look if they faded in after the shutter opened?
(reasoning behind this being that they walk up to the shutter after it's open)

Well the shutter is a means to explain the shadowing. Doesn't help with that if they fade in separately.

If the shutter stays, could you possibly try to make it so that people seem annoyed or frustrated when you shut the shutter on them?
Maybe even bang on the shutter some?

That's an awesome idea and a great reason to keep them. I can add a hand banging against the shutter if you take too long to open it or close it without giving them their documents back.

Also...These look mostly right and all but I think I see two other things wrong:
-His passport expired three years ago
-He's supposedly only about 6 months old according to the DoB

The date format is 'year.month.day'. I'll have to make that somehow more clear in the game.

You could have the shutters slam shut when someone tries to make a run for it, might add a little to the feeling of danger.

Heh. Another good idea. I was also thinking it'd be cool to have someone pull a gun on you in the booth if you deny their entry. Closing the shutters quickly would be a way to save yourself.

[laserfire]

Here's both:

The one on the left makes more sense but the shutters definitely look cooler and give you a nice visual break between each person.

[DustyDrake]

The date format is 'year.month.day'. I'll have to make that somehow more clear in the game.

Is there a reason for that?
Why not just make it a more sensible month.day.year or day.month.year?

[Sergi]

The date format is 'year.month.day'. I'll have to make that somehow more clear in the game.

Is there a reason for that?
Why not just make it a more sensible month.day.year or day.month.year?

Sensible according to whom? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Calendar_dates

[DustyDrake]

The date format is 'year.month.day'. I'll have to make that somehow more clear in the game.

Is there a reason for that?
Why not just make it a more sensible month.day.year or day.month.year?

Sensible according to whom? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Calendar_dates

According to that first page?
Most of the world.

[Sergi]

It's a pretty irrelevant thing, but anyway. My point is that the standard (the one used there) is not officially used anywhere, and there are two big ones used (the ones you mentioned), and which one to use is a matter of opinion. I for one like the standard because it makes more sense in a way, but it's not really relevant. As long as it's clear in the game.

[DustyDrake]

It's a pretty irrelevant thing, but anyway. My point is that the standard (the one used there) is not officially used anywhere, and there are two big ones used (the ones you mentioned), and which one to use is a matter of opinion. I for one like the standard because it makes more sense in a way, but it's not really relevant. As long as it's clear in the game.

I perfer the month/day/year set up, having lived in the US for all of my life, but I did hear an argument for day/month/year which was that they're ordered how fast they change, which apparently makes it easier to adjust to month changes or something.
Also, that ISO 8601 link also mentions that the year for a year/month/day format is 4 digits, not 2.

[Sergi]

I perfer the month/day/year set up, having lived in the US for all of my life, but I did hear an argument for day/month/year which was that they're ordered how fast they change, which apparently makes it easier to adjust to month changes or something.
Also, that ISO 8601 link also mentions that the year for a year/month/day format is 4 digits, not 2.

Yeah, we use DMY, I think it makes sense in spoken form because you say the most relevant info first, the one that changes the most. MDY is weird to me, but in the US there's a lot of weird units and stuff

I like YMD in written form, because it disambiguates between DMY and MDY when not specified which is day and which is month (when the day is 12 or less); and YDM is non-existant, so YMD is the only one that starts with the year, which, if 4 digits, makes it clear. Also, YMD sorts well in filenames and stuff. Of course having the year as 2 digits instead of 4 makes it ambiguous again in some cases.

[Lynx]

Suggestion for the fading in bit, have them be reduced a bit in scale, then grow as they fade, representing their 'coming up to the light'.

I like the idea of turning the shutters into a defensive mechanism though!

[dukope]

Is there a reason for that?
Why not just make it a more sensible month.day.year or day.month.year?

I wanted the dates to feel as if they're from an alternate timeline (just 2-digits), and foreign (YY.MM.DD). I'm American and prefer MM.DD.YYYY but I live in Japan where we use YY.MM.DD with a 2-digit emperor year. From the choices I figured YY.MM.DD would have the least chance of being confused for either DD.MM.YY or MM.DD.YY and so would work equally well for EU and US people. Got that one wrong. Mostly because:

Also, that ISO 8601 link also mentions that the year for a year/month/day format is 4 digits, not 2.

...Of course having the year as 2 digits instead of 4 makes it ambiguous again in some cases.

You're both right and I'd guess this is the main problem. In the current build I intentionally chose a date (62.11.23) that could only be interpreted in one way, but dates are an important element of the gameplay and I don't think it's worth the confusion. I'm gonna try to fit the full 4-digit year in there and possibly choose the format based on locale so you'd get either DD.MM.YYYY, MM.DD.YYYY, or YYYY.MM.DD depending on your location.