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[airman4]

Hi All !

AFter star and light 1.0 http://k-hermann.deviantart.com/art/Star-And-Light-1-0-314316696

I have made this little prototype for a physic game

http://www.kongregate.com/games/airman4/cataball-proto-1-0

I'll let this prototype as it is , for the moment and start a new real game.

This game will be way way way more little than star and light.
Unfortunetly it will be again a single game despite it will be a platformer strange with a strong feeling of speed.

It will not be like sonic but more intended as a race.
So you'll have a bunch of characters and start a level and try to reach the end the fastest possible.

I'll use Stencyl framework again.

The game in contents will be little too , with some characters to unlock maybe , some races etc.

Malaika princess the game is from this animation i did in 2008 (took me almost two years to complete)
http://lenneth4.deviantart.com/art/Malaika-trailer-III-104124991

So the kind of characters you'll meet will be this kind of stuff






So how the game will be Like ?

It will be a flash (or exe file , depends of the demand)
Probably free to begin with.

I'm thinking making two game modes (or more if i have some ideas) , story mode with some definitve races and some dialogues with some characters (it will be light , not developped)

Expand mode
A simple mode where you can pick some characters and select some races!!!
Why expand, because it could get some more races or characters , depends if people enjoy it or no

I'll try to make the best game possible but i'm more an artist than anything so please forgive the ankwardness of the feeling.

Also , The concept is about drive a character in a platformer with a mario view ,you have to drive him from a point A to Point B the fastest possible.
You'll have to avoid random traps and getting some items wich accelerate a bit.


I'll try to complete it properly.

[gimymblert]

Woot! Malaika princess looks fantastic, where I can see the final movie? However there is the same problem that bother me, black skin people's eyes area is hard to see, especially in motion, the eyelash and the eyebrow get lost by lack of contrast, it mean that it's way harder to see emotion and it has this creepy look because the white of the eyes have too much emphasis.

I'm looking for your game!

EDIT:
It's fucking fantastic!



Is there a better quality version?

EDIT2:



I like what you are doing

[airman4]

Hi !
Thanks a million Gimmy

It will be hard work but i'll finish it like star and light 1.0

It will get the critiques from star and light to make it better (less HUD elements to begin , i total removed wall jump and the game will be shorter !!)

For better quality of malaika you can find here



or here (i'm K-hermann)
http://lenneth4.deviantart.com/art/Malaika-Princess-part-I-265688163

I can't upload better video since my internet is awful

If you are on deviantart , watch me if you are interested , i'll give you more infos via message private if you want.

The second link is the Golden Rule movie , i still need to finish it , i hope in 2013.


So a great update here
Still needs a lot of work

The first build is here
http://k-hermann.deviantart.com/art/Malaika-Princess-the-game-Demo-early-Build-343447433?ga_submit=10%3A1355812113


No real Menu yet , just one stage to test the concept and one race stage

The test stage is about people to play a bit with the character and get used with her.
Move around with key arrows and Dash (special move) with D
The heroine can't Dash if she doesnt get a water orb , so you need to get them so you can dash
Once you get an orb the number increase , if you use them it decreases , once it's zero you can't dash anymore.

So to sum up :
Move The Heroine around with Key arrows
Dash with D
Total Reboot with A
Reboot stage with Space bar
Double jump by pressing Up key twice.


So basically , you move fast but can get faster with special orb absorption.

For the moment , not real graphics , i want feelings on the concept and the movment please.

I'll try to make another build faster.

[Ouren]

I defiantly supported star and light , and this seems totally wonderful.

I totally sent you an email.

[airman4]

I have hard times with internet humm
Maybe it's really the end of the world soon.

Anyway Gimmy TILBERT , yeah i forgot to answer about emotion on black face , that's true
But i was young so colors was a bit basic to me
In fact you have to deal with the color to make the lines out

For example my new design research for the game

Chinue , the main character (yeah Malaika princess is the antagonist of the universe in fact , if we can call her like that , i dont think she will ever appear in that game )



Garment in town design



Her color will stay red-ish since the story (red faction)
Her best friend Africa (red faction) will appear too

For the game's story , i still don't know , but it will be simple and short , probably a story about something to resotre , some evil human to find out and fight ...

I hope make a new update soon
If you play the demo, it's an early build again, so don't mind the graphics

The game will be a platformer/puzzle.

[gimymblert]

Yeah, but more than often it mean making the skin lighter to pop up a bit the facial line, and to represent "ebony" (darkest) character it is weird, especially in "stylize setting". The trick I seen use the most is to play on saturation of skin color to depict ebony (low saturation like in your design above) but it makes the character less lively and decrease general appeal and reduce expressive range.

My solution is to use "fresnel like" light contouring to deal with "volumes" but while it work for almost all anatomic features, the eye region (eyelash and eyebrows) still resist proper solution to make them readable but impactful, unless you play with make up or use colored hair like they do in manga, at the expense of reducing expressive range to exceptional character.

The problem stem from the fact that most visual convention used has been engineered on pale skin character, where this stylization has much great impact. Even line art in traditional black society are making emphasis on silhouette and body movement than facial expression. It mean we must create a stylized style that would help make the character more impactful while retaining a casual looking for representing normal and average people.

However I don't want to detract more from your project, if you speak french I have a little presentation about it here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24530447/presentation%20peau%20noir.pdf
If you like challenging your skills I don't have a third of it, so don't bother so much about what I said. It's just that I had an ebony friends and trying to use them as a model for a character showed me that there was issue with ebony skin representation of stylized character

I'm keeping an eye on your project and encourage you to continue, I'm really delight by the universe you have created 

[Ouren]

We had an issue a few years back with dark skin//background color. We shelved that version of the character for something else, somewhere where we can figure out how to perfect the right kind of shader (in 3d) to make sure she didn't fade into the shadows.

[gimymblert]

The correct word I was looking for was rim light not "fresnel like". Yep I had those problems too, manage to dodge most of them (colored stroke line help) but the eye area remain problematic, especially in 3D game under various light settings.

[Ouren]

the answer, obviously, is day glo.   

[gimymblert]

Except ebony are hard to read with usual stylized convention even in daylight ... (less darker character get a blue color swap instead of proper shadow, learn2LUVshader)

[airman4]

Ouch , didnt knew you were still on the coloring skin and such

Yeah  Gimmy TILBERT i speak french.(second french i met over there then ^^)
I dont understand fresnel but i'll look your pdf , also my picture is the beginning , i could change still.
Also the character in the game could be kinda little , i'll draw them big so i'll have a marge on the quality.
So in -game it will be very basic , so i concentrate more my skills on the level design and the gameplay

Chinue beginning Idle



Ouren
Yeah , unfortunetly that kind of problem happens often but i encourage people to try more.

Also for the background problem i have seen many anime dealing with that by changing the coloring of the character to make it readable for the users

I followed that technique on my Malaika princess short movie
you can see that here
Normal heroine coloring , evening time




And the same heroine , later (okay it's old and it's awful but the idea is there)


For instance , i made some mistake here

The red lipstick on the girl is way too much , the contraste is awful

But here it's way better



Also i never thought about expression specific on africans , so the pdf of Gilbert is pretty interesting
I'd love your contact and chat more with you
I'll revise my character maybe after the pdf reading.

[airman4]

First idle gif !



Before reducing

[gimymblert]

Post some image in art thread too! That's "gurito"

[airman4]

Hi !
thanks a lot Gimym !
I'll post them in art later when i'll got more designs

The creation of the game continues and i managed to code the dash system

I'm kinda happy , i'm thinking strongly if i should add an exp/rpg side to it or not
Coding xp/rpg progression seems hard , i'm thinking making something more linear to begin with.

Also i started the character testing
It's not finished of course

you can view the jump and fall testing here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1zINFFL-88&feature=youtu.be

Sorry , the framerate of fraps seems bad , and i forgot to shutdown the music i was listening to xd.(not the official music)

So what do you think of the core animation of the jump and falling ?despite the awful recording, seems good ? bad ? awful ?

[rickardwestman]

I absolutely love your sense of movement and speed in your animations. I am very curious about how that can be transfered within the game environment. If the game would be like an interactive version of your animations I bet it would feel really cool to just move around.
I myself would probably enjoy flying through the game without having too many obstacles in the way.
Maybe it would be cool to chase another character or something. Where you would try to catch that character but being one step behinde most of the time.
Maybe you also want to consider to have some feature where the player could shift from being in the foreground and/or the background, so even if it is a flat platformer you could choose different paths connected to the parallaxing depth of the backgound/foreground layers. I don't know if that made any sense...      

Otherwise I am really fond of the conceptual work and the african setting is very nice.
I am really looking forward to see where this goes!
Keep up the cool work!

[airman4]

rickardwestman

Thanks a lot to you!
I dont think the game will be an interactive version of my animations , not at all
Also the game will serve as a reboot of the universe , a lot of stuff will be changed and so on.

There will be some main city and you'll be assigned a lot of 10 missions
I'll try various stuff like you said , make a race with some PNJ , or protect someone ?


I didn't gave much infos since i want to progress a lot but the game will be a simple platformer 2d.
Therefore i'm not sure of shift from background to foreground , but this kind of feature is nice
I could add something linear , meaning you change of view when you enter a special region or so.
And your post made sense !

Here it's me trying the jump animation , the problem is that fraps lag like hell , so it's hard for a proper record , i dont understand
The jump could be changed , i'm not satisfied with her arms movment

[gimymblert]

well the arm start as if she is going up, try starting the animation only when she is fall down ( I assume if (yspeed > 0)

BTW hello i'm back!!

[airman4]

Ah i see!
Too much work for me , so i didnt do much all those time

It will be a smaller game , because i could have problem to finish it polished.

I'm thinking about what you say , it's very true that starting animation only on fall should resolve it
thanks dude.

[Ouren]

 

[airman4]

Ok !
So i will show a bit of the game



It's a big WIP , need works
but you can play a test there
http://www.kongregate.com/games/airman4/malaika-princess-the-game-build-1-0
Move the heroine with key arrows , special attack dash with Z

The circular orb will rise the jauge and allow you to dash with Z

Nothing exciting there , just moving the character around

If the jauge is in the red , you die and reboot the game (i'll probably change it )