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[DustyDrake]

Jesus you gave me a heart attack when this was locked.
Don't do that again please!

[Panurge]

Jesus you gave me a heart attack when this was locked.
Don't do that again please!

Hehe - I nearly gave myself a heart attack too. I browsed the forum on an ipad last night so I think I must have accidentally hit the lock button with my thumb at some point. Anyway, it caused me some confusion when I found I couldn't post a reply this morning. I'm not hard to confuse...

Btw I've put your extra frame into the 'tease' animation and I think it looks neat:



Thanks!

Something is up with this shooting animation but I can't quite put my finger on it:



There are variants, incidentally, for shooting anything from 1-6 bullets into him, just so the player can choose for themselves how thorough to be.

[hube]

Maybe move the entire arm back as the gun fires to show more recoil. Awesome smoke

[Panurge]

Maybe move the entire arm back as the gun fires to show more recoil. Awesome smoke

Thanks! I think this is much better:

[Mef]

I think the biggest problem with that animation is that
the fat dude seems to fall down in slo-mo from the very
first shot. I guess he should stagger back instead if
you want it to last longer and also keep some level of
"realism".

Besides, his rear leg moves in a strange way that looks
too blocky (as if it had some big box around the ankle)
and it ends up appearing longer than the one in the front,
plus it seems to have a really thin tigh for such big,
massive dude.

[eigenbom]

I think that animation is great. Don't get hung up on the small stuff.

[jO]

Yeah, I agree with Eigenbom.
Don't get hung up on details so early, the spirit of the animation works!
Being that early in the project you should focus on quantity instead of overpolished quality.

[Panurge]

I think the biggest problem with that animation is that
the fat dude seems to fall down in slo-mo from the very
first shot. I guess he should stagger back instead if
you want it to last longer and also keep some level of
"realism".

Besides, his rear leg moves in a strange way that looks
too blocky (as if it had some big box around the ankle)
and it ends up appearing longer than the one in the front,
plus it seems to have a really thin tigh for such big,
massive dude.

Many thanks! I can see exactly what you mean and I'll have a go at adjusting it along those lines.

@eigenbom & jO - that is also an extremely good point! I think fiddling with details is becoming something of an avoidance strategy for me. The area which needs the most attention at the moment is the programming and because that's where I have least experience/skill it's easy for me to delay by turning out sprites and storyboards for theoretical future sections... This weekend I'm going to knuckle down and finish getting the mechanics in place.

[Alex Higgins]

I'd jack down the saturation of some of the colors you're using, especially with the light blues and greens. The sky in that one screenshot on the first page is painfully bright. Otherwise, the animations are fabulous, and the concept sounds cool. I look forward to seeing where this goes!

[Panurge]

I'd jack down the saturation of some of the colors you're using, especially with the light blues and greens. The sky in that one screenshot on the first page is painfully bright. Otherwise, the animations are fabulous, and the concept sounds cool. I look forward to seeing where this goes!

Thanks! That's really sound advice and I'm not sure why I haven't already changed the background (you should see it in full screen - it lingers in the retina...). I also agree about the colours - I'll play around with them a bit more.

[Panurge]

A few player deaths:


By ray gun


By harpoon


By assorted falling stuff (that black block is kind of a placeholder)

The best way to go is probably still this (mildly NSFW) one though: http://i.imgur.com/DZGMZR9.gif

[Panurge]

Pretty much finished the mechanics, except for a bit of light AI for your Martian partner. Nothing too advanced - all point-and-click with the odd bit of platforming and twitchy shooting. Now I can concentrate on the story.

This is how the cast looks now (bar a few Martian critters in walk-on roles):



The relationships between them will be the meat of the game.

[dukope]

Wow these sprites are killer. So much character in the designs and especially the animations.

Do you have any indoor screen mockups you can show? I'm curious to see how things look with a less side-on view. Actually on reviewing the thread it seems like the indoor backgrounds may also be side-on 2D but with multiple platforms. ??

Still curious

[Panurge]

Wow these sprites are killer. So much character in the designs and especially the animations.

Do you have any indoor screen mockups you can show? I'm curious to see how things look with a less side-on view. Actually on reviewing the thread it seems like the indoor backgrounds may also be side-on 2D but with multiple platforms. ??

Still curious

Thanks! Yes, the indoor locations are also side-on but with stairs and ladders allowing some vertical movement. I'm finding the locations trickier than the character sprites for some reason but hopefully I'll have something to show in the very near future...

[nikki]

I really like those sprites,

I think you should have much smaller backgrounds so you'd see bigger pixels (and see the sprites better and save alot of background work)

[Panurge]

Thanks Nikki! Yes, I agree. The proportions have actually changed a little since the early screenshots I posted and the sprites are now a little larger within the game. I'll post a new pic soon which will hopefully show you what I mean.

[DustyDrake]

Looking at the proportions on that cheerleader, I'm guessing there's gonna be a bit with some incriminating photos of her, that her jock boyfriend(?) to the right won't enjoy.

[Panurge]

Good sleuthing, sir! In fact, incriminating photos are going to play a rather large role in the story (although it's the jock you should be more worried about...  ).

Here, for general delectation, are the idle animations for the jock and the cheerleader:

[DustyDrake]

Meh, we got a gun, and the jock has his strength, so I'm gonna go with the leg shot, and put him in the hospital for a while, possibly ruin his sports career.

[Panurge]

Oh I meant the jock was far likelier to turn up in any incriminating photos. You needn't worry about him competing for the attentions of the cheerleader - he doesn't play for that team at all!

Funny that you should mention a hospital because that's exactly what I've just been working on. Showed it to my wife and she said "Nice school." Back to the drawing board...