TIGSource Forums

This game has been reborn as:
Nova-111 (http://www.nova111.com)

Always good to see a new eddietree project and this one is sounding and looking great. Looking forward to seeing more.

Looks promising looking forward to see more details :) and nice art work :)

I expect shaders. Lots of shaders.

 :)

oh you know it. shader all up in your grill like a BBQ

great vehicle design and colors!
Are you going for classic top-down or side perspective?

waiting for more!  :beer:

loads of style and nice colors,

for some reason I was reminded of this game,
(http://www.scummvm.org/data/screenshots/he/puttputt/puttmoon-3-full.png)

keep up the good work

(Don't) Stop being so damn amazing!

Shit art, wouldn't play.

In other news, mockups are being done as we speak, and I'll get to tilesettin' tonight!
Also trying my hand at design on this one as well!

And damn, wait until I make a logo, this looks depressing!  :)

I'm going to say that I can't wait to see where this goes. But you probably already knew that before you even started this...  :handanykey::crazy:

Sneak peeks!

Basic enemy animation by Miguelito :)

(http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u427/eddietree1/vectoranim_sample_BETTER.gif)

Also, in-game screenshot of the crew-select screen. Still work in progress!

(http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u427/eddietree1/crewselectTHumb.png)

Looking nice. Is each row and specific colour of crew going to be a specialised field?

We're not yet sure if we want 1 row = 1 color. Probably not, to be honest, it's rather limiting.

But yes, every color is one "class" of scientist. Think a degree in biology, engineering, AI, economy... :)
And as you can see, you can load up to 10 eggheads onto your ship!

Progress report:

• Basic game rogue-like mechanics implemented
• Procedural world generation complete
• Animation framework complete

Things are going quite smoothly. Most of the core enemies mechanics have been implemented, but just need to add in some polish such as artwork and sounds. I will post more as they come. Meanwhile, enjoy this small slice of an in-game screenshot!

(http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u427/eddietree1/2jak9xz.png)

and another screenie

(http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u427/eddietree1/Clipboard04.png)

Looks really nice, guys! Can't wait to see it in action.

What I really like about roguelikes is the amount of strategy and critical thinking involved to succeed in turn-based combat. With our game, we really wanted to focus on the meaningful choices that arise when faced in a tough battle situations. The relationship between the player, enemies and the environment should be interesting, dynamic and unique for every type of encounter.

The goal of the enemy designs were to focus on positional variation. That is, each enemy should affect the environment in a way that affects the possible actions that the player can execute but still allows the player to think critically to chose the best move.

(http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u427/eddietree1/slowshooter.png)

Introducing the slow shooter. This enemy is unique in that its projectiles do not immediate hit its target but instead slowly moves one grid by turn. We feel that this will create dynamicism by requiring the player to evade the projectiles while traversing the alien planet.

A few of the enemies.
Hopefully it's pretty clear what they do from their design.



Oh, and this is you.
We didn't want a sleek, "cool" ship, but something that speaks utility. Something engineers would use to get to places! That's why it's boxy and sturdy-looking - but hopefully still neat and recognizable!

Fantastic animations! I especially like the brain-looking dude on the right.

In-game screenshots!


(http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u427/eddietree1/screen1.png)

(http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u427/eddietree1/screen2.png)

Love the animations and the overall color scheme and style. However, I would suggest changing the main character's color a little big away from the general hue (with higher saturation?) so that it stands out a bit more.

Holy absolute shit I am in love with this artwork.  I was completely unaware of Michael's work (and he does awesome pixel art too?!).  Michael, if I ever get a buttload of cash I'm going to steal you away ;)

Mike = legit  ;)

Thanks!

Now: Meet the crew! You know how in every 60's sci-fi show there's always the ship scientist, who's either the cool voice of reason or the backstabbing villanous megalomaniac?
Well this time we have a ship full of them!

These are just the first batch, there's a cosmic truckload of characters still to do!


(All work in progress, some color and value tweaking is still in order.)

Thanks for the advice! I was bumbling back and forth between different color schemes, and I can at least assure you that orange will be reserved for the player only. It'll be the "good" color in this game. (Look at all the enemies and tell me the "evil" color, go ahead. ;) )

I'll definitely do another effects pass over the ship when the backgrounds are implemented, to make sure it really stands out. Also, eddietree here is some sort of shader wizard, so we might even slap a subtle glow on it...


Thanks Dan, but YOU of all people? Is the link in your sig someone else's site? ;)

Holy hell, those portraits are awesome. I bet it'll be fun to give those dudes names. And don't forget the lady scientists! (then again, maybe you didn't -- second on the bottom row is pretty ambiguous  ;))

Today: Everything is terrible. :<

Here is the first (mostly)completed music track for Stella-111:

http://soundcloud.com/jackmenhorn/stella-track-03

The end cuts off abruptly cause it loops.

The scientist faces are just brilliant :)

I just want to say this: It would be a mistake to think that any one of these faces is my own original creation. :)
An example:


Here's three that might look a bit more familiar, perhaps (the first one especially to Germans that have ever seen a 10-Mark note):


I'm hoping this is not too disrespectful, I never try to make them look silly or goofy. Still, I figured it would be a nice thing between hommage and easter egg, so 100-ish real-life scientists coming up. :)

Gauss, Hawking and I believe the second from the right in the bottom line is Paul Dirac.
Well, if you go this way then you should definitely not forget Nikola Tesla :)

Only just found this, ticks all my boxes. The artwork is stunning, look forward to getting more details.

Dev on my minions!! Muhahaha!  >:D



But seriously, fantastic work!
 :)

Change of plan, all scientist portraits about to be replaced by this!


:P

(http://i40.tinypic.com/2jak9xz.png)

awesome awesome stuff. your little bot reminded me of this one from a student film "burning safari" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0UmVrKC9hA). such a cool design

This game looks like it's larger in scope than the average indie game, which is a great thing. I think it has a great visual style, and I can not wait to play it.

this looks so friggin' cool.

wonderful! :beer:
*subscribes to this topic*

Haha nice, eddietree the great indie scientist.

New track: http://soundcloud.com/jackmenhorn/stella-track-05

It's a bit longer, but really diggin it.

fantastic!

superb!

Guys, this is looking/sounding amazing  ;D

The rock tileset looks sooo good..  :-*

I think the background might be a little bright though, have you tried darkening it a bit and letting the enemies stand out a bit more?

:)

Ho man do I REALLY dig the art style!  Any vids of your work process would make me the happiest fan of this project ever!

Oh and  :beer:

Miguelito: Epic epicness. Such smooth tasty animations! Love it all guys, can't wait to see more!

Thank you! :)

happymonster, the BG is indeed very brigt at the moment. And while personally I would like to keep a big contrast in value between collision stuff and deco layers, we have been planning to add some texture to the background!

Currently doing bits and pieces and scraps, a bit of everything really! Let's hope it'll come together at some point!

The portraits are amazing!

This looks positively beautiful!

I have no idea how this game is supposed to play, but it looks amazing.

How are those sprites animated? What technique and which software package, if I may ask?

Thank you! There will be no actual action gameplay. The sprites are just static on the map, moving around like board game pieces. I just wanted to make them look more alive instead of just using fixed poses or simple bobbing. (Not that I didn't cut any corners, mind you.)

As for the technique - I'd post images if I could, but right now I can only explain.
I'm one of those fossils that grew up using Flash for vector animation. I'm sure all the kids are using fancy new software, but I appreciate the simpleness and the excellent line control.
The grid is 64 x 64 px, so I sketched out all creatures digitally and then saw about how much detail was needed to make them look neat, but not too busy. The animation is mostly nudge and squash in Flash, with everything being hand-tweened (so no objects or automatic "Insert Tween" stuff). A few details, such as the bat wings, are plain old keyframe animation - four frames to get the general movement down, then tween and adjust.

They're exported into Photoshop at original size, which already gives them a nice antialiasing effect. Then some filters are applied, just what I feel looks right on the creature.

And that's pretty much it!

Thank you for the answer. I originally wanted to ask if it was Flash, but I was secretly hoping there was something new out there that I didn't know about. :) (I haven't learned Flash yet, but I don't think now is the right time either...)

Not too much to report on graphics side, I'm still soldiering on finishing them portraits. Ridiculous to think that they'll be purely for flavor at the end, but I have half of them done now.
And after all, it was me who insisted to do one for every goddamn crew member we have. :)

The background graphics should be presentable too at the moment.

Here's another little sneak, but I promise that the game will be more than just some faces! But honestly, all this real life reference drawing has given me some appetite to try "standard" caricature too.


WIP, of course - color tweaking will be done later.

_{Solution: Hedy Lamarr, Rita Levi Montalcini, Shuji Nakamura, Justus Liebig, Trofim Lysenko, Lise Meitner}

Stop being so good. :P

Err, thanks. :)

Probably not going to be featured, but still:

LOL!

There is a new track!! http://soundcloud.com/jackmenhorn/stella-track-06 (http://soundcloud.com/jackmenhorn/stella-track-06)

This does indeed look cool! I like the slick art style. Keep it up!

Jack, this music is great! :gentleman:
Keep it up guys! :D
I'm anxious to see more news!

Cool, where do i buy it?  :handmoneyR:

Looks great.  :)

It's still in development unfortunately, and with the whole dev team frolicking around in different time zones and all, we can't give any word on when you'll be able to control the Stella yourself. But hang in there. :)

This might seem like a thoroughly trivial update, but this being a devLOG and all, it's crazy how many mockups, explanations and annotations you end up as an artist - I just finished sorting through my folders, and even with tons of explanatory images and notes, I still feel I need to leave so much in the capable hands of the coders. Things like timing, animations and much much more...

Anyway, I'm so happy I finally got all the core crew members finished. Well, there's a good portion of "secret" members around, but yeah. It's been quite a feat.
Then again, having 111 scientists to rescue was pretty much the spark between the game - and the game title! So yeah, here's a *smaller* part of your crewsters, if you're there to find them!


I can't hope that all of them are perfectly reconizable. After all, I do tweak the general headdress, coiffure and fashion to fit into the 60's sci-fi theme (not least of which the standard male/female overalls). Also, my caricature skillz might not be all that much, though I definitely enjoy doing these.
Every single one of these characters is based on an existing personality in classic or modern science, but speaking of better known faces, observate viewers might recognize Alan Turing, Richard Feynman, Nikola Tesla, Hideyo Noguchi (courtesy of the Japanese 100-yen bill) or Thomas Edison in there.

As for the rest, other than many little GUI elements, effects and animations, I'm hard at work doing more intersting level art - something alien, but pleasant to look at...


Anyway, we're not dead and all. Stay tuned! :)

Great portraits! The level art looks pretty good, too. Nice work!

That animation is awesome. Absolutely awesome.

haha oh man love that little guy

Here is a more creepy, desolate tune.  It is actually one of the first tracks I have done for Stella:

http://soundcloud.com/jackmenhorn/stella-sketch-02b

Even little GUI elements need lots of love!

In other words: Pixel art versions of all 100+ characters are a go!

(http://blogtiozao.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/mother-god-meme.jpg)

You are a madman, Miguelito.

Any updates on this game?

Well... Ehm, eddie?

 :'(

Hi folks!

The game is still under development. For me, work has just been extremely intense the past few weeks as I had almost no free time to do proper development. But rest assured that this game's progress will pick up once things free up a little...

:)

wow, really love the art and design, awesome stuff!

Good to hear. Whats your development environment? Framework, SDK?

Visual Studio 2008 is my IDE of choice. My game uses an engine that I've developed from scratch, but uses SDL for window management. Gamemonkey script is used for, well, scripting. Fmod for sound... :)

Hi Eddie,

Hope you've recovered some time to work on this still.. :)

What?

It's not dead??

Nice to see a new post

fantastic...!!

all I can say is.. stay tuned :)

Any news then?  ;)

It's been a long time, hasn't it!  :)

(http://i.imgur.com/TFjbvyf.png)