random nightmarish sketch for the night...

shit.  I was working on chess pieces for a pretty straight-forward mobile chess game, then this started happening...



Damn you zbrush!  Damn you!

I agree, this is wonderful. I'm not a coder, so I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to create a good level editor.

Actually, I have a question: I'm a graphics dude and have two sets of assets ready: One Advance Wars-style top-down tileset, and some jumpy runny characters (see my sig).

I'd really love to play around in a level editor, building maps and testing stuff out. Thing is, I have no idea of how to code.

Are there any useful and viable standalone map editors that let me do that? Preferably in a way that someone could actually use that format and build on it?

Thanks.

I use Tiled Map editor - an open source map editor written in Qt.  It is pretty much the only solution you'll ever truly need for tile-based games.  You can create as many layers as you want and define properties as well as their values on just about anything you place down - making it connect into nearly any game engine with ease.  Really great tools for making the maps themselves as well.

http://www.mapeditor.org/

I really don't know what people continue to create their own map editors when this thing is around.  I've saved so much time using it.

Sorry to jump on the bandwagon a bit late, track eleven, but I do absolutely love these characters with all my soul.  The style is something I can relate to in my own work. 

made some more progress a tad bit...



and the old one for comparison:

database driven

Just finished the other pages for the game manual.  Good luck you guys with the launch!  Don't forget to add me to the credits



-Dan

If any of you have a pass you're not using one of those days, let me know.  I'd love to hitch a free ride  

Otherwise, I'm free to hang out in the evenings with y'all

hmmm... should I go, or should I not?  hmmmm...

I'm hardcore and coded my own blog from scratch >:O 

I've actually had that on my hard drive forever.  I think ptoing showed it to me.  Though the version I have doesn't have those awful pauses on the stretch frames.  It totally ruins it for me.

that guy would be an absolute blast to animate.  so well done, xion.  I'm jealous

the breakup has got me doodling silly shit.




@Retrogames:
I think your sketches/designs could improve greatly if you took some extra time to plan out your lines a bit more.  The sword for example could be a really great design, but it's suffering from the lack of fundamental structure.  Often people will mistakenly think that having a good underlying skeleton is only useful for anatomy, but they couldn't be farther from the truth.  *any* great design has a great underlaying flow.  For more rigid things like weaponry, I love to hug curves around straight lines in ways that compliment the most basic frame.  For swords in particular it's important to keep in mind that the handle should probably support follow the same line flow through the center of mass of the entire sword.  Yours currently doesn't do this.

anyhow, instead of rambling I'll just post a picture...

played around with a simple 3-frame Peter sprite animation...





You can see the full process here:
http://www.danfessler.com/dump/fgtest

its made from a powder of sorts, plaster or resin.  as it prints layer by layer, a binding solution is added to the areas within the model.  Once it's done printing you have a giant block of powder that you blow away and you're left with the slightly grainy model.

I got mine for free as a favor from a startup company.  I think I saw some companies printing spore models for $70 bucks though to give you a ballpark.

following up on the trains I posted earlier - I just got this back from the printer...

toonboom anyone?

Dear diary,
use rage!  RAAAAAAAGE!!!

Dear Diary,
Spuck sucks - pucks dont shatter like glass!

P.S.  and on a windows phone??  WINDOWS?!?!   bastards.