Hello together, this is kind of a survey - I'm interested to hear what kind of art style you prefer for games and why. It'd be extra cool if you can also list a few pros and cons of your favorite style. Doesn't have to be objective on this level, pros and cons can as well be just your subjective view.

If you want you can list several styles with their pros and cons as well.

Gotta fix him up big time, though. His arms look retarded.

For a scarecrow I think the arms are just right. But good luck with touching him up

I particularly like this one:

Makes a great avatar too.

That said, Primitivism is still bullshit. Our old meanings of life weren't better, somehow, they were just different. Things have changed, and forcing yourself to revert to some fantasized idyllic past isn't going to make you any happier or more fulfilled.

Happiness occurs with and without technology. It's often rather triggered by your actions and reactions that you get, thus depends more on your social (and maybe even spiritual) relations, than the technology at your hands (or lack thereof). Technology, like money, can help to feel comfortable, though.

That is sooo cool. I lovelovelove your choice of colors!

Thank you It seems it will make it's way into the image set, as the home of an independent artists group. Which is cool, too

I think "Homeworld" is the game that dug deepest into my memory. Mostly for the story - finding the way to the long lost home is something that touched me, and still does.

Besides that, the music and graphics fortified the epic feeling, battles spiced it up, but didn't distract too much from the story. There were a few remnants of other classic space settings like the shipwreck graveyard with riddles and dangers.

It's been the right mix for me, in between epic story, desperate moments and glory.

My monitor only shows black as background there, too. It's old and at max brightness settings already.

If I work here, I usually have the other problem, that things that I paint are too bright - I really wish there weren't so much differences between monitors.

In the past I tried the following, each solution has its own problems though:

1) Sort based on the ground level coordinates (Ball c has position x,y and height h - do sorting only based on x,y)
2) Sort by tiles first (back-to-front), then by screen-y coordinate within one tile.
3) Use layers, sort by layer first, then within each layer.

Real troubles start if you have things like walls/fences and want to move relatively big objects over tile borders without clipping artifacts.

Oh, it's crazy obscure.

Picture was like that when I found it. I'm not sure about original resolution, but I can say it's from my favorite console failure ever.

Crazy obscure and favorite console failure - that reminds me of the Atari Jaguar. No idea about the game yet, though.

Usually I'm happy with the creative commons "Attribution - Share alike" license type, but things like GPL and Artistic License are ok, too.

Was working on some kind of "house tree" for an older project of mine:

That's a very generous step

I definitely have a crush on graphics like these. Would totally put them up as posters in my room

You know this is a spambot, right?

Uh, oh ...  The me is stupid, although I was wondering about the persons posts already.

@Cagey: Each step is a success already. And even the longest path starts with the first step. So don't let this bring you down. It's just an reminder for the workaholics.

I always liked this ladder of steps:

Code:

    * An idea is not a design
    * A design is not code
    * Code is not a demo
    * A demo is not a program
    * A program is not a product
    * A product is not business
    * A business is not profits
    * And profits are not happiness

Since business sometimes eats peoples lives. We should strive for happiness, and business (income) is definitely a step to help with happiness, but by no means all of it.

Edit: Replace "code", "demo" etc. with the words that fit to your business. This was written from a programmers point of view, for programmers, but works as well for many other fields.

Cogito ergo sum.

But then, this might be all just a big illusion, so maybe I only think I'm thinking ...

Edit: maybe we only see the shadows, and think it's the real world?

Edit 2: Actually all those philosophers are wrong. We live on a 3-brane which is a hull of a 9-dimensional space, and some collision with another 3-brane brought our universe into existence by boosting an infinitely small concentration of energy to giant proportions.

Edit 3: While others say we are just a chord in the song of nirvana, and some day we'll resolve into perfect harmony with the big tune. (No, not the rock band )

1. [70] Homeworld
2. [70] Diablo II LOD
3. [40] Settlers II
4. [30] Startopia

Edit: Format adjusted to fit to the rules.

250 pages looks intimidating to me. I'm not sure if a beginner will read a 250 page tutorial.

Maybe you should advertise it differently. If I read "tutorial" I want something that helps me to get into a topic, and gives me results in ... 10 minutes, but not much more than 30. I'm impatient.

If you sell this as "complete in depth guide to games and their philosophy", I'm more inclined to read it. Then I'll not try to get a grasp in ten minutes, but make a hardcopy of it, and read a bit of it every evening. Tutorials I'm looking for if I need quick help. 250 page books I read if I feel a need for a deeper understanding of a topic.

THE THREAD IS GETTING REALLY STALE

But ... but ... if this thread dies, how can I then see how indie everyone is here 

Install Workrave and take regular breaks to keep fresh. On your break, drink water, stretch, look out the window, or go for a quick walk.

I agree very much here.

The biggest productivity killer is loss of motivation. No tool will help there. Sometimes I hit a feature in my projects that is pretty tedious and boring to code. This uses to be a real killer for my projects ...

Edit: To post something positive, the modern IDEs are pretty good in raising productivity, once you have learned to use the features properly. I particularly like code refactoring tools.