next »

[standardcombo]

^ Thank you

Work in progress
Evolution of a background piece

      |
     /'\
    /\` \
 __/`  __\__
   \  !\`/
    \ |`/
     `|/

    _/!`.
   /\\'  \
  /\` _   `
 _|` ( )  '_
  `¯¯"!"\`/
   `  |\``
    ` |``
     `'/

      |
    _/!`.
   /\.  V\
  /\` _   `.
 | ` ( )   )\
  `¯'"!"|`¯| |'
  '   | '|'| '
     '| |' |
   '  !'|  '
      | '
    ' |   '
      '

      |
      |.   
 '    || . '
    ' |' | 
      |! |' .
   '_/'`.'| |
   /|'   \| ' |
 '/\' _   `.|'
 \.` ( ) __!'|'
  `''"!¯|'|| |
  '   | '|'| '
     '| |' |
   '  !'|  '
      | '
    ' |   '
      '

Rendered:

[standardcombo]

Progress update: I've been going through a batch of content that I can't post due to being a huge spoiler. Also killing bugs like an exterminator. Happy new year!

Concept for treasure room/golden city:

                | O     .  <-- slide produces flying coins
             .':+/|\ ',   
           .' .:'< \, '  `              .':.
          :     .::.                  .:  .::.              ...     ___
        .'  ..:::':::.              .'      .::.   U      .'   ;.  ├─o─┤
     ..'        .::::::..       ..''     .:::::::. ┴   ..'  ..::::.└───┘
':::'                ''::::::::'             '':::::::'   ...:::::::::::'

[standardcombo]

Concept for Sleepless Tower. Needs more texturing and will be, so, much, fun. to animate the loop! Inspired by Battletoads (one of my favorite games).

[Kyzrati]

Progress update: I've been going through a batch of content that I can't post due to being a huge spoiler. Also killing bugs like an exterminator. Happy new year!

Concept for treasure room/golden city:

                | O     .  <-- slide produces flying coins
             .':+/|\ ',   
           .' .:'< \, '  `              .':.
          :     .::.                  .:  .::.              ...     ___
        .'  ..:::':::.              .'      .::.   U      .'   ;.  ├─o─┤
     ..'        .::::::..       ..''     .:::::::. ┴   ..'  ..::::.└───┘
':::'                ''::::::::'             '':::::::'   ...:::::::::::'

I can see the coins sliding already, and it is glorious!

[EdFarage]

okay, i have to confess i was totally skeptic about your style, but this is turning out pretty amazing, you have my full attention  

[myturtlesoreo]

  Holy crap, these are awesome. What do you use to create the animation? do you actually write it all out or do you use some program to put characters down on a grid, I need to know!

[standardcombo]

Most text editors are effective tools as long as they support monospaced fonts and utf8. The animation strategy is the same as traditional animation, where you calculate where the key frames will be, based on animation length and frame rate. Then you "draw" said key frames and tweak them until it's good. Finally, copy paste the frames and modify them. It's a similar amount of work to low res pixel art. The resulting text file is a long vertical sequence of frames.

Since the visuals are defined as much by the chosen symbols as the coordinate of each symbol on the grid, ascii editors that have their UX inspired by pixel drawing apps are less productive than a text editor because those are focused on coordinates only. Ascii symbols are NOT analogous to a color palette, they are an additional dimension to the problem. Once you have memorized where the most important keys are on the keyboard it becomes productive when coupled with copy pasting and find/replace. In other words, I haven't found the right tool yet that would warrent the integration overhead into my workflow. Once I have the right tool I think I could make even better stuff. Stone Story 2?

[myturtlesoreo]

Wow that sounds like a LOT of work, I am not that patient. Keep up the good work!

[standardcombo]

If you are having fun making something you don't notice the time pass

[eigenbom]

This is coming along just swimmingly

[standardcombo]

Thanks. Here's to hoping it doesn't follow MoonMan's time table however 

[Kyzrati]

Moonman is going swimmingly, too, he just happens to be swimming across an ocean

On topic,

Most text editors are effective tools as long as they support monospaced fonts and utf8. The animation strategy is the same as traditional animation, where you calculate where the key frames will be, based on animation length and frame rate. Then you "draw" said key frames and tweak them until it's good. Finally, copy paste the frames and modify them. It's a similar amount of work to low res pixel art. The resulting text file is a long vertical sequence of frames.

Since the visuals are defined as much by the chosen symbols as the coordinate of each symbol on the grid, ascii editors that have their UX inspired by pixel drawing apps are less productive than a text editor because those are focused on coordinates only. Ascii symbols are NOT analogous to a color palette, they are an additional dimension to the problem. Once you have memorized where the most important keys are on the keyboard it becomes productive when coupled with copy pasting and find/replace. In other words, I haven't found the right tool yet that would warrent the integration overhead into my workflow. Once I have the right tool I think I could make even better stuff. Stone Story 2?

That seems like an inefficient way to make an entire game. Would you be able to design a tool yourself that would be more effective than a text editor? How do you store data files now? As txt frames? Then you just import them into the game, or do you have some other tool for previewing animations?

[eigenbom]

Haha you guys

[standardcombo]

I have a sub-app which is a fast way to preview animations. This approach works well for smaller pieces such as weapons and enemies, but it hurts when doing larger set pieces which is where I think the biggest jump in quality would be with a tool. I should be getting a windows machine in a month or so and I will try *rexPaint! I have a really good idea of what the tool should be like, and it would take a long time to make so for now I'm happy with this approach (I'm a fast typer) I am just limiting the quality so I can keep pushing production forward and get it done soon. Most of the work has nothing to do with animations. I've been spending a lot of time lately redoing the data structures, flag and trigger systems to chain the level logic together for example.

[standardcombo]

Lol i called rexpaint regex  not sure why that's funny but it cracked me up

[Kyzrati]

Lol i called rexpaint regex  not sure why that's funny but it cracked me up

That TOTALLY confused me when I read your post earlier . I mean, I guess you *could* use regex for something like this, but... that sounds like a nightmare, and a very weird tool to go with it.

Looking forward to hearing feedback from your use of REXPaint! I know what you mean about a simple text editor being nice to work with, especially once you're good with all the shortcuts, though REXPaint has vastly increased my own productivity (plus I can cheat and add whatever features I happen to need =p).

[oodavid]

Lol i called rexpaint regex  not sure why that's funny but it cracked me up

Oh dear god, do you use a lot of regex in Stone Story? May god have mercy on your escape sequences...

[standardcombo]

Only in one place I think. I'm not that kind of crazy

[JobLeonard]

It would confirm that you are a Wizard, though.

[standardcombo]

Line Art

To quickly catch anyone up, there are 3 over-arching styles of ascii: line, solid and block. Stone Story uses almost entirely line art with a bit of block for full screen effects.

Code:

. __ __    LINE (What Stone Story uses)
.(  V  )
. `. ,'
.   '

Code:

d8o8b    SOLID (usually algorithmic conversions of real photos) 
Y888Y
 Y8Y
  Y

Code:

░▄█▄█▄░    BLOCK (kinda like pixel art)
███████
░█████░
░░███░░
░░░█░░░

This past week I spent a bit of time thinking about non-traditional ascii symbols that I have spotted floating around the web which manage to retain the same line style. I'm not referring to asian or anything, merely symbols not part of the original ascii character set. For example, this is how you would draw straight lines in traditional ascii:

|   /
|  /  ,'
| / ,'   _
|/,' _,-'
 ',-'
   --------
 .`-._
|\`.  `-._
| \ `.
|  \  `.
|   \

And here is the same pattern with a couple of new additions to the alphabet:

|   /
|  /  ,´
| / ,´    
|/,´  ,·´
 ',·´
   --------
 .`·.
|\`.  `·.
| \ `.
|  \  `.
|   \

Notably the latin acute replaces the single quote, and the middle dot replaces the hyphen. Of course those symbols are still used, but for certain diagonals it looks smoother this way.

As you may know, I extensively use over-score ¯ to solve many problems with something as dynamic as a game, such as defining the top shape of an overlapping transparent element. With 18 or so open slots on my table (256 alphabet limit) I am on the lookout for new inclusions as they become handy. As long as the style is preserved, I'm not a purist by any means.

"Anti-Aliasing"

While it is smarter to design art which fits the constraints of the style, during animation certain 'impossible' lines have presented themselves. If you have a quick eye you will spot these in the game:

|  |  |  |   I am talking of course about the use of negative
|  |  '  '   space to draw lines in certain angles which are
|  | |  |    not possible at this resolution
|  ' |  '
| |  ' |
| | |  '
| | | |

|  |  |  |   This is an alternative approach you will see a lot
|  |  /  /   of people use. I think it looks terrible
|  | |  |
|  / |  /
| |  / |
| | |  /
| | | |

|  |  |  |   A slight variation. Still terrible. But I suppose it
|  | /  /    depends on the texture of the object being drawn
|  | |  |
| /  | /
| | /  |
| | | /
| | | |

One of my goals with Stone Story is to show that ascii art is not a 'dead language' and that it is still evolving. I hope this post helps to demonstrate this idea by summarizing a few of my discoveries.