Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Fake_Kraid on November 13, 2008, 05:28:22 am

Title: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: Fake_Kraid on November 13, 2008, 05:28:22 am
In my final year of this Software Engineering program I'm in, I've had to take this easy math class called Mathematics of Graphics & Sound. It's basically just a really easy calculus/algebra course, real bird coursey in comparison to most math classes any of you guys going for a generic CS degree would have to take.

Anyway, after a lot of regular math class style assignments, we had to do this one actual programming assignment for it where we make a simulation of a golf ball trajectory using whatever language we feel like. The expectation was just to make a little graph program I guess, where you plot the line of the equation and animate it drawing over time and this is what most people did.

I thought that sounded really trivial and boring though, and couldn't get motivated to do it. Instead I decided it would be a lot cooler to make a little NES/SNES graphics representation of Alan Shepard Jr. hitting a golf ball on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission.

This version isn't the complete thing. I still want to add the actual moon lander and the american flag into the background. Also, I want to make the ball bounce after it lands as well as add some moon dust effects to the shot and the landing point. But she looks pretty good so far.

Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator (http://tsamurai.pyoko.org/roms/golf.zip)

DOWN ARROW - starts simulation
UP ARROW - resets simulation

It's multiple layers that overlap with the higher/"farther" ones scrolling slower than the lower/"closer" ones. The sense of depth worked pretty well. This is the same sort of 2D graphics effect I want to use for everything in a 2D side scrolling jet game I want to make called Devils in Heaven which will be sort of like the game Sopwith2 on steroids and with working multiplayer.

The image I used for mountains in the back is stolen from this Soul of the Beast demo thing and the astronaut is sort of cribbed from the one on the Pixel Jam site (http://www.pixeljam.com), I just added the club. But the ground layers and the little shadowed earth in the distance I drew myself based on this picture (http://www.geography4kids.com/extras/dtop_space/moonearth_580.jpg). I'm pretty proud of that Earth.
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: Emtch on November 13, 2008, 08:10:27 pm
And your pixel art is where?
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: TrevoriuS on November 13, 2008, 08:22:30 pm
DOwnload game and run to see, however it is just the ground plane, and I suggest you posting what this board is about, the art :p
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: Fake_Kraid on November 13, 2008, 09:42:41 pm
You know, I explained where the art is pretty fully in my original post.

No it is not just the ground plane, I drew the earth in the background too like I explain in the first post.

I don't think that posting this here and expecting people to give it a fair shot and sort of get a chuckle out of it was unreasonable. I was going on the assumption that people would actually read fairly short post and could understand English well enough to realize what I was posting. I guess that was too unreasonable for these boards.
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: Jad on November 13, 2008, 10:05:17 pm
You know, I explained where the art is pretty fully in my original post.

No it is not just the ground plane, I drew the earth in the background too like I explain in the first post.

I don't think that posting this here and expecting people to give it a fair shot and sort of get a chuckle out of it was unreasonable. I was going on the assumption that people would actually read fairly short post and could understand English well enough to realize what I was posting. I guess that was too unreasonable for these boards.

If there has been a misunderstanding, it shows a better display of character to point that out only, rather than express disrespect towards the level of language of the people who frequent this board, and, indeed, the whole forum itself.

I don't get why you're upset at all, actually. And I'm sorry that no one has (yet) explicitly POSTED about having giving it a fair shot and getting a chuckle out of it; though I do not understand why you assume that noone had.

EDIT: sadly my computer can, and I have no idea of why, not run the program, so it would be helpful if you could add the source image or a screendump of some sort to your first post. Thank you.
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: Helm on November 14, 2008, 12:14:41 am
I'd suggest you reconsider the attitude. You have a strike, it's best to not make them three. Don't expect people to go through hoops to see the art you want critique on. Either post it plainly or not at all.
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: Fake_Kraid on November 14, 2008, 01:44:58 am
Look, I'm sorry helm. I didn't mean to insult everyone on this forum, my remarks were actually just directed at Emtch. I thought that his post seemed like he hadn't even taken the time to read my post which seemed very rude and ignorant to me and so I saw no reason to have to respond with any more respectfullness than I perceived that I had been shown.

Quote
sadly my computer can, and I have no idea of why, not run the program, so it would be helpful if you could add the source image or a screendump of some sort to your first post. Thank you.

The application was created in C# under the .NET framework so if you have trouble running it, the problem might be related to the .NET runtimes and so forth.

Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: skamocore on November 14, 2008, 01:57:57 am
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v198/tumble_weed/moonthingy.png)

*sigh*
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: TrevoriuS on November 14, 2008, 09:41:05 am
You confuse me with saying you made the mountains yourself, as well as saying this at the end of your first post:
"The image I used for mountains in the back is stolen from this Soul of the Beast demo thing"

Either way, your landscape seems a bit... generic. The mountains are random peaks, and there seems no anticipation towards these mountains in the rest of this landscape.
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: Opacus on November 14, 2008, 12:58:13 pm
The landscape in front is single pixels, the mountain and the astronaut are double pixels and the earth is single pixels again?
What's the point in that?
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: rabidbaboy on November 14, 2008, 04:38:37 pm
Probably to make the mountains and the astronaut taller.

But yeah, mixing bittage=no.

First off, note that ripping is not received well on this forum, it just gets that way when you've got a lot of people who know how hard it is to work on something and then just have it filched. As artists, ripped art is a big thing. Look at it this way; how would you feel if someone took a game you worked hard on and then just put their own graphics without asking? Yeah.

Next, onto the graphics.

The graphics you actually made are ok, but they don't match the "stolen" mountains.The detail on the mountains just screams for craters and bumps and whatnot. The earth is not terrible, but the blur effect does not work.

You probably feel wronged, along the lines of "I just wanted to show a game, and I get this crap, what the hell!!", but try to see it from an art forum's viewpoint.
Title: Re: Alan Shepard Jr's Golf Simulator
Post by: AnarchoElk on December 06, 2008, 07:18:08 pm
Considering what you seem to be showing of the most is the Earth, I'll comment on that.

Personally, I like it, I like the effect of the shadows obscuring the bottom from view, one thing I think would help it out would be if you added some atmosphere to it. give it a bit of a glow, I suppose.

On to people's comments about the "stolen" mountains... He stated what was and was not his in the first post. and while I can understand the taboo of ripping, considering his comments I'm sure he wasn't trying to claim them as his own.

What I don't get is how this guy gets a "strike" for his attitude, when frankly, people with a lot more posts, who should have more sense were in my opinion much more rude.

I suggest you all reconsider YOUR attitudes, though I guess without a system to punish people I don't like, that carries much less weight.