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Messages - dreamisle
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1
Challenges & Activities / Re: Hexquisite Corpse III
« on: July 25, 2018, 02:39:29 pm »
I’m also interested in participating in a fourth now that I’ve rediscovered Pixelation. :)

2
General Discussion / Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014
« on: May 16, 2013, 12:25:20 am »
Quote
Off topic: Why does it always have to be a girlfriend? Why not... I don't know, his dad or son or gay partner, or why does it have to be a male main character? Wouldn't it be possible to have a heroic female rescue their boyfriend? It's kinda annoying how every single game with a plot like this involves saving the female, making them the reward or object of the game. Aka removing agency. Harumph.
Because 95% of people playing this kind of game will be male. Because 95% of said males would rather rescue a girlfriend than a gay lover or a janitor.
It sucks if that fantasy isn't one that appeals to you, but you have to remember art is usually made to appeal to the artist themselves, or to what the artist considers their audience. The overwhelming audience for this would probably prefer it just the way he has it.

I'd imagine it's because "I want to create something that I'd enjoy!" is what most artists think, not "how can I appeal to the LGBT/minority/handicapped/otherwise fringe consumer?", and there's absolutely *nothing* wrong with that, in my opinion. Things get made a certain way because they're popular. There's nothing malevolent about it. People just make what they want to play, hear, or see. =)

Of course, there might be some monetary incentive for tapping into the smaller, less catered to markets, but a small 2D maze game is probably best with the simple, old-fashioned story...

My two cents, anyway. My game's going to have a female protagonist, just because I think girls are adorable and dudes are gross. But again, I'm doing it for myself, not for the females out there. If I'm going to spend a million hours making something, I think I deserve to make it the way I'd like to see it made...and I'd argue the same for everyone else!:3

95%? But half of gamers are female. 8l And how do you know how many male gamers are gay?
Furthermore, how do you know whether they'd want to rescue their girlfriend, father or mother? I never said "make it some random person", I asked why can't it be something else than just girlfriend. Why can't the reward be something else than sex for the main character? I'd imagine a lot of people can relate to rescuing their beloved family member than a love interest, as everyone has had a parent figure but not everyone has a significant other.

Of course they think "I want to make something fun!" You don't normally think about social issues until someone tells you, because it's always been like this. Humans are naturally really good at sticking to rules and tradition, but rules and tradition can become corrupted or old-fashioned, they can turn out to be damaging and need revisement. Culture provides these revisions to law and traditions, because it permeates everything. Thus, raising awareness is the best thing that can be done in a forum like this, when we aren't making laws but culture.

I don't believe male gamers are so inhuman that they can't relate to a female main character. Females can find it in themselves to relate to a male character, homosexuals can relate to heteros. Why can't the opposite be true?

Claiming people won't be interested in female heroes is a self-fulfilling prophecy, as that makes people less inclined to make heroic female characters and thus there are less good female characters to choose from. Do you see the cycle?

Notice that I'm not perfect myself. All these years I've hated my own gender in games, because they have always been portrayed in a way that I can't relate to. I still don't think to make female characters.
However, having become aware of these issues, it's actually making me -want- to do a female-main char game just to try and see if it can be done well.

I can't even imagine how gaming would look like outside of this situation, but I damn well want to find out.

edit: Also, I think this discussion needs to be branched into its own topic. It's too big and will derail the topic at hand.

Some points to consider about the game whose topic this conversation was spun from:
  • I'm making the game for the company I work for as a tie-in with our website's mascot, so the main character is non-negotiable.
  • None of my opinion on hetero- vs homosexual relationships matters since I'm making it for a work project. My boss is conservative. I consider myself lucky just to be able to get paid to draw pixel art and sling code, and the LGBT battle just isn't worth it in this scenario.
  • I'm gay, and I've always complained about Harvest Moon-type games only portraying hetero relationships.
  • Rescuing a female companion just seemed like a better objective than "collect all the coins in the maze because I said so."

3
Pixel Art / [WIP] Maze Game Title Screen
« on: May 15, 2013, 08:28:49 pm »


The protagonist is a turquoise cartoon owl with a tuft of green hair. He's trying to get through the mazes to reach a fortress where his girlfriend is being held captive.

This is the first big piece of pixel art I've done, and the first time using such extensive dithering. Looking for feedback on my technique and the composition in general.

4
Pixel Art / Re: FRED THE PANDA!!!
« on: May 13, 2013, 04:28:12 pm »
I like the waviness of the tree trunks, but the way they sort of randomly appear on one side or the other confuses me as to where the light source if in this mockup. To add to that, some of the bright spots on the trees tend to imply conflicting light sources as well. A good starting point for the next iteration of the pixel art might be to choose a specific light source area and start working toward everything  using that source.

5
Pixel Art / Re: Violetblight Quarry
« on: April 05, 2013, 03:47:26 pm »
I kinda like the previous version better, mainly because the lighter bits didn't make the contrast feel quite as heavy as the dark bits do in the new version. It might be worth exploring what your lightsource is and using that as a means to change the lighter parts of the tile to another hue.

For what it's worth, I love oldschool blocky maze games, and I'd play the crap out of a maze game set in this mine.

6
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Maze Game Tileset
« on: April 05, 2013, 03:39:29 pm »
Thanks for the comments skw. I've tinkered more with the vertical tiling of the snow level, but I'm still unhappy with it. FWIW, my coworkers seem to like the new grass texture much better, but maybe I can scale back a bit.

Since my last edit, I've added more tile variants, top-edge tiles that have a bit of transparency to remove blockiness, a new coin image, and I have a link to the current beta version of the game as well:

http://www.smartlivingnetwork.com/smarty-sprint

7
Pixel Art / Re: Hey guys I'm back
« on: April 02, 2013, 01:25:49 pm »
Before getting too deep into C+C, are all of the elements you intend to include present on this version?

If so, issue number one would ideally be to reign in that grid/map. Right now, the orange really overpowers the rest of the color, even though the blue and red should be the focal point of the data you're presenting. Consider changing the map colors to something more muted, like a darker version of the background color. Then, change the blue and red to stronger, more visible colors; maybe that's a better place for that orange.

Issue number two would be to unify the icon look and feel across the card. The sword doesn't have nearly as much gloss to it as the heart and shield, and the stars, sword, and shield all have outlines whereas the heart has none.

Hope that helps a bit, and I look forward to seeing where you take this.

8
Pixel Art / [WIP] Maze Game Tileset
« on: April 01, 2013, 03:19:24 pm »
Hello. It's been quite a while since I've posted here, and probably just as long since I've last done any pixel art.

For a work project, I'm putting together a simple maze game featuring our company mascot. I currently have three level themes with tiles. I'm OK with them so far, but I know they need some improvement - I'm just not sure what exactly.

Sprite/Tile Sheet

Shipping Level

Snowy Level

Sunny Level


Possibly relevant details:
  • I've tried to keep it to as few colors as possible, but in a few cases I used my pencil tool at half opacity. :(
  • The coins and character are currently scaled down from vector, but I'll be redoing them as pixel art later.
  • The game generates maze levels randomly, and the two full-square tiles are randomly placed.
  • I'm open to adding additional tiles to each of the sets for a better end result.

Any feedback would be appreciated a ton!

Edit with way updated copies:


  • No more lame tool-assisted brushing.
  • Character redrawn as sprite.
  • Vastly redone grass/hedge tiles after re-reading this article series.

9
Sort of final version. Unless more people have feedback.

10
More updates. I'm not sure how to make the pan more visible though. Any ideas would be appreciated.


Updated the layered file too:
http://www.thegriddle.net/pixelation/recipe1.xcf

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