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Messages - sigvatr
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1
Job offers / [PAID] NES Style Game Graphics
« on: December 07, 2013, 05:15:18 pm »
Hi there,

I am looking to have some short term pixel art commission work done as part of a long term game development project that I intend on preparing a Kickstarter campaign for by mid-next year. If the Kickstarter pitch succeeds, the pledged money will go almost entirely to pixel art, meaning there may be plenty more work in the future. Depending on how well capital investment into the initial Kickstarter campaign performs over the coming weeks and months, there may be commission work available for multiple artists. If the campaign is successful, work will be offered to several candidates over the next year.

I have written a fairly sophisticated game development framework and engine that emulates the look, sound and feel of a wide variety of vintage video game consoles. This particular game I am using my API for is essentially a "new" NES game, somewhat like the recent Mega Man games released on modern consoles. This means all the graphical assets I require use the NES palette, etc.

I have some rudimentary pixel art skills, but I have been programming 50-100 hour weeks consistently for nearly five years on this framework and don't have the time to spare on graphics myself. Here are a few concepts I have created for this project:



Optional video signal processing emulation (don't make fun of my muscles):



My engine's native synthesizer is capable of authentically emulating the sound of most consoles spanning from the very first progenitors all the way to the Neo Geo, also including several enhancements and real time filters. Here's a screenshot and a few videos of it in action:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myHNh5yC1DU (random generation demonstration)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huFVDdBAJl8 (melodic demonstration)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HzUBueeUCA (deprecated version demonstration, but it is still nice)

I have a defunct dev log for my project here if you would like more information:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=28653.0

My requirements for pixel art are fairly simple; most animations will not require more than four frames and the palette is usually limited to three colors (four including transparency), but occasionally up to six.

If you are interested in and available for this project, please contact me at the email address specified below and let me know what your price range and/or rates are and samples of your work. When my schedule permits, I will kindly request that you join a Google Hangout so I can provide feedback while you work (and you can watch me code in exchange).

My email address is:

sigvatr@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Cheers!
- Sig

2
Unpaid Work / Re: Brain Damage
« on: October 06, 2012, 10:37:28 pm »
Hey, that's pretty neat.

3
Unpaid Work / Brain Damage
« on: October 06, 2012, 03:20:17 pm »
(this post can also be found on Pixel Joint)

BRAIN DAMAGE

WHAT IS THE BDAPI?

I have been developing a video game development framework and engine over the past three and a half years in C++. It is called the Brain Damage API, or simply BDAPI. My intentions for the BDAPI are twofold: to provide an effective and transparent interface between low-level procedural generation technology and the developer (mastering chaos, as I like to say) and to implement a cross-platform, virtual 16-bit console aesthetically styled according to the Sharp X68000, MSX Turbo-R and Neo Geo MVS systems.

WHAT'S THE POINT?

Game development based on the BDAPI, and in particular the creation of in-game assets, is intentionally limited according to the constraints of typical 16-bit consoles. Twofold again, this allows the developer to rapidly create in-game assets during both the development of the game and during runtime, and also because 16-bit consoles such as the SNES and Sega Genesis are f**king badass.

IS IT A GAME?

I am working on a game in parallel with the BDAPI, but I will elaborate in heavy detail on that at another time. It suffices to say that the BDAPI was designed and developed specifically according to the needs and requirements of this game, and apropos, the framework was eventually fleshed out to support many more projects in the future. Once the projected and necessary specifications of version one of framework have been implemented (three and a half years of full-time development and counting, currently refactored down to a tidy 45,000 lines of code), I will ideally be able to rapidly create expansive gaming experiences far into the future.

WHAT FEATURES DOES IT PROVIDE?

  • Hardware accelerated software rendering emulation, which visually presents you with the quintessential low resolution, palette restrictions and sprite graphics of pre-32-bit systems, optionally filtered through a variety of legacy analog display emulations (CRT, NTSC, PAL), while making full use of the GPU in the procedural generation of graphics assets behind the scenes.
  • Audio synthesis based upon a heavily modified Yamaha YM2151 sound chip, supporting common and useful audio processing filters such as low-pass, reverb and equalization. Speech synthesis functionality is extended from and modulated through the FM synthesis system, launching the Yamaha OP family of sound chips far into the 21st century.
  • Powerful, developer-friendly and real-time capable procedural generation of 2d and 3d graphical data, sound effects, music, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
  • Reactive and dynamic music generation responsive to the game world and player's actions; in combination with the audio synthesis system, reponsiveness is essentially instantaneous.
  • A rich toolkit suite supporting the game development process and Brain Damage file formats.

SOUNDS GREAT, WHEN'S IT COMING OUT?

I am never releasing the source code or dynamic link libraries because I am a selfish republican asshole. But I just wanted to let everyone know about the great tools I have to work with! You'll just have to wait until the first mystery game based on the BDAPI comes out to play with it (hint). To add insult to the injury, what little third-party code I make use of in the BDAPI is licensed under MIT, BSD and zlib licenses.

Unfortunately, a realistic projection of completion and release taking into consideration my current working habits, stamina and progress so far is sometime before the end of 2016 at the earliest. That's not just a number I pulled out of my ass; I still have a great deal of work to do.

THANKS FOR WASTING MY TIME, BUDDY!

Hold your horses, mister! I have for you here a sneak peak of the BDAPI's audio synthesis system; a video of it in use (with sound, of course).

       

SO WHAT DO YOU NEED?

Although the BDAPI currently features some rudimentary texture generation capabilities, I still have not made much progress in the field of sprite or animation generation. In fact, I think it is quite a long way off. Suffice to say, the game engine component of the BDAPI is nearing completion and I as of yet have no sprites to make a game with. What I am looking for is someone with pixel art experience to create, for the moment, a base humanoid character sprite and animations so that I can begin to make progress in the game development side of things. The game being worked on in parallel with the BDAPI is a platformer with a loose fantasy theme that has not yet been fully fleshed out, so I am quite open to suggestion regarding the evolution of the game theme and setting. Once we have a base humanoid character sprite and animations implemented in the game, we can move on to whatever catches our fancy. And of course, you will be allowed an encouraged to tinker with the tools I have developed as part of this project.

HOW DO WE PROCEED?

If you are interested in helping out, please contact me at sigvatr@gmail.com . Unfortunately, my website is currently down, which is a shame because it is a very fancy site with lots of information.

Any feedback will be gratefully accepted!

Thanks!
- Sigvatr

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