AuthorTopic: Delta Force  (Read 7494 times)

Offline AlienQuark

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Delta Force

on: October 18, 2007, 03:34:29 am
Been working hard on a conceptual project of mine:

Not sure what of this has been shown...





Rough Mockups:


Old:New:(Still WIP)
Text was not pixelled, added later for personal conceptualizing. Testing things out and such.

Tell me what you think, I would really prefer some of the more hardcore critiquers to get their hands on this, everything is up for critiquing. Have at it.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2007, 03:37:00 am by AlienQuark »

Offline Xion

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #1 on: October 18, 2007, 05:41:57 am
The new tree's roots look kind of plastered to a plane on a different angle than the grass/hill appears to be, as opposed to the first tree, in which I also liked the way the roots came away from the ground in a few places.
And I still think the patron(s) look out of place.
Otherwise, noice.

Offline Jad

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #2 on: October 18, 2007, 07:10:30 am
:O Girl in portrait has scary glass-y eyes as opposed to the guy who just looks good somehow. I would place her eyes just a little more far apart and ease up on the glossiness and shines. :]
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Offline AlienQuark

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #3 on: October 18, 2007, 01:41:27 pm
Xion: Yeah, I need to figure out how to shade properly, and figure out where the hell my perspective is to make it look proper. I haven't even touched the hils' grass, which is why it's so flat. I really don't know how to make the patrons look more in place. I did change the shoulder piece you mentioned before, changed them from circles to triangles and simplified them a bit. That picture is a little out of date anyways. The rest are at least a little more current.

Jad: The girl portrait and sprite need an overhaul for sure, I'm not one for drawing girls, they're just not my forte. The portrait especially is bad.

Offline Souly

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #4 on: October 18, 2007, 01:46:43 pm
Oh how I love these.
The boy's portrait looks odd compared to the other two.
But other then that I just adore these.


This is just sexy.

Offline baccaman21

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #5 on: October 18, 2007, 03:15:41 pm
aww maan.... something magical is going on inside that head of yours... I'm really digging this... as a concept that is. I want to know more... it's a really interesting idea... and I don't even know what the idea is yet !? - but I'm hooked regardless. Lovely imagery, even tho some is in a crude WIP state but nevertheless it get's across a really nice melancholic ambience. It's almost got a Studio Gibli feel to it...? Spirited away...?

These few screens suggest a hidden depth that appears to have some intelligent thinking behind it... I'd love to know what that is... have you got a whole world and storyline? Or is it just a few streams of consiousness that have yet to find a cohesive whole?

Either way it's bloody great. especially the skull guy.... (he's kinda familiar tho) ... I love his dialogue... I can HEAR his voice already...

I recall seeing that water giant elsewhere which leads me to suspect there's more to this than meets the eye... and if so, it screams of a project of huge scope.

Intriguing to say the least.

One thing I would be wary of though is the title... Delta Force...? It conjures up images (in my mind at least) of dodgy 80's straight to video movies about militant gold spandex wearing futuristic fighting force with homo-erotic overtones... not good... :n:
« Last Edit: October 18, 2007, 03:22:25 pm by baccaman21 »
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Offline Stefano

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #6 on: October 18, 2007, 03:33:55 pm
I remember these pics from a couple of months ago. You've added quite a bit of cool stuff, though.
For starters, I really like the overall grim and monkey-islandish point-and-click adventure mood it's heading towards.

Couple of questions: will these make it into a real game? In case you answer is yes, can we know more about the story?

I did an edit on your girl, because as it was already pointed out, the eyes were looking glassy and a bit far apart. I'd add to that list the deep cheek lines (don't know the exact word for that).
I've fixed those issues on the pic bellow. For the skin, grabing one of your yellows and desaturating/darkening it a little bit and using as a color ramp smoother did the trick:
Yours:
Mine:

Cheers,
-Stefano

Offline AlienQuark

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #7 on: October 18, 2007, 06:42:37 pm
baccaman21: I've solidified the concept to the point in that I know exactly why things are the way they are, nothing is arbitrary in my pictures. The black stuff in the corner has a specific symbolic meaning, the white water monster has a specific role, as does the skeleton boy and everything. I've completely mapped out the concept and premise of WHY everything is going to happen in the story. All I'm missing right now is the specific places needed to move the story forward. I know how it begins, how it ends, and why it's happening in the first place. Trust me, I think it's an idea that, if not original and new, will at least be portrayed in an interesting way.

I've purposely left things ambiguous here, because the whole point of this story would be to leave you wondering why things are happening. If I explicitly explained why everything is the way it is, why even bother showing it to anyone, because you would know everything before it even happening. It would just ruin the fun of becoming immersed in it.

Haha, and the Delta Force thing is a joke, that's in no way related to the story. The story's actual name is "The Delta Odyssey" which is supposed to impose ideas of classic epic stories, such as Homer's The Odyssey. Delta Force has nothing to do with anything here.

Think of this more as my Alice In Wonderland.

Stefano: WOW, that is an amazingly helpful edit, and exactly what I've been looking for! Thanks a billion for the edit.

Ok, so I left things too ambiguous I think. YES, I do intend this to be a game, and have been working at this concept for what could be closing in on 2 years now. I've just finished writing the first "chapter" of this story which is about 2400 words long just to give you an idea of how hard I've been working to make this a real thing. I've got plans for the next chapter, but I've yet to write it out.

Let me explain some things. The whole premise of the story revolves around The Boy (skeleton protagonist) and his determination to find his identity. The story starts on the hill with the tree with the Boy waking up with no memory whatsoever: no name, no recollection of his past, no idea whether he even had a past, why he's dead, IF he's dead, and basically questions every single aspect of his existence. The black stuff is The Void, basically like the black of space, theoretically it is the essence of nonexistence, literally a void. I can't say more about it, because it could potentially ruin its purpose, but it has symbolic significance, not just made as a gameplay aspect.

I'm going to stress right now, that nothing I've shown has been implemented as purely a gameplay aspect.  I haven't even solidified the gameplay aspect of things, so everything you see here is pivotal to the story.

I think I'm getting a little tangential and confusing. I wrote out a pretty nice summary of things over at TIGSource forums, so if you go to http://livetheodyssey.blogspot.com/ and follow the link, you can see all the character bios I have so far, and better explanations of some things here. Also, that blog is my dev log for the project, so things that get finalized will show up there. Hopefully I can sexy it up in some time, I just started it, and I'm really inexperienced with blog maintaining.

Okay, I've said a lot, and probably haven't kept it very coherent, so try and filter out what you want from this, and hopefully the other thread I've referred you to answer some more of your questions.

Offline baccaman21

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #8 on: October 18, 2007, 06:59:00 pm
ha ha... I knew it - I thought there was more to this than meets the eye... I love it. I love it's metaphysical aspects. I love the thinking behind it... it's not just pixels it's everything about it. Tremendous effort.

ANother thing it reminds me of is Cerebus (by Dave Sim) for some reason I know not why... perhaps it's whimsical vibe.

I hope you see it realised one day.
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Offline Stefano

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #9 on: October 18, 2007, 07:19:12 pm
Wow. Excelent! Thanks for all the info, that's exactly what I wanted to know.
I second what baccaman said and I've just started looking at your pixels from a different perspective. There's no tangency or confusion on what you've said.
I'm just so tired of games packed with gorgeous flamboyant makeup jobs, but filled with fast-food, themed crap. Check these flash engines out: http://www.gamesinaflash.com/ egipt? Greece? Halloween? Paint it and sell. :blind:

*sets off to read the blog*

Cheers,
-Stefano

Offline Rargh!

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #10 on: October 19, 2007, 10:24:04 am

For me, I've got vibes of Nightmare before Christmas meets Grim Fandango meets Spirited Away. Very nice stuff. And I think Stefano's edit does a great job at taking away the glassy look. But, that said, there was something "alien" about the girl's eyes that was really appealing. Something other-worldly. Maybe somewhere between Stefano's and the original would be awesome...?

Offline Helm

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #11 on: October 19, 2007, 10:51:45 am
Just forget making every background perfect and go with the 'rough background' style you've got going now. I am saying this because for a project of this scope you'll need so many assets, it's best to finish it than not to finish it.

Offline AlienQuark

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #12 on: October 19, 2007, 12:36:58 pm
Just forget making every background perfect and go with the 'rough background' style you've got going now. I am saying this because for a project of this scope you'll need so many assets, it's best to finish it than not to finish it.

This is probably one of the biggest reasons why I've considered taking on extra help from someone more qualified to do that kind of work. But I'm not well known enough in the art community, and I'm not able to pay anyone, so it would have to be interest based only. And obviously I have a specific kind of vision for the project, so it'd be hard to find someone to match what I have in mind.

But yeah, for now these will do while I work out story and animation issues. I at least feel like I'm improving, which is good.

The responses I especially love getting back are the ones about what it reminds you of. I've heard almost all of my biggest influences come back at me, and it's nice to know it shows in the work. I'm referring to your answer Rargh!, Nightmare before Christmas and Spirited away (and in some stronger sense Howl's moving castle) all definitely had an impact on me, and it's cool to know that those influences are reflected in my work.

Offline Joel

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #13 on: October 20, 2007, 01:58:49 am
This is .. amazing work. Handheld console standard, if not better than many games out there. Don't give up with this one.

Offline AlienQuark

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #14 on: October 22, 2007, 05:43:06 am


Tweaked based on suggestions I got from some peeps. Yup.

Offline Jad

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #15 on: October 23, 2007, 02:22:35 pm
Just wanted to say that I'm loving it, and that the contrast between the tranquil motif and diagonal composition is very appealing :]
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Offline pkmays

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #16 on: October 23, 2007, 08:30:13 pm
I like these, but I'm really not digging the dark outlines. They are a bit too harsh, and I think it will look much better to remove any sort of outlining from the characters so they will integrate into the backgrounds instead of popping out. I made an edit to illustrate.



I also minimized outlining on the tree background. Having studied a few large fighter backgrounds, I noticed the artists really don't define edges in the backgrounds. Not sure exactly why, but it tends to look better just blocking in shapes of overlaping colors and avoid any heavy outlining. And again, little to no outlines for the character floats my boat much more than the original.



Anyway, make of this what you will. I still love whay you've got so far.

Offline AlienQuark

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Re: Delta Force

Reply #17 on: October 23, 2007, 08:50:57 pm
I actually prefer the harshness in terms of outlining, since I'm a huge pen-and-ink kind of guy, black outlines give me boners. The screen you edited makes everything look too pastelly for my likings.

.......Aaaaaanyways, the one thing I really like is what you did with the girl portrait. That's really the one thing I really am glad people have been editing. I really really suck at drawing girls, I need to get better. Otherwise my entire game will be a sausage fest  ???

So yeah, as greatful as I may be for the edit, the black outlines will stay as a stylistic preference, But I can try to find a way to dull them down a little so that they're not so harsh. That I can try to do. But I love bold outlines too much to completely ditch them.