AuthorTopic: Pixelation: The Game (Part 2) (Read 19694 times)

AdamTierney · **on:** February 03, 2006, 08:26:44 pm

So here's the latest game from Pixelation/Pixelopolis alumn. The game was informally announced today (meaning it's not in any press releases, but its existence is no longer a secret).

X-Men 3 for GBA
Developed by WayForward Technologies

Designer/Producer/Director
Adam Tierney (Sals)

Sprite Designers
Josh Astorian (Jawsh)
Gustav Kilman (Gustav)

Additional Sprite Designs
Kenneth Fejer (Tennis)
Noe Ortega Tsuji (Panda)

X-Men Animator
Paul L. Robertson (not Pixelation, but a lot of you guys know him)

Enemy Animators
Joakim Sandberg (Konjak)

Level Artists
Kenneth Fejer (Tennis)
Ben Rosaschi (Monsoon2D)

crab2selout.png · **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2006, 10:02:06 pm

Congrats to all the pixelators! I like hearing about this kind of stuff, Adam, keep it up. Is this your first time in the role of Designer/Producer/Director, Adam?

Also, the name konjak seems very familiar, but I didn't get any results when I did a search on the board. Does konjak have a website or a showcase of his work somewhere??

AdamTierney · **Reply #2 on:** February 03, 2006, 10:03:34 pm

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?action=profile;u=237

First time directing GBA solo, but not directing in general.

- Adam

crab2selout.png · **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2006, 10:10:17 pm

That's odd, the search function must be broke or something, the only results I found were for this thread. Oh well, best of luck to you on your solo position.

PyroPiranha · **Reply #4 on:** February 03, 2006, 10:30:18 pm

Great news, great talent.

My only concern would be it's a movie based game, but seeing who's on board, and with Tierny at the helm, I'm sure you will all do it plenty of justice.

Nice work, guys.

Ryumaru · **Reply #5 on:** February 04, 2006, 01:12:34 am

it would only be bead if they had some gay prerendered 3d model sprites. but with pixel artsists i dont think there will be much of a problem

Captain Blood · **Reply #6 on:** February 04, 2006, 01:34:19 am

Aw man. Given the subject matter this is one game I reckon I'd enjoy doing. Good luck to the lot of ya. A ton of talent in that team.

Blick · **Reply #7 on:** February 04, 2006, 06:35:01 am

Wow, Panda has a pro gig. He's one I expected to get into the circuit and I kept waiting to hear something of him working on a commercial product and I'm glad to see he finally is.

AlexHW · **Reply #8 on:** February 04, 2006, 07:29:50 am

These things always make me jealous..
Congratulations with the game.

AdamTierney · **Reply #9 on:** February 04, 2006, 08:40:57 am

Actuallly Alex, I wanted to have you work on something if you're available. Grab me on MSN this Monday.

- Adam

Turbo · **Reply #10 on:** February 04, 2006, 10:43:40 pm

This sounds great. Do you have a release date? Good luck to you all!

Conzeit · **Reply #11 on:** February 05, 2006, 12:27:29 am

Quote from: Alex Hanson-White on February 04, 2006, 07:29:50 am

These things always make me jealous..
Congratulations with the game.

ditto c.c.......I know I AM at wayfw...but I'm all alone c.c

Crazy Asian Gamer · **Reply #12 on:** February 05, 2006, 12:29:39 am

Whoa sweet, PRobertson. And Konjak.

I remember Konjak won that animation WayForward contest. And he's good.

Sweetness. Monsoon 2D's doin' the levels.
I have a GBA. As soon as this thing gets out... Well, I'll see if I got spare cash, heh.

Well, indeed, I hope you all do it grand amounts of justice.

I wonder if Camus' gonna do anything, I mean. There might be quite a bit of sprites...

dtek · **Reply #13 on:** February 05, 2006, 07:50:12 am

Congrats guys....
now work on
"Ancient Temple" Game Development
and
"Battalion Strike" Game Development
(from the activities forum)
!!!!!

Xion · **Reply #14 on:** February 06, 2006, 02:26:29 am

Quote from: dtek on February 05, 2006, 07:50:12 am

Congrats guys....
now work on
"Ancient Temple" Game Development
and
"Battalion Strike" Game Development
(from the activities forum)
!!!!!

Yes!
lol.

Quote

Designer/Producer/Director
Adam Tierney (Sals)

Sprite Designers
Josh Astorian (Jawsh)
Gustav Kilman (Gustav)

Additional Sprite Designs
Kenneth Fejer (Tennis)
Noe Ortega Tsuji (Panda)

X-Men Animator
Paul L. Robertson (not Pixelation, but a lot of you guys know him)He is now, it seems.

Enemy Animators
Joakim Sandberg (Konjak)

Level Artists
Kenneth Fejer (Tennis)
Ben Rosaschi (Monsoon2D)

Holy freaking crap, this ought to be good.
I can't wait.

AdamTierney · **Reply #15 on:** February 06, 2006, 05:41:16 am

Camus is a WF guy now, just not on X-Men.

"Do you have a release date?"

A few weeks before the movie. Not positive, sometime around end of April, early May?

- Adam

AdamTierney · **Reply #16 on:** May 18, 2006, 12:37:06 am

The game's out now. Go buy it!

- Adam

Faktablad · **Reply #17 on:** May 18, 2006, 02:01:44 am

Aw man, it's in 3D, apparently. No leet pixel skills to show off here.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/gba/x_men_the_official_movie_game/images.php

Still looks great though. Are you sure those are the actual screenshots?

ndchristie · **Reply #18 on:** May 18, 2006, 02:23:03 am

those cant be actual screenshots, the GBA is incapable of 3d graphics (except for animated cutscenes which would take up so much space on the cart that hardly anyone bothers with them)

they may be for a game by the ame title, but not one for the gba thats for sure

robalan · **Reply #19 on:** May 18, 2006, 05:28:34 am

The official website for the game is usually a good place to look for screenshots ;-) Check the media section under Screenshots->Handhelds->GBA. I see some very nice work in there; it looks great. I recognize certain styles in the shots; there's some very Monsoon2D dithering in some of the backgrounds, and I regognize Panda and Jawsh's work in the sprites. It's a pity none of the screenshots are animated; I'm sure that's one of the great parts of the game, graphically. I'm sorry I don't have a working GBA, because I'd love to play this game.

AdamTierney · **Reply #20 on:** May 19, 2006, 07:03:06 am

I wish more screens were released. I have a few great ones I snapped that Activision never released. In the shots on that site, playfield BG art is by Fejer, far BG is by Monsoon and sprites are by Jawsh & Gustav.

- Adam

st0ven · **Reply #21 on:** May 19, 2006, 07:36:18 am

Quote

These things always make me jealous..
Congratulations with the game.

heheh... you just have to be thankful that not all of our talents are going to waste man

you know, adam, why dont you get some of those blokes posting here again, i cant remember the last time ive seen a gustav work.

Also i must congratulate you as you really seem like youre moving yourself right along in the chain of command, next time i see a post of credits theres going to be the big 'executive' word as the first word in your title

(ps when are these web screenshot guys going to learn not to scale down, then scale up, then blur and then save as jpg? hahah)

Lick · **Reply #22 on:** May 19, 2006, 11:50:38 am

Quote from: st0ven on May 19, 2006, 07:36:18 am

(ps when are these web screenshot guys going to learn not to scale down, then scale up, then blur and then save as jpg? hahah)

Yeah, exactly! It bothers me too.

Anyway, it's nice to see you posting again too, st0ven. You know why? I do.

AdamTierney · **Reply #23 on:** May 19, 2006, 06:03:46 pm

"you know, adam, why dont you get some of those blokes posting here again, i cant remember the last time ive seen a gustav work."

I think Gustav was pretty light on the posting even in Pixelation days. He does work on hobby games pretty consistently though. I'll see if I can get him to drop by and share some of that.

"(ps when are these web screenshot guys going to learn not to scale down, then scale up, then blur and then save as jpg? hahah)"

Don't get me started. How hard is it to save as a gif and increase the pic in 100%s?

- Adam

Helm · **Reply #24 on:** May 19, 2006, 10:45:34 pm

Gustav's stuff I learned so much by studying. He's my daddy.

Filax_666 · **Reply #25 on:** May 20, 2006, 06:26:16 pm

i just played it and the game is just amazing...some screenies too!

btw: those portraits aren't hand pixeled, right?

AdamTierney · **Reply #26 on:** May 20, 2006, 06:49:02 pm

Josh Astorian did the sprites and the pink trees, Paul Robertson animated Wolvie and Ken did the snow and white trees. This part looks a little repetitious but the rest of the game is a little more varied. I'll hafta take some shots too, now that it's out. The portraits were done by Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend (two of the monthly X-Men artists) and then colored by Pablo Ruvalcaba (an artist I work with).

- Adam

Filax_666 · **Reply #27 on:** May 20, 2006, 07:25:32 pm

Oh, the animations...those are so sweet...

And the sprites too...oh, I'm in love with the game...

I had a crazy idea...I'm not sure if anyone ever thought about it, but we could make a CC on this game!

Conzeit · **Reply #28 on:** May 23, 2006, 03:38:18 am

I second that notion, if that were the case it would be more about how the game is really made and what the design choices behind each graphical feature is, and not so much about what we imagine they could have been.

Adam, would you mind if I just made questions about why you made some specifical design choices here?

AdamTierney · **Reply #29 on:** June 05, 2006, 05:42:58 am

Fire away.

- Adam

Lick · **Reply #30 on:** June 05, 2006, 10:43:21 am

Yes, I have a question also.
Why did you choose to put the default platform-height in the middle of the screen? (This causes, as seen from the screens above, the earth-tile to repeat many many times.)

miascugh · **Reply #31 on:** June 05, 2006, 10:51:18 am

it seems to be exactly the height of the portrait-textboxes, and also is a lot less work and memory consuming as background? just some quick thoughts, the repetition stood out to me right away too

AdamTierney · **Reply #32 on:** June 05, 2006, 04:48:44 pm

One of the casualties of working on a tight deadline. We should have lowered the camera in that level, since it's all outside, or crafted a more dynamic camera. The reason it's centered in the screen is because most of the game is indoors with multiple floors, so we needed the player to see what's below them at all times. But the short answer is it's one of the many things in this game that could've used a little more tweaking, but we simply ran out of time. Luckily, I think the snow tile is really the only overly-tiled looking bit in the game (or at the very least, the most obvious).

- Adam

Conzeit · **Reply #33 on:** June 09, 2006, 04:27:24 pm

well,I'd like to start from the beggining.

they gave you this project, as a "port" of the ones on the main consoles, how much restrictiion did this bear?

I imagine they required you to use multiple mutants and switch them on the run, but what other restrictions came with this? a given storyline? the bosses to face? specific level events?

as far as I've gotten on the game, I notice the sprites are mostly monochromatic, is this something you required or the modeler's choice?

crab2selout.png · **Reply #34 on:** June 09, 2006, 07:36:14 pm

The animations are lovely, Adam. If I can get up the will, I'm going to try and capture some of the walk animations and attacks. I could learn a lot from these animations, especially about force and strength from Colosus.

AdamTierney · **Reply #35 on:** June 10, 2006, 12:17:32 am

I have to start off by saying miascugh, your avatar is fantastic!

I totally wanna touch it.

"they gave you this project, as a "port" of the ones on the main consoles, how much restrictiion did this bear?"

Actually handheld games always start being tied into a release date, but don't necessarily have to be total adaptations. It depends on what the dev wants to do. We took their basic story, which went all over the globe, and took the best bit (the Alkali Lab section) and expanded that, as well as adding lots of cameos and fun ideas we had. All in all, we had a huge amount of freedom on the game, even which characters to use.

"I imagine they required you to use multiple mutants and switch them on the run, but what other restrictions came with this? a given storyline? the bosses to face? specific level events?"

Nope, multiple mutants were our idea from the first pitch. We wanted a game where you really felt the differences between each mutant (strength, speed, etc) instead of just being interchangeable art. We had to keep the basic storyline the same, and a lot of the process is give and take. We use this mutant, we get this boss, etc. But they gave us almost 100% freedom on the levels/settings, and I don't think they forced a boss on us either. We even got to put in X23, her videogame debut!

Believe it or not, the biggest restriction was costume. We began the game back when no photos were released of the new movie, so all our characters looked more like the X-Men Legends versions. When the photos were released, we redesigned everyone to match their movie versions.

"as far as I've gotten on the game, I notice the sprites are mostly monochromatic, is this something you required or the modeler's choice?"

Well we are limited to 15 colors per sprite, but it was mostly a stylistic choice in the part of Josh and Gustav. It definitely makes things easier for the animators.

"The animations are lovely, Adam. If I can get up the will, I'm going to try and capture some of the walk animations and attacks. I could learn a lot from these animations, especially about force and strength from Colosus."

Go Paul Robertson!

- Adam

Conzeit · **Reply #36 on:** June 13, 2006, 06:00:51 am

I see now...you guys had the most trouble re-editing all the models to look like in the movie...is that why wolverine looks so...well, fuzzy? :p

AdamTierney · **Reply #37 on:** June 20, 2006, 06:45:05 am

Screens on IGN:

http://media.gameboy.ign.com/media/802/802718/imgs_1.html

- Adam

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AuthorTopic: Pixelation: The Game (Part 2) (Read 19694 times)

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