I think it looks great as is, and I'm sure once he's actually placed in a scene, any of the little flaws won't stand out so much. I can't decide between the first version and the last though.. I think I kind of like that the last one has been smoothed out a little.. but personally, I don't know if I find the head bobbing is even really necessary, at least when it's that pronounced.. we do have spines after all.

Usually what I'd do is go on Google, search for cityscapes and then grab a few pictures for use as reference. In this case, I'd be looking for ideas as to building shapes (try mixing it up maybe; roofs don't all have to be flat, try using spires, domes, etc), and I like to sample colors. You can use the eyedropper tool to pick colors directly off of a bitmap. Have variance in size too, though I can see you've done that somewhat already.

Sticking with silhouettes is fine, though that would mean either erasing lines or making them the same color as the building fills. If you want to go beyond basic, you could consider getting really into the details; add things like aerials, satellite dishes, cables, clotheslines, cranes, etc. To give the illusion of depth, consider creating 2 or 3 "layers" of buildings, and experiment with muting the color slightly more for the layers further from the player, simulating smog. Also consider having the backmost layers pan at a slower speed (if the background is to pan at all).

Why doesn't he just use the elevator?

Hey.

Looking for a voice actor to do some narrative for a game, recordings should be nice and clear. Narrative needs to be in a fairly serious tone, and that of a teenager, aged maybe 14 - 18. Needs a bit of a southerly accent, but NOT exaggerated or hokey. Think.. the opening sequence from No Country for Old Men, narrated by Sheriff Bell. Not asking to emulate, should feel natural!
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mx52S8Zk Ug

Here's the bit I'm hoping you guys could read, in bold:
We was a good ways west of Appalachia by this time, makin' our way toward the Texas border and the desert beyond. It'd bin nearly a week since we'd crossed paths with those men, and we was finally feelin easier bout it all and not watchin our backs so much no more. We was even startin to look forward to what we might come across next.

PM me here or email chancebanning@gmail.com with interest / submissions. We can talk further then. Thanks!

Why don't you just make the game instead of posting topics about it? My guess is this will never be completed.

So is this collab officially dead?

I think it's nice for the most part,

What fps are you using? I'm also getting what looks like lag on the mouse trail effect, but can't tell if it's just low fps or not. It'd be nice if everything altogether ran a little quicker and smoother.

I guess the dimensions of the swf are final? If so, personally I'd like to see everything shrunk down a fair bit, I'm not a fan of big giant buttons. On top of scaling everything down as a whole, I'd also reconsider the proportions.. I find the buttons are dwarfing the text in the center.

Other than that, color is nice, layout is pretty good.. overall I like it.

..it looks good, but what will you actually do in the game?

Yeah, I'd up the framerate and make use of easing at the least.

At 3/5/09 11:13 AM, BillysProgrammer wrote: Be aware, blablabla

You're just cruisin to be a mod huh?

Badim?

What has to be done exactly to get this thing out the door?

Pretty good so far, seems solid.

I'd play with the character movement though, make it so it isn't so much like.. when you move you're already at top speed. Add friction to the ground, etc, maybe more animations. It's funner when the character feels like an actual person moving around rather than a block, for lack of a better explanation.

More zombies maybe, with different personalities? Some limp around, others run at you on sight, etc.

It's going to need a little extra something too to set it above all the other generic zombie shooters.

Yea, I think you should just dive in and do it. If you do it well, people are going to like it.

You can't really show some sketch of the menu and how it works and expect any serious response. Just make the game and don't think so much about it.

Tomorrow night? hmmmmm tempting

example?

I don't know if it's supported in AS3 or not, but I still use random(), usually works for what I am doing.

Whereas.. the line of code..

trace ( random(5) );

..would output a random integer from 0 to 4.

Sad, I actually think this one's a really good idea too.

I'm just curious as to what is actually happening with this collab, why the immature response?

Brutal? Alright,

So the sunset thing is already covered, good.

The clouds, to start - if you look outside you don't see a single cloud every minute go flying by like it's late for something. Clouds drift by lazily, and rarely do you see small single clouds sparsely dotting the sky. Look into cloud formations and aim for something more realistic. I'd also ditch the hard shading and black outlines, clouds are wispy, fluffy things.

Grass can be tricky, especially when working with vector graphics. I'd check out Adam Phillips work for reference, the Brackenwood series. Hard shading can be more effective here, and add texture if possible. The hill itself is very round, an uncommon sight in nature.. change that up for sure.

The tree isn't bad, but try to incorporate shading to add to the realism. While you've avoided the typical thick trunk with the knothole and fluffy perfect green leaves, it could still use work. Trees are never really that color either, look outside and see. Look up trees on Google and grab colors from pics you find. Add swatches you create to your color palette for repeated use.

Other points..
- Add depth by bringing in foreground or background elements, it'd make a huge difference.
- Sun is really big, scale that down maybe. Keep the soft gradient edge though.
- Add other subtle details such as leaves twirling in the wind, bird high up in the sky
- Consider texture, everything isn't flat. Texture = shadowing. Consider your light sources too.
- Reference the real thing to avoid first grader cartoonish style.

Hey, so I'm looking forward to watching this collab you guys are working on, but it's dragging on ridiculously long, and is horribly run when compared to other collabs currently in production. Maybe some deadlines should be set at this point, and stuck to? Or why doesn't someone else take the reins and get this thing out the door? Now.. more excuses, or actual results?

I felt I had to comment and give congratulations on such a beautifully illustrated and laid out site, nice work.

At 1/21/09 09:55 PM, PigMaker wrote: Hello,
I am attempting to output a simple .jpg file from whatever is currently happening in the Flash .swf

Check this.. http://www.sephiroth.it/tutorials/flashP HP/print_screen/

At 1/11/09 02:56 PM, kris008 wrote: is it almost done yet ive lost track over the last month just been way too busy. looking forward to final result tho :)

I wouldn't hold your breath on an answer to that one, seeing as nobody else has gotten a response yet unless through pm? Maybe the collab's progress is classified?

I'll take a stab.. but only pseudo, not going to try and write it all out in proper syntax.

I'd start by running a for loop that runs through each mc in your array and checks the distance from the x/y of each mc to the x/y of the mouse, using the Pythagorean theorem. If you are okay with it checking the center point of your mcs, it will be easier.. if you want it to check to the outside edge of the mcs, that would be tougher. You'd have to perform a series of hit tests I'd imagine along the path between the mouse and movieclip until one equated to true.

I would create two variables, one for the current distance being checked and one for your highest distance. The first time the for loop plays, it would enter the first distance checked as your current highest value. Each subsequent time it runs, it would need to check if the current distance between movieclip and mouse is higher than the value of the highest distance variable; if so, it would replace that variable with the current distance checked.

After the for loop completes, you'd need to run a check to see what the highest value was..

Alternatively - though I don't know if this is possible - you could store all the distances from the for loop mentioned above in a separate array.. if you can then reorganize the array in order from lowest value to highest, that would be perfect, you can then just trace the last value in the array. I'm pretty sure you can sort arrays alphabetically, so this may just be possible. Definitely would be cleaner.

Keep in mind this is all just theory, so someone else could maybe chime in if I'm off here.

Don't do top down.

May be a little tough, but I'd go for something similar to Dad'n'me, faux-3d or whatever you want to call it.

You could set the depth of the buttons to something really high like 50000, and start the depth of your "paint" movieclips at 1. You'll have to look into controlling movieclip depths if you don't know.

No prob, I just know from experience the best way to get something done is to do a little planning, blast through it, then clean it up and worry about details. I've let go enough projects due to small hangups and procrastination, which leads to disinterest altogether.

I'd suggest not letting the title hang you up. Hammer out the movie, smooth it out, then worry about the name afterward.

It's spelled "series" btw

One point I should mention actually is that using the above method, your script isn't constantly checking for a condition; the listener will perform the specified actions one time upon your trigger.. which in the above case is the pressing and releasing of the A and D keys.

Someone more experienced can correct me if I'm off on something here.

I don't think it's that big a deal when used on such a small scale as what you've shown above.. the only real problem with it was it was constantly setting your timeline to the first frame, then toggling between the first and second frame really fast when you have a key down.

...but yes, in the case of key pressed at least, there is an alternative fortunately. Check out listeners. You'll have to look them up (actionscript dictionary?) for real understanding, but here's an example.

keytracker = new Object();

keytracker.onKeyDown = function() {
	if (Key.getCode() == 65) {
		trace("you are pressing down A");
	} else if (Key.getCode() == 68){
                trace("you are pressing down D");
       }
}

keytracker.onKeyUp = function() {
	if (Key.getCode() == 65) {
		trace("you have released A");
	} else if (Key.getCode() == 68) {
		trace("you have released D");
	}
}

Key.addListener(keytracker);