So, I had an idea...

[ArkKay]

Hi everyone. After several test projects, I decided to embark on slowly making a game. I'm not a professional of any sort in either art, programming or music; but I do believe in hard work, perseverance, and the utility of the internet. After spending several sleepless nights on some things, I wanted to show something to the internet. Please let me know what you think.

Further information is also available on the submitted image in my profile.

It is a painfully small thing, and to more accomplished artists probably trivial, but posting it up here helps keep me motivated and preventing me from shelving the project, as it is one I have a lot of enthusiasm for.

Thanks.

[ArkKay]

At 11/26/12 01:30 PM, Amaranthus wrote: I'm gonna sound like a smartass again but can you program or make music?

I don't mind. Technically speaking, yes. On a professional level where things are accomplished in a reasonable period of time, no.

[Psionic3D]

It's a great start, keep going and you will learn a lot along the way. Good luck and never give up!

[GhostNixon]

This reminds me of LoneSurvivor

[justanotherfag]

Very cool idea, keep goin!

[ArkKay]

Hi. Thank you for the well wishes. I am currently working on a 6 frame walking animation. Its taking a while. Rear leg movements are fine, but it is forward leg that is causing me problems, as it is just not looking right. Its possible I may go back to the drawing board on the walking animation. Work is slow, but please understand that I'm only one person with a limit to human endurance and free time.

As for the Lone Survivor comment. I bought it and thought that it was a good game. I liked the simplicity of that game's design from a single person game design standpoint. Side-scrolling is easier than isometric or 3D.

But I'm not interested in cloning that great work, or any other work. My interest isn't even in game-making in the abstract. I like the idea of games as interactive story-telling mediums. I like the idea of telling a story to a player where the player's actions change the story and writing the ending based on their beliefs and choices. To this end, my script .doc is constantly expanding with branching triggers.

If I could make games without teaching myself art, programming, or music; i would abandon paint.net, flashdevelop, and fruity loops and use that magical method instead. Unfortunately neural interfaces are not here yet, so what dreamers like me have left are hard work and determination.

I'll try to update regularly, and post some images, but probably not today,

[radiodark]

Post what you've got so far and I'm sure we'll be happy to give you feedback.

[ArkKay]

Sure, I had some issues getting an animated gif posted, but these should be sufficient. At the time I wrote it I was unsure if I wanted to post or not, as I'm missing two frames. The issue i'm having is figuring out how to draw the forward leg going forward. Since I havn't had the hips/ass move at all, I figured I would be forced to do redo all the frames to include hip movement because knees don't bend forward. Unfortunately that's harder to do.

[radiodark]

You might find thisuseful. Also, for images that are too large for the forum you can post them to your dump and then link them here.

[ArkKay]

actually, that's immensely helpful, thank you.

[JamieWelch]

I wish you the best of luck! Hopefully it all turns out the way you want.

[Carrion]

I'm going to keep my eye on this thread.

[Lintire]

I have a friend, we've been friends for a while. Now one of the things he tends to do is make games that are, lets say, "heavily inspired" by existing works. His is to Planescape: Torment and Hotline Miami what yours is to Lone Survivor. They were never outright copies, he always lent a heavy dose of his own brainpower to the mix. Different characters, different stories, but the substantial stuff; the mechanics, aesthetic styles, everything that makes a game a game, was exactly the same, minor tweaks at best.

They were always constantly compared and constantly inferior to the existing games they were based off. His games, little projects that took a few months to complete, only started shining once he quit with that bullshit and started using his own ideas instead of ones from other games that just appealed to him.

Yours is too. Your game doesn't just "remind me" of Lone Survivor, I'm willing to bet that half the mechanics are stripped straight from the game, as well as the entirety of the visual art style. Jasper Byrne already made Lone Survivor, leave it be, and make something that belongs to you, instead.

If I want to play Lone Survivor, I'll go play Lone Survivor. It's one of the few games my laptop can handle, I play it often. The world doesn't need another side-scrolling horror game with a faux-film grain effect over an incredibly simplistic pixel art style. It's already got one.

[ArkKay]

Hi everyone. Sorry it took so long to update, but I've had some personal issues going on that reduced my spare time, namely fighting an unlawful eviction attempt. (I pay my rent)

Anyway. I settled on a four frame animation, I felt that it gets the point across well enough. Although not perfect, I can't really justify continuing to fine tune the geometry. I've went over it over and over and over some more, but I just couldn't quite get it any better. At least i'm happy with this much. Although I would REALLY, REALLY appreciate critique and input.

You can find the walk cycle animation here: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/arkkay/tentativewalking

Remember though, that it is in .apng format, so only firefox and chrome browsers will properly display it. The .apng converter I use isn't ideal, so strange artifacts and a missing part of a shoe occur, but the pixels I want you to pay attention to are intact.

On the back end, I mean programming side, I've implemented the walking animation and changing rooms. What I'm planning to do now is implement object sourced light. This is not altogether difficult to do, as I have some invaluable tutorials to look at, its just that I have a lot of things I want to have going on with the environment at different times/rooms, so it will take a while.

ART WORKORDER:

Darkness filter
Additional darkness filter of total black to follow player
Exterior Fog sprites
Exterior Fog filter
Additional Fog Filter of total opacity to follow player
Nighttime Fog and etc
Red Fog and etc (might be shitcanned as unnecessary depending on certain other factors)
Very minor static filter
Moderate static filter
Severe static filter
additional mushroom tracers filter to overlay static filters
Flashlight light source
Flashlight light source as it moves with player

GOALS:

A functional alpha test where the player can travel though the 3 major environments, pick up a flashlight and walk through them again with a flashlight.

Lastly, I wanted to address Lintire's comments point by point vis-a-vis game design, but I thought it would be unhelpful at this juncture. So I will instead point out that I carefully thought about it and I disagreed on several points, refer to my previous post, and make a point of saying that those comments are duly noted and considered, as will anything written here.

I immensely appreciate all input, even those, and perhaps especially those I don't agree with or like. Thank you very much for your time, consideration and input.

[bigjonny13]

At 12/18/12 05:11 AM, ArkKay wrote: Remember though, that it is in .apng format, so only firefox and chrome browsers will properly display it. The .apng converter I use isn't ideal, so strange artifacts and a missing part of a shoe occur, but the pixels I want you to pay attention to are intact.

Anyone who wants to view it on chrome needs to download the APNG addon

[ArkKay]

In case the .apng issues were a problem, i figured I would just post a static image.