I have a mockup. The rocks on the ground are troubling me. They don't seem quite right, but I dunno what to do to fix them. Thoughts, anyone?
Some from Angel Island, some from Mushroom Hill, and some from Lava reef. Unless you're telling me that you don't want to tell me what I can do to make the rocks fit better because these aren't original graphics.
I think he's telling you to use some original graphics since all of it is cut and pasted from elsewhere and it doesn't fit as well as it could if you made something else that'd fit more.
I would suggest recoloring them to make them look better. Also, the grass should have a shadow on the rocks.
Oh. That's beyond my skill level so I guess I'll just have to make do with what I can do. It'll look a lot worse if I tried to make original graphics I know the rocks need to be recolored, but it's not as simple as changing the color (atleast I don't think so). The purple in the rocks comes from where the light source is in Lava Reef. I don't know where I should put the light source in this case, though. Also, about the grass shadow. I just plum forgot about that.
In this case, treat the purple as a darker shade (when recoloring), since there's no light source. That's what I'd do personally.
Didn't seem that hard. Although it still looks very boring. It's just Mushroom Hill. It needs some more variety.
It's not bad; it beats mere palette-changing, at least! Even this level of graphical novelty would go some way towards earning my attention, as I think I'm much less inclined to play a new level layout if it uses the same old graphics (often not even recoloured). Admittedly, S3&K isn't as vulnerable to this, as I think the only hack I've played of it is The Challenges.
Color theory is not my strong point. But thanks for the help. I agree on the variety. I'm going to try adding some rocky features into the background, but I wanted the foreground rocks sorted out before-hand. Since this was so easy for you, would you mind describing why you chose the colors that you did so that I can do this on my own in the future? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Instead of making a new post, I'll just drop this here. Like I said, original graphics aren't my strong point. Besides the relatively flat vine there, what can I do to make this more appealing?
Metal Overjunk Zone! (or aftermath of Overlord and Eggfleet collapse) Yes, I make some bonus-arenas for the Sonic Fusion's multiplayer mode. Btw, say hello to the rusty head! And also you can listen to the music theme I've chosen for the zone: http://file.qip.ru/audio/n-OOHtY1/OVERJUNK.html
I really wish I knew how that online shit worked...I'm probably making it more confusing than it actually is.
I sorted out a small demo for this concept. Move around, shoot, flip from black to white. Black ship can move around on white background but not on black, though the black ship can still fire black bullets. Vice versa. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27392295/ghostpoliceb.exe The only problem is, I don't really know where I should go with this concept. Worms/Artillery style, destroying the terrain to uncover new routes/treasure? Or Minecraft style, putting up makeshift barricades and adding to the terrain so enemy waves will crash into it?
To me that sounds like a good idea for a shmup. Have the black and white background change as the level scrolls, to create challenge in the level. Have the enemies and their projectiles possibly follow the same rules as the player? Perhaps a penalty for touching the black when black and white when white. Have parts in the level where you maybe have to build barriers to protect yourself (imagine a boss fight like that!), or parts of the level need to be destroyed to get by.
Default idea is to have white enemies on black background and black enemies on white background (same colour as the player, basically), so they'd be firing the same ammo as well. That way the player could fight a wave of black ships, then flip over to the black space of the screen and shoot down the white ships - building up a chain of kills. Need to build on that idea though. The thing about destroying the terrain is that at the moment it only works if you're black-on-black (destroying the white backdrop) or white-on-white (destroying the black backdrop). So it's a coin-toss between penalising the player for colliding 'on' the background (if you flip to black on a black backdrop then BAM lose a life/lose your multiplier), or letting them flip to the background colour and move around freely... which kind of removes the possible danger/point of having two different background layers (black ship can only move on white space, the black space acting as a barrier)? Adding to the terrain, though, that seems to work just fine (so the barrier boss would work, for example), just not sure about coordinating with terrain destruction. I already have two 'action' keys in use (one for shooting, one for flipping) and I was considering making mouse input mandatory (so you could decide where to shoot, rather than just vertically) which would require the left and right buttons. How many mice nowadays have three or more buttons?
Maybe instead of an added penalty for being same on same, work with the mechanics that are there already - the player can't move if he's same on same. Perhaps destroying an enemy on black while black gives more points then destroying one while white on black. Of course, the risk there would be being unable to move and dodge enemy fire (or kamikazes). You couldn't ask for a better risk/reward mechanic. As for mice, I'm pretty sure that 3 button mice are the most common these days. But, that has five potential buttons. Left, Right, and Middle click, and then scrolling the wheel up or down.
Update. The engine itself works well and even comes in two flavours - One Ship (right-click flips between colours) and Two Ship (right-click switches between them), though there's no penalty for same-colour collision yet. I'd like some feedback as to which [One or Two] would be the better option for the final game. Also you can use the mouse wheel to change the size of the bullets so you can shoot all over the level. It's not instant (ship to cursor) so drawing is rather stunted, but instant 'drawing' drives a wedge between the gameplay and the ships. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27392295/ghostpolicec.exe
Still fairly early, but I've been working at this 2.5d Sonic game engine in Blender's game engine for a little bit now. The list of things to implement is still pretty huge though (Springs, rings, getting hit, enemies just to list the most major), so I doubt I'll even apply for a booth at SAGE for it. Maybe next year. My major focus is getting the engine to a good playable state right now, so I don't really have too much to show in the way of things that look pretty, my only graphical work so far has been modeling, texturing, rigging, and animating the Sonic model Not the best render, I know, but it's one I already had from previewing the model. I'm also aware there are a number of flaws in it, but most of them aren't visible in game anyways so I didn't worry too much about them. (Like the eye texture slightly missing where I wanted it, and the slightly mis-shapen muzzle.) Maybe I'll tweak and improve some of it later on. I'll make a thread whenever I think it's actually far enough to do a public demo. ^^
Good stuff. I can see this turning out as yet another very well made Sonic clone. Wish you well on your project. There has really been an increase in the number of 3d Sonic material lately.
