88 replies to this topic

[Butane9000]

Urge to go back and play MechCommander intensifying...

[Odanan]

I'm just pointing this because your work is so good:

- The Kit Fox has 30 tons, not 35;
- The Mad Dog has 60 tons, not 80.

BTW, any chance of the Clan Wave III to appear soon? I'm very curious about how you will do the Executioner.

Edited by Odanan, 24 March 2015 - 02:57 PM.

[Will9761]

Any plans on making the Wave 3 Clan Mechs?

[Alistair Winter]

Odanan, on 24 March 2015 - 02:31 PM, said:

I'm just pointing this because your work is so good:

- The Kit Fox has 30 tons, not 35;
- The Mad Dog has 60 tons, not 80.
BTW, any chance of the Clan Wave III to appear soon? I'm very curious about how you will do the Executioner.

Will9761, on 19 April 2015 - 11:50 AM, said:

Any plans on making the Wave 3 Clan Mechs?

Definitely, but I want to see the final in-game models first. I need to see their size relative to other mechs. And let's see if the players can make an impact on what the Ebon Jag looks like

[Odanan]

Alistair Winter, on 19 April 2015 - 12:40 PM, said:

Definitely, but I want to see the final in-game models first. I need to see their size relative to other mechs. And let's see if the players can make an impact on what the Ebon Jag looks like

Oh...

[Mechteric]

Question for you Alistair:

If I were to (one day) come up with an open-source game idea using the 2D sprites you've crafted, properly attributed to your artistic genius, would that be cool with you?

[Yosharian]

How do you actually set a signature? I'm going full ******, can't find it anywhere

[process]

Yosharian, on 23 April 2015 - 09:56 AM, said:

How do you actually set a signature? I'm going full ******, can't find it anywhere

Go to your Forum Profile, click Edit my Profile, then check the Signature tab. Make sure your 'Ignore' Preferences are not set to ignore all signatures.

[Alistair Winter]

Odanan, on 19 April 2015 - 01:31 PM, said:

Oh...

Sorry brah, the differences in concept art and actual game models is just too big. Most of the time, the 3D art team get it right, but sometimes... I really don't know what they're smoking. If I was Alex Iglesias, seeing what those guys did to the beautiful concept art, I would throw a hissy fit.

CapperDeluxe, on 23 April 2015 - 07:18 AM, said:

Question for you Alistair:
If I were to (one day) come up with an open-source game idea using the 2D sprites you've crafted, properly attributed to your artistic genius, would that be cool with you?

I'd love that! And I'd be very interested in seeing how you solve that. The most natural thing to do for a BT game is to make it a top-down strategy game, or isometric perspective. But mechs generally look like grap in top-down perspective, and are hard to tell apart. And isometric perspective is extremely difficult and time consuming.

But yeah, go for it. I'd love to see it

[Redinator]

Fantastic!!!!! THX

[Karyudo ds]

Alistair Winter, on 23 April 2015 - 11:19 AM, said:

I'd love that! And I'd be very interested in seeing how you solve that. The most natural thing to do for a BT game is to make it a top-down strategy game, or isometric perspective. But mechs generally look like grap in top-down perspective, and are hard to tell apart. And isometric perspective is extremely difficult and time consuming.

But yeah, go for it. I'd love to see it

I've seriously given it some thought. Top-down to me is just terrible. In general. Nothing actually looks all that good from that perspective unless it's specifically designed with it in mind.

If I were going to use these guys it would be isometric. I wouldn't think it would really be MUCH more time consuming beyond things like having frames for the different angles and some animation but really at that point it's going to look MUCH better so it'd be worth it. Though I would ditch the hexes period. Classic maybe but so awkward for design to me.

Really I think the only extremely difficult part would be setting it up for decent multiplayer...and I only say that because Tactics was terrible in execution. Not that it wouldn't be doable.

[Alistair Winter]

Karyudo ds, on 25 April 2015 - 09:55 PM, said:

I've seriously given it some thought. Top-down to me is just terrible. In general. Nothing actually looks all that good from that perspective unless it's specifically designed with it in mind.

If I were going to use these guys it would be isometric. I wouldn't think it would really be MUCH more time consuming beyond things like having frames for the different angles and some animation but really at that point it's going to look MUCH better so it'd be worth it. Though I would ditch the hexes period. Classic maybe but so awkward for design to me.

Really I think the only extremely difficult part would be setting it up for decent multiplayer...and I only say that because Tactics was terrible in execution. Not that it wouldn't be doable.

Isometric view is extremely time consuming, and also requires a lot more skill for such complex models. Comparing isometric view versus a simple 2D front view is a vastly bigger task, we're talking orders of magnitude when animation is involved. Which is why game developers were so quick to switch to animations based on pre-rendered 3D models for games like Diablo, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, etc.

[Karyudo ds]

Oh, it's not really THAT bad but it does depend very specifically on what you are actually trying to do. If you look at the first Front Mission for instance they played on a square grid and so only used 2 mirrored angles with very simple animation on the map, probably no more than 10 frames a piece and the used a combat view with larger sprites from the same angles to cut down on the workload (no need for shooting angles etc). I mean sure, having more frames will take longer than just a single frame but worth the effort for me.

I mean if I were going for post SNES level animation I would probably just make the entire thing 3D at this point anyway. Pre-rendered is sorta silly... well unless we're talking mobile I suppose.

Edit:Of course when saying all this, I'm not really thinking a small open source project, but a decent looking game.

Edited by Karyudo ds, 25 April 2015 - 11:14 PM.

[Odanan]

I'm trying with a friend a simple game using Winter's sprites. Let's see what comes out of it.

[kosmos1214]

Karyudo ds, on 25 April 2015 - 11:12 PM, said:

Oh, it's not really THAT bad but it does depend very specifically on what you are actually trying to do. If you look at the first Front Mission for instance they played on a square grid and so only used 2 mirrored angles with very simple animation on the map, probably no more than 10 frames a piece and the used a combat view with larger sprites from the same angles to cut down on the workload (no need for shooting angles etc). I mean sure, having more frames will take longer than just a single frame but worth the effort for me.

I mean if I were going for post SNES level animation I would probably just make the entire thing 3D at this point anyway. Pre-rendered is sorta silly... well unless we're talking mobile I suppose.

Edit:Of course when saying all this, I'm not really thinking a small open source project, but a decent looking game.

yah thats what the disgaia games do to this day from what i under stand its not to hard

[sundanca]

Nice work

[Alistair Winter]

kosmos1214, on 29 April 2015 - 02:38 PM, said:

yah thats what the disgaia games do to this day from what i under stand its not to hard

Karyudo ds, on 25 April 2015 - 11:12 PM, said:

Oh, it's not really THAT bad but it does depend very specifically on what you are actually trying to do. If you look at the first Front Mission for instance they played on a square grid and so only used 2 mirrored angles with very simple animation on the map, probably no more than 10 frames a piece and the used a combat view with larger sprites from the same angles to cut down on the workload (no need for shooting angles etc). I mean sure, having more frames will take longer than just a single frame but worth the effort for me.
I mean if I were going for post SNES level animation I would probably just make the entire thing 3D at this point anyway. Pre-rendered is sorta silly... well unless we're talking mobile I suppose.
Edit:Of course when saying all this, I'm not really thinking a small open source project, but a decent looking game.

I'm not going to get into details. But for a single artist, it's quite difficult and very time-consuming to animate a bunch of isometric pixel art mechs. The reason why we don't see more pixel art games like this, isn't because they don't look good (because they look gorgeous!) or because they're outdated (there's an infinite number of popular isometric browser based games). It's just that they're relatively expensive to make as pixel art, precisely because it is difficult and/or time-consuming process. So people use other art media.

But don't take my word for it. You can try to make an isometric pixel art Timberwolf in GIMP and post the results here. Maybe you'll find that it's just as easy as you said. And then we'll all have some brilliant new pixel mechs on the forum. Everybody wins

Odanan, on 26 April 2015 - 03:49 PM, said:

I'm trying with a friend a simple game using Winter's sprites. Let's see what comes out of it.

Fantastic! Meanwhile, I'm debating whether or not to have an early attempt at Resistance pack 2, because I really want that Black Knight in my signature ASAP. But we'll see

[Odanan]

Alistair Winter, on 01 May 2015 - 01:05 PM, said:

Fantastic! Meanwhile, I'm debating whether or not to have an early attempt at Resistance pack 2, because I really want that Black Knight in my signature ASAP. But we'll see

Do it! Go wild! You only live once. ;P

But don't forget the Clan Wave III! That pack will really change my signature.

[EightBitKnight]

You Rule!! Thank you so much!

If you are gong to make more, can't wait for the new Resistance 2 mechs!

Edited by EightBitKnight, 19 May 2015 - 12:20 PM.

[o0cipher0o]

So, yeah, with a lot of delay, i have to add these to my sig. That is already too crowded. Oh well, looks like i'll need to make it a GIF signature...

GJ Alistair!