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Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 3:00 pm
by Damocles
Im working on a game using an isometric tile engine. But the tests are from a project that is on hold for now, until
the current project is done. (sounding a bit cryptic, but I have realized that I went a bit too feature intensive, so the current one is partly to get feedback if
the project on hold is feasible)

(-> all as a hobby, its not my main occupation)

I have worked in the game industry before. And I have experienced, that doing game development as an occupation quickly drains the fun out of it.


Here some sreenshots of an older game prototype, I have made originally for (ancient) JavaME phones: Image Image more here:
Spoiler:      SHOW
Image Image Image

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 7:24 am
by IronDuke
Instant Red Alert vibes there. :D

--IronDuke

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 7:27 am
by Cornflakes_91
IronDuke wrote:Instant Red Alert vibes there. :D

--IronDuke

yeah, i also had a bit of total annihilation feel from it.

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 7:32 am
by Dinosawer
On the other hand, I was immediately reminded of Starcraft (the original, not 2)

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 7:36 am
by Cornflakes_91
Dinosawer wrote:On the other hand, I was immediately reminded of Starcraft (the original, not 2)
to sum up our thoughts: "all the RTS games from the late 90's / early 00's " :ghost:

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 7:44 am
by Talvieno
Idunno, those walls kind of remind me of Age of Empires II. :ghost:

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 8:12 am
by Damocles
Starcraft and Red Alert where the main inspirations for the graphical ascetics. The reason for it looking like a 90s titel was more due to the limitation of
keeping the whole game smaller than 250kb and have a fast rendering. In fact its not isometric rendering used here, but a simple grid tile rendering using 24x24 sized tiles.
(similar to how Starcraft renders the map) wich is way faster, but unfortunately quite a bit harder to edit the map. (I did not come around creating automated tile-placement, so the
map tiles are actually hand placed).

The original target where those funny "key-phones" running JavaME that some might remember from their parents.

The way I have created the environment and model artwork would probably make any real artist laugh, but the workflow was effective enough to create what I needed.
Here an example of the tilesheet during development: Image

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 8:43 am
by Cornflakes_91
Damocles wrote:Starcraft and Red Alert where the main inspirations for the graphical ascetics. The reason for it looking like a 90s titel was more due to the limitation of
keeping the whole game smaller than 250kb and have a fast rendering. In fact its not isometric rendering used here, but a simple grid tile rendering using 24x24 sized tiles.
Meh, technical graphics quality is far behind graphical arts quality. Do the arts well and with love and they stay pretty far longer than would be expected on the surface from pixel count and rendering tricks.

For example Nexus: the Jupiter Incident.
Its still looking awesome despite being 13 years old!
(As long as you dont zoom in too closely and see how mushy the textures are by todays standards)

Damocles wrote: The original target where those funny "key-phones" running JavaME that some might remember from their parents.
People in here arent that young :ghost:

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:21 am
by Talvieno
Cornflakes_91 wrote:People in here arent that young :ghost:
Speak for yourself. I'm twelve years old and what is this?

:ghost:

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 1:31 pm
by Dinosawer
If have to wonder, if you could make that kind of stuff work on a javame phone, why could I never find a proper RTS when I had my Android tablet :cry:

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:09 pm
by Damocles
If have to wonder, if you could make that kind of stuff work on a javame phone, why could I never find a proper RTS when I had my Android tablet :cry:
Its not a technical limitation. (I know it can be done)

RTSs are a risky investment for any studio, as they know it will have a smaller target-player base than a Match-3 or racing game for example. That might be the reason
why no larger studio really invested into a top tier RTS for mobile devices.
So its usually only smaller developers who would attempt that. (no idea if anyone ever made an oldscool RTS for Android)

Another thing is the problem of the user interface and controls.
Nothing can beat a mouse+keyboard in an RTS. Thats why it is so hard to pull of that kind of gameplay on a console or touch device.

And mobile games usually concentrate on having short play sessions (only a couple of minutes for one "level").
Partly because those games a played at short breaks or waiting for the bus. An RTS mission could last substantially longer, and a match could not even be "paused" in
a multiplayer session.

A MOBA (reasonably similar to an RTS) would probably make more sense. As the player can concentrate on one central Character and his abilities.
Its easier to create a control scheme for that.
I would probably also include base-building strategy in such a gameplay, but using your hero as the central "activator" to give commands,
having to run to prefixed locations and deciding what to do economically there. And your entourage of minions following the hero automatically.

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:25 pm
by Silverware
Damocles wrote:
If have to wonder, if you could make that kind of stuff work on a javame phone, why could I never find a proper RTS when I had my Android tablet :cry:
Its not a technical limitation. (I know it can be done)

RTSs are a risky investment for any studio, as they know it will have a smaller target-player base than a Match-3 or racing game for example. That might be the reason
why no larger studio really invested into a top tier RTS for mobile devices.
So its usually only smaller developers who would attempt that. (no idea if anyone ever made an oldscool RTS for Android)

Another thing is the problem of the user interface and controls.
Nothing can beat a mouse+keyboard in an RTS. Thats why it is so hard to pull of that kind of gameplay on a console or touch device.

And mobile games usually concentrate on having short play sessions (only a couple of minutes for one "level").
Partly because those games a played at short breaks or waiting for the bus. An RTS mission could last substantially longer, and a match could not even be "paused" in
a multiplayer session.

A MOBA (reasonably similar to an RTS) would probably make more sense. As the player can concentrate on one central Character and his abilities.
Its easier to create a control scheme for that.
Android does have a few strategy games, but they tend to be turn based over real-time for the reasons detailed above.
It's unfortunate, I agree.

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 10:36 am
by Scytale

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:07 am
by F4wk35
OMG Scytale :shock:

That's seriously nice writing! :o

Re: LT forum ART and Hobby Center

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:08 am
by Talvieno
Your blog has a lot of chinese stuff on it. :) As to the calligraphy: that's a lot more complicated than I imagined, but the script you show on that page is gorgeous. You can tell I've been on the Internet too long because I reflexively looked to see if you left a font download link. :?