Unityyyyyyy!

Just thought I would share with you a bizarre look at Into This World from a different point of view. And I mean that literally and also in a punny way. This is a screenshot from ITW being developed on the program, Unity.

Look at them there new fan dangled three dimensional looking photographs.

This is what Unity looks like when you move the camera around. Not so 2D sidescroller now are you? part of me wants to incorporate some 3D elements into the environment and then the other part of me says screw it, that's too much work, let's go eat a Klondike Crunch bar instead.

And the Winner is...

I got myself a shiny new gun! Try and take this out of my cold dead hands Mr. President! Pew pew pew! I'ma gonna shoot sumfin reeeeeal good like.
Thanks to Peter Queckenstedt. Who is Mr. Quakenstack? I mean Qrankenstein, I mean Launchpad McQueck... oh wait, I wrote his name right the first time. Never mind.
He is a fellow artist of many talents. You can check out his stuff over yonder...

http://scutanddestroy.wordpress.com/

Here is Peter's original design for the Sonar Drill.

And then my final rendition of it to make it fit on the EDU mech and line things up for gameplay reasons. And a splash of color.

Final version. Finally! 

I kept with the red power tool look but made it more industrial than Peter's design. Peter's design was really inspiring to see. I love to see another artist's vision of the same thing. You get so used to looking at an object at a certain point of view but it's nice to see someone else's point of view because they might have a better vantage point than you do.

Make a Weapon Contest!

Don't tell anyone but I am disguising this whole Build A Weapon Contest as a means for me to find a better design to the Sound Drill weapon.
If you have read my older posts, I go through a lot of changes...

"ME TOO!"

Well, uh... meet me after the blog, lady... dude... whatever. I meant that I go through a lot of changes in gun design. With some of the weapons, I can say that I nailed it the first time.

No more interruptions. As I was saying...

"Hey Bannon. Do you know where the "&" symbol is on the keyboard? Oh snap, I think I found it. Never mind. Carry on."

AS I WAS SAYING... The main weapon of the EDU mech is the Sonar Drill (Or Sound Drill) or whatever the technical name will end up being. Here it is, as it has developed over the months. Look at it. It's all growns up.

It's supposed to be a weapon that is a combination of a power drill, a turret gun and a sonar cannon. But for the life of me, I can't come up with a design I am in love with. This is where you, the reader/pixeler/artist/idea-man/pyro/juggler/babysitter/pie-taster/Spiderman come into play. I would love some feedback and participation from the peeps that stop by the site and have been following the development of the game. Not only will it help me but I would actually love to feature someone's design in the game. I see how many people (er, I mean peeps) stop by the site but I don't get that many comments or feedback. This will get you guys (er, I mean dudes) involved with the behind the scenes stuff (er, I mean shit).

Here's whatcha gots to do.

Copy the example below for reference. 

The first one is 300 times bigger than the actual pixels. The smaller one is the actual size of the gun. This one was my second to last attempt. But all you need to realize is that the actual gun size never exceed more than 32 pixels across and no more than 22 in height (22x32). The magenta background tile is 27x32 but I don't want the gun too tall to where it covers up the EDU mech. So try to keep it under 22 in height. Thanks, your'e a peach.

You can sketch the gun or you can make it using pixels in Photoshop or Paint. Whichever way, I would love to see your designs. And the winning design will be put into the game. Along with a character based on you that will be featured in the game.

"Big Deal. Been there, done that."

Yes, that's right. A pixel you! Along with the gun design, send in a photo of yourself and you'll get pixelized. It won't hurt. Well... maybe. Maybe a lot in fact. The first two runner ups will also get a pixel character for participating too. But your stupid gun design will be burned at the stake! Or is it spelled steak? Mmm... steak.

Send in your submissions to b2thesoft@gmail.com. Put in the header "Hey Jerk!"

Never Happy

Emo kid is so sad. So very sad.

"Glue your hand to the prison bars they said. Glue your head to your hand that is glued to the prison bars afterwards they said. It'll be fun they said."

I am in a constant struggle with being satisfied then spiraling into a deep depression over the fact that I am never happy with my weapons designs for the EDU. This is a little example (I think my second example on this site, actually) of how the weapons changed over the course of me designing the game. Some factors that get, uh... factored into the changes are as follows;

1. Color: It must stand out from the EDU so as not to confuse the player.

2. Size: Sometimes the gun covers way too much of the EDU and looks too bulky. Or it can look too thin and underwhelming.

3. Non Gun Shapeyness: The hardest part of designing these guns is the fact that they are not supposed to be a gun in the traditional sense. They should not have a handle or a "butt" to them since they are turret guns that attach to the side of the EDU's gun mount. If they looked to much like the typical rifle shape, then I failed as an artist and a human being.

4. Tool Inspired: Since the EDU is a drilling mech first and foremost, it shouldn't be wielding military equipment. It can mount guns onto it's "weapon" mount but the drilling weapons should look more like power tools.

A: The Matter Maker. The original version isn't even the original version. That is the third rendition of the weapon. I finally nailed it with the more power tool looking version on the right. I love that design and it hit exactly what I was looking for in my weapon design. Futuristic but still recognizable as a tool. I spent a good amount of time at Home Depot looking at nail guns, saws and hand drills for inspiration. The left version looked too much like a gun and not a power tool. I have been known to be called a power tool on occasion. Usually when I had too many Mountain Dews in my system.

B: The left one is obviously dumb looking. This is an example of how I usually start off a gun to get the basic design and shape of it before I proceed to making a full version. I like how the drill ended up. I added the rivet looking things onto the drill part because that's how actual drills look that bore through rock. Plus it gave it more depth when it's animated.

C: The Cat Cannon original layout. I thought it looked dumb. It kinda looked like a sad robot penis. I also thought to myself "Where's the cat shell being held?" Obviously if you shoot a cat, it's gotta be contained inside something. So I redid it and it only took me one more time to nail the look. I wanted to keep it stubby looking. No need for a big gun with a long barrel. I mean c'mon, it shoots a cat. Not a lot of recoil on cats. Trust me.

Funny thing about this gun. I always think about Les Miserables when I see it. It took me the entire movie to animate the gun while my girlfriend and her friends watched the movie. See how dedicated I am to this game. Even when a shitty overly melodramatic... I mean, award winning sweeping epic of a musical is playing in the room, I ignore it to hone my pixel craft.

D: The Sound Drill is the Bane to my Batman. It has crushed my creative spine. I will never be satisfied with this design. Honestly, I don't think I ever will. The new design has that "rifle" shape that I am trying to avoid. Ugh. Ugh to my life.

E: Nailed it. Might change the color but my first go at it and I think I got what I wanted for the Mine Launcher. Big thick stubby barrel and not rifle shaped.

F: The Flamethrower was a simple fix. The original is the third rendition and I like it but wanted it a little more gritty. As gritty as adding some tubes and a rail on top can make something. I did this to some other gun designs. Nothing to dramatic to show off.

So, fellow pixelers, if you are having a hard time nailing a design, don't fret. Move onto something else and come back to a design later. More than likely, whatever else you ended up pixeling instead, heightened your pixeling skills just a little more to endow you with the prowess to conquer the earlier design that is thwarting your every mouse click.

 "Yeah guys. You can be emo and happy. Take it from me, Spiderman 3's Jay Leno!"

That's who that is, right? I'm hip. Please agree.

Meet The Stranger

Filming is about to happen for the Into This World Short Film and I am finalizing the other character in my cinematic tour de force to end all tour de forces. After my ITW short film comes out, it will pretty much make all other tour de forces before and after feel worse than watching Birdemic with a disapproving parent that doesn't "get it". Sorry Alan.

The other character in the short is known as The Stranger. In the game, he will be your local arms dealer and also upgrade your gear. He is very handy to have around but he is also not be trusted. While doing his usual scavenging, I think he might have found Ol' Uncle Willy's secret stash of meth and other recreational drugs.

Wow, this post apocalyptic wasteland sure does look like a well kept apartment building in the background. Hmmm... I'm calling shenanigans.

Hey, Classic Gameplay There, Bro.

My love for ye olde video games of yore heavily influence my decisions in making Into This World. One of these aspects is how the player controls the two playable characters:

The EDU Mech

The EDU Mech will fill the position of the "Heavy" archetype. This is usually reserved for soldiers, barbarians, or tank like characters in video games. The Heavy is for the most part slower but has a lot of firepower. Even though the mech moves slow it dishes out the damage in spades. In spades I says! It's essentially a God damned sexual Tyrannosaurus.

Just like him.

Drea

Drea is the classic "Ninja" archetype. She can pop out of the mech and hoof it if the player (YOU!) feels so inclined to do so. She's not a high heels type of gal so she is pretty nimble. Wall jumping, sliding, rolling and diving, all that shiz. The Ninja archetype is usually highly agile, but is balanced by the amount of suckage in the health department. Drea likes to jump but doesn't do much damage.

While the Edu mech has the ability to fire weapons and makes use of projectiles to keep enemies at bay, Drea will make use of her close ranged survival knife. She's gotta get in close and attack quickly.

Just like him.

Pre Production Photos

I just wanted to share some photos I whipped up for the Into This World short film I'm directing. It's coming soon for the Kickstarter campaign. This is the concept behind the film: Drea versus pixelated enemies. This will be easy to make. Right? RIGHT?!

And a quick look at Drea's gun. No prop building behind the scenes on this piece. I really didn't want to take the time to explain it all. I think iI was busy watching Cinema Snob reviews at the time. Let's see... Foam, parts of a Nerf gun, flexible thin foam, misc screws, plastic bottle top, other stuff, etc.

New Wins!

If you saw my last post (and why the hell did you not?) you saw that I hated the way some of my older sprites and animations looked like (pardon my language) poopoo.

I used the enemy known as the Vespa as an example. The Vespa is also know as the mutated wasp. He is also known as Honey Bear when he comes over for dinner and a movie at my place. Even though he didn't stay the night, last Tuesday, because someone wants to take things slow while other people in the relationship want to get straight to the dirty stuff. But I digress. Despite his personality flaws, I did The Vespa the favor of redoing his sprites.

This is the very first Vespa that I did. This back when I wanted to keep the enemies very colorful and somewhat cartoony. looking back on this I still do enjoy the design. I haven't seen this in a couple of months. I might incorporate the face design in something else.

This is what the Vespa turned into after I decided on a certain color palette I wanted the enemies to follow. I wanted them to look more organic and mutated. And since most of the background comprises of guts which are primarily pinks, oranges, and reds. I thought green would be a nice contrast. Still, this animation is just... ugh.

This is (hopefully) my last rendition of the Vespa. He is more sporadic and I really enjoy his wings a lot more. They have a greater sense of speed. The second version of the Vespa looks lazy. The new one looks more menacing in it's behavior. I still made this one move around but staying within the 32 pixels in width (the wings overlap, I don't care) so it can chase you up narrow passageways.

 "I just noticed you need to shade his head more when it turns. Just saying."

 Hey. Nobody invited you to this party.

Old Versus New

Whenever I start a game project, I tend to get better with my animations over time. I tried putting together a River City Ransom game (FAILED!) and the first couple of animations I put together for that game were amateurish at best. Then over time I noticed the later animations and character designs got better and better. Which in turn made the older animations stand out too much with their shittiness. Or is it shittyness? How dare you red squiggle underline my spelling!

RIVER CITY EXAMPLES: OLD VS. NEW

This is the Glen character from my River City Ransom game. See the difference in his old ground flip compared to his new ground flip. If you can't see the difference, you had better get yourself checked out by some professionals.

Glen's Hadouglen (har har har) fireball move. The old version has little to no impact when Glen unleashes his fireball. The new version has way more frames and life to it. There is no way the older moves could exist in the same game with the newer moves. They look too stiff to be alongside their new counterparts.

Vespa

Erythro

Here is an example from Into This World of two different enemies. The Erythro and The Vespa. They are completely different from each other but the effort of animation put into both of them are on two different levels. Where as, I am proud of the hard work that went into The Erythro, I am ashamed of the Vespa and it's lackluster movement. Look at the thing. Can you not feel the power behind those wings? It's almost like Mothra is flying right passed your face.

The Erythro has it's own animation for flying upwards. The Vespa on the other hand, would have the same exact animation as flying forward, up, down, x, y, z, across the 8th dimension, etc.

I have already begun going back to the older enemies and rebooting them to give them more life and character. No more nudging pixels. I am going to take the effort and draw them frame by frame. And I mean it! Maybe! Definitely maybe.
Now I am going to watch the movie Definitely Maybe. Oh, Ryan Reynolds, you dreamboat.

Drea's Costume!

And there you have it. The final costume. The actress couldn't fit her arm through the wrist portion of the prop anymore so her robot arm looks a lot longer. It will be a quick fix (I'll tell her to lose some weight in her fat wrists, duh).

And I call her "the actress" but she actually is my lovely girlfriend. That's how she got the part for the film. Me being the director, I put her through the sexual gauntlet of the casting couch. Wink wink! Either that or she's an amazing actor and I wouldn't want anyone else playing her. 

Well... maybe Fran Drescher. That voice of her's is so soothing and angelic. 

Into This World Behind The Scenes: The Props: The Arm!

So if you have been following the blog so far.... GOOD! If not, go back to the older posts to know what the hell I am yammering on about. For those in the know, here is the final prop for Drea's costume. Her mechanical arm. 

I almost didn't make this. Not because the level of difficulty but the level of laziness I was feeling at the time. I almost (very close to actually doing it) had the actress playing Drea just roll down her sleeves to cover up what should have been her mechanical arm. Then she would have worn a glove to further cover up the fact that I didn't take the time to make the prop. The Bannon of two days was such a lazy pice of crap. 

Roll down her sleeves? Psshh! What kind of cinematic genius would I be if I skimped on the most important asset of her costume? Not a good one is the answer. Not a good one.

I started off with a cheap ass glove from the 99 Cents Store. Guess how much a pair of gloves were. You get one fucking guess.

I cut out pieces of my favorite foam (that I mentioned in the older prop making posts) to my liking and glued onto each other and then glued them onto the glove. When the glue was not as hot, I put the glove on so it would form to the shape of a hand instead of laying flat.

I found out this way works better then hot gluing the foam to the glove whilst wearing the glove. Needless to say, I got an "booboo" on my knuckles.

I kept the arm in three separate pieces so the actress could easily move and twist her arm and the arm prop would twist also in accordance. The body of the arm was nothing more than a tubular shaped disinfectant wipes container.

Tubular indeed.

Put all together, it looked like this unpainted. I stuffed a sock in the glove to keep it upright so I could see how it rests in the arm. I then stuffed a sock in my pants and rode the subway. I caught several onlookers gazing upon my majestic bulge.

The actress had a hard time keeping the glove on when the arm portion of the prop would push and bump up on it. I know how hard it is for ladies to handle themselves when I push and bump up on them, so I obliged her. I glued the glove to the inside of the wrist. Then I painted the entire thing in a black primer.

And there you have it. Drea's military issued mechanical arm. I sprayed metallic silver spray paint on a paper towel and continuously rubbed it on the arm. I tried avoiding the nooks and crannies so it would be more black and give the arm more depth.
I thought the arm needed some color, so I taped off the black/silver areas and spray painted an olive green on the hand and wrist area. I took a shinier silver spray paint and did the same towel technique but only on the edges where paint might have been chipped on due to Drea's rough housing.

Drea costume: Complete.



Ah shit... her pistol!

More Costume Stuff: The Hat!

The main character of the game, Drea, wears clothes. I know, I know, it's a stretch. Strong women characters in any medium should be butt ass naked. But alas, I thought I would try a spin on a classic here and give her some clothes. One of those articles of clothing she wears is her hat. It's that thing that goes on top of people's heads.

Eh... sort of like that.

Drea works for the United Drilling Federation on Mars. And she wears her company's uniform. This build was equal parts easy and difficult to make. Kind of like sexing it up with a really big fat chick. She's got nice cans but good lord, the rest of her could use a tune-up.
Sorry any fat friends I might have offended. What am I talking about? I'm handsome and only hang out with pretty people! Mwah ha ha!
No seriously, sorry.

First step, bam! Get a hat. I went to second hand clothing stores for a perfect olive drab trucker hat. Couldn't find it anywhere. So once again, bam! Went to ebay. Found hat. Ordered. Finally... KABAM!

Second step, bazoom! I proceeded to cut out the shield shape emblem. I carefully cut into the emblem (the difficult part) the UDF logo. Sloppily I might add. Then I cut the foam in half revealing the negative space from the top layer.

Last step. I cut out another shield shape and glued the carved out piece onto the new shield piece of foam. I spray painted it silver then took a black sharpie to the outer rim of the emblem. I colored the inside too to make the lettering "pop". Then I glued that bastard on and I was done, KADOOSH!
Then my cat asked to get some face time on the blog so this happened.

ITW Kickstarter PreProduction: Making the Vest part: TWO!

I'm back, bitches and bitchettes. I got the vest all done and purdy-like today. Let's dip our toes into the jacuzzi and get started.

The first step was to spray paint the vest in a black primer...

"Did someone say Black Slimer? Ah yeah."

No damn it. A black primer. It allows me to cover the vest in an uniform color then I can add other colors on top. Any how. I covered the entire vest in a BLACK PRIMER.

I added some old Korean War pouches onto the vest. Pretty easy. Glued them on and primed them too. Bam!

Step three, or actually 6 or so... Lost count. Step three of part two was to spray paint the body of the vest in an olive drab color. I covered the armor part in masking tape and paper. Make sure to get in every little crack with that tape. I then used a camouflage spray paint and satin olive spray paint to color it. 

Hmmm. Satin Olive sounds like a fancy French restaurant. I'll make reservations for this afternoon for two. I'll see if my mom is available to go. Or maybe the mail lady. I'm so alone.

I did the opposite for the vest once it dried and spray painted the "armor" portion with a metallic silver color and a bright shiny silver for the edges. I brushed off the paint with a paper towel to distress it. I also threw on a nifty little pin for some character. I pinned my own body with hundreds of these pins to give me character. Apparently it still hasn't worked. Maybe nipple piercings will do the trick.

I threw this painted beauty into the dirt and rocks to rough it up a bit and there you have it, the battle armor vest. Stay tuned for the hat! That's right, a hat! It's a thrill a minute here at the Into This World blog, ain't it?