SUPER HD TURBO REMIX RAINBOW EDITION: FOURTH STRIKE!

Since I can never leave my pixels alone, I went back and redid all my sprites. I think this should be the last time I mess with the pixels (we'll see). I'm a pixel bully. Constantly messing with them. And taking their money too. And kissing their girlfriend in front of them. And then coming over to their house afterwards and proving how helpful I am with helping the pixel's mom set the dining room table which leads to her inviting me over more so I can mess with them in their only place of escape.

"How come I didn't get any milk?"

Who loves examples? Well get in here. I got examples coming out of my wazoo! My god, it hurts. Nothing should ever come out of anyone's wazoo.

EXAMPLES!

Here is an example of the original knife slash move for Drea step by step. Original version is on the left and the new one... wait for it... is on the right! Imagine that. Single frames by themselves are new frames added in more fluid animation.

Her original face always annoyed me. Looked like a doll's face. A creepy doll in your grandma's room that seemed to stare at you with disapproval. 

Little more build up in grabbing knife.

More of a blur for the knife streak. Plus her knife now gives off a shine onto Drea.

All the knife attacks now end with this staggered fade out effect.

I actually filmed myself slashing a knife for reference because the original always seemed like a weird way to recoil after swinging a knife.

More recoil.

The main reason behind going over these animations and re-shading them is because I got to play a demo of the game and the dynamic lighting that lit up Drea made here look very out of place and showed off how muddy her original coloring was. Plus, I'm a little obsessive.

FINAL VERSION!

And for no good reason besides he rocks, I was watching this earlier. Take it away Mike...

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.

Getting To Know The Regurgs

These fine gentlemen are known as The Regurgs. There are a couple of drawings in the Art Section (hint hint, go check it, yo).

The Regurgs are soldiers that have been eaten by the planet and then regurgitated for the planet's evil biddings. And not good biddings mind you because bidding are never good. Always evil.

These enemies will give Drea and her EDU mech some much needed enemies that will shoot back at her with projectiles and explosives. I still need to make the grenade throwing Regurgs and missile launcher Regurgs.

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.

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. 

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.

City... Why You So Busted?

This city has seen much better days. The game will feature limited amounts of surface levels. This is an example of what I am trying to do with the cars used as tiles. I wanted to make them double as a storytelling device and for level variation. I was trying to concentrate on actual buildings and street tiles but I kinda got a little obsessed with making the vehicles once I got rolling. I still have a flipped over truck and a bus that Drea can walk through inside. 

The background is temporary for right. I am dreading having to do the giant city background. I will not settle for standard repeating building sprites. I really want to show a world that has gone to shit.

Inspiration for the look of the city is a mix of Los Angeles where I live and what they did in Minority Report. I like how they kept the original city intact but built futuristic structures around it. Old buildings wouldn't necessarily get demolished to make room for the newer "spiffier" ones. The old ones would become historical landmarks that we would have to work around. Like when I turned my grandma's room into the guest room. Sure Grandma's corpse started to stink the place up as she rotted away in her favorite rocking chair but who am I to diminish her historical significance.  If my guests feel creeped out by how it looks like she is staring at them as they sleep, then that's their problem. I think she looks better with her eyes open. I tell people she is watching over them while they sleep and will make sure to keep away evil succubuses in night. That's grandma for you.

A Real Gut Buster

So what you see above is just a small tech demo. It shows an example of how destroying certain tiles might look in the final game. These tiles are intestinal tracts, so when they burst it sends blood, bile, and entrails everywhere. The final game won't have you using a Windows cursor to perform biopsies like above. You will have a plethora of high power tools to rip open your patients the Earth.

We want the digging in the game to feel rewarding to the player -- to give a visual indication that you are tearing apart something tangible. Particle effects are one way video games convey this message. Whether you're smashing barrels or breaking pots, actually watching the object explode is often more rewarding than the items you find inside. Why else do we destroy these harmless decorations?

Indeed they do, Tinky. Indeed they do.

But the tiles in Into This World are not just for decoration. They are the very structure of the environment you navigate. So your tools and weapons need to feel powerful -- and what better way to show this power than through interpretive dance particle explosions!

That's all I've got at the moment. There's lots of secret stuff going on behind the scenes. Stuff not ready for mortal eyes. When the time comes, you shall be summoned.