designer for games

[skullptor]

Hi guys!
I'm looking for someone who wants to make a game and needs a graphic designer! tell me about your project!
Programmers, I want to make part of your games! I'm waiting your answer!
chers!

[Froth]

Great, Skullptor! I hope you can hook up with someone. For some games, the graphics are the most important part.

Suggestion: If you could link to some of your work, we'd get an idea of your style/capabilities. It might inspire some of us!

[skullptor]

Hi Froth!

Here you find some of my jobs:

http://www.sguerra.com.br (look in "ilustrações" or "livros")
http://www.sguerra.com.br/experimental/7pecados (here is about the 7 capital sins)

sorry! but it's all in portuguese

http://www.tensao.cjb.net (this is a radio online in english)

Here in Brazil I work with design of websites and book covers for various publish houses.

[Froth]

Wow!

What's the Portuguese word for Wow? Wow is pretty much international, isn't it?

How about, I'm impressed?

Sou impressionado

I'm not sure what else to say. I have no idea what kind of game I'd design around that kind/style of graphic design, but if inspiration strikes, I'll certainly let you know.

[skullptor]

Yes! wow is international! In portuguese the spelling is Uau! But we don't use uau so much. We prefer "tá muito lôco" that is something like "It's a crazy thing"

hey Froth, you know portuguese! Yeah, we use "sou impressionado"! hahahahah!!!

I want to make versions of atari or msx games! what you think about? Im working in my first with a friend.

Look at my river raid game. My friend is working on programing.

this is the intro:
http://www.sguerra.com.br/riverraid/rr-intro.swf
and for the 1st stage, in Amazonia jungle:
http://www.sguerra.com.br/riverraid/river-raid2.swf

but nothing happens yet.

do you want to try something with me?

bye!

[Froth]

I'm afraid I don't speak Portuguese. I just know how to use an online translator. I'm a fraud

Your River Raid game graphics look very good. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

There is one thing I've been working on that might be quite well-suited for you graphics talent. Pinball.

My pinball engine is still in the early stages of development. You can see how the physics work here:

http://flash.frothworks.com/pinball2.html

It's the same link as is in the other thread here at Flashkit, so you may have seen it there. You can drag the ball and the two red bumpers around before pressing start to get a better idea how the it works.

The Good

It strikes me that a pinball simulation may be a particularly good way to show off your graphics talents in a game. The reason is that there is only one complicated moving part--the ball, which is going to be a fairly simple graphic anyway. Then there are things like the flippers and spinners and pop-up targets that have minor animations. And finally, there are a lot of lights and flashes.

But most of the graphics are stationary. So they can be as elaborate as you want, and once they're loaded, they won't slow down the action at all.

The other good thing about the way I'm developing this engine is that the engine is completely independent of the graphics. In other words, there are no hitTests or anything like that. This means that it'll be extremely easy to integrate new graphics with the engine. In fact, the graphics will be treated like "skins" that can easily be swapped.

The Bad

This project isn't even half finished, and I can't make it a priority, so there's no telling how long it's going to take. In fact, I haven't done anything with it in six months, so I can't promise that it will ever be done.

For that reason, I don't feel as though I can invite someone else to participate in part of the project right now. It's quite possible that the other person would complete his part, but wouldn't ever get to see the finished project. And that wouldn't be right.

I'm going to try to make some progress on it over the holidays, though. And if I can get it closer to being done, perhaps we can talk about you designing a table for it.

[skullptor]

oh, surelly you are a fraud!!! hahahahah
I think my english is not so good too!

Im am in your project! but I wait until you finish your programing. I love pimball!

I saw your game Fightocracy and I love fighting games!
What do you think about I use you engine to make a game like Barbarians? Do you remember it? from MSX and Amiga computers. I draw 2 caracters and some scenarios and you put it in your engine? I use the same sequences and punches to make your work very very easy.

But this will be not Fightocracy. Will be other game, with swords and much gore! hahaahhaha
Do you have icq?

[Froth]

I don't have icq. Just never bothered to get it, I guess.

About Fightocracy:

There are a lot of moving parts in Fightocracy. Between the two characters there are ~26 movie clips in each frame. Each character is broken down into several body parts: 2 feet, 2 legs, 2 thighs, torso, 2 upper arms, 2 forearms, head, and necktie. And each of those body parts is a separate movie clip, and every one of those movie clips moves in every frame.

The problem is that Flash can't keep up if those clips are the least bit complicated. That is why most of the graphics are just basic ovals or rectangles. In fact, the heads are the only graphics that aren't extremely basic (and even the heads aren't all that complex).

Early versions of Fightocracy actually had more elaborate graphics, but I had to scale them back in order to make the game playable.

However, I've never experimented with bitmaps. All I've used is vector graphics. And I honestly don't know what the performance would be like with bitmaps.

Take a look at this:

http://flash.frothworks.com/bush_set.jpg

That's my construction set for Bush. As you can see, there are 6 different head shots and 6 different torso shots. There are 3 angles of the feet and two of the tie. There is only one each of all the leg and arm parts, because they look the same from any angle.

If you'd like to try some bitmaps as an experiment, I'll plug them into the game and we can see how it works. If you do, don't spend too much time on it, because it may not work well enough.

If you try this, the "connection points" would need to remain in place. In other words, on the torso the neck, shoulders, and hip sockets would need to stay in pretty much the same place. And if you try this, just ignore the necktie--I'll just pull it out of the animations.

If this works, though, then we could do anything we want. I could animate new moves for any character set that you developed--any size or shape. We could even include weapons and such if we wanted. (There are a few issues we'd have to address to use weapons, but nothing we couldn't overcome). And we could add death animations, etc., too.

But first we'd need to know for sure that it'll work with bitmaps.

[skullptor]

hi Froth!

take a look at this!

http://www.sguerra.com.br/riverraid/kick.swf
http://www.sguerra.com.br/riverraid/waiting.swf

they are in lo-res
but there's a little problem...
I don't know how to do using a lot of parts of body.

The form that I use is giving you each sequence of movement in a separated movie clip.
for example the links above... each of them in a different movie clip
do you can construct the game using this form?

[Froth]

Those look great! I think this could work very well.

Let's try it with a few simple moves. Maybe just moving back and forth and a basic punch and kick (and it looks like you have the kick done already!).

If you can do those, I'll put them together into a basic game, and if that works we're on our way!

You can email me at froth@frothworks.com

[skullptor]

Cool!
now I will develop the 2 characters
the skeleton and the gladiator.
few moves to you test.
I think that in one or two weeks I send you the stuff
Im very happy with this project cause I aways wanted to make a cool fighting game!
good look for us!!!

[Froth]

I'm very happy with this project, too!

I'm already contemplating a better way to do the collision detection than what I used in Fightocracy. I think I might be able to make it more efficient and more accurate.

I won't bore you with the details, but with your great graphics, I think this could turn into a really good game.

Sou animado!