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I've been hanging around here long enough to post my picture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xiFiQ7DSo4&eurl=

Real life Pacman. This made me laugh

I am not shure if this is particulary useful for AGS adventure projects, but what the heck I post it anyway.

I have drawn some top-down 32x32 tilesets in the past. They were meant for a shooter project but that is now abondend long ago and I have no longer plans for them. Feel free to use! Pack includes some cool ground tilesets, some sprites and lots of unfinished graphics. Maybe you could study the style and finish the pieces

You can download it here: http://www.clicksandbleeps.com/images.rar

Good luck!

Shadows depend on light strength and material the light is directed. Sharp shadows, distinguishable shapes are caused usually by direct light. Usually the edges of the shadow shapes blend a little when the material is soft or there is something else reflecting the light (a bright surface).
When light is indirect, shadows are blended so that their shape becomes almost indistinguishable. This is because of the physics that light particles have. When light ends, in an unreachable point, the rays still bounce forfard, causing the effect of fading shadows and light reflections on surrounding objects. Therefore scotch's picture is not 100% true. His sunrays would still produce quite sharp edges, but not complete fading.

If you take a cube for example and put it under direct light from one side, you see that the shadow it has is actually lighter in the inner section when its closer to the cube, same goes with the shadow on the cube that is closer to the floor surface. That is caused because of the light beams reflect and bounce from different surfaces to another.

Some examples:



And this famous Edward Hoppers painting:


Notice how the closest wall in a shadow is actually greenish-yellow instead of blue. That is due to a colour reflection. Remember, shadows aren't black and white, they are actually coloured. Usually the rule is that warm colours have cold shadows and vice versa. And in cold colours, reflection of warm colours pops out. But that is not always 100% true, still, it would be enough for you I think.

Also remember, that those reflections in shadow, the bouncing light etc, are not just light, its actually colour of different surfaces that shine and reflect on each other with light. So, when you have a blue cube on yellow surface for example, some of the bright yellow is reflected on the cube. Always remember that brighter colour reflects more on darker colour and all bright areas reflect light.
If you look at some pictures, where perspectively and what-so-ever all seems to be correct, objects have shadows etc, but still parts of the image look weird and unnatural, know that usually the problem lies in missing colour reflections. I always try to lend colours of different objects onto the surfaces of others when doing my pictures, so the whole piece would feel like a whole where everything is fitted together and not scattered floating pieces. That is also the reason why most of the pixelartists try using lesser colours, it can be taken as a practice in lightning and colour composition.

But what can be really mind puzzling are the reflections and shadows on different shapes. For that, I've actually collected a few tutorials which can be found on a sidearm of my homepage: http://www.clicksandbleeps.com/tuts.html

Thats all! I am not smart and diligent enough to continue writing on this topic, so I end thi here for now, hope it helped


As with sunbeams, most of the above was true, but lets not forget that sunbeams cannot come from clear sky in an open area. Thick beams of light need a dark area with sharp light source (a hole in the ceiling). And on some occasions, when the light is very very strong and due to a structure of source, beams can appear in non-thick air too. And the main rule is that area needs to be darker than usual so the beams can shine out.

http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=7727258820010109634&pcy=3=0
My orkut.

Ok, I am not making a new thread for this, I just hope I post to the right place.
I've been buzy and away from adventure gaming for a while and could use some help with finding a good game(s). What I need, is a game with decent/good graphics and some storyline, preferrably freeware and the best if AGS (doesn't have to). Any suggestions? Sci-fi and western games are the best!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDEUcRRHnac

AWESOME!

And my birthday is over for about four hours now... :

But best wishes to all the new birthdaypeople!

I really think there isn't enough focus on actually making AGS games.  Sure the activities help, especially things like the BG Blitz and Sprite Jam, but the MAGS is the only regular games activity.

I'm quite aware that the MAGS doesn't get many entries, and I think that's simply due to it being very long and demanding.  Most people work alone, and the motivation to plough in several hours of work a day for a month, with no encouragement (in most cases) and a looming deadline is hard to find.

I'm suggesting a new game making activity similar to the ATC that runs once every 2 months.  A team of 3 people is given 2 weeks to produce a game.  Here is the timeline:

• Day 1: First day of month.  Participants have until the 10th to post in the activity thread to sign up.  All entrants names are collected and teams of 3 are randomly selected.  People may not form their own teams.
• Day 11: Teams are announced.  Team members are encouraged to contact each other during this time and check that they are still active.  Any members AWOL must be reported by the end of the 12th or the team must make do without.
• Day 13: Each team is given 2 quite strict sets of guidelines governing game theme, characters, puzzles etc.  Think MAGS but not so broad.  Each team in the competition has been given different guidelines (not sure about this).  Work, and planning, may now begin.  Some teams may prefer to spend more time planning.
• Day 29: Deadline.  Entries are posted in the activity thread by one team member.
• Day 30: Voting opens.
• Day ~ 40 (second month): Voting closes.  Winner announced.

I think this timescale might work quite nicely because people who begin a MAGS entry and give up can still apply to this activity if they are early enough.  With any luck they will have just been using AGS and their graphics/music programs for their MAGS entry so they are well prepared.  This competition differs from the ATC by being shorter and having randomly chosen teams, so hopefully more and less experienced members will be mixed together more evenly.  Newbies will learn from more experienced members and hopefully try their best to keep a high standard, but I'd like to add that this shouldn't be a fiercely competitive activity.

I remember being in an ATC and really enjoying it.  We had a randomised team (since those remamining without a team were grouped up) but had 2 AWOLS, which hopefully should not be able to happen so often here.

Ok, this needs a bit more attention than my "make ultimate teams" post...


Firstly. Team competitions are really good for the start, especially for the people who have the will and quite possibly some talent to do an adventure game, but somehow haven't managed to finish any. I remind that teamwork keeps teammembers motivated, you don't do it just for yourself.

Secondly. I remember my participation in 72 hour game development contest (create any kind of game, from scratch, for a given theme, in 72 hours) and it was really fun! We didn't quite manage to finish the game 100%, but it was at least playable. Dates were set on a most logically suitable period and there were no further discussion, those who were "buzy" on those times, had to suite themselves by their own, and it worked very well. I even had school and ended up just fine.

Thirdly. I am not 100% shure about random teams. What if team gets three non-programmers or something? Well, I guess these things can be sorted out, but still. But apart from that, random teams would make the competition much more fun, if time zones match (in a longer period, it might be a problem. But in shorter period, like 72hgdc, it probably doesn't make much difference, since everybody is going to get as few sleep as possible  )

Fourth. Whats an AWOL?


Fifth. Mods, admins, gods, authorities, where are you?

Make an ultimate games competition with ultimate teams!

Hello to all from me too!

My name is Taavi, I am currently 18 years old and I live in Estonia.

I have been interested in game making since childhood. Last summer I did graphics for my first adventure game that was started by a friend I found. He used AGS and so that led me here... Project got almost finished but then the leader left for a year and the project is on hold.

Mostly I make graphics, pixelart usually. I got a little example gallery up at: http://www.hot.ee/tindiplekk

But I am quite experienced in music making also, some long years behind.

Anyway, I am hoping to improve myself in every aspect.

All the best,
radiowaves.