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Okay, stupid question- for non-pixel art sprites, am I looking at Gimp, or is there a better workflow available?
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Aug 3, 2020 12:54
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If you're drawing them then I'd probably use Krita over Gimp.
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Aug 3, 2020 13:07
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Nearly a year ago (!!!), I posted a trailer for Trombone Champ, the trombone game I've been working on. I took a bit of time off to release another project (arcade cabinet release of Icarus Proudbottom's Typing Party), and now I'm back on this one. The last trailer was waaaaay too long, and all of the captured footage was 30fps 720 upscaled to 1080p. This new trailer is a tight 1m30s and plays at 1080p60. The framerate makes a huge difference for a music game. Any thoughts or suggestions? This is intended to just be a reveal trailer — I will probably cut together one or two more trailers that simply show gameplay. Please don't share this around yet! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QVvLY7eeao
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Aug 3, 2020 15:01
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SweetBro posted:Good to see you're still alive. Does this mean you've moved on from The Moon Fields or are you just taking a break? Sup sweetbro. TMF is on a break. I wanna do it right, so I am being very careful w/ what I do with it for now. Definitely learning a lot w/ this platformer
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Aug 3, 2020 15:02
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Polo-Rican posted:Nearly a year ago (!!!), I posted a trailer for Trombone Champ, the trombone game I've been working on. I took a bit of time off to release another project (arcade cabinet release of Icarus Proudbottom's Typing Party), and now I'm back on this one. All in all I'd say that looks good! My one bit of feedback is that the four-way splitscreen kind of implies multiplayer to me, not sure if that was intended or not. I don't think it's a dealbreaker though. Omi no Kami posted:Okay, stupid question- for non-pixel art sprites, am I looking at Gimp, or is there a better workflow available? If nothing else I would use Glimpse instead of Gimp. It's literally just Gimp but with a name that isn't completely terrible. It's also worth being aware of Inkscape, which is a free open-source vector art program. I use it a lot for UI and icons.
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Aug 3, 2020 15:05
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Inkscape is super cool, vector programs speak my language because everything you do is non-destructive (kind of, I guess you can gently caress up a path to the point you have to reload the file but in general you can individually tweak something without ruining something else). Just be aware it's in the "save often" class of programs because it crashes a lot. If you ever want to send a file to someone that uses Illustrator or coreldraw it might take some back and forth because finding a save format that those programs can correctly load is a chore.
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Aug 3, 2020 15:12
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:All in all I'd say that looks good! My one bit of feedback is that the four-way splitscreen kind of implies multiplayer to me, not sure if that was intended or not. I don't think it's a dealbreaker though. Ahhhhh that's interesting. Nope, there's no multiplayer. I was just trying to show that there are a bunch of songs... since the trailer exclusively features music from Old Grey Mare, it seemed essential to show other levels. I'll try to brainstorm ways to do this more clearly! edit: if this goes really well on PC, I'd like to try a Switch port that uses the joycon accelerometer for controls... and in that case I will almost definitely add multiplayer as a bonus feature! Polo-Rican fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Aug 3, 2020 |
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Aug 3, 2020 15:23
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Polo-Rican posted:Ahhhhh that's interesting. Nope, there's no multiplayer. I was just trying to show that there are a bunch of songs... since the trailer exclusively features music from Old Grey Mare, it seemed essential to show other levels. I'll try to brainstorm ways to do this more clearly! Maybe have that section rotate through each level on the beat of the song, or have them pop in like a new window is opening on top of the old one. Or something entirely different that you devise! Because I instantly made the couch multiplayer connection too.
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Aug 3, 2020 15:32
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xzzy posted:Maybe have that section rotate through each level on the beat of the song, or have them pop in like a new window is opening on top of the old one. That sounds good! I'm imagining a "stack of postcards" approach where each video "drops" on top of the last, slightly rotated so you can see a slice of the clip underneath it.
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Aug 3, 2020 15:38
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If we're talking vector programs, the Affinity Suite is slick as hell and I moved from Inkscape to Affinity Designer and didn't look back.
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Aug 3, 2020 15:44
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Omi no Kami posted:Okay, stupid question- for non-pixel art sprites, am I looking at Gimp, or is there a better workflow available? 
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Aug 3, 2020 17:17
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Gonna +1 Krita over GIMP for the non-pixel-art recommendation. GIMP was historically more of a clone of Photoshop (which itself was originally an Image Manipulation Program) that kitchen-sinked its way into drawing features, whereas Krita was designed from the onset as a drawing program. Both of them will have you learning esoteric commands and sensibilities, but it's pretty clear from use that Krita's workflow is more supportive of digital drawing.
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Aug 3, 2020 17:23
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I use GIMP for everything (except vectors; Inkscape is the way to go for those) and would describe it as "okay." The biggest problem is that the default keybinds are awful; you use "float selection" constantly, and that defaults to shift+ctrl+L of all things. Redefine them in a sane way and it's quite nice. I wouldn't be surprised if Krita was better overall, but it's worth trying different things to see which you like.
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Aug 3, 2020 17:34
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Polo-Rican posted:Nearly a year ago (!!!), I posted a trailer for Trombone Champ, the trombone game I've been working on. I took a bit of time off to release another project (arcade cabinet release of Icarus Proudbottom's Typing Party), and now I'm back on this one. So my first thought is this is amazing and you've put a lot of polish on this since we last saw it. I don't know if it's fun to play but it looks amazing and quirky and that's probably all it needs to be popular streamer bait :P Then I hit the 50-60s mark and things started to feel like they were dragging or repeating or something. I guess I'm already sold at that point but it feels like you could cut a whole verse out of the song and trim the whole thing down closer to a minute long and repeat features a little less. Oh, also the beginning works surprisingly well for not having any gameplay until 8s in. You could cut the ratings screen if you wanted but I love the slow curtain, it plays into the presentation beautifully. You've crammed so much variety and charm into this goofy idea. A+++ would buy again
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Aug 3, 2020 17:39
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Krita is great, has one of the nicest open source graphics program UIs. It is a painting tool and less of a photo manipulation tool, so I find gimp more useful for some things.
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Aug 3, 2020 17:40
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I wouldn't be surprised if Adobe, like Apple, patented or trademarked certain tools and keybinds because it doesn't make sense in a lot of cases but it's all customizable. I end up keeping a dusty copy of photoshop around strictly for some automated functions like stitching together one image from multiple, but Gimp has filters and functions that aren't absolute garbage and I've never had the platform crash or eat memory like Photoshop does. But yes, Krita for drawing, Gimp for manipulation.
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Aug 3, 2020 17:58
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Polo-Rican posted:Any thoughts or suggestions? This is intended to just be a reveal trailer — I will probably cut together one or two more trailers that simply show gameplay. This trailer looks polished and professional. However, if I were seeing this for the first time, I’d think, “Oh, yeah. Keys and locks and chests and cards and upgrades. It’s just going to micro-transaction me to death.” Assuming you’re not going to micr-transaction people to death, I’m not sure how to fix that. Maybe it doesn’t need fixing, and I’m the only person who gets that impression. That’s also possible. Affinity looks pretty strong, but how did they manage to make their software work on MacOS, iOS, and Windows, but not Linux? Guess I’m sticking with Inkscape.
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Aug 3, 2020 18:04
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al-azad posted:I wouldn't be surprised if Adobe, like Apple, patented or trademarked certain tools and keybinds because it doesn't make sense in a lot of cases but it's all customizable. It's also possible some richard stallman wannabe sat down with his text terminal, fired up vim, and said to himself "MY WAY IS BETTER" and set those bindings in stone. Or a little of column a, a little of column b.  Just look how the Blender interface has evolved. They clung to that design for 15 years before realizing that hmm maybe people really don't like how we do things.
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Aug 3, 2020 18:04
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I just recently had to switch to Microsoft Outlook for work emails, the overwhelmingly predominant email client for at least 20 years now, and Ctrl + F does not search for text within a message. It instead forwards it. F4 is search. People get stubborn about weird things. Incidentally I was just trying to justify my button mapping choices to my gamedev partner. They make sense in practice, I swear! I'd ask the thread but I'm not really sure how to explain it in less than a paragraph. Totally not a red flag, nosiree.
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Aug 3, 2020 18:55
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I got photoshop cs3 and never really changed
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Aug 3, 2020 21:47
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I have never seen this before and the lack of DaVinci Resolve in the Pr spot makes me feel like a fool for using it for so long.
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Aug 3, 2020 23:01
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Polo-Rican posted:Nearly a year ago (!!!), I posted a trailer for Trombone Champ, the trombone game I've been working on. I took a bit of time off to release another project (arcade cabinet release of Icarus Proudbottom's Typing Party), and now I'm back on this one. This trailer had me completely sold like halfway through. Looks very polished and very funny, and all the menu stuff did a good job at showcasing the collectability/extra stuff that would keep me playing through. I agree though that after that point it starts to repeat itself and feels more shallow as a result even though the initial impressions did the opposite? I think it would be twice as effective at half the length. EDIT: Okay the more I watch it the more I disagree with myself on this. To its credit the buildup is genuinely quite good and the music getting progressively more chaotic/strange sounding really adds to it. I think it could get to that point a little quicker but maybe half the length was a bit of an exaggeration. Most of the space here IS pretty well used. I'd say we don't need to see the card collection more than maybe twice though? Bert of the Forest fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Aug 3, 2020 |
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Aug 3, 2020 23:05
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DaveKap posted:I have never seen this before and the lack of DaVinci Resolve in the Pr spot makes me feel like a fool for using it for so long. I understand your joke. (I think?) That said, there are multiple versions of this graphic, as the creator kept adding and fixing stuff. I looked some more and I think this might be the most recent version and it does have it: 
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Aug 3, 2020 23:38
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Yeah, Krita's interface is actually like, good and makes sense, which is loving wild for FOSS. There's a setup for GIMP that makes it extremely photoshoppy, so that's something at least. Blender's gotten a lot better, too! Now, Inkscape..Inkscape makes me want to die. Holy gently caress.
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Aug 4, 2020 01:12
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The first version you posted had DaVinci too, but it was in the after effects category. The new one is out of date because it's missing Luminar. But it is cool how crowded those boxes are getting, eventually Adobe's monopoly is gonna fall apart, right??
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Aug 4, 2020 01:13
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xzzy posted:But it is cool how crowded those boxes are getting, eventually Adobe's monopoly is gonna fall apart, right?? God I loving hope so.
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Aug 4, 2020 01:22
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xzzy posted:The first version you posted had DaVinci too, but it was in the after effects category. The new one is out of date because it's missing Luminar. I love that “industry standard” often doesn’t mean the best tools for the job and is instead what the limited talent pool is taught in school.
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Aug 4, 2020 01:52
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kirbysuperstar posted:Now, Inkscape..Inkscape makes me want to die. Holy gently caress. It was over a decade between when I last used Illustrator and when I first used Inkscape...Inkscape seems basically fine? Like, there's some things I wish it could do, like precisely set the pivot point for objects, or position objects based on one of their corners/edges instead of on their center, but otherwise my only major gripe is that the gradient editor seems pretty glitchy.
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Aug 4, 2020 03:38
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Polo-Rican posted:Nearly a year ago (!!!), I posted a trailer for Trombone Champ, the trombone game I've been working on. I took a bit of time off to release another project (arcade cabinet release of Icarus Proudbottom's Typing Party), and now I'm back on this one. Questions I ask while watching the trailer: 1. Is there any form of leaderboard support? 2. Because of the inestimable sequence storm, is there any sort of colorblindness issue or accessibility? 3. Do cards actually do anything? Where are you getting the whatever it is that's unlocking these boxes? I would suggest reserving the vuvuzela for only its use at the very end.
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Aug 4, 2020 06:01
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al-azad posted:I love that “industry standard” often doesn’t mean the best tools for the job and is instead what the limited talent pool is taught in school. Remember how when microsoft lost their antimonopoly case they were 'forced' to pay the 'fine' of having all their software in every school??
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Aug 4, 2020 06:45
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Polo-Rican posted:Nearly a year ago (!!!), I posted a trailer for Trombone Champ, the trombone game I've been working on. I took a bit of time off to release another project (arcade cabinet release of Icarus Proudbottom's Typing Party), and now I'm back on this one. First of all, I have to praise you for having a trombone sound that doesn't make me want to rip my ears off. As a former brass player I've always thought brass was the toughest type of instrument to synthesize decently, and while yours is definitely artificial it isn't grating in the way most of them are. Good job. I'm interested and I really dislike rhythm games, but I do like the brand of "This is exactly what you think it is, and that's awesome" you have going. The gameplay's pretty clean-looking and easy to read. If those are just representative card samples, you've done an unhealthy amount of research into trombones. Turn off smart quotes, ellipsis, and dash replacements in whatever program you're using. Got a square in your post in the editor. In the character customization screen, I actually missed that you weren't swapping from "white guy" to "white guy with different hair." I had to go back and rewatch to see that you do have other skin tones represented. So good job, but give them a few more frames if you can. Bert of the Forest posted:This trailer had me completely sold like halfway through. Looks very polished and very funny, and all the menu stuff did a good job at showcasing the collectability/extra stuff that would keep me playing through. I agree though that after that point it starts to repeat itself and feels more shallow as a result even though the initial impressions did the opposite? I think it would be twice as effective at half the length. I actually agree with this. Unfortunately I don't have the editor's eye to be able to say what to cut, only to say that I think you should only include a whole song in a video if you are making a video for that song. At least one verse should go, maybe more, maybe inter-cut with some other songs (that's probably bad, I'm bad at video)? Also my f2p sense was very very strong here, and though (I think) I remember you saying it's all freebies and there's no way to pay for more stuff, that needs to be included in the trailer explicitly and early. Unfortunately every way I've thought of to say that just makes me think of freemium bullshit, too, so again no good solutions. Maybe "Pointless collections! ZERO ways to pay more money?" Finally, when you get your gameplay-only trailer done, make sure it's set as the autoplay video on your Steam page. No intro logos, all bone. I'm really excited to see this and I'm glad it exists, because this might be the one to shake up the bloated and stagnant trombone-based music game genre.
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Aug 4, 2020 11:22
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Tricky Ed posted:I'm really excited to see this and I'm glad it exists, because this might be the one to shake up the bloated and stagnant trombone-based music game genre. So what you're saying is, it's the Dark Souls of trombone simulators?
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Aug 4, 2020 14:13
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There's a game creator bundle on Humble Bundle thats still up for the next day. It's got Pixelmash, Game Creator 001 and a bunch of art in it. I grabbed it to try out Pixelmash which seems sort of interesting from the little Ive played around with it. Game Creator 001 didnt interest me all that much, but its nice to keep some of these around for giveaways and that sort of thing. Worth a look if you want something specific for pixel art.
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Aug 4, 2020 18:36
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Thanks for the feedback — I rendered a second version with a lot of simple improvements.Discendo Vox posted:1. Is there any form of leaderboard support? 1. There are locally-stored leaderboards... I'd like to use the steam SDK but haven't researched it yet. I can imagine patching that in shortly after launch. 2. The notes always have a white border and drop shadow, so I'm pretty sure that they will always be visible regardless of colorblindness. The note colors also doesn't make a difference; they're purely aesthetic. 3. Cards are essentially used for the storytelling part of the game, and they're also how you unlock other characters and trombone colors. You can ignore them completely if you want. 4. Oh my god, you wouldn't believe how many airhorns the very first version of this trailer had... I love the comedic effect of a dumb airhorn, but just about everyone I've shown the trombone game to has told me to cut down on the airhorns... Omi no Kami posted:So what you're saying is, it's the Dark Souls of trombone simulators? Ironically, the storyline ends up parodying dark souls, with two secret NPCs that mirror the primordial serpents. I purposely kept them out of the trailer because I didn't want to give all of the secrets away...
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Aug 4, 2020 19:51
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Polo-Rican posted:1. There are locally-stored leaderboards... I'd like to use the steam SDK but haven't researched it yet. I can imagine patching that in shortly after launch. fwiw, the one time I tried using Steam leaderboards it was really easy. After doing them too many times on mobile I was prepared for it to be a slog but it was a fairly painless afternoon.
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Aug 4, 2020 20:53
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Polo-Rican posted:Nearly a year ago (!!!), I posted a trailer for Trombone Champ, the trombone game I've been working on. I took a bit of time off to release another project (arcade cabinet release of Icarus Proudbottom's Typing Party), and now I'm back on this one. I remember this! And it looks great! Trailer made me smile. Echoing some of the other feedback, I'd try to make it a tight 60 seconds.
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Aug 4, 2020 23:31
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CitizenKeen posted:If we're talking vector programs, the Affinity Suite is slick as hell and I moved from Inkscape to Affinity Designer and didn't look back. Seconding this. I bought Illustrator for a year when I started full indie a few years ago and even though I'd mentally prepared myself for such expenses, I thought it was a rip off (Canadian Dollar also not helpful). Then right as my 1 year sub was set to expire, they raised the price. So I dumped it for Affinity Designer and I've been very, very happy with it.
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Aug 4, 2020 23:35
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Polo-Rican posted:Ironically, the storyline ends up parodying dark souls, with two secret NPCs that mirror the primordial serpents. I purposely kept them out of the trailer because I didn't want to give all of the secrets away... I'm picturing the primordial serpent crawling out of your trombone in a cutscene for some reason... either that, or like  Either way though, it looks rad as heck- it's weird and dumb in the exact way that makes me want to play it. 
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Aug 5, 2020 01:15
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Polo-Rican posted:Thanks for the feedback — I rendered a second version with a lot of simple improvements. I appreciate the answers, but my point, particularly with 1 and 3, is that these are questions that a fresh viewer is going to wonder about.
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Aug 5, 2020 06:36
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Polo-Rican posted:Ironically, the storyline ends up parodying dark souls, with two secret NPCs that mirror the primordial serpents. I purposely kept them out of the trailer because I didn't want to give all of the secrets away... The fact that there is a storyline is something that isn't really clear from the trailer, and for me that's a kind of major boost to how much I'd want to play the game (which is already lots, don't get me wrong)
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