A Walking Sprite That Doesn't Walk

On the sprite note. I went back and re-drew the walk cycle completely, using a different template cycle (however toning the legs movement down a little).

It's better.

Instead of just jumping around all over the place and looking like a shite, my sprite now does produce sensible movement. Unfortunately it still doesn't walk. Just try to imagine seeing someone walking down your street. Their arms are swinging perfectly beside them, just as God intended... However their legs just flick about in mid air and their head jumpily dips in and out of their shoulders.

Still not right.

Problem is, after sorting the arms, and being ready and eager to start work on those bastard legs I was carted off on holiday. Fortunately for me, it wasn't to Cornwall, and it wasn't with my parents. Instead I flew out to Jersey late notice with my girlfriend.

Sod the sprite.

Now I'm back, and I can't be arsed. You see, after flying back (admittedly it was only 40 minutes) I went straight off to Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival. This meant a twenty minute walk from camp to the main stage; sleeping on a mat, with a matchstick pillow; sleeping in a chair outside one night and not getting to sleep 'til 4am.

Zzzzzz.

Still, after a boring day at home and a sudden realisation for the ridiculous amount of spare time I've got I've started work on the sprite again. This time I'm keeping the one's I have, however deleting the bottom half of them and drawing the legs again, this time not drawing the character's cloak on top. I will finish the leg cycle and check it's all working, before adding the cloak afterwards.

Back to the sprite.



P.S. He needs a name. Suggestions please.

The Joys Of Sprites

The frustration with drawing sprites is like no other. There's no cursing, swearing or kicking. Or even throwing books and mugs of coffee at walls. No, when drawing sprites there is a lead up to the frustration. As if, it's luring you into a false sense of security before it kills you.

The last month or so (yes, it takes that long) has been spent drawing a little sprite person who hasn't even got a name. Funny really as I know him better than most people. Unfortunatly, I don't know the little beggar enough to make him fecking walk! First I tried using Guybrush's walk cycle as a template and using his walking poses. This looks stupid, as Guybrush seems to run rather than walk. This therefore led me to believe that screenshotting Beneath a Steel Sky would be a good idea. The walk cycle is perfect, and I manged to get enough shots to create a decent cycle to use as a template.

All was going great then. I'd drawn a good few frames and I was checking them as I did them, the animation was comming on fine. Well... that's until I strung them all together at the end. The resulting animation looks like my character is jolting to particually bad music, whilst parts of his clothing disappear and reappear around him. It looks shite! And it took me so much effort! Grrr!

I don't think the actual individual sprites are really that bad, especially as this is my first real experience with them. It's just so difficult to produce a successful walk cycle!

Well, enough of my whimpering and sulking, it's back to the Paint Shop Drawing Board to add some more frames to the animation, see if that works.

If you would like to bail me out by giving me loads of cool advise and maybe even drawing the bugger for me, you can find me at Gibbage Forums. Or leave a comment of course...

The Gibbage Forums Song...

To the tune of 'Piano Man'

Its midnight, on a forum
The regular crowd is postin'
Theres Dan, he is talking to me
And the room is dark and dim.

He says son, can you spare me 6 english pounds,
For this game, or I'll break your nose?
He's glad and he's sweet that he's won such a feat.
How he did it, nobody knows...

La la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

Chorus:
Written this song about Gibbage,
Been writing this song all night.
I almost forgot about Ben
But now I hope, he's feelin' alright.

Hey Robert from afar is a friend of mine
He probably says: 'cannie'
Oh hes quick with a poke if you tell him a joke,
So for this Scotch joke, dead I will be.
Lorenzo, is currently, killing me.
For the joke I made of his face.
And he treatens to tear my head apart,
As I run away in haste.

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da (Buy Gibbage, Buy Gibbage!)

Now Delve is the real shit expert
He is the one with the wife
And hes talkin with Simon, who isn't called Ivon
And there's Cliffski, he has a knife

We've had great discussions of politics
But talk slowly slips to 'who knows?'
Yes, we're prone to a little off topic-ness
But its better than being a drone.

Chorus

Its a great way to waste a saturday
Better than the WoW free trial.
It's The Gibbage Forums and it's where you should be
To forget about life for a while
Viridian, he sounds like a grizzly bear,
It's a sound we luckily don't hear.
They come from near, and they come from afar
And say, man, what is happenin' here?

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da (Buy Gibbage, Buy Gibbage!)

Chorus

By markbilly

For all the fun described, visit The Gibbage Forums

Amazing Game Idea!

DISCLAIMER: I believe (I have just realised) this has already been done. But it can be done better, so read.


At last something bloggable has happened to me! I've had a brainwave!

I watched Top Gun yesterday (for the fifth or so time) and realised what an AMAZING game it would make (and it needs to be done again). Not just amazing, but mildly different, something which gaming lacks at the moment. Recently, the most revolutionary thing we've seen in gaming is Prey which alows you to 'walk up walls'. My fucking God! How brilliant! Just a shame it's on the Doom3 engine, and therefore basically is Doom. Lets face it, it's just another Quake 4 isn't it? Albiet nice and shiny and clever in parts, it's just another mindless shooter. Yes, mindless shooting is great, but it's just getting boring!

I'm not suggesting that this Top Gun idea will be original, but we haven't seen a decent, action flighter sim for ages (if at all). The best we've got is Battlefield 2 and it's planes; the problem being however that BF2 isn't solely a fighter sim and so the maps aren't essentially designed for dog-fighting. They're not big enough for starters.

What a(nother) Top Gun game would allow for would be BF2-esque controls for the planes, however much more depth in the gameplay. Players could play co-op with one as Goose, and the other Maverick (navigator and pilot). As well as a single player campaign available - with you pitted against other pilots fighting for Top Gun, and with other combat missions - the game could very easy have a multiplayer aspect, with huge air battles, each side having an aircraft carrier each as a base. The game could even be solely a MMOG, with rankings for both individual pilots and navigators, but also for the two co-op players.

You're probably now thinking this is all well and good, but what about much needed graphical advancements? How can you have next-gen graphics... In the sky? Firstly, there is the opportunity to put actual pilot models in the aircraft, for inverted 4Gs or whatever, but also for when pilots have to eject from their aircraft. Textures will come to good use on both the planes and the aircraft carriers, with lighting effects on the planes and the sea.

None of this is 'next-gen' though. But then what do you get in the sky? Clouds... After watching the Crytek tech demo, it would be very cool to be able to fly through fully volumetric clouds.

Feel free to shout 'That's amazing!' and get in touch immediately to break a deal with me, but whatever you do: do not fail to ask first, because I know some very scary people, who will not hesitate to seek you out and let nasty things naw your gonads like mere brazil nuts. You have been warned.

I'm Not Dead!

This Blog is not dead.

It is however mortally wounded. Mortally wounded by the fact that blogs are driven by interesting entries, and nothing interesting has happened to or around me for ages.

The Blog should though be getting better, as I will find something interesting to write about, and as soon as I do it's going on here.

If you want to tell me I'm boring, or say something really interesting to me so I have something to talk about, find me on The Gibbage Forums. There, the deed is done.