The Survey Thread!

[DigiTan]

Oh right! Blur was another reason for the levitating. Originally, when his leg kept moving, his legs and arms would become gray blurs. And I felt he should probably take longer strides at that speed (the running images were originally sprites for walking).


I could draw up some new run sprites and make it a 2-frame animation (right now, running is a 3-frame animation that's much more prone to blur). Or I could keep the levitation and add a shadow or dust/debris trail. At one point, he also left a short trail of energy bursts.

[Delnar_Ersike]

Maybe have him float up and down while he is levitating? Or leave some kind of gray trail for a second or two.

Personally, I like the levitation, but it looks like he is sliding rather than levitating.

[DigiTan]

I guess I could add in some code that says if you're moving that fast, his altitude has to be non-zero. It would complicate jumping a little, but the shadow would appear automatically.

[luby]

I think that his legs shoul be running. Otherwise, it looks kind of goofy.

[Liazon]

A single stride covers a longer distance? That might help the blur a bit

[DigiTan]

Well, it's been a month since the poll and it looks like I'm sticking with the current animation. It is a bit of a relief because the game is getting quite large and modding the animation would require adding new code & artwork.


..............................

Whoo-hoo! It's time for eye candy again. Here are a few title screen concepts. The one on the left is a remnant of the Poquemon TI title from 2001. I'm going to use this one in the TI-82 version and have it scroll constantly a la Robot War 1. Some trees and foreground objects might be thrown in to add a parallax effect.

The second title is pretty much finished, provided I keep the title of "Psychopath: RWII." I'm renaming it to reflect the game's emphasis on psi-based combat versus robot battles. It features the city of oceanside. Due to grayscale, this will only appear on TI-83+/84+.

The next title is still in progress. Kind of a tribute to the floating island of the Sonic the Hedgehog comics. I'm still messing with the clouds to try and get a subtle 'fisheye' effect and I'm trying to decide where to position a sun in it. TI-83+/84+ version only.

Finally, the picture on the right is an old concept pic, featuring your antagonist! Originally, your final boss's strength would grow in real time (he would gain about a dozen levels for every hour of gameplay). The face is from the Batman Beyond animated series.


So anyways, summer is here. RW and Sonic are still underway due to extra free time. :biggrin:

[baorder54]

I really like the screenshots, especially the 2nd one. But can you clear something up? Is the ti 83+ series version called psychopath or Robot war?

[Delnar_Ersike]

nice pics!
I like the third pic the best, though I like the text and the line-thing on the left of the second pic, too. Could you somehow combine the two, just to see what it would be like?

[Xphoenix]

The 2nd and 3rd are awesome...
2nd:
Cool text and line on left, but not really anything else

3rd:
(floating) Island very realistic, clouds very good, but kind of plain

[DigiTan]

@baorder: Yeah, I'm probably going to get them all the "Psychopath: Robot War II" or "Psychopath: RWII" mantle for all versions. Experimenting with various fonts and pixel work with the text right now.

@Delnar_Ersike: Nice have pic #3 with the pic #2 lettering? I could try that. I'm kind of stuck on pic 3 because I'm not sure where to put the sun. The clouds are still a little plain too as Xphoenix mentioned.

[frenchcalc1]

Nice pics! How complicated is the greyscale for the second and third one? They looks awesome, btw

[tr1p1ea]

That 2nd screenshot is fantastic! I love calc eye-candies and this game has got a whole load of it.

[DarkerLine]

Have you considered "Robot War II: Psychopath"?

[baorder54]

[elfprince13]

amazingness, I love 2 leftmost ones, the 3rd from left is pretty good too.

[TheStorm]

Wow! That is some of the best gray scale I've seen hope this turns out good.

[Liazon]

Agreed. And that face sprite is insanely good too!

[DigiTan]

@ Sir Robin: That name could work too. Luckily I also have a version of pic #2 that has this title instead.

The greyscale was pretty tricky. Pic #2 is ~roughly a version of Boston Harbor. Got some ideas from looking at old SNES screenshots and started from there. Spellshaper does some cool grey work at omnimaga so that gave me some lettering ideas too.


Some history about the face. It's from the Batman Beyond episode "Lost Soul." If you have fast internet, I recommend checking it out on youtube - it being one of my favorite episodes. :biggrin: The Cowboy Bebop session "Brain Scratch" is rumored to be a tribute to that episode.

[DigiTan]

New food poll today, so grab a spoon and dish out your opinion.

poll:
If offered equal amounts of apples, bread, milk and fish: which would make you most energetic or fill you up the most? This isn't a question of which is your favorite, but which food would leave you filling less hungry and ready to take on the day.

This is purely opinion-based, so don't worry about calories or anything like that.

[spandiv]

What kind of apples, bread, milk and fish are we talking about? Are we supposed to just pretend these are abstract things, or should we be thinking of a particular kind of apple, bread, milk, and fish? I don't mean to be technical, but I don't think the poll makes sense without more information.