Thoughts On Props
Apr 09, 2015
Making a graphic adventure is sorta like making an animated cartoon. You have a world of backgrounds and stage pieces, some are interactive, some are just static set dressings that exists to reinforce the world and story.
Set dressing helps tell the story and gives the player valuable clues about where to go and what to do. Given the resolution we're working with on Thimbleweed Park, and we're paying homage to our earlier classic adventure games, most items are going to be displayed in some sort of straight on view, as odd angles are a bit harder given the 'jaggies'.
Once again, we're pretty much dealing with icons, we want the player to look at and immediately recognize their function: we really don't want people saying "What the hell is that ? Looks like a phone? Or maybe an adding machine? No, wait, it's a banana!"
Once we have our basic design, the first order of business, much like in film, is to make lists of all the visual assets, this includes characters, locations and all the objects and props.
Each of these needs to be designed, from a simple line rendition to fully rendered object. Use and location determines size/scale relative to the scene, angle, lighting and shadow and what if any animation might be required and each of these is layered onto the item as we go. Even though we're dealing with a limited number of pixels and colors, I think there's something very stylistic and recognizable about how we're approaching the art and how the resulting objects will look.
As we wire up a room and its associated puzzles we may decide to add more items or props, maybe because it's funny, makes the scene more interesting, or helps direct the player.
The ability to change and iterate items on the fly is a luxury we have over traditional film animation given that it's reasonably easy to modify 2D art in our style, once again, the power of Ron's engine and a versatile scripting language make all the difference... Hamster in a microwave anyone?...
- Gary
Just thinking about the interaction with these props is getting me excited for the game.
P.S.: Am I getting worse in math or are the Seckrit Questions getting harder?
Btw, you want to make sure I'm not a machine by answering the solution to a math problem? How appropriate! (You fight like a cow!)
And an old school arcade machine! Wonderful guys!!
Any plan for a blood red pentagram, strange voodoo totem, Necronomicon book chained to its lectern or something similar for the inside of your occult bookshop?
Could it be that in a comic world comics actually look realistic...? ;-)
It definitely has a larger (24-bit?) palette than some of the other objects, which seem to use some sort of 8-bit palette.
So does the trailer, btw.
I think that both looks are appealing, but I fear that the low-bit objects need to be "upgraded" later on.
While the sprites of the trailer and the Pigeon Brothers car both look good, I think it would feel somehow odd if they were right next to each other in the final game.
But I think that it's just because Ron and Gary are in the middle "wireframing" the game. :-)
However in the case of the comics- I do have an ulterior motive and will be bending the rules a bit so you can kind of actually make out
what the books are (which is somewhat impossible at that size without adding more colors to the palette)- either it will work or it won't
-you'll just have to wait and see...
Also love the vending-machine which for some reason seems to trigger an ancient mental image from the Labyrinth game. Which seemed to have some Winnicky-ish graphics as well(?)
However anything more isn't really practical as he's currently directing movies over
at Pixar- make sure to check out the Toy Story Christmas special 'Toys that Time Forgot'
both written and directed by Steve
I did look at your other work on your website, but since some time had passed, there was no way I would have identified it. I plan to check it out, thanks for answering about the comics!
as to the how and why, you'll have to wait and see
Is there really going to be a "Disco Crazy" arcade machine in the game, or are you just picturing some of those sprites to help illustrate the style?
This is really an old school adventure. You keep the best things, and update some of the not so good things. And the art style is great.
Really looking forward to Tumbleweed.
What are you drawing the graphics in - are you using DPaint?
Dan