Marvin Cooper Back on Track
May/100
Since I’m done with university work for the summer, Marvin Cooper development is back with a vengeance!
I’ve been a whirlwind of development the last 3 days, getting a lot of stuff done.
"We find it very reasonably priced. For inedible slop."
It’s great fun working on it again.
Back to Work (Again)
Jan/100
Well, once again university work had to take priority over my own whims. Marvin Cooper development stalled.
But fear no longer! I’m back, and there’s lots of exciting stuff happening in the near future!
I’m working on a small, Flash-based game with my buddy Brendan (http://www.sketchperception.com/).
He hasn’t actually gotten around to giving me a full (or partial, for that matter) design document, but from what he’s said I know we’ll be wanting a nice rain effect. Accordingly I spent an hour or so last night coding a ‘weather manager’, which can be supplied with a location (and density, speed & wind) within which it generates some pretty looking rain.
I deliberately left the class ‘open-ended’, so it should be easy to go back in and add generation capability for any other kind of precipitation. For now, though, rain it is.
Other than that, I’ve also got at least two highly interesting projects that will come out of my degree course (although they’re all still in the pre-production phase for now), and a whole new idea for a website!
I’ll keep the blog updated as and when cool stuff happens.
Oh, and don’t worry about Marvin. I’ll get right back on that as soon as I am back at that computer.
Animation and Large Files
Nov/090
Well I’ve been really enjoying working with AGS so far.
Progress is moderately speedy, considering I am creating character animations and items as and when I need them. I may even be so bold as to say I’m actually getting quite good with character animation in general!
I’m having a few issues with filesize at the moment; the compiled .exe of the game is currently nudging 60MB and I haven’t even got 1/10th of the game in the editor yet. I’m eager to find out why that is, but it’s not really that much of an issue because I can compress the final builds by a huge amount (got the aforementioned 60MB down to 2.3).
Marvin Meets the Snugglewumpus
Watch this space for more.
Working with AGS
Oct/090
So I finished the base 4-directional walk cycles for Marvin, and now I’ve started plugging the assets into the main game engine. I’m using Adventure Game Studio to do everything, as I know it’s very powerful and should have everything I need to do this game.
I’ve just now finished all of the mouse cursors you’ll see in the game, and I’ve also put together the main menu.
Giving Marvin some pointers
More updates soon!
New Walk Cycle!
Oct/090
Okay, I psyched myself up and did a new walk cycle for Marvin (completely scrapping all the animation I’d done already).
I’m actually quite happy with this one – looks like the game is back on!
Gaahhh.
Oct/090
Trying hard to get back into the workflow, but every time I attempt to do some more character animation I’m reminded that I suck at just drawing people, let alone animating them.
Consider this an impassioned cry for help. If you can animate characters and want your name shown prominently in the credits of the game, please let me know.
I’m Not Dead
Aug/090
Just a quick message to let you all know I’m not dead, and neither are any of the projects.
There are very few backgrounds left to draw for Marvin Cooper now, and I daresay once I get back to university I’ll be motivated enough to work even more frantically.
That is all.
Cell Block
Whoops
Jul/090
I have accidentally been dossing about for a week, and have got almost no work done. I’m not entirely sure how this happened, but I blame board games.
To rectify the issue, I spent a great deal of time today on background art (as I should have been doing). At last count there are a wrist-aching 35 or so left to draw.
Here is my take on one of those ‘before/after’ doo-hickeys.
Landing in an Earthquake Zone
I certainly seem to have got the hang of the art style, at least.
Elsewhere, my internet has decided to become glacially slow (for broadband) of late; to the point where most sites take a good minute or more to load, and even then they don’t always load completely, leaving me to mash F5 until I see what I want. It’s a real pain in the neck.
Enlightenment
Jul/090
I’m feeling particularly pleased with myself after discovering a ‘magic trick’ for better-looking background art. Once I’ve exported the background from Flash, I drop it into The GIMP and open up the fabulous ‘Lomo’ colour correction filter (found on GIMP’s plugin pages).
Normally this would render the image in a manner which makes it look like it was taken with a cheap camera (motion blur, warping, colour changes etc), but it also has a purpose of very quickly creating a good looking vignette and highlight – much faster than doing them ‘by hand’. With this in my arsenal, I think the existing backgrounds are looking even more atmospheric.
See what you think.
Mysterious planet surface
Marvin's Room
In other news, writing dialogue for each area is a pain. I think I’m going to leave it until I’ve finished drawing all the background art, so I know exactly what is in each room.
Fun, Fun, Fun
Jul/090
I’m quite enjoying the transferring of my drafts into digital images, although I’m never quite sure of the final result. From what I’ve had said to me, no-one particularly loves their own work, and they certainly seem to look better if I leave the computer and come back a little later.
I hope others aren’t as prejudiced against them as I am.
Docking Bay
For those of you wondering what the hell that ‘P’ stands for, Marvin works for the ‘Pioneer Project’. And yes, this is the shuttle has had a little ding on the way in there. Unfortunately for the poor thing, it’s only the first of many.
Reception Area
There’s a quite elaborate system of colours to show you where things are (inspired by a similar thing in Half-Life). I think it looks quite good.
