Database Users

In search of a graphics designer

Hi everybody out there with a good hand for nice looking graphics ;-)
I started a little (now, its a bit more complex) tower defense game at least 6 months ago. Now, as it's getting colder out, i have a little bit more time (after my family) to start working further on it.
A lot of ground programming is done, as pathfinding, building, upgrading towers, with zooming in and out. Framerate is configurable. Enemies are also configurable to attack towers. Towers range, health, firepower and behaviour [shoot nearest, weakest etc. pp] is configurable (programmatically at the moment).
So, i used some tiles from other programmers (asking them before) but im not lucky with the graphics at all (and as you know, a game is getting better with it's graphics ^^). The graphics itself is 2D and i'm in need for all graphic related things, as splash screen, menu layout, playfields and of course, towers and enemies (mostly of course animated) - where tilesize should be 64 or 32.
AND of course, it's not ready made yet. It needs a lot of overhaul at the end (as game balancing, level design, difficulty level ...).
So, if anyone is interested in such a game (yeah, i know, there are a lot out there ... but maybe there are some nice ideas - improvements?) - send me a pm or reply in this thread

Id be interested in lending a hand, though it depends on exactly how much work you need. But I'd certainly be interested in hearing some more info about the style / theme you were going for, and I might be able to help out ~

splinter82 said:
Id be interested in lending a hand, though it depends on exactly how much work you need. But I'd certainly be interested in hearing some more info about the style / theme you were going for, and I might be able to help out ~
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i need all graphics to be done. i've "borrowed" some graphics from other sites, asking the developers first, but the tilesets are not enough and i'm not really familar with graphics design (also simplest graphics )
what i need (and your imagination may have no limits) are:
- tilesets for towers
- tilesets for enemies
- playfields or "rooms"
- explosions
- projectiles
- maybe a well designed icon
format of tilesets (or single tiles) may be discussed, i prefer 32x32 or 64x64 tiles.
the style is not choosen yet. currently, style is medieval. but i really don't like it much and graphics looking not that good. style itself should not depend on implementation. as i wrote already, most of the implementation is done, graphics are changeable. so, if you're really interested, i may give you some short shots to get a picture of what's done so far.
and yes, graphics work is mostly 50% of the work ... the more eye candy an app is, the more successful.

Nexus 1 in space, well almost...

Found an article on Sparkfun's website today, thought it would be worth a look for you Nexus One guys. Did a search on the site, didn't see anything about it, so here you go.
I can't post links yet, so bare with me plz...
Sparkfun said:
Here at SparkFun, we have never shied away from launching our products up into the sky. From homemade rockets, to pumpkins, to high-altitude balloons, we genuinely enjoy seeing electronics we have spent hours working on flying through the air.
So naturally, when we saw this project about someone else launching some of our parts in a rocket, we had to share. This is an awesome project called the PhoneSat Rocket.
This suborbital rocket was launched out in the Nevada desert and is based around an Arduino Main Board and a couple of Nexus One cellphones. Check out the above video for a documentary of the whole launch!
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Small documentary of the launches:
Flight video from the second Nexus One launch:
Wired Magazine Article on them:
Wired Magazine said:
Cheaper, Better Satellites Made From Cellphones and Toys
* By Jess McNally Email Author
* July 30, 2010 |
* 3:20 pm |
* Categories: Space, Tech
*
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Instead of investing in their own computer research and development, engineers at the NASA Ames Research Center are looking to cellphones and off-the-shelf toys to power the future of low-cost satellite technology.
The smartphone in your pocket has about 120 times more computing power than the average satellite, which has the equivalent of a 1984-era computer inside.
“You can go to Walmart and buy toys that work better than satellites did 20 years ago,” said NASA physicist Chris Boshuizen. “And your cellphone is really a $500 robot in your pocket that can’t get around. A lot of the real innovation now happens in entertainment and cellphone technology, and NASA should be going forward with their stuff.”
The biggest challenge of sending cellphones and toys into space is whether the parts can get up there without shaking apart and work in a vacuum at extreme high and low temperatures.
To do some preliminary testing, two Nexus One cellphones caught rides on two rockets on July 24 that launched 30,000 feet into the atmosphere at a maximum speed of mach 2.4 (about 1,800 miles per hour). One of the rockets crashed into the ground after its parachute failed, but the other made it back with the cellphone unscathed.
Both cellphones were able to record the acceleration of the rocket using their built-in accelerometers, and the undamaged phone captured 2.5 hours of video of the event through a hole in the side of the rocket.
“Everything that didn’t break is a piece of data,” said volunteer engineer Ben Howard. “We know that the batteries didn’t break and that the computer worked the whole time.”
If the cellphones ultimately get used to power satellites, they will probably be sent up without a screen and with a different battery to make them lighter. The screen and battery make up 90 percent of the Nexus One’s weight.
Next, the team will build a stabilizing mechanism for the satellite using the cellphone, $100 toy gyroscopes and parts similar to those of the Mindstorms Lego, so the satellite can orient itself in space. By installing three spinning gyroscopes and getting them to spin at different velocities, a satellite can move in any direction. The same technique is currently used on many satellites, but requires multimillion dollar technology.
The project will likely use CubeSat’s as a standardized carrying case for their cellphone-powered satellites, because the boxes have already been tested and are known to hold up in the journey. Often companies who are sending up satellites on rockets have extra space on their rockets, which is how most amateur satellites will likely get into space, and the people paying like to be sure that nothing will break and damage the rocket on the way up.
The whole goal of the project is to make satellites cheap and affordable, so that anyone with bit of time and a couple of thousand dollars can send their own satellite into space.
Upgrading the computing power of satellites using cellphones would mean increased satellite capabilities, possibly including artificial intelligence.
“We’re not sure yet exactly what people will want to do with their satellites, and that’s the point,” said NASA education specialist Matt Reyes. “What can you imagine doing with your phone in space?”
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Last but not least, a mission statement of sorts:
Hopefully some of you guys are into this sort of thing as I am. It's REALLY awesome how far we as a people have come if you sit down and think about it.

Great stuff for the high tech Nexus...reach for the stars

Cool. It really makes sense for CubeSats. The Space Shuttle only has one megabyte of RAM, but that's because it doesn't need any more and the processes are meticulously coded. The basic CubeSat is a four inch box. One of the goals is to make them usable by the general public, like school teachers, to send experiments to space, and they aren't going to have a team of engineers to write software for them. Cell phones are really the only off-the-shelf processor available.

Yeah it's a neat deal for sure. Being able to consolidate a lot of systems that cost millions into a pocket sized cell phone is huge.
Sent from my HTC EVO

Importance of Group Playtest for Game/App Development

Digital Eclairs went to Pinewood's after school program called AppLab, focused on getting kids more hands on on new electronics coming up.
We presented our project XnO, with multiple handled devices to kids (age group 8-12). After the first 15 mins of hands on experience, they were really enjoying the gameplay, comparing it to different games titles and how it was better, why they liked 3D, asking questions on when the app would be released, and they were very interested in knowing about the process of how it was created.
It showed us that 3D environments were a welcome change, kids respond well to warm colors we used. We set each kid on a different level and they seemed comfortable playing and getting familiar with the app. Some kids responded very well with the higher levels and some not so well because we had not ramped them through the initial gameplay, but after a few tries they started to get the hang of the game and when they were able to win they were really happy. In retrospect we realized that this was a bit of a difficult learning curve for someone new coming to this game, but with the release upon us we had to move forward with what he had. In order to give people a taste of the game on the iOS we released with a showcase of 5 levels, which looking back on it now, care is needed when choosing the level of difficulty to the casual gamer.
The Accelerometer presented an interesting challenge to the kids, once they figured out they could lift the device and tilt it left and right to move the character they were able to pick up on it quick and continue with how they had been completing the levels previously. We were short few devices and a few kids had to share the same device. The ones who were collaborating did very well on higher levels taking turns and really engaging in the game and helping each other and were faster in adapting to the game. This helped us understand that putting out a physics puzzled based game would definitely require a walkthrough to help the community through some of those tough levels.
As a developer with our first game a week away from release, it was an exhilarating experience to see our product being enjoyed by these kids. Their eagerness to explore all the game features gave us so much satisfaction and all the pain and efforts in building this game were totally worth it. The kids were very interested in knowing the process of how the game was made and when they were asked for feedback they all jumped in saying: They loved double headed turtle and wanted a three headed turtle, in-game currency that they can use to buy in things in game like weapons, wallpaper, and many more suggestions.
To anyone who want to make their own game, arrange group play tests ahead of time once you have a working build. You will get wonderful insight into your game. We had initially done a lot a individual testing from industry people, which is very useful and should not be ignored but for a complete overview on a game and end user perspective go for group tests, as individual test can sometimes be misleading. And do it as soon and as often as possible.
Digital Eclairs, is an independent game development studio. XnO - 3D Adventure Game is launch on iTunes and Google Play.

How-To White-Box a Game (Making of XnO Part II)

No story is complete without its origins. We love to share with you the very first white-box environment of XnO!
XnO began its origins from the name "Ice Breakers", the way the cylindrical blocks were breaking. We had 3 walls couple of boxes from unity asset packages. And began the journey. We wanted to take a simple idea and implement in it all the possible depths.
When we began majority of the games were 2D or side scrollers, that never gave the player full satisfaction of real life interaction with physics of the objects. So we chose a 3D engine, as to why "unity" - the amount of tutorials, community support and ease of start was a key factor in choosing that engine.
To be a team you would need atleast 3 components to begin with - programmer, 2D/3D artist and level designer. Not to say one person can handle more than one aspect. As a team we were all on the same page, we want to make a physics based game with focus on gameplay first.
We followed the following steps:
i) Create first level - We used very basic components - rectangle, sphere, cylinder to create a game play scenario.
ii) Create a flow through of the game - Main Menu, Options and Level Select Screens. Once this was done adding new levels was very easy.
iii) In Game HUD - To enter and exit from any level
iv) Uploaded a web version for our friends/family to play.
Once we had all the pieces then we focussed on exploring all the possible depths and variations in the gameplay that can be achieved to make the game engaging and fun. In our case - target variations, introducing obstacles, power-ups, use of accelerometer to enhance gameplay. Once we had built the key features in, we explored on how to increase difficulty of the levels as the game progressed. At this stage we made some of our models, used some from unity and still used royalty free music.
Once we had good 20 levels working with all the above, we started showing it to people who either played a lot of games or were in gaming. This gave us a good insight on how improve.
As an indie developer it was so much easier for us to do the white-box the way we did because we focussed on Gameplay and Game Design, not so much on the art in the beginning. So when we got the feedback to change, it was so much easier to do it. We were never set in stone.
XnO is our attempt at making a 3D game with as close as possible to real physics without sacrificing the gameplay and memory footprint of the game. XnO is now available on Google Play and Amazon App Store.

[GAME] Awakened Gods: Elementals TD

Let’s us present the debut game Awakened Gods: Elementals TD of a new indie game studio – vARDAmir’s Game Studio!
In the game Awakened Gods: Elementals TD you will have to use your tactical skills to defeat dangerous creatures. If I were you, I wouldn’t expect victory from the very first. The game belong to a famous genre – Tower Defense.
Thanks to this game, you can feel yourself a defender of a huge realm, known as Ardinor and protect human lands, elven forests, dwarves mines and barbarians jungle against the invasion of countless elemental creatures army created by Ancient Gods.
The game Awakened Gods: Elementals TD differs from other games in the same genre with beautiful 3d graphics with high-quality hand-painted textures and plot. In order to select an optimum combination you should take into account that types of attack and armor have different advantages against each other.
You are to complete an exciting campaign of 12 maps in 4 unique sceneries. Unforgettable hand painted locations will catch your eyes. You can see human lands, filled with lush leaves; elven forests with everlasting autumn and giant trees; dwarves gloomy mines and barbarians dense jungles the nature of which hasn’t been touched for hundreds of thousands of years.
Help the races of this wonderful world and forbid Awakened Gods to destroy the crystal of the Universe!
Features:
- Unique type combination of damage and armor!
- Campaign of 12 levels with an interesting story!
- Skirmish mode
- achievements
- 4 different kinds of locations!
- 12 unique enemy types, each with their own abilities!
- 12 various towers with the possibility of leveling up and skill system
- Excellent hand-painted 3d graphics
- Each tower has its own design!
We don’t want to unveil all the secrets of Awakened Gods: Elementals TD. Play and you will find them!
Available in Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vARDAmirsGameStudio.AwakenedGodsElementalsLite

wvvv
Sent from my HTC Sensation using xda app-developers app

i will return soon with my new project =)
thanks for your support guys (if u did it) =)

Thanks)
Actually not bad game) Thank you!

StarInSky said:
Actually not bad game) Thank you!
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Thank you. Very appreciate it =)

what's up guys? u can check out the FULL FREE version by the link above.

Really a nice game. What could help you:
You should really improve your App-Icon. No offense, but it's really unimpressive and not 'catchy' at all.
That's just my opinion, but check out other app-icons at the store and you will understand what I'm saying.
Greetz : )

Sir_Obvious said:
Really a nice game. What could help you:
You should really improve your App-Icon. No offense, but it's really unimpressive and not 'catchy' at all.
That's just my opinion, but check out other app-icons at the store and you will understand what I'm saying.
Greetz : )
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Thank you very much. I will try to improve it=)

still cant get good icon. anyone can help me with it?

New Icon
Good News! Just made a new icon for the game. What do you think about it?=)

It's better then before, but I think it could be even more better.
It's pretty dark and there is no much contrast. Also the "Free" is not that easy to read and I don't think it's the best font.
I'm not a graphic-guy ether, so I can not give you a lot specific advices but try to add some contrast between the different colors and lighten it all up a little bit.

Sir_Obvious said:
It's better then before, but I think it could be even more better.
It's pretty dark and there is no much contrast. Also the "Free" is not that easy to read and I don't think it's the best font.
I'm not a graphic-guy ether, so I can not give you a lot specific advices but try to add some contrast between the different colors and lighten it all up a little bit.
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Thank you very much. I will try to do something=)