I have finally gotten some new screen shots of my game online. Please check them out. Also my demo is nearly complete. It just needs a little tweaking.
My website is at (url="http://"http://www.farreaches.homestead.com")www.farreaches.homestead.com(/url)
Thanks
Outlandish
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Excellent work! Just fantastic! Congratulations on a job well done! Wow! I'm not kidding. Your graphics are terrific! Wish I was an artist like you!
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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
Oh, yes! Wow! Looks great. I'm wondering, though, why no Mac demo if it was made with Coldstone?
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Insert profound thought
or clever witticism here
The beta version of the demo is done, and I'll definately have a mac version up. The demo that's on my site now is an older one for windows when I was using Multimedia Fusion to build my game.
The problem I'm running into now is file size. Currently, my demo is about 31 megs. That would mean that the final game would be over 100 megs. That's kind of a big download for a shareware game. The question is, should I go for the big size, or should I economize by doing smaller graphics like Avernum 2 by Spiderweb software. The bigger graphics sure take a lot longer to make, especially for character animation. I want to have a fairly diverse game. At the moment the story calls for over 20 unique tilesets and dozens of characters, aliens, and monsters. That's a lot of memory. The Demo only has 3 tilesets in it and some 13 animated characters. I just didn't realize how much all that can add up.
So what are everyone's thoughts on the matter of filesize. Should I go for the larger size even though it takes longer to make the graphics, or should I go will smaller graphics, less animation, and a much smaller filesize. Basically, the backgrounds would look similar to what they look like now, only smaller--32x32 pixel tiles. The characters would be smaller, less detailed, not animated, and probably handpainted for the most part. I could finish a lot more characters that way. Right now it takes me about 3-5 hours to do one character from concept to finished product. Hand painted characters take about 20 minutes if you do front and back frames and an attack frame. I'd like to hear what everyone thinks about this.
Thanks
Outlanish
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Quote
Originally posted by Codewizard:
**Oh, yes! Wow! Looks great. I'm wondering, though, why no Mac demo if it was made with Coldstone?
**
Heh, yeah, I was wondering if the FAQ was a bit old... I mean, I thought Coldstone was made for mac... and also makes games for PC.
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You know you live in Arizona when you see someone driving with oven mits on.. and you think they are clever.
Quote
Originally posted by Outlandish:
**The beta version of the demo is done, and I'll definately have a mac version up. The demo that's on my site now is an older one for windows when I was using Multimedia Fusion to build my game.
The problem I'm running into now is file size. Currently, my demo is about 31 megs. That would mean that the final game would be over 100 megs. That's kind of a big download for a shareware game. The question is, should I go for the big size, or should I economize by doing smaller graphics like Avernum 2 by Spiderweb software. The bigger graphics sure take a lot longer to make, especially for character animation. I want to have a fairly diverse game. At the moment the story calls for over 20 unique tilesets and dozens of characters, aliens, and monsters. That's a lot of memory. The Demo only has 3 tilesets in it and some 13 animated characters. I just didn't realize how much all that can add up.
So what are everyone's thoughts on the matter of filesize. Should I go for the larger size even though it takes longer to make the graphics, or should I go will smaller graphics, less animation, and a much smaller filesize. Basically, the backgrounds would look similar to what they look like now, only smaller--32x32 pixel tiles. The characters would be smaller, less detailed, not animated, and probably handpainted for the most part. I could finish a lot more characters that way. Right now it takes me about 3-5 hours to do one character from concept to finished product. Hand painted characters take about 20 minutes if you do front and back frames and an attack frame. I'd like to hear what everyone thinks about this.
Thanks
Outlanish
**
Hmm... How would handpainted look in the "3d" eviroment? Or would you hand pain the beds and such also? I was a big fan of Avernum... but people always comented on its "poor" graphics. Personaly, I thought they were very well done and worked perfect for that kind of game. It all depends on if your handpainted are up to quality (heh, I am sure they are, if they are like your other stuff), and if your story is good enough to pull it through the flack it will get for not having "3d" characters.
Heh, basicaly... I won't know untill I see them. 
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You know you live in Arizona when you see someone driving with oven mits on.. and you think they are clever.
It's amazing to me how much Photoshop and GraphicConverter can compact images and yet they look just as good. I suggest you use them. At least, I plan to when I'm ready to publish.
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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
if you haven't done it already eliminate all resource forks, in Graphic Converter, you're art file size will nearly halve.
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The game looks FANTASTIC! I am very very impressed. I am curious as to what programs you used for your 3D. Namely, I would like to know what you used to make your beautiful character animations. They look spectacular! Again...I'm very impressed and I wish I had the skill and ambition to make such a beautiful game.
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pretty good looking stuff man. in your question about size and what not, i think the general art in the game or at least the characters could do with a 1/3 or 1/2 reduction in size. around the 1st diablo in size or maybe slightly bigger. my reasoning is it would save alot of space by cutting down all animations by 1/3 or so and there would be more space to manuever on the screen a bit. aka the further out you can see enemy fire and or maneuver in response to etc. although from all your screenshots your character detail looks awesome but i think some of the machines could benefit from a slight shrinking. also making everything smaller makes level graphics that much more detailed. the problem is trying to find the perfect way to size your art so it represents perfectly ingame.
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(url="http://"http://www.redknightentertainment.com/rkewerks/htmldavesworld/coldstonelinkspage.html")Coldstone Links For - Art, 3D, Animation, Problem Solving, Tips and tricks.(/url) Morvera ner Morden
As for the question about what graphics programs I use, I use photoshop for all the 2d stuff and for textures. I use Lightwave 6.5 for the backgrounds and some of the characters, though most of the characters were done with Hash Animation Master 2003. You're right about the FAQ, it's ancient. I haven't had time to fully update my site yet. The female character, Chlaris, also has been taken out since Coldstone can't handle parties of characters.
I know what you mean about the objects being a little too big. They're all out of scale. Still, if I do shrink down the graphics, it'll mean completely redoing all of the maps, which would stink. My biggest concern is more than file size, it's development time. It takes a lot longer to do the larger characters and graphics than it does to do smaller, hand painted stuff. Maybe what I'll do is come up with a screenshot for how the small graphics would look and post it. Then I could get more input.
Thanks
Outlandish
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I like the look. And I'm waiting for a MAc version. My wife said she wanted one also. (2computers=more overhead fro both of us)
I would go for the larger, here's why. First you have already completed most of the graphics and second, I like the look you have now!
Smaller is ok but if it doesn't look solid it won't sell. A 3D look says solid even if it's a crappy storyline. Visual impressions are best and last longest!
ask me
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Albadar
- - - - - - - - - -
Just trying...
I agree, it looks very professionally done. The art style is a bit unique also, it's not anime and it isn't comical. Note on the file size: I wouldn't worry about it. If people want to take the time downloading a quality game, so be it. But maybe you might want to find a few easy ways to size down certain graphics, buy using graphic converter. It's the best when you're going for high quality and smaller file size. You will definately need a mac version very soon though, because I don't know how long us mac users can wait for a mac demo 
...........
-Zerowarrior
My demo is ready, I'm just looking for web hosing with enough space and bandwidth to accomidate the file. Homestead doesn't give me enough and it's too expensive to upgrade with them. I'm looking at Yahoo and Bravenet right now.
Outlandish
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Very nice. When Coldstone first came out I wasn't very happy about the fact that everyone seemed to be making fantasy games. It's good to see a successful sci-fi game made by Coldstone for a change. Good luck with that.
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