zombe on 26/8/2017 at 08:20
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Preparing expo materials :D
Wait... Expo?
(*ckick*ckickety-ckick* ... aah! Seattle indies expo. Never heard of it - as with everything else: wrong side of planet for me.)
Care to elaborate your path to it and what you intend to do there? Is it local to you? On your own or with help? Socializing or business? etc... aka. Tell Me More :D
Pyrian on 29/8/2017 at 21:52
Working on pine trees, the last basic terrain type (after which I have to deal with wet, frozen, dessicated, and burnt versions, and then the dozens of environmental and spell effects - and then units).
The one on the left is too obviously hexagonal. The one in the center isn't bad, but it's still too obvious where the "covering" circle is. The one on the right is an interesting style, but I ran out of my paint mix while working on it, lol. I'm not sure whether I should pursue the center style or the right-side style.
(
http://imgur.com/4tsRcow)
Inline Image:
http://i.imgur.com/4tsRcow.jpgYakoob on 30/8/2017 at 19:41
Can't decide? Take both, cut out, overlay your earlier game screenshot. Basically a quick art test to see which you like better. Post on FB/here if still can't pick :)
Quote Posted by zombe
Wait... Expo?
(*ckick*ckickety-ckick* ... aah! Seattle indies expo. Never heard of it - as with everything else: wrong side of planet for me.)
Care to elaborate your path to it and what you intend to do there? Is it local to you? On your own or with help? Socializing or business? etc... aka. Tell Me More :D
Yeeep, it's that time of the year "welp, the game is done, time to release it... shit" xD My approach has been to be very open about my design from start, posting updates on GameJolt and TigSource including even the full design doc (which I've never done before). This failed to get any traction, however, but it gave me some good feedback along the way (such as not making even my placeholder art look, as one user put it, like shit).
Right now, the game is (
http://store.steampowered.com/app/680980/HEADLINER/) coming soon on Steam (Oct. 3) and I have hired a small local PR firm (Hashbang Games) to help me market the game. Currently focusing on some local recognition in Seattle. We just had an official "launch party" and one of our strategies was: take a selfie with the poster cutout, tweet with #theheadliner tag, get a free drink. Lookup the tag for results.
Inline Image:
http://i.imgur.com/bnbwGJq.jpgI started approaching board game stores and cafes about leaving my game flyers as well. Next up, I am exhibiting at (
https://www.seattleindies.org/six/) Seattle Indies Expo around PAX. After that, I got a solid month of marketing efforts (after PAX madness dies out). Press, youtuber, twitch outreach but no concrete plans. Brainstorming a few extra ideas, such as a contest, #FakeNews generator, etc. We'll see.
Pyrian on 1/9/2017 at 05:04
Paper prototyping. Wow. I think the closest I've ever seen to that is some powerpoint mockups.
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Take both, cut out, overlay your earlier game screenshot.
...
Now why the heck didn't I ever think of that? Thanks.
The Headliner cutout is really cool. Hope it gets you lots of attention!
The big pine trees (impassable terrain) are now in, completing a draft of all 12 basic terrain types! Hooray! Also, I readjusted the rocks one more time. I reverted the coloration of the rock walls back to grey, and colored the mid-size boulders halfway between their original grey and the brown I'd tried with them before. I think it came out alright:
(
http://imgur.com/BD06bAF)
Inline Image:
http://i.imgur.com/BD06bAF.pngSulphur on 1/9/2017 at 05:08
Looks lovely. Those are some very pleasing grassland gradients. The black rock hexes stick out a bit too much, and maaaybe transition hexes for rock to grassland if you've got the time.
henke on 1/9/2017 at 05:35
I think he already said making transition hexes would take insanely long, but how about doing it programmatically? Detect if a stone hex is next to a grass hex and then overlay it with a grass hex sprite at 10% opacity to give it a bit of a green tint.
Also holy shit, Yakoob, you're really going all out with the marketing! :thumb:
Yakoob on 1/9/2017 at 05:45
That looks beautiful Pyrian, really makes the hand-crafted art shine!
Quote Posted by henke
I think he already said making transition hexes would take insanely long, but how about doing it programmatically? Detect if a stone hex is next to a grass hex and then overlay it with a grass hex sprite at 10% opacity to give it a bit of a green tint.
That's a good idea. You can also check which of the 8 sides borders with grass, and dynamically create a "grass fader" sprite oriented to be on that edge, inside the rock. This way you only need 1 horizontal bar of grass-to-transparent texture you can use everywhere. Round the edges a bit so it blends smoothly:
._______
/_______\
Another option is to make the hex textures actually bigger than the hex, with outside areas fading to transparent. Then render them in a specific order (all rocks first, then all grass), and it should end up looking pretty alright (tho im not sure if there would be artifact on grass-to-grass transitions)
Quote Posted by henke
Also holy shit, Yakoob, you're really going all out with the marketing! :thumb:
Eh, not really. What I am spending is pittance compared to real marketing. Haven't seen much of a splash (yet, hopefully).
Pyrian on 4/9/2017 at 05:14
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Looks lovely.
Quote Posted by Yakoob
That looks beautiful Pyrian, really makes the hand-crafted art shine!
Thanks a ton, guys! :)
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Those are some very pleasing grassland gradients.
Thanks for noticing. There's a little story behind those. When I put in nighttime fires with their own lighting routine, the code spirals out from each fire, checking for obstacles. This made it trivial to add a gradient to lit hexes based on how close they were to the fire. The effect got so much positive commentary that I decided to use the same gradient during the daytime to represent clouds drifting overhead. To arrange them, I used the same code I was using to arrange fog bank probabilities. Since the gradients are plainly visible while the fog banks are probabilistic and kind of scattered, I suddenly found out that my fog-generation code was horribly broken and had to be almost completely redone! Lol.
Quote Posted by Sulphur
The black rock hexes stick out a bit too much...
Those aren't black rocks. That's fog of war - hexes the party can't see. It's meant to stick out. (The party in this shot is off to the right side strung along, making for some kind of weird patterns.)
Quote Posted by henke
...overlay it with a grass hex sprite at 10% opacity to give it a bit of a green tint.
Hmm. Looks mossy, which is not a bad look at all, but doesn't really come across as transition.
I'm thinking I'll just carefully scatter some tufts of grass and small rocks near the borders of adjacent hexes? Bunches of small sprites on the same atlas should be very cheap to render (basically particles). Then something different for shorelines. I'm still filling in the "non-basic" terrains now (dessicated, burnt, wet, frozen, etc.) which are mostly little more than color shifts.
