You need a side view if you want the character design to look right. A face looks much different from the front than from the side.
Also, if you want to do it right, you need a whooooole lot of concept sketches from all angles in different poses for exploring the design, before you can finally make a “blueprint” that the modeler can use. These concept sketches can also help the modeler when he’s tweaking the rig, because they will tell him what the model should be capable of.
People always seem to think that when an artist is commissioned to do one drawing, that’s all he does- one drawing. I don’t blame them of course, because if you don’t know the procedure, how would you know?
I haven’t read this thread entirely, but to all the guys working on their own game, good luck!
This is bound to have been posted before but, this year is a good game for fighters and if they’re successful there’s gonna be some good opportunities to get your stuff out there! :tup:
i was in a sexellant mood, and had your game in mind. i made what i think would make a good intro and outro to a game. give it a listen and keep in mind this isnt anything too serious, i made these in a few minutes and i dont even know what the finished product of your game is pictured to look like. these are pretty dramatic soundin songs but alot of new age games have dramatic intros, getting more like movies.
what i pictured it as, as i was making it, was the gta3 intro with the credits rolling, just a smooth jam with the credits rolling. beast.
I’ve already got a soundtrack going, its meant to be different, and have a somewhat urban feel to it. Its even different in the realm of my own music, and I’m always willing to try something different. I guess you could say the soundtrack is going to be pretty experimental as far as hip hop and electronic music goes.
I doubt it will be everyone’s (or even anyone’s :looney:) cup of tea, but for now its here to stay. Just check it out, listen a few times before judging. The second one that fades in I hope to rework a bit. All but that one are planned to be fighting tracks. Most of them are remixes of other tracks in the game, because I plan on having a day and night version of each stage.
What I do need though, is someone who would make a good announcer or something :wonder: And character voices. God is it hard to get people to do decent voice acting for free. :sad:
i know voice actors but were on bad terms right now, lol. lemme see what i can do (the guy rapping and singins in ‘befroom of doom’ on hte soundclick page) hes brilliant
that second track, he sax one is HOT. and the thrid one with its trance feel is nice. but damn i dont know about fighting game material. puts you in to much of a mellow, unfocused mood. fighter music must be gentle in its own way, 4th one is beast for a fighter tho
It is on the Interbutt, but actually not so hard in real life (sort of like finding people to act in your amateur video… on the Internet, thats work; in real life, people are flattered if you ask).
Id volunteer if I had a decent mike. I dont. :shake:
In real life, you could easily punch me in the arm and make me pay for a mike and even pull my ear while I construct a shield for it (I speak Merican. I puff my ps.). On the Internets, there isnt all that much coercion you can do.
(okay, but seriously, I can do a little; I just dont know if yalld like it, because Im a half-Asian baritone and the microphone makes that sound kind of stupid… like, KOF 96 intro stupid. Plus, I know a few people in real life…)
Those are some pretty slick tracks, GStick. Clip 1 and 3 sound like good fighting tracks, while 2 and 5 are more like menu music. Clip 4 would be an excellent continue track.
To the experts out here, where would be a good place for a total newb to start? I’ve got a good backing in C++ and I’ve done some 3D modeling, but not much else. What’s good to cut your teeth on?
That’s because when 95% of the industry big wigs started, there was no such thing as a major in game design! I think your admonition against majoring in game design might not apply depending on the school. Game making is maturing as a field; whereas ten years ago, a game was generally designed, programmed & art directed by one or two people tops, we are beginning to see a separation of responsibilities like other fields have. For example, you’d never assume that a director should play every role in the movie he’s directing. Similarly, game developing, game designing and game artwork are all becoming more clearly distinct from each other.
Consider blogs like Lost Garden, where the author regularly posts prototype challenges; free-standing game designs that anyone is welcome to implement. The guy who runs this blog is a bona-fide Game Designer, separate entirely from a programmer or artist. Increasingly, companies are recognizing that programming + art does not a game design make.
I know this has been established, asserted and re-asserted several times in this thread, but I would feel remiss if I didn’t reiterate it myself. Generally, when a (non-programmer) layman asks me how hard it is to make a game or web program, I’ll tell them, “Think of how many weeks you feel like it should take. Six or seven? OK. That’s how many months it will take, if you have a correctly-sized, cohesive team of people working on the project 40 hours a week every week.” An example I like to pass around is Cave Story, or Doukutsu Monogatari, which is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It was programmed, designed and scored entirely by a single Japanese man… over the course of 5 years.
If you have a simple idea, prototyping it in Flash is good. But GameMaker, FighterMaker, RPGMaker, etc., are not viable solutions for real games. You can make variations on a theme ad nauseum, but the good stuff comes from new ideas and hard work. It’s not easy.
By the way, game industry dudes, here’s a question for you: How’d you get hooked up with your jobs? I’m working as a web developer these days, so it’s not strictly pertinent to my current interests, but I’m sure a lot of people are curious, and I’d love to know for when I switch jobs.
I hobby-programmed some game demos for a while during my studies, used them as showpieces to get internships while I was in college, then used my demos and internships as tickets to get my regular game programmer job.
I also participated in a few coding competitions and stuff, just to make sure to push up the “wow” factor on my resume. But mainly I think the game demos was what started the whole thing.
I thought I’ll keep posting in this topic for a while instead of creating one just for my game, help keep the topic alive.
Since v2.9, I’ve made 3 blog posts on the SDA Blog. I don’t go into too much detail, so if you’ve got any questions on how something may actually work in the game ask.
Been working hard on SDA lately, and the next demo is getting closer to being released for more testing.
Because of this I REALLY need to find someone who can do backgrounds, you don’t even have to be able to pixel art, actually photoshop/hand drawn/painted would be preferred so that they can be pixeled correctly later. You’d have to be prepared to work with parallax backgrounds (so split into multiple layers) and possibly even some animation. The animation could just be redrawing individual aspects of the background, the whole background doesn’t have to be redrawn or anything.
I only really need one background for the next demo but I’d like it to be someone who would be able to continue to do them all. We’ve got a (not final) list of backgrounds here: Stage Discussion
Tonren, if you are still watching this thread, I don’t think straight up “game design” or even “game programming” degrees are the right path. They are often too specialized and are generally considered a joke in the industry. My impression is that a lot of kids that come out of school with those kinds of degrees do not have a broad enough set of skills to be successful. You are probably better off with a degree in computer science, business, animation, etc (depending on the job you want to get) and either minoring in some kind of game industry program or working on some independent projects on the side. A good portfolio and a broad skill set is far, far, far more important than getting a degree that says you can make games.
Of course, there are some exceptions to the rule. Some schools, like DigiPen, are better than others at really training their students to make games. Also, if the program you are in has ties to a developer that will allow you to get an internship or some real industry experience before you graduate, you’ll be in pretty good shape.
Another thing to consider is that game studios are formed and go under on a regular basis, so a specialized degree can leave you stranded if your studio goes under or you lose a job. You might not be able to find another job in the industry right away, so it’ll be a lot easier to get a job outside the industry with a business, computer science or art degree, rather than something that is specialized to games. It’ll leave you the weaker candidate when employers are reviewing applications. It’s best to keep other doors open if possible to protect your career.
Making a fighting game would be a great way to build your skills though! I would love to see what kind of games some dedicated fighting fans could cook up. I’ll be watching this thread for sure.
