Nifflas' Support Forum

Being Creative => Creativity Support => Topic started by: Pumpkinbot on February 28, 2010, 09:11:44

Title: Any long, passionate lectures you've written?
Post by: Pumpkinbot on February 28, 2010, 09:11:44

You know what I mean. Someone says, "Hey, I can't figure out what's wrong. Help!" You then go into a very elaborate, well-thought out thesis on what to do in a KS level. I find these kind of inspiring, and I hope others do, too. Post 'em here. Also, having the original post would be nice, so its not taken out of context. Spoiler tags would be nice, too.

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Quote from: Pumpkinbot

[Originally posted in "The Floating Island [Challenge/Puzzle] (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=2851.msg32931#msg32931)"]

Try to use all three background layers. For example, play Gaia, one of Nifflas' games, or my own The Mysterious Grotto (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=562.0)[/shamelessadvertising]
Play the game from a designer's standpoint. "What do I like about this screen? Is it the clever use of objects? Or the illusion of perspective? Or maybe it's just the intricate patterns in the ground?" But remember not to steal the idea totally. You only want to take the basic premise. Like, if I was going to copy Super Mario Bros., I wouldn't take it's turtle-like enemies or unique floating blocks everyone seems to be using these days, but just the core: pits, jumping to and from platforms, and jumping on enemies to vanquish them. But also know when it's a really bare-bones concept, like putting the top of the water  one tile lower on an island in the water (attached, "water"). Then it's okay because it's not really specific. A good idea to know when to steal is to ask yourself, "Would this be the kind of thing someone would copyright?"

Also, use all your resources. They add something new to see and they can even be used to overcome layering issues, like if you need an extra layer, make a single-frame CO of it and put it atop the tile. Take this screen from a level I'm sort of working on a semi-wheneverIfeellikeit basis (attached, "layers"). The game's transitioning from an area with a light background to a dark background. In the tileset for the darker area, there's a semi-transparent gray tile that I used to transition backgrounds slowly rather than abruptly. True, I didn't need it, but I didn't like how it looked without it. (I'll bring this up later, too.) Well, layer 0 was devoted to the background (I used tiles from the lighter area's tileset because the background for the whole place was rather specific), layer 1 was devoted to the dark area's gray transition pieces, and layer 2 was devoted to some pipes in the background. The rest of the dark area has grass on it, yet I don't have another background layer for it. How do I solve this problem? Let's play "Professor Pumpkinbot and the Curious Level Editor." How can I fix this?

Spoiler: Solutions (click to show/hide)

I could use custom objects of the grass or, since the pipes are of the same color, a custom object of the pipe. But that would require removing the pipes, putting the grass in, and having a rather large CO (or two because KS can't handle really large COs) with an odd shape, which would require putting in additional information in the .ini. Not to mention you'd have to know how to make a CO, which not everyone knows how.

Alternatively, you could make a background. Right-click all the layers except layer 0, take a screenshot, crop it, rename it "gradient1", and put it in the corresponding folder.

Another thing to keep in mind is there's rarely such a thing someone could describe as "overdoing it". I have yet to see a game that's overdone something (save for "Teenhmifnoeafgil" and "DEtM", but they're special cases, due to the premise behind them). This may not necessarily be the case, though, because if it looks over-the-top, it's usually glaring and easy to spot that it's an eyesore.

And when doing anything at all, try to definitely do NOT do what's already been done a hundred times before, especially if it's been done well. I have rarely seen a game where the music was default KS music and I absolutely LOVED the game. Same goes for tilesets. Please please please don't use "Not Quote Dr. Cliche's Underwater Lab" or any variant of "Flower Garden." They've been used more than any other tileset in the default library! Same goes for the music. I can see why people don't try to use new music, though. It's hard to find music that's totally free to use and not everybody's a natural born musician. But, if you Google "cc license music" or "creative commons music", you're bound to find a site. Don't bug other people into making a song just for your game, though. It usually works out in the following way.

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Quote from: iwantmusic1985

Hey, maestro42! Wanna make me some music? It's gotta be like this: [stuff, stuff, blah lah blah] {He's a nice guy, he'll probably do it!}

Quote from: maestro42

{Wha? Music doesn't grow on trees, I can't just make something spontaneously! But I can't just turn him down!} Sure, dude.

LATER...

Quote from: iwantmusic1985

Hey, maestro42, how's the song coming along?

Quote from: maestro42

{Bah, he didn't forget? D:} Oh, well, it's taking a while. I've been busy and [excuse].

Quote from: iwantmusic1985

Oh...Forget it, then... {*is sad*}

Quote from: maestro42

Sorry, dude... {*is also sad*}

In the end, both people leave disheartened. So please try Google-ing. And make abso-freakin'-lutely sure that the game is under a CC license that says you can use it in your game. If it doesn't say "yes" or "no", don't use it. Or ask the author and save that message.

One last thing. (Woez, this is long. "tldr" much, huh?) If it looks or works wrong, change it. The first Madden game had a huge problem: this was the early '90s. The game systems couldn't handle that many complex sprites at a time. The programmers no doubt wanted to quit and say, "You're crazy, Richard Hilleman!" But Hilleman said, "Think harder, programmers! What could we do?" After [insert long time frame here] of slaving over a hot keyboard, they came up with a solution that I don't quite remember offhand, but this was the start of many more immensely popular games to go.
This may be an extreme case, though, so weigh how difficult it would be to fix it over how ugly or inconvenient it would be. Most people say if it's really really easy to fix, do it. But I'd raise the bar. If it's really tough to do, think about doing it later when you're more inspired. That's what I do. But there is one thing that is my downfall. When I'm trying to fix a particularly tough situation, sometimes my brain kicks in and says, "Hey, you know, you don't have to do this. It works okay, right?" Then I crumple it up and toss it into the Recycling Bin. Do. Not. Do. This. Just think about the task at hand, nothing else. Not even The Game (shit).

Title: Re: Any long, passionate lectures you've written?
Post by: Razzorman on February 28, 2010, 13:57:01

The transition example you posted is too contrasting. Transitions should be seamless and smooth, so if you are foing from a really light area to a really dark one, you can't just put them in one screen like that. Its better to do it quickly, like dropping the player down a hole in the ground, so that the player won't notice any jarring differences between the areas.

Another way to do this is to put a short transition area between the dark and the light one. Something that is somewhat darker than the light area, but doesn't contrast too much.

Title: Re: Any long, passionate lectures you've written?
Post by: Pumpkinbot on February 28, 2010, 21:19:59

Quote from: Razzorman on February 28, 2010, 13:57:01

The transition example you posted is too contrasting. Transitions should be seamless and smooth, so if you are foing from a really light area to a really dark one, you can't just put them in one screen like that. Its better to do it quickly, like dropping the player down a hole in the ground, so that the player won't notice any jarring differences between the areas.

Another way to do this is to put a short transition area between the dark and the light one. Something that is somewhat darker than the light area, but doesn't contrast too much.

You DARE make sense in my lair?! YOU MUST DIE.

But you have a point.

Title: Re: Any long, passionate lectures you've written?
Post by: Purple Pineapple on February 28, 2010, 21:40:27

I'm sure I have, but I can't remember any at the moment. I wrote all about this (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=2836) on purpose, and believe me, It took a long time to get all the tags right. Like I would want to say, Do this: [sp[i][/i]oiler][/spoiler], but then I would have to write [sp[i[s][/s]][/i]oiler][/spoiler] to make it do that, but then to put that in this topic, I had to do a [sp[i[s[b][/b]][/s]][/i]oiler][/spoiler], etc. :P

I also put a lot of work into the story here. (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=2642)

Title: Re: Any long, passionate lectures you've written?
Post by: LPChip on February 28, 2010, 22:51:50

Since this is a general topic, not specifically about Knytt Stories, I'm moving it to Creativity Support.

Title: Re: Any long, passionate lectures you've written?
Post by: LimeLemon on March 01, 2010, 18:09:06

Not exactly a lecture, but I put a lot of work into Common Bugs (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=2427.0) (not very much text compared to other things, but I remember that the pictures took some time to get the way I wanted and so...).

Title: Re: Any long, passionate lectures you've written?
Post by: Evil on March 07, 2010, 00:57:59

Yes I blabber on rule of thirds and how it is scientifically proven to make your horrible artwork more dynamic. :)

Title: Re: Any long, passionate lectures you've written?
Post by: Purple Pineapple on March 09, 2010, 05:49:15

Oh. I remember: here. (http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=2593.msg31906#msg31906)

Spoiler: text (click to show/hide)

Here's a little tileset for a level I been workin on. Please critique!
----
Critique? Okay. I'll start out by saying that it's a good tileset. Not one of those slap-together-in-two-minutes ones. The first thing I notice is that there's a window tile with cracks in it. Not that this looks bad, but if you have multiple windows it starts to look repetitive. Perhaps a duplicate window without cracks and possibly another with different cracks? The same is true of the center ground tile. Next, are the Knytts: their hair color, grey, is a bit unnatural, and blends with the skin. If that is not hair, and is instead a suit or something, I'd make the distinction a bit more obvious. Furthermore, the other Knytts are a bit round. The trask can is good. When placed on a ground tile, however, the dirt and the dirt on the ground will be cut through by a black line (the border of the ground). I'm not sure how to fix this. The grey rips look okay on the dark brown couch, but they stand out a bit too much on the red one. Perhaps a reddish tint would fix that. As for the glass. In general glass came be made semi-transparent with alpha-channel. If you don't know how to do this, however, don't bother. The color of the glass is not quite right. It is a bit too dark. As it appears to be a rather broken down kind of tileset, I would advise making it a bit more greyish. Or at least not as bright blue as you have it at present. The signs look too mspainty for my tastes. One thing you could do is put some amount of effort into making the words look more real.