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Being Creative => Nifflas' Sources => Topic started by: egomassive on January 22, 2012, 14:35:11

Title: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: egomassive on January 22, 2012, 14:35:11
In the Knytt Stories mod I'm working on I intend to include 7 types of artifacts. These will be collectible items that can be spread throughout a level for players to find. Each type will have 7 instances making 49 artifacts in total. But, I've run into a problem. I don't know what they should look like. At first I was going to make spinning gemstones, but I couldn't make a convincing pixel art version that looked fitting in the Knytt Stories visual style. The two images below are my current train of thought. They are based on those floaty things that kill you if you don't have the hologram, 2:18 and 2:19.

Anyway, I'd like to see what the community thinks. If anyone has ideas for what the artifacts should be or look like, I'd like to hear them. Or, if you could tell me how to improve these images, then please do.

Edit: Animations have been slowed to a more accurate speed.

Edit: New versions of animations posted with old ones.

Edit: Green and blue animations added. Original 2 removed.

Edit: All attachments replaced with one big one
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: Miss Paula on January 23, 2012, 12:28:03
the only immediate thought I got, is that the animations you have there look a bit hectic/too fast.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: egomassive on January 24, 2012, 00:31:29
They were much slower in Windows picture viewer. Let me try to remake them...
OK, now they're running at a speed closer to the one seen in game. One problem I have with these is the yellow one appears to turn 90 degrees and then turn back. It should appear to turn 180 degrees like the red one. I'm not sure what to do about it. The light source is top-left and slightly in front of the screen.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: LordMarzog on January 24, 2012, 02:03:12
The yellow one looks just fine to me. No matter how hard I look at it, I can't fool myself into seeing it turn 90 degrees then snap back.

I like them both. They're pretty cool! 8)
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: sergiocornaga on January 24, 2012, 04:01:12
I like 'em. The red one's pretty sexual, though.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: Mathexpert on January 24, 2012, 06:04:27
I like 'em. The red one's pretty sexual, though.
lol xD

yeah, they look nice~ I can't wait to try it out
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: Raicuparta on January 24, 2012, 11:02:57
I like 'em. The red one's pretty sexual, though.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees it that way.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: egomassive on January 25, 2012, 00:17:43
Wow! It never crossed my mind that the red one was suggestive of anything but mystical/high technology. I'm thinking I should change it now. Once you see it as a phallic symbol, you can never go back. Although, that does invoke a since of ancientness. Primitive art is full of phalli and fertility gods.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: LordMarzog on January 25, 2012, 00:43:02
Wow! It never crossed my mind that the red one was suggestive of anything but mystical/high technology. I'm thinking I should change it now. Once you see it as a phallic symbol, you can never go back. Although, that does invoke a since of ancientness. Primitive art is full of phalli and fertility gods.

Personally I had thought that it looked like a "T" connecting with a "U" but yeah it does indeed look rather suggestive. Maybe instead if one prong, you could use two? Like having the pi symbol or an up side down "U" connect with a sideways "E"?

Of course, maybe having one object slide into another is just something to avoid all together? Up to you.

[mod]fixed quote[/mod]
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: egomassive on January 25, 2012, 15:45:55
I took another stab at it. The new artifacts are posted above next to the old ones. I split the red one in to 3 parts to make it less suggestive. The yellow one is sporting new highlighting on a few frames to improve the illusion of rotation. Both have reduced speed. Both have increased pauses when they're whole.

@ Marzog: I'm afraid the Pi/E combo would be to large.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: Raicuparta on January 25, 2012, 16:04:52
I was thinking maybe getting the animation to be smoother but I don't know if it is too hard. I mean, the yellow one, right now, is like 2 separate animations, the top part moves, then waits for the bottom part to move, and then the bottom part waits for the top part to finish it's movement as well. Is it impossible to make both of those parts to move non-stop and sync them correctly?
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: Firecat on January 25, 2012, 21:04:08
I was thinking maybe getting the animation to be smoother but I don't know if it is too hard. I mean, the yellow one, right now, is like 2 separate animations, the top part moves, then waits for the bottom part to move, and then the bottom part waits for the top part to finish it's movement as well. Is it impossible to make both of those parts to move non-stop and sync them correctly?
I like how that "un-synched" animation looks in the 2nd attachment. (I think it's supposed to look rather robotic)  But with the current velocity it may look slightly disjointed. Anyways, i attached what i think Rai meant for comparison.

PS: Nice shading skills ego.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: Raicuparta on January 25, 2012, 21:58:55
Yes, taht's what I meant, but it doesn't need that pause when they touch. Or does it?
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: egomassive on January 26, 2012, 02:36:37
I'm going for a casual robotic feel. I've asked my self whether the parts should overlap their movements or not. The yellow artifact certainly seems unhindered from the beginning, but the red one's sliding parts are still in the way. It's imperative that all artifacts have the same behavior so the player will recognize them as collectibles after learning it once with one type of artifact.

I think the artifacts should stay together for a moment to emphasize that the parts make up a whole. I'm considering programming them to animate at random intervals. My hope is this will give them a more mystical/intelligent appearance.

@ Firecat: Thanks for the work and the praise. These are so tiny and complex, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. That's mainly why I opened this thread.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: Widget on January 26, 2012, 05:00:20
I'm afraid I don't have any constructive criticism to put forward, I just wanted to say I'm really impressed with both examples. In particular, the newest version of the red artifact is wonderful; I really like the separated central section dropping down first, almost like the top piece is an electromagnet.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: GrayFace on January 26, 2012, 16:17:39
They look really nice.
Both have reduced speed.
For me the speed of the 2 on the left seems right. Ones on the right are way too slow.
Maybe animations of parts of yellow artifact should overlap a little. I mean the top part could start going down when the bottom part has almost finished the cycle.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: egomassive on February 02, 2012, 15:30:58
I've posted green and blue artifacts in the opening post. I'm highly skeptical that the green one will make the final cut. I'm not coming up with ideas for new artifacts easily. I want them to all have the same basic size and behavior, but I'm struggling to think of Ideas for different ways to do it. And then there's the colors. I want to make one for each key color ; red, yellow, blue, and purple. I'm sure I'll make a green one, but then what? Black & white? Orange? I don't know.

My mod is now fully programmed to handle artifacts. All that's missing are the graphics. Oh and, I've been thinking of adding new pick-up sounds to differentiate collectible pickups from power-up pickups. One sound for coins, and one for artifacts and golden creatures. Any thoughts on this are welcome.
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: Miss Paula on February 02, 2012, 16:32:38
colours? no problem, you already have r, g and b, as well as y. only ones that are missing are obviously c, m and k. :P
I was thinking of stacking bricks as one possible animation. like a pyramid that lifts as a whole and then "rains" down brick by brick/layer by layer. and maybe something like pixely snakes reaching all slithery upwards? Hard to explain, but I'm at work and not a real pixel animator either. Might try later when I'm back home again. :P2
and for sounds, just a "blip" would do.  X-P
Title: Re: Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items
Post by: egomassive on February 03, 2012, 12:16:21
colours? no problem, you already have r, g and b, as well as y. only ones that are missing are obviously c, m and k. :P
...
I've thought of doing the RGB color wheel, but the purple key puts KS in a RYB color wheel. I'd like there to be artifacts that match each key. An orange one would finish out the wheel leaving me one more color to pick. If I was adding 8 artifacts then I'd make black and white, but as it is I'll have to choose one or go with something completely different. Maybe I should increase to 8 artifacts.

...pixely snakes reaching all slithery upwards? Hard to explain, but I'm at work and not a real pixel animator either. Might try later when I'm back home again. :P2
...
Really no idea what you mean there Miss Paula, but thanks for taking the time to reply during your busy work day. :)

Edit: 5Feb2012: I've made all 7 shapes now, but there's still one that I'm not happy with. On the colors, I've decided to drop orange, so I can include black and white. I may still change my mind after attempting to make a black one. Black with black borders probably wont work.

Edit: 5Feb2012 again: I wasn't happy with black or white. In the end I went with magenta and cyan. There's a bit of tweaking to do, but for the most part they are complete. I've posted a .gif containing all 7 animations in the opening post for public scrutiny. Thanks for everyone's thoughts.