OCR-Tan

[chumble spuzz]

Not much time to talk, but I like the Rescue the Judges idea.

[The Coop]

spuzz- I got that idea for the charge shot done...

Thoughts? Artist beatings?

[KyleJCrb]

That is badass.

[friendlyHunter]

NICE!

Gives new meaning to the phrase "Guitar Hero". What if she's facing left though? And, aerial/walking charges might spawn a massive amount of frames, unless the guitar and arms are a separate sprite. Otherwise, it's bloody brilliant.

It may seem odd or backwards to you to have a looping gif as a background, but what do you think the backgrounds in many older fighting games from Capcom, SNK, and them were at heart? They were just endlessly looping animation frames... like a gif. Some were longer, some were shorter, but they all looped.

Yes, but they used a much smaller number of frames (or, at least in the fighters I've played). I guess with a Computer Science background, the idea of using an animated gif where it loads a completely new background image every single frame seems like an epic waste of resources. However, judging by the fact that the car/background gif is only 63 kilobytes, it seems reasonable to assume that animated gifs do NOT store copies of the entire background when just a small part of the images changes. Heh, I'll think twice next time I want to question The Coop's use of animated gifs; carry on

[The wingless]

I've been out of the thread simply to think of a way to articulate my thoughts (Besides, I'm making legitimate games in the interim too). And I've decided into simple bullet points! Succinct!

-I like money. No money = not a lot of effort on my part

-But alot people are putting in tremendous efforts, so I feel bad for just walking away, which would be the smart thing to do!

-Communal input is great! Communal decision making will ensure this never gets done and is groin-grabbingly bad

-As such, once they're nice and finalized, our wonderful sprite makers should make the sprite package available to everyone and they can make whatever they would like! You want full levels and 12 boss battles? You got it mister! You want a OCR-tan RPG? Shit-yeah son! Everything you'll need will be zipped and rared up the ying-yang

-As for what I would like, i.e., what I have the energy and interest to do, is one boss. That's it. Just one.

-In all likelihood, something without the judges like the Queue-man or The Midi Ripper. Something inherently tongue-in-cheek OCR that encompasses us without singling out any of person as some kind of bizzare antagonistic figurehead.

-It's got a quick intro, a competent action component, and a quick outro. That's it.

-Again, if you despise the idea or if you've got the most chill iced-out Ender Wiggan idea of them all, by all means, feel free to plunge in and make an engine of your own!

-Because the cruel, soul-crushing reality is, he who programs, controls all things on heaven and earth. Which in this case, may not be a terrible idea.

----

Wingless, thy priesthood remains righteous!

MANOS!

[Gollgagh]

- You want a free, finished product out of me? then fuck off

fixed for humor

also truth

[The Coop]

NICE!

Gives new meaning to the phrase "Guitar Hero". What if she's facing left though? And, aerial/walking charges might spawn a massive amount of frames, unless the guitar and arms are a separate sprite. Otherwise, it's bloody brilliant.

-------------

Yes, but they used a much smaller number of frames (or, at least in the fighters I've played). I guess with a Computer Science background, the idea of using an animated gif where it loads a completely new background image every single frame seems like an epic waste of resources. However, judging by the fact that the car/background gif is only 63 kilobytes, it seems reasonable to assume that animated gifs do NOT store copies of the entire background when just a small part of the images changes. Heh, I'll think twice next time I want to question The Coop's use of animated gifs; carry on

Thanks.

If she's facing left, she'll just be mirrored like the old games did it. Making new sprites to be accurate is just too time consuming. Besides... Wingless decreed it a few pages back

Anyway, he probably won't want them as animated gifs. I loaded that gif into Flash, set up as a movie symbol that played on one layer, and exported the thing. It was an swf file at 155kb. Nasty bit of inflation there, and it reminded me about how bitmaps increase the size of a Flash file. Sure, it's simple to add, and I'm happy to supply gifs if he wants them since making the gif animate in Flash and Image Ready are reasonably similar in a number of ways. But I fear it would crank up the file size of the finished product needlessly. Still, the offer's there.

Out of curiosity, I went into Flash last night and animated that gif. I loaded in the background, the foreground, and an animated gif of the car bouncing along in place. I recreated that scene so it was identical in duration, frames per second (20fps in Flash = a frame delay of 0.05 on a gif), and how many frames it took for the car to go across the screen. The file size of that exported swf? 9.01 kb. Since it only used 8 bitmaps (the BG, the FG, and the six car frames), it kept the file size way down. I'm guessing that's how Wingless will want these background(s) sent to him... either as a finished fla or swf.

Edit: One boss and BG huh? Puts a damper on the ideas I had for PPR and Off Topic backgrounds (I really liked the PPR idea ). Ah well. I'll finish up my current BG, and get that wrapped up for usage.

As for the intro, I have an idea for it. I sat down and wrote up a little thing for the opening, and a convo with the turtle boss before the fight. I know the story aspect wasn't final or agreed upon by any means, but I wrote it down anyway. I can piece it together if no one has any objections about what I suggested for a story a few pages back. Could probably get it done by tomorrow night.

And uh, thanks for sticking around for this Wingless.

Bean- Once you're done touching up the turtle boss, throw it my way via PM. I'll see what I can come up with for animations and such.

[Dafydd]

You were never out of it, Dafydd. By my "Can I be in it too?" comment, I was referring to what happened with the UnMod Comic, the UnMod Card Deck, and the UnMod RPG. Where you there once those projects were revealed and got going? If not, here's what basically happened. Once it was shown that someone like Ace! had a card, or that Smasha had a character in Razorman's comic, and that Antonio Pizza has a cameo in the game, everyone wanted a card or character in those projects. It got to the point of people complaining like "Why don't I have a card?" and "Where's my character?" constantly, which basically ruined the fun of it all because everyone was bitching about not being in it.

So, that's why I suggested the idea to avoid that, by simply not including individual posters from OCR in this, and keeping Tan4 as the only "real" individual character. You're always welcome to contribute ideas, sprites, backgrounds and so forth dude. If you misunderstood what I wrote, then my apologies for not making it clearer. The only thing I was suggesting was that your idea of having the judges in the game as bosses didn't fit with where this seemed to be headed. spuzz and Bean have yet to comment on your judge rescue idea (I like it, but the extra work scares me ).

Oh, yes, I did misunderstand you. I've been in plenty of projects myself where there are too many people wanting to help out, making it impossible administrate, especially since people who have undertaken certain, important tasks go awol and never return despite saying they will, and this is a situation I certainly don't want to see happening with this game, because I think it'll turn out great if it's just allowed to be completed. Anyway, no harm done, but thanks for clarifying.

[chumble spuzz]

Coop: That looks pretty sweet, but...it takes forever to execute. I was thinking more along the lines of charging-up traditional-MMX-style (glowing beads sucked inwards from thin air), then unleashing a triumphant strum of death in a flash of sweet-ass light (exaggeration). Quickie example:

...that way we don't have to watch a (nicely animated) cutscene every time we shoot a full-powered shot. Which I would do a lot.

Wingless: Totally respect you, there. I'm crunching at work this week, and this side project is a little bit more than distracting. Not to mention the other parts of my life that have suffered noteworthy neglect since beginning this project. I don't mind so much that I'm doing this for free, since animation is fun to do anyway, and since we're using MMX assets and art style, much of the hard work is done already (on the art-side). Thanks for volunteering to make this happen. I do not envy programmers, which makes me that much more thankful for them. Mad props. That said, let me know if I can do anything on my side to make your job easier. For example, I'm using Graphics Gale, so I can export animations as strips, if that's what you need.

Bean: Queue Tortoise looks great. Ship it!

[Binjovi]

Shipped! Let's see what ol' Coop can do with him, shall we?

[The Coop]

Coop: That looks pretty sweet, but...it takes forever to execute. I was thinking more along the lines of charging-up traditional-MMX-style (glowing beads sucked inwards from thin air), then unleashing a triumphant strum of death in a flash of sweet-ass light (exaggeration). Quickie example:

...that way we don't have to watch a (nicely animated) cutscene every time we shoot a full-powered shot. Which I would do a lot.

The strumming part is supposed to be the idle animation as you continue to hold the button down after being fully charged. It lasts as long as you want it to in theory, and I put it there just so it could be seen. Once you see the power getting drawn in on the tip of the guitar, you'd be ready to fire. That whole process (at 30 fps), takes basically no longer than the MMX games do for their charging shots (about 1.5 seconds). I think it's actually a faster charge at 30fps. Also, after a charged shot, there's always a penalty of sorts... namely, not being able to charge up again or fire right away (for about a second I think). During that time, would be the disappearing animation for the guitar.

Anyway, not making excuses or anything. I'm just trying to explain why animated it like I did. If you want me to remove some frames from the guitar appearance and vanishing, I can

Edit: Bean- Got the PM and png files. Nice work on that character.

[chumble spuzz]

Ohh...so she would be strumming while running and jumping and everything. That makes more sense. Still, though, it's a bit labor-intensive to add that to every animation, whereas applying the traditional glowing energy suction over the top would be much more easily managed. And yes, cutting a few frames from the appearing/disappearing would be good. I would suggest no more than 4 frames each. We don't want it to be too slow--but let the penalty balance the bonus.

[SenPi]

haha wow this is looking awesome. So, Im too lazy to go back and check, but whats this game being programmed in? If wingless doesnt want to expand that much, I might be able to lend a hand later on. Plus this would be a great thing to stick on my programmers resume .

[blackmyst]

I haven't got much time to reply to everything I've wanted to reply to, but I just wanted to say that you guys are awesome and I love you all. ;o; In a uhh, very manly way. *cough*

This may not be very important, but, I just wanted to make one quick note: in the sprite guitar I see the spikey looking head. Well, after trying a few different things, we felt the guitar's head should just be normal, like the one seen in Pixietricks' guitar earier in this thread.

Just for reference, here's what the guitar will look like, it'll be the one without the tetris blocks, and there will be a regular head on it. I'll try to draw a proper pic of it later, one that doesn't look like a child's doodle. D:

(Edit: didn't mean for it to sound like I'm nitpicking or telling anyone what they should be doing - please read below.)

[The wingless]

I haven't got much time to reply to everything I've wanted to reply to, but I just wanted to say that you guys are awesome and I love you all. ;o; In a uhh, very manly way. *cough*

This may not be very important, but, I just wanted to make one quick note: in the sprite guitar I see the spikey looking head. Well, after trying a few different things, we felt the guitar's head should just be normal, like the one seen in Pixietricks' guitar earier in this thread.

Just for reference, here's what the guitar will look like, it'll be the one without the tetris blocks, and there will be a regular head on it. I'll try to draw a proper pic of it later, one that doesn't look like a child's doodle. D:

First the the shoes are a few pixels off and now the head on the guitar? Really guys?

Really??

[Triad Orion]

So, general forum/OCR themed things for bosses. ...Is there gonna be a Nice Work Guy boss? XD

[blackmyst]

First the the shoes are a few pixels off and now the head on the guitar? Really guys?

Really??

Haha, I didn't mean it that way. It's just that all the current images that came out of me still have the sorta spikey looking head in it, so nobody could have known about that little design tweak. So I'm just giving a heads up, just in case anyone actually cares.

[Ramaniscence]

First the the shoes are a few pixels off and now the head on the guitar? Really guys?

Really??

Boobs still need work

[The Coop]

Ohh...so she would be strumming while running and jumping and everything. That makes more sense. Still, though, it's a bit labor-intensive to add that to every animation...

Actually, it wouldn't be too bad to do. The jumping and running animations would only need the torso adjusted. The head and legs could be left alone. I can edit the running animation this evening to show you if you'd like. The only thing that may cause a problem is that the current charging animation is six frames long. This might not sync well with the running animation if it's more than six frames. However, I can trim the charging animation down to two frames if needed without any problems. What makes it six frames now is that the energy going into the guitar is a three frame loop, while the strumming is a two frame loop. It takes six frames for them to even out. However, take out one energy frame, a couple quick adjustments, and POOF!... two frame charging loop

By the way, did you post a finished running animation, or am I going nuts? I can't seem to find it, and I could swear I saw it.

[chumble spuzz]

I did post a running anim somewhere back there. I'll just post it here again. Oh wow, it's huge. :\ Still have to fix this one so it's on-model.

[The Coop]

I did post a running anim somewhere back there. I'll just post it here again. Oh wow, it's huge. :\ Still have to fix this one so it's on-model.

Good to know my brain hasn't been fried just yet.

Once you've gotten the time to do your touch ups, let me know and I'll edit in the guitar for you if you'd like. Since the running animation is ten frames, I'll trim the charge animation down to two frames so if fits right in with the running loop. Then you can see if you like the way it works, or if the current guitar stuff needs to be scrapped. The same offer goes for the jumping sprites too

[Liontamer]

Unrelated, but posting this in case some of you art types are reading about this Square Enix/DeviantArt contest, ending in about a week. Sorry I didn't notice this sooner: http://news.deviantart.com/article/45697/

[The Coop]

I have a question for those more familiar with Flash than I. How the hell do you export a gif from Flash, with the proper colors being displayed? I've tried basically every single setting in Flash MX 2004, and every one of them comes out with the grays looking green, and the lighter blues getting pink... and that's the best one. The rest of the settings look horrid. The colors are fine as a Flash file, but as a gif? Ugh.

Am I missing something, or if this just a quirk in this version of Flash? I ask because I wanted to post a preview of the (possibly) finished background, but this color issue is driving me up a wall.

[friendlyHunter]

Wow, that sucks... just tried it myself, kept getting crappy colours. Guess you'll just have to choose the best dithering option =\

[Edit]

Or you could just post the swf file. Heck, someone's already posted an OCR-tan sprite in an exe!

[The Coop]

Well, here's the swf file...

http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/TanGame_BG1.swf

Wingless- It's currently running at 20fps. If you intend to go higher with this, let me know and I'll adjust it to that fps (fix up the duration of the cars passing through, sign timing, etc.).