Hungry Whispers Sprite Preview

lol sprite

Download the full version off my dA, my all-nighter can now end.

*collapses into bed*

Sprite update!!!!

Say hello to my little friends.

Oh yeh, I dno which colour to go for, for the bartender's uniform so I'll wait til the bgs are done for it then it can either go with or against the decor.  Either way, he looks pretty snazzy in that jazzy vest.

Sprites done, now I'll focus on the audio for the a bit! YAY.

Brock eyes ftw

See whether I can do as many sprites as I can before I go London!

Some drawings and update

I am alive! Been sleepy most of this week, but should be online a lot more this coming week and have a lot more to show. Anyway I'll show some stuff I've done.

Here are some quick designs for the uniform for the bartender. It's actually pretty hard to come up with different designs for a bartender as it seems there's only so much you can do. But anyway I got several designs done here. The most left design is most similar to what I originally had him wearing in my drawings. The next one he's only wearing a shirt and bow tie. I also added some straps around his upper arm. I've seen some people wearing these, I'm not actually sure what the point of them is but I think its to pull up the sleeves or something like that, would make sense for a bartender. The very right I gave him a skinny tie as I was running out of ideas. In all of them he's wearing high rise trousers (I'm pretty sure that's not there name) but I figured seeing as we wont really see the trousers it dosnt matter too much.

The train card. I decided to design the logo like a parody of the national rail. I took their design and distorted it in a number of ways. Not really a 'ha ha' parody, just a visual one. The card from what I remember is also the key to Yu's room so I built a black strip into it for it to be used for that while also displaying all the travel information such as time date and route. The very bottom card I removed the strip with the idea being the strip would be on the back anyway.

The old man pose. Was thinking of what kind of stance the old man should have. I figured having him in a kind of huddled position might be nice. As I think we never talk to him when he's not sitting at the table I thought it would be ok to depict him sitting at a table in his pose. I also did a quick sketch of a possible redesign. I dunno, I felt like giving some facial hair.

Jade mentioned she had already finished him. So this is just a final drawing I did of the train guard a few days ago.

Sprite designs

Well, finally got round to it.  I have to say...this style is looking pretty bad-ass!

With coloured scarf which I'm really liking the idea of.  Maybe all the other characters can also have one item of clothing that is textured and coloured?

Obviously this one looks a bit weird using a CU bg but with the other normal bg it should be ok. It looks mighty swell - though I may just make the outlines a bit thicker.

 ... I really love the idea of the single coloured item...O_O

Special Banksy styled edition XD I shall start doing Yu's other expressions as well as the other characters now.  This is getting pretty exciting :D :D :D (Also cheers for Errol for his company and feedback too! ^_^)

Inventory ideas and angry man designs (and not in that order)

So the title really says it all so lets get to it. (Jades watching us) So up first is the angry man on the train design. Kind of realised he hadn't been designed yet so I set about it yesterday. I did a couple of designs (didn't really go into clothes as I figured he would be wearing shirt/tie in any designs) so I focused on the face. There's one I think is the strongest design and believe works best, but I did a few more just to mess around a bit and make sure I'd got the right idea. I'll let everyone else see which one they like the most (the one in the upper left makes me laugth).

 
So I've also done some designs for the inventory system. I know Jade has had some trouble designing it and quite frankly I had trouble designing it too and one idea I hit upon is; do we really need a separate screen for the items. There's several reasons I thought this. For one the separate screen for the items adds nothing other then allowing us to see a close up of the item itself (hold on I'll come back to that) . We could of used it for combining items and we can, but it seems just as easy to do that in the main game screen (you'll select the item, press the combine button and then click the item you wish to combine with). Due to a quirk of the engine (and by quirk I mean really annoying glitch that means you can't select an item and then switch state - side note - a way around that just occurred to me this second but lets leave that for now) all the items have to be displayed on the main screen, which I think is quite helpful and makes selecting items easier anyway. There's little need for a screen purely for the inventory as it doesn't seem to do much. So what I propose is that we scrap that screen altogether and have it so that when you use the look function on an item in the inventory, it will display the dialog explaining what that item is and show a close up of that item on top of the screen. Like so;

BUT! Because I know this idea may not be popular or I've missed something that someone will bring up in the comments, I did a quick whip up of the layout for the inventory screen anyway. Though it does result in a lot of empty space which is a bit of a shame, but honestly I'm really struggling with it. This design I believe would be the most efficient and practical, all the items down one side and the description and image on the right when clicked on. Not all that different from the TKON one. For things like the phone there would be an option to use and by pressing on use it would then take you to another screen altogether (which is actually how it would work in the other design too).

(Prize to who ever spots the item that dosen't belong)
I didn't go all out on the graphics as I wanted to focus on the layout and get that down before worrying about the overall look of it.

Just in case anyone asks. I know in a lot of other games the items are displayed in like a drop down box and believe me I tried to get something like that working, its not the fault of as3 or flixel but mine that I just can't get it to work properly. It basically would end up crashing the file as it wouldn't frikkin disappear after you clicked and after much trial and error I just figured to leave it. But that's actually another reason I like the idea I've proposed, if you think to monkey island 4's inventory, that just appears over the current screen as do ermm probably a lot of other games that I cant think of right now!

Anyway enjoy. And if people really don't like this idea or the layout for the inventory screen I'm sure we can figure out some new design that works even better and I'll have a bit more a think about it.

Team Wasabi meetup? / Kemi concept

I just remembered that I'll also be London this weekend plus a few days for a relative's wedding dinner. SO. Seeing as the last meet up went really well I propose another team meet to see where everyone's at and general stuff.  Sketch day to the British Museum/anywhere else doing any Asian exhibitions will be a major plus for this project! Or we can just meet up and draw in a coffee place and eat cake.  That's cool as well.

Remember that this project is my dissertation for my master's degree so you don't know how much I appreciate you guys helping out.  As long as you update me on what you're doing and keep in touch with me, I can re-assess all the stuff to be done and either get someone else to take over or I'll just have to adjust my own time to tackle things which is a-ok with me too. Just let me know! I can't stress it enough and I can't stress it enough on how you guys are AWESOME too.

Lastly, this is for Michelle as I'm starting to be finally happy with my rendition of Kemi.  Excuse the other character, I was on a role drawing Luna from TKON so she makes an appearance too ;D.

I profusely apologise for the shockingly horrible scanning as my sketchbook is just horrible to scan with.

Kemi designs - colour

Do we have a favourite?? =o
or none at all?

These be some drawings

Taking a break from building my soon-to-be-named minecraft villages's first skelton reservation to actually do something constructive. So I've done some thumbnails of all the backgrounds which I'm actually quite glad I did now as there's not as much pressure to get things right and it means I can more quickly try out different things so I wonder why I just didn't do that before. This first one is my original idea for the carriages 1-5. Its terrible and unfinished and I abandoned it to work on other things but I want to point it out as I think it gives an idea of what I was thinking for how to reproduce each carriage. As there are 5 carriages and lets face it most carriages in trains all look the same, in order to distinguish from each one there is a plaque noting the carriage number as well as the rooms it contains (most of which will be locked I imagine). Oh yeh and excuse dodgy quality, this scanner isnt the best.

 

Which leads me onto this quick thumbnail I did for the carriage which is a lot more straight forward then the weird design I was going for in the previous drawing (which I don't think really worked). What I was thinking for this was that along with having the sign change, to make each carriage feel distinct without having to completely redraw it we'd just have some object in the room change. In this scenario there's a little table mid way down the carriage with a plotted plant (yep that's what that's supposed to be). I figured that the object and the position of the table would be different for each carriage just to give each one more of a distinguishing feature.

 

More designs for Yu's room. The top one I don't like so much as I feel it looks a little cramp, where as I quite like the one below though it might look a bit too much like a bedroom then an actual room on a train. Actually what I do like about the top one is that you can see the door which will be a good way of having a transition from one scene to the other(you click the door to leave), the bottom one you're kind of looking at the room from the door. Either way, I think these need some work.

 

The 'normal' position of Yu, wasn't too sure what to do with his arms but I figured as he has them in his pockets in the concept drawings it would work here too. I think it fits though as it shows him slightly introverted due to the recent tragedy.

Last one. I realised that the conductor hadn't been designed yet so I might as well do that. I started off drawing him as really grumpy but I felt it looked too aggressive, so I went for the Brock from poke'mon look with having his eyes constantly closed and a big chubby smile. Maybe I'll give him a beard, I think a beard would look good on him. I think overly smiley guard is better then overly moody looking guard. 

And a super bonus happy drawing! This wasn't done for this project but actually something else I was working on a while back. I thought it might work as Yu's room for when he's back in the city (I know thats getting ahead of ourselves but I just thought I'd post it). Actually I don't imagine Yu's room being anything remotely like this but I figured I'd post it anyway, maybe Kemi's room? Again, don't imagine her's like this either but it doesn't hurt to post and see what peoples thing.

Auf wiedersehen.

kemi sketches

I thought it's been too long since I last uploaded so here are some warm-up kemi pics i did today XD will do more colour designs tomorrow but let me know if theres any particular item of clothing that has a colour you like haha

she looks very manly in the bottom two pictures... o__o

what hair

hmm.. im not sure what counts as being done on the asset list for me (im in charge of all the phone poses for kemi and yu) but is there a specific one i havent done yet jade? or one you want more poses for?

short post is short :D

I in no way endorse Vuescan (oh yeh and I've done some drawings)

I originally wasn't going to mention my exploits in trying to get these images scanned after all the scanners in my house all simultaneously decided to stop working. But I feel I have to at least explain the watermarks all over my images. After far too long trying to get at least one of the scanners working I had to download a program to get the scanner to work. Anyway it worked but it leaves a watermark all over them, I'll try and sort it out later but I felt in the spirit of getting on with things I'd post these up as they are.

I'm pretty pleased with the bar (for those of you who saw me last post it might look a bit familiar, though I changed a few things to make it look less fancy). The little tables is where i imagine the old crazy man to be.

This is Yu's room on the train. I need to add to it as it seems a little boring at the moment, but I feel its gives a general idea of what I felt the room would look like and at what angle it would be viewed from. I should probably note at this point that these aren't the greatest of images in the world but I can add and clean them up, or redraw them completely if people don't like them or not what they want.

Seeing as I was doing the bar I decided to draw the bartender as well. He only has two expressions, normal ad happy. I thought it would be good to have him cleaning wine glasses as you talk to him. For the happy expression I wasn't too sure what to do as I imagined him already with a constant small smile on his face. So for the happy expression I imagined all that would change is he would lean forward and smile a bit more with his eyes closed in proper anime fashion. This would also mean not as much animation to do for the character as you'd only need to change the top half.

Hope you all like, and again sorry for the horrible watermarks. Please try to see past them.

Sketch Dump

Mainly for the Mother and Kid.  Not much happening today, today is my lazy day XD

I shall finalise more characters soon ...

Wasabi Engine version 2 and some Character designs

Here's the link; http://flippinmental.deviantart.com/art/wasabi-engine-ver-2-246375076

No sound so far and it may take a while to load. But other then that this is an as3 version of the wasbi engine. It's still not fully working, some bits are being annoying, some bits dont look that great like the text. OHH how I tried to change the text, so many times and just nothing seems to work. It's possible it will probably take me a while to figure out, I'm probably just doing something really stupid. I tried to get items working, again I'm sure I'm just doing something stupid and thats why its not working. I haven't done anything particularly special, everything I've done can be done pretty easily. What I've been aiming to do thought is not make anything amazing but make the code efficient, so that you never have to repeat code or have complicated time lines. Like with the flixel version this can load a swf as a cutscene so thats good.

I'm really in two minds about this. In some ways the flixel version will be easier to use and make more complex stuff in. However this version is using the basic as3 version so it means it will be easier for other people to work on it and to understand. I'm quite happy to explain and teach as to how the flixel version works though.

And while I'm at this posting event I'll post some of the designs I've done for character. I went a bit crazy with the old man, drawn a friendly pose and shouting pose but they're quite horrible drawings. The one I really like though is the bartender, I think he looks pretty cool. Also got the mum and the angry guy, I quite like those too but I think Michelles drawings are better.

Yu wears my shirt 2

EDIT: Now with added scarf! Will do a texture jpeg soon.

Struggling with the scarf design a bit but I was thinking a dark red tartan patterned scarf which could be masked in photoshop and stuff.  Overall I think I've nailed the colours for him though! Cheers Mike for your suggestions, they seemed to work well!

Yu wears my shirt

First and fail attempt and colour testing.  Will change the sketch so that the scarf crosses over Yu's chest. Somehow not feeling this design lol. Also applied some cross hatching filters to the colour later. Quite a nice effect.  Aiming for the sketchy/messy look like in Hotel Dusk but it needs work lol.

Sketch & Storyboard dump

Beware, mini sketch and storyboard dump o_o;

Some more Yu sketches, haven't quite decided whether he should have a light colour jacket or a darker colour one.  Will do a colour test once I start animating the storyboards.  On the other hand, I enjoyed drawing Yu and Kemi together, that was fun lol. OH and I've decided 

Minus the random Kenny drawing, some storyboarding ideas.  The opening blogologue begins with Yu looking out the train window.  Although his face is still obscured from the players view ... planning on having small animation touches such as those moving hazy reflections you get when you ride a train.

I drew this a bit big, but the next scene shows Yu typing on his laptop and the sunset rays hitting the keys over the desk.  I visualised it to have a big bright/dark contrast with small animations like the on button/screen glowing.

The next scene transitions to one of those minimal art flash backs cos I'm lazy - though I'll change the teddy bear to be on it's side lying in a puddle of questionable red liquid.  Will also overlay some hospital sound fx like the chest pedals, life line signals and some other stuff.  The life line signal die over time.  Cheesy I know.

The scene transitions to the distraught mother being surrounded by Yu's team, again with the creepy minimal type flashback.  I planned to make them appear like weird hazy shadows surrounding the mother.

LOOK MA! I CAN DRAW HANDS  The scene ends with the mother turning slowly to Yu once he tries to apologise.  I had the idea that she would be at the window with sun setting again (wth is up with me and sunsets lol) so it can look really red and bloody.  Also the mother will be like a silhouette, making her eye more prominent through her dishevelled hair until it suddenly cuts as the laptop batteries die.

Also I can't seem to stop drawing Yu's hair longer than intended, please forgive me D:

Update & Moar chara sketches

Posted on behalf of Michelle because Blogger is being a bit of a douche!

Also, some introductions for characters for the train scenes. Sorry if they've suddenly sprung up as I was working  on day2's script and their characters kinda just evolved from that in the process.

Bartender: Works in the 1st class food carriage at the bar. Friendly and approachable
Mother & sniffy kid: Mother is a bit spacey and the kid is a bit sniffy/has some illness in which he coughs every now and then.  Their backstory is that the rich husband is moving abroad and wants them to come hence they didn't have much choice to travel. Yu befriends them during day2's events in which you'll see how.
Frustrated Phone Guy: Business worker who's trying to salvage a company deal and trying to get back to his office as fast as he can.  Rude to Yu but softens after the incident
Old Man: At first glance he seems like a normal old guy drinking tea but it's slowly revealed that his son recently passed and that the tea was actually wine.  He goes crazy after a while and is very suspicious.

Day2 general plot:
- Yu isn't feeling good and gets a phone call from Kemi
- Kemi suggests to get fresh air and water in which Yu complies.  They also agree to meet up later that evening.
- Yu comments that the seating area of carriage 6 is practically empty apart from the above characters and wonders whether it's because it's not dinner time or something else.
- Yu then talks to the other characters
- Bartender: gets water
- Mother & Child (Mrs. Lee and Kenny): Kenny initiates the conversation by asking Yu to draw him an elephant. Following this conversation, Yu builds a good relationship with the mother and especially Kenny.  I've done it so that when Kenny asks you whether Yu can be his big brother too (after hearing about Kemi) players can choose Y/N XD
- Frustrated Phone Guy: Keeps telling Yu to buzz off as he's blocking the phone signal
- Old Man looks like he was meditating by holding his teacup but Yu finds that he was actually trying to calm his nerves. It turns out that the Old Man is incredibly superstitious and due to his son recent passing he's forced to travel back hom to sort out the affairs.  During conversation he keeps talking to 'Yao' and making creepy comments like "If you're wondering why this carriage is so empty compared to yesterday, it's because it's already FULL! HAHA!" stuff like that.
- After talking to everyone to the point of repeating, Yu prompts the players that he's feeling unwell again and to go back to his compartment
- There he reads a travel mag explaining about ghost month and warnings
- During reading a minor crash incident happens (earthquake inducing a small landslide in which several rocks knock into the train carriages)
- Mother knocks on Yu's door asking for a doctor - Kenny is injured (que trauma centre puzzle)
- Yu talks to the other passengers, old man is sleeping, phone guy calms down and bartender is trying to work out what happened but communication has sporadic signal due to being in a mountainous area.
- Yu gets the distressed call from Kemi
- Old man wakes up and goes a bit crazy
- Yu's guilt builds up again cos he can't do anything for Kemi or Kenny.
- After the train starts moving, Yu remembers that the nearest hospital next to their station is his hospital so he writes notes for his hospital to prepare for Kenny.  As the train pulls into the station, Yu runs off without looking back to find Kemi.
- Yu returns home to get phone batteries only to find that Kemi left a voice msg on his landline saying that she's fine.
- Yu decides to visit Kemi the next day and gives his respects to a nearby altar.

I shall post the script for day2 after I've proof read and finalised it; it currently stands at 18 pages XDDD  I'll also update the labels later to include the added characters so far.

Also I have to quote Michelle's text for my Yu chara design because it's just awesome "Yu is gna b one smexy chunk of a man" which decides things: Yu's face/hair design is complete XD

All the ducks are swimming in the water

and sad Yu is sad.

I seem to like 3 the best.  1 reminds me of Kuroyanagi from Yakitate Japan and 2 looks like Sherlock.  Added bonus for a sad Yu moment though.  So far I think I'm pretty much ok with 3's hairstyle so hopefully we can wrap up his character design soon!

colour experiment of doom

Messing around in Photoshop trying to get the ball rolling with colours..


(was this the outfit design you liked jade? amendments are welcome! even if it means a total clothes makeover haha)

I made them kinda dark since its a dark game but perhaps i should have done the opposite since she's a 'light' character?

any colour suggestions throw them my way..

and maybe suggestions on other things that need designing.. i know theres yu and kemi but also the detective gumshoe character..? anyone else or anything else? (incl. backgrounds and props)

i really like drawing kemi hmm.. :/