QuickSprite Released!

Hello again, folks!  Sorry it has been a while since the last update but things have been rather busy lately.  With the release of RPG Maker VX Ace and working on that and waiting for Beta testers to give me their final verdict on the QuickSprite software as well as searching for work to pay the bills, it has been a rough month.  Regardless, I take it that "no news is good news" from most of the testers (a few reported in and told me it was working wonderfully) and decided to just release the darn thing!  As such, to all my faithful readers and those excited to see the release of this software, have at it!

Now, I must warn you that there are not many resources included with this release.  In fact, the only assets included are pieces that I used for testing...that said, if anyone is interested in making assets for the program, feel free to do so and send me a link and I will post it up here for all to see!

Thanks for the patience, my friends.  It is much appreciated!  Without further ado, click the link below for your copy of QuickSprite!  Also, don't forget that you can help a starving developer out and donate using any of the donate buttons on this website!  It's not necessary but it is most appreciated.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65853207/Quicksprite%20v1.0%20Release.zip

Apologies are in order.

In light of recent posts, it is important to put forth a written apology to the creator of some videos on Youtube for my insults.  Despite your ridiculous insults and inability to keep things civil, I felt the it necessary to take it one step further which in itself was uncool and a rarity when i take such things to the extreme that I did.  This sort of tactic is typically used when I am trying to give one a dose of their own medicine.  However, due to your forthrightness and ability to apologize, I too must apologize.

While my stance on the matter of the topic remains unchanged, it showed to me that you are not so disrespectful as it first seemed and it is indeed I that made the ass of himself.  As such, this written apology is here for all to see and hopefully you see it as well.  As adults we can put this behind us and maybe do some work together in the future to try to provide both of our audiences quality productions and (hopefully) much more insightful discussions without our egos getting the best of us.

On that note, I will cut this off here and return to whatever it was I was doing previously...which to be honest, I forgot what I was doing but I'm sure it'll come back to me eventually lol...boy it's hard to type all of this sitting as far away from my monitor as I am currently doing.

Mass Effect 3 and "From Ashes" DLC

Mass effect 3 remains to be one of the top games that gamers are drooling over.  It is the epic conclusion of a masterfully told story dealing with many topics ranging from racism, internal struggles, how history repeats itself and the always cool space battles with many different races.  Most of these topics you wouldn't catch onto very easily if you aren't paying attention but they are there and that is why it is so well done.  The story feels almost natural (despite you know...having aliens in the mix)! 

A while back, the collectors edition was announced and it was said to offer a free extra character and mission.  Anyone who was a fan and had the extra money to spare ran out and pre-ordered their copy of it.  This was their chance to finish the franchise with extra swag and to say "I was there when the end of Mass Effect was announced!"  For gamers like me, we aren't always graced with the wonders of having money to purchase such a sweet collection of "stuff."  Just recently it was announced that the "From Ashes" DLC would be available on launch day for everyone, free for the collectors edition and ten dollars for the standard edition.  This created back-lash from gamers all over about them purchasing an incomplete product.

Casey Hudson, the executive producer of the Mass Effect franchise, tweeted this on Feb 22nd:

"On #ME3, content creators completed the game in January & moved onto the "From Ashes" DLC, free w/ the CE or you can buy seperately."

This pretty clearly tells you that the game was completed in January.  It also tells me that they got it shipped off for preparation for release day.  It also clearly states that they moved onto the "From Ashes" DLC, which is free with the collectors edition.  Anyone with a shred of sense should be able to tell that this is THE content that was promised to collectors edition buyers.  So why is this such a big deal; the squad mate is a Prothean, a race of ancient beings that are staple of Mass Effect lore.  Gamers everywhere began fuming upon hearing that in order to get this, it was going to cost them an extra 10 dollars to get this, thinking that they are going to be missing out on substantial story elements!
The gamer's fears are justified however the game was said to be completed right?  Take a look at these tweets from Mr. Hudson:
 
"The Prothean DLC character is really cool, but not at all critical to the main story. #ME3 centers on the Reapers, not the Protheans."

"For the many who asked, plot arcs of the Protheans and other races are resolved in #ME3, not DLC. That is after all the focus of the story."

Look at that!  According the Mr. Hudson, every bit of plot regarding the Protheans plot arcs are resolved in ME3 WITHOUT the DLC!  So are you really missing out on critical information?  This information is pointing to "no."  

So now we move on to the "what's fair" factor.  Gamers arguments are all on how DLC is supposed to be the equivalent of an "expansion pack."   The problem that I have with this statement is that expansion packs are generally always a price comparable of a full game and contain enough content to almost turn the game into a whole new chapter.  Unless labeled as an expansion pack for a game, DLC is generally just extra items, a mission, a map, character or something small that isn't critical for a gamer to have on their console except to just add more to their product and if it includes any story, it is only a standalone story that you could either take or leave it.  Zaeeds story in ME2 is a good example!  You join this mission to gain his favor and nothing more.  If this was released on day one, do you think you would have been ripped off?  More than likely not.  You either loved the guy or you hated him and his mission was intense and fun but it didn't add to the overall story.  We have yet to see this Prothean DLC (largely because the game hasn't come out yet) and yet everyone is over-reacting over it.

DLC is a way for developers to keep supporting your game and add to the life of it and also fairly pay the developers for the time they put in on it.  Generally, DLC that is provided with a collectors edition take a few months to hit the market so you can enjoy what the people who had the money for a premium version get to enjoy.  I use WWE12 as an example as I am a WWE fan by birth, growing up watching Wrestling with my father.  WWE12 offered a "Peoples Edition" that came with The Rock and Gamestop preorders got The Miz's T-shirt and tux outfits to use in matches.  For those who weren't able to preorder a People's Edition copy from Gamestop didn't get to play as The Rock or use The Miz's outfits (and personally I could deal without the Miz's outfits as I'm not too big of a fan of that guy in the first place) for a few months before the content was available on Xbox Live and the PSN for purchase.  This content wasn't an integral part of the game.  It was just awesome extra content to have.  Many games follow this model and never before have I heard this much complaining.  In fact, Bioware/EA are doing us a FAVOR by not making us wait months to release this content for the people who couldn't afford a Collectors Edition and it is in fact cheaper to get the standard copy and buy the "From Ashes" DLC. 

Sure, its nice to have that sweet little artbook and all of that extra stuff from the N7 edition, but it is NOT an incomplete product without all of it.  So, as a final note that I encourage all of you to do is this: give the game time to come out.  Wait and see how much content the standard game has and take a look at what the DLC does come out with (what we do know about the DLC is too little to come up with a reasonable argument for how unfair it is) and then take your argument from there.  Calm down, people.  It is good to be passionate about something but stop crying about fair vs. unfair because it is WAY too early to start with this because all you are basing your arguments on are assumptions and not concrete evidence. 
 

Update 2-23-2012

"No news is good news" many people would say however I have yet to hear back from a few of the testers for QuikSprite so I'm going to hold off a little longer on that release just in case. I'm looking at possibly next week. This week has been fairly busy for me anyway for being an unemployed "starving artist."

In other news, I started a new game. This game's name is "Monster Boy" however most of the other information on it I am keeping under-wraps until I have more work on it completed. As of right now it is a fairly simple side-scroller based on horror movies with a classic-style game feel. The game will feature four levels with multiple stages. That is really the most I can tell you right now. I have some video recorded of the current build that I am willing to share with you however keep in mind all of the graphics in the video ARE subject to change and most of them are only there for testing purposes (such as the bodies left over after the enemies death lol).

In the video you can see I'm playing around with particle effects for many things from blood to bubbles while the character is under water lol. As I make progress on the game, I will give you more information.

QuikSprite - Update 2-17-2012

Development of QuikSprite is going very well so it would seem.  With each Beta that I put out for the testers, I find more things to add and some things to make better.  The list of things that I had to fix is currently empty and all that is left is any new options that I think of from now until I release it for public use.  This project has taken up most of my life for a couple weeks, however.  This weekend, I will be having a little "me" time.  This will give my testers plenty of time to test the program on their spare time and get back to me with more bugs that they find, if they find any. 

Here is a preview of what you might see in the final product.  Changes are always happening to the functionality but so far the interface has remained unchanged minus a few additions.  Depending on if I find a layout that I like better or not, this may or may not be what you will see..

When this is released, it will contain a few sprite pieces that I design myself however I am looking for artists to create a sprite-pack which will contain their own templates (nothing from a different artist because I don't want to get in trouble for providing someone else's hard work without their permission).  These sprite-packs will be released separately for the user to download on their own.  This makes it easier to give credit to the artist and to separate the styles.  If you are interested, leave a comment in the comments section with a way to get a hold of you.

On another note, I added a donate link to the sidebar.  This donate link will help pay the bills and help to keep me plugging away at this software and any future software.  I will also add it at the bottom of this post for giggles because I cannot stress how important it is.  While it is sad that I would have to resort to such things, trying to develop software solo is a time consuming task and despite it being a hobby of mine, it does take away from time that I could be trying to make money in other ways.  As always, all donations are appreciated. 

At any rate, have a wonderful weekend folks and remember to check back daily next week because I may be sneaking the release of QuikSprite on you when you least expect it.

QuikSprite - Update 2-12-2012

QuikSprite is the Character Generator program I started developing this last week.  As of right now, it is finished with initial development.  I am releasing a closed beta to a few testers as soon as some testers have been chosen.  I am also looking for people who are interested in making some art assets to use with the program. 

Until the program is totally tested for any errors, here is just a glimpse at what it looks like followed by a rundown of it's features.

Features:

• Flexibility, allowing you to use your own templates to make anything you want at any size.
• Change the hue of the individual pieces to make a different character each time.
• Choose your background color to better match your needs (or choose a color that will be your transparency color and save your character with a transparent background).
• Save your character anywhere.  No need to take a screenshot and paste it into paint or photoshop to crop it.

Update 2-7-2012

This blog is something of my baby now, it seems.  I'm proud to say this is becoming slowly successful every day.  I may not be reaching thousands of readers every day, but the numbers I am currently getting says success to me and I am proud of what my work has done.  Regardless, that is not why I wanted to post this.  I wanted to give you guys a heads up that I am not in any way being lazy.  In fact, here is a list of things I've been doing.

• Tileset creation (a tileset for my game that I may release to the public)
• Working on my game (kind of falls in with the first one, but I've been creating other assets for it as well lol)
• Promoting this blog (hey, if I don't promote it, how else am I supposed to keep interest in keeping it updated?)
• Last but not least, coding some programs for release on this blog.  Yeah, you saw the "Randomize It!" program, but I am creating something now that is far more applicable to pixel art and spriting that this blog is all about.  I am designing a Character Generator program that will (hopefully) promote a community effort to create assets for download.  The generator will basically be like the one here ( http://www.geocities.jp/kurororo4/looseleaf/ ) only not web based and will feature a fully customizable group of assets.  The program itself will not come packaged with any but I will provide a separate zip file that will have an assortment of assets for you to use if you choose (mostly as an example).  

More information on all of that later, but for now, keep an eye out for updates.  Subscribing to the blog or RSS feed would be the easiest way to get all the information as it comes, so make sure you do that.  Now, I'll talk to you folks later.  It's Skyrim time.

Randomize It!

I developed a new program called "Randomize It!" today out of boredom and indecisiveness.  I was unable to choose what game I wanted to play!  If you are someone like me who just sometimes cannot decide, this program is just right for you.  It is a simple, lightweight application written in C# that will allow you to choose how many items you want to choose from (up to 5) and enter their names into the text boxes.  When you are done with that, simply click the "Randomize It!" button and your result will be displayed at the bottom, allowing you to make a decision without actually making it yourself!

Another version may come sometime in the future but for now, if this sounds like something you could use, please download it and tell me what you think!

You can find the download link here.
http://www.4shared.com/zip/iFsnEIlx/RandomizeIt_100.html

My Personal Welcome To You!

Hello, folks.  I wanted to take this moment to say welcome.  What is this blog?  It is a blog where I will post here when I find new things that I feel you guys should see and when I have something to share with you of my own as well.  I will update you on my current projects and give you a view into some of the process of creating things as well as possibly throw a few tile-sets or characters your way that you can use as a base of inspiration or however you choose to use them for your own game.  At any rate, I'm going to cut this short because I have a few things to show you and some work to do on my current projects so welcome and I hope you find something useful :)