Bah, Humbug! Code a game comp 7 - November 4th 2018 to December 23rd 2018

[Derron]

@ audi
Maybe the artist comes from a country in which copyright infringement is not really a matter (Russia, Indonesia, ... - at least it was that way years ago). So they do not think about that for longer than some seconds.


@ scrooge
Tinting an existing image and mocking up some animations can still infringe existing copyrights. Of course this is nothing to worry about if the image is available under a free licence or so (competition rules also state to not use copyrighted media/assets - except you have a licence to use it).
In the USA there might exist some laws allowing you to use certain stuff without "licence" (fair use, "arts", ...) but I do know how it is in the UK (think you live there) so it is up to you to just ignore what I said (because it does not matter you...) or to at least think about things.
And YES I am absolutely aware that this sucks so often if you need external assets then someone comes around saying "make sure to have proper licences". Even doing stuff on your own does not make you secure against potential infringements. We had the discussion about music and "recreating existing stuff out of your mind" somewhere somewhen already (at least I think so).

Sorry if I create "fuzz" about something which might at the end be nothing to consider ("no commercial usage", "freedom of arts" ...). Hope it does not disencourages you to finish the game. Do it!

bye
Ron

[Xerra]

The Audi has now had a few changes and become car X now. I'm just waiting on him to change the plate number as he plonked a licence number from a car in India on it. This game is set in the UK so that would have looked a bit odd :-)

Here's the last room background to go in the game now. The Cellar.

[Derron]

You seem to have hired a real copy cat ;-)
Bertani is an existing wine brand - and even the logo is ... theirs.

Dunno about the rest of the image (painting on the wall, "M" logo in the background, ...). the refridgerator seems to be done "by hand" (as all bottles have the same "orientation"/are duplicates). The wine bottle on the desk seems to be an existing brand too.


Not all of these brands will see a problem when getting used in games. Most of them will even not be aware of getting used in a game or movie. Still it is a bit shady to "copy paste" stuff into collages to create images. It's of course a huge pile of work to assemble such image yet it keeps infringement if there is no permission of the  brand or original image to use them. It's not that he copied a wood texture from a desk he found on the internet - it would then be the whole desk they copied (not in this case, the table/bar here is done by hand out of wood textures).


Ah... and once I am talking about copied stuff - the bar stool is a copied one - and the shadow is ... uhm... how to say it ... wrong ;-). Just check the legs: if it was a 3legged stool then the middle-leg-shadow is wrong. If it was a 4 legged one (with the 4th being nearly behind the other middle leg) then where is a leg-shadow missing.
Next to that the shadow of the "left stool" is ... hmm just draw a line above it until you reach the wall - there should be the source of the light. And nope, the wall is no lamp nor is it emissioning light!

Shadows of the wine bottle on the desk ... argh another annoyancy - as all other shadows it should be way softer and "wider spread". Just compare lighting in the fridge to the other things. If the light was coming from multiple lamps (LED stripes in the doors of the frigdge, so you do not see them) then the shadow would be way more diffuse/shallow/... as you have dozens of little light emitters, means many little shadows to cast.
If it was only _one_ light source (the center top in the fridge cabinet shows a lamp) then the light would be coming from a "omni lamp/spot" - leading to a different kind of shadow. The shadows would not "taper" in that direction (just look again at the stool).


Sorry if that is again "nitpicking" for some of you - but remember: you seem to pay the artist to create stuff for you. And then they should at least pay attention to "obvious" stuff: using 3rd party stuff (brands) and lighting/shadowing/perspective.


This is the benefit of using "3D" or "renders" - physics are done (in a limited way ;-)) by the 3d toolchains already.

bye
Ron

[Derron]

Here is a simple mockup of the scene (in Blender):

one small but bright lamp (so sharp shadows...):


multiple lamps with less sharp shadows:


As you see, shadows will definitely show into another direction - sharpness is defined by lamp size and amount of lamps.


bye
Ron

[Xerra]

I'm starting to dread when you see the finished game now, Derron. You can pull anything to pieces. I might make the next game just out of circles and squares. Surely you won't be able to find any potential branding/shadow/copyright issue with those ?

Anyway, the artwork is done now so if something is not accurate then I'm going to have to live with it. I am certainly thinking it's time to maybe get someone else doing the work next time. Probably you because at least then I'll know you won't be able to pull it apart :-)

Also the game itself is now finished from a play-through perspective. I still have stuff like title screen, win game scene, some more music and improving some of the text and parser input but nothing that should hold me up from making the deadline now. I've had the good-lady playing the game through all evening - with a fair bit of help as she's never played an adventure game before - and I'm fixing bugs left, right and center as a result. I'll have another friend play it through as well so I can get an idea of what kind of actions they take when playing so I can improve on the commands accepted because not everyone thinks the same way. Hopefully the only thing that will hold anyone back in this game will be working out what to use, where to find it rather than how to tell the game to do it.

Derron, I might ask for your assist once again once I have the graphics stuff all changed to what you've given me just for another take on how it plays. Let me know if you want to and I'll upload it somewhere for you to have a look.

[Derron]

I could try a windows port on my windows10 laptop.

And again...do not get me wrong when "pulling apart" stuff. I just do it that way as you paid someone. And sometimes you just do not recognize certain flaws as you saw multiple incarnations/versions of this image already.

Also I blamed used brands as I think it is something an artist should be aware of... As it can (not must!) create legal issues.
If you hire a programmer then they cannot use some 3rd party libs normally requiring a commercial licence.

Bye
Ron

[Xerra]

I'm not sure wether my graphics guy just miss-typed this or was getting grumpy about how many times I asked him to change the logo. This is one of his submissions, lol.

[Xerra]

I could try a windows port on my windows10 laptop.

I can do a Windoze or OSX zip for you. I've got Parallels here so I can build for PC. I won't give you the Windoze build I have at present, though, because the missus has found quite a few bugs that I need to fix first and I want to put the new UI in. I'll email you as soon as I'm done with that.

[Derron]

Maybe he should have a look at: google image - photoshop christmas text
It will come up with some good looking stuff - and tutorials on how to achieve it.

That way you get the desired sugar canes, bells whistles ... and so on.


@ logo
While it looks better than the previous one - this still cries for some simple "layer effects" (glow, outline, bevel and emboss) + snow on top (handpainted I think).
If you really want to piss him off you should ask why the exclamation mark gets two snow caps while the other letters do not get some (especially the H with is horizontal bar ...). Its nitpicking on a higher level - still talking about a "simple" competition entry. And if the artist has to do all these logo suggestions for 20 bucks then yes, he could become grumpy more and more with your requests ;-)


@ progress
Nice to read about it - and that you seem to be "within your plan". Also am excited what "hidden development" is done or if you are one of less than a handful competitors in this very contest.


@ binary
No hurry, send when ready and I will give it a go (of course I need some instructions - or better have instructions in the titlescreen -> "help").


bye
Ron

[round157]

I'm not sure wether my graphics guy just miss-typed this or was getting grumpy about how many times I asked him to change the logo. This is one of his submissions, lol.

Hi,

Is this Christmas adventure game a GM2 game?

[Xerra]

Is this Christmas adventure game a GM2 game?

Yes it is. All of the games I've entered for Syntax Bomb competitions have been created with Game Maker Studio 2. Bah, Humbug! was the hardest one to do with it as it's normally used for arcade type games. But I like to challenge myself by doing something different with it