Diving into Module 4 discussion:

"Let's get the art and development team sharing information on what it takes to display animations in the game. How do sprite sheets work? How are the sprite sheet assets created? What is the optimal format for the sprite sheet?" - Westwood

A three part question eh? Well, first off sprite sheets are basically a grouping of images that change slightly to create the animations we all know and love in games. For example a walk animation has to have the feet, arms, and even head move each step. Each stage of the animation is a separate image. All these images in one place create a sprite sheet for the movements of a character.

Creating a sprite sheet is usually done in a graphics program such as Photoshop. You want to copy an original image and move parts of it slightly to make a realistic animation (too much and it is jerky, too little and the movement is too slow). The sheet can then be tested to be sure it is all working properly in Flash or some other program that can combine the images in the form of frames to create a movie clip of the animation. The links in this module go to programs or sites that help put these sheets into some form of order. With more complicated sprite sheets this might be necessary (though with the one I posted I think I got it under control).

The optimal format for a sprite sheet seems to be a PNG image with the sprites that make up an animation evenly spread out. When discussing this with my partner they requested that each sprite be the same size as well. So in my case each sprite was 64X64 pixels, so each frame of the animation is that size. The reason that the images are PNG are so that you can see the background, since PNG supports transparency layers.

It seems I already have most of this under wraps, but I will see what sort of feedback I get from the instructors on my submission in a bit.

Moving on to module 4! It appears this module focuses on the sprite sheets. While the last focused on model sheets like this one:

It could use a bit more polish, but was my overall best. I think I will try and make this one portfolio worthy over the weekend and then move on to refining the sprite sheets.

So far here is what I have for a sprite sheet:

The black and red are the enemy troops while the grey/cyan are player troops. From top to bottom the animations for said sprites are: Idle, right foot, left foot, ready to attack, attack, death. I uploaded these to adobe aftereffects to test out animating the sprites with these poses. The right and left foot alternating can make a walk animation, while the others are poses for actions or events in the game. I look forward to seeing how I can improve these with the resources mentioned in module 4. So next week I get to work with animating in flash and plan to submit a swf file by the end of the week.

Whew big update, moving forward with things though and I am starting to think of features that will make my game idea unique and fun. Time to kick back and enjoy the weekend for now though!

This week I focused more on sprites. I had the concept art, so now it is down to model sheets and deciding how they will look in game. I will probably just use very simplified graphics rather than 3D models, though 3D models have the advantage of being easier to animate. In this case I just plan to have different poses to signify events like attack and defend, maybe an in between frame or two to smooth it out.

My partner has made a list of the assets we need and I already have a good start on that list. I look forward to getting the basics done for the sprites next week and maybe looking a bit more into the storyline of the game.

Here are some new concept art pieces for the game:

From left to right should be pretty self explanatory: Knight, Mage, Archer, these are the basic troops a player will control in the game. They of course will be simplified as sprites, but this is just a concept of them all to get things rolling. I think the best one of the bunch is the mage, The other two just didn't come out as well as I expected.

I am also putting together a story which will tentatively put the game at eight levels. More art to come later as I finish up module two of the workshop. Perhaps I can make a decent action scene to go with this "standoff" scene.

Introduction:

I decided to enroll in Westwoods Android workshop. As it started up I hammered out an idea, I wanted to take the best aspects I remember from some classic games and combine them to make a unique fast paced fantasy RTS. While I know there are already some big names for that genre, I figured it would be a good experience to try my hand at designing one for myself. I reviewed some of my favorite games like Ogre Battle March of the Black queen, and Brigandine to get an idea of what I wanted to do. I then drew up a game design document to detail the game. In essence I liked the two games mentioned earlier, but I wanted a more streamlined combat system with the same basic concept: defeat the enemy army, take their castle, advance the story.

After a bit of looking I found a programmer to help me implement my design and took it from there. I created sprites and the initial map in Photoshop. I also worked out an intro screen... I tried a bit of voice acting but my partner kindly informed me that while I was trying for evil and menacing I didn't succeed lol.

Some initial art for the concept is below: