Update: Sickhead TGB Tile Pack
by Russell Fincher · 06/20/2006 (7:12 pm) · 42 comments
Update... Sickhead Games' Torque Game Builder Tile Pack #1
The content pack and the video...
Work on our first content pack for Torque Game Builder has run a little longer than intended (though I'm glad to say we've got a lot going on around here these days), but we've got enough built to share what we've been up to. Obviously this is looking more like a full-on top-down starter kit than just a tile pack, since the code will be included to get this stuff working right outta the box. (box not included)
So this release will not only have the tiles and sprites listed in my previous plan, but also include all the sorting and 3D code that Tom's been working on, as well as a few royalty-free sounds.
Check out the video below for a run-through of a little demonstration map. Sorry for the poor quality. There's a reason we're not called Sickhead Video Encoding Company.
Sorting
We've enabled a sorting system that governs which sprites are in front, as well as a 3d-ish collision volume tweak that gives them depth. Direct any technical comments here to Tom, since I don't get the technical stuff. Good thing thing for me he's made adding the sorting information for the sprites dead simple. I'm also glad to say we'll be including a lot of animated vegetation, just subtle stuff like the trees and the elephant ear plant seen in the video. A small breeze goes a long way towards livening things up.
Finishing up
As far as the art goes, we're still pretty much on track for the content listed before. We mostly wanted to show off the current state of the "gameplay". We'll wrapping this stuff up in the next couple of weeks and it should hopefully be available soon after that. Take care, gang...
Russell Fincher
Lead Artist | Co-owner
Sickhead Games
The content pack and the video...
Work on our first content pack for Torque Game Builder has run a little longer than intended (though I'm glad to say we've got a lot going on around here these days), but we've got enough built to share what we've been up to. Obviously this is looking more like a full-on top-down starter kit than just a tile pack, since the code will be included to get this stuff working right outta the box. (box not included)
So this release will not only have the tiles and sprites listed in my previous plan, but also include all the sorting and 3D code that Tom's been working on, as well as a few royalty-free sounds.
Check out the video below for a run-through of a little demonstration map. Sorry for the poor quality. There's a reason we're not called Sickhead Video Encoding Company.
Sorting We've enabled a sorting system that governs which sprites are in front, as well as a 3d-ish collision volume tweak that gives them depth. Direct any technical comments here to Tom, since I don't get the technical stuff. Good thing thing for me he's made adding the sorting information for the sprites dead simple. I'm also glad to say we'll be including a lot of animated vegetation, just subtle stuff like the trees and the elephant ear plant seen in the video. A small breeze goes a long way towards livening things up.
Finishing up
As far as the art goes, we're still pretty much on track for the content listed before. We mostly wanted to show off the current state of the "gameplay". We'll wrapping this stuff up in the next couple of weeks and it should hopefully be available soon after that. Take care, gang...
Lead Artist | Co-owner
Sickhead Games
About the author
Art Lead at Sickhead Games, focused on dev tools and prototyping, instructor/advisor at several Dallas colleges and universities, Associate Developer with GarageGames, champion of avant-garde game art at uncommonassembly.com.
#2
06/20/2006 (8:25 pm)
Very Nice! 
#3
06/20/2006 (9:03 pm)
ah its about time. yay
#4
Good luck with the release results
06/20/2006 (9:14 pm)
Hm, the graphics don't look very consistent, but I guess it serves its purpose as a starter kit.Good luck with the release results
#5
06/20/2006 (9:29 pm)
Excellent job, Russel. Great looking stuff, I'll be watching for it...
#6
06/20/2006 (9:36 pm)
The 3d sorting looks very impressive!
#7
06/20/2006 (9:47 pm)
@ Raxx... yeah, we're working on that part. It's likely the orc will lose his outline and some of the more "rendered" art will be touched up. Or down, as the case may be. ;)
#8
06/20/2006 (11:31 pm)
great job. Its a little thing, but the animation on those trees really makes the scene come alive. When can we buy it? 
#11
06/21/2006 (6:25 am)
This looks awesome. I can't wait until it comes out :) 
#12
Maybe you could saturate a bit more some part. The trees are maybe too sad for example.
06/21/2006 (6:39 am)
Awesome! Really living and the sorting system is excellent.Maybe you could saturate a bit more some part. The trees are maybe too sad for example.
#13
Dungeons tiles!
06/21/2006 (7:04 am)
Wow. Looking incredible. Art has always been my biggest stumbling block. I see this is Pack #1 :) If there others in this series I'll be a faithful buyer :)Dungeons tiles!
#14
Just out of curiosity, are you viewing on a Mac or PC? The gamma difference between the two has been a thorn in my side as long as I've been making images on computers. I gave up creating any game art work on the Mac (which is my platform of choice, btw) just because, given time constraints, I'm able to please the most people if the art is geared for PC gamma.
I'd love to hear how other artists handle the cross-platform graphics problem. When I was creating art on the Mac I would use GammaToggleX to approximate PC gamma, but still you'd have to do some conversion and have two sets of art in the end, which is pretty unreasonable. I doubt games will start using ICC color profiles any time soon. Not that I'd want to deal with that. ;)
06/21/2006 (9:10 am)
@ Ben... thanks for the input, and I see your point about the saturation in the trees. They need variation as well, still lots of polish to get to. (as in "polished", not Poland. The Poland Pack(tm) is next)Just out of curiosity, are you viewing on a Mac or PC? The gamma difference between the two has been a thorn in my side as long as I've been making images on computers. I gave up creating any game art work on the Mac (which is my platform of choice, btw) just because, given time constraints, I'm able to please the most people if the art is geared for PC gamma.
I'd love to hear how other artists handle the cross-platform graphics problem. When I was creating art on the Mac I would use GammaToggleX to approximate PC gamma, but still you'd have to do some conversion and have two sets of art in the end, which is pretty unreasonable. I doubt games will start using ICC color profiles any time soon. Not that I'd want to deal with that. ;)
#15
06/21/2006 (9:34 am)
Would it be possible to fake heights you can actually climb on top of with this? Like all the classic top-iso series such as Secret of Mana and (2d) Zelda and tons of other titles. I'm not sure if that's just a matter of setting up stair/ramp tiles that overlay properly or what. But yeah, this looks awesome, and if you have top-iso in TGB that really expands the kind of games you can do with it. 
#17
06/21/2006 (9:56 am)
@Paul - I've just started experimenting with what we can do for heights, but basically it's just a matter of projecting the sort point down to where the object would be if on the ground.
#18
06/21/2006 (10:04 am)
The orc is a .dts shape? Or just a sprite?
#19
06/21/2006 (10:08 am)
It's an animated sprite. 
#20
Otherwise it rocks, the sorting seems to be really smooth :)
06/21/2006 (11:20 am)
One minor thing that I just can't get out of my head : Maybe you should add a shadow (2d sprite) on the ground when the Orc jumps...it would add a lot to what seems to be a pretty cool package.Otherwise it rocks, the sorting seems to be really smooth :)
Associate Tom Eastman (Eastbeast314)