Idea For A Game... Any Asimov Fans?


Jourdy288

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OK, I created some sprites for a game similar to Fantastic Voyage, by Isaac Asimov, but in this game, it's a virus that's cause cells to misbehave, some are creating tumors, others are causing cells to attack. Here is a sprite I made, as an example of an infected cells. As far as genre goes, I think scrolling top-down shooter:

23ha7i0.jpg
 
Jourdy288 said:
OK, I created some sprites for a game similar to Fantastic Voyage, by Isaac Asimov, but in this game, it's a virus that's cause cells to misbehave, some are creating tumors, others are causing cells to attack. Here is a sprite I made, as an example of an infected cells. As far as genre goes, I think scrolling top-down shooter:

23ha7i0.jpg
FYI, for graphics like that you may want to use PNG format to avoid artifacts like you're having there.

Carry on :)
 
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Jourdy288 said:
Ah, thank you, is this better?:

1177528.jpg
Wait...
1. That's not a real jpeg because jpeg's can't be animated. I suspect that it's a GIF somehow.
2. Don't use jpegs or GIFs ever for game development, you really need to use PNGs because otherwise you'll lose too much image quality. At least a flawless ARGB color space is required to make good per-pixel sprites.
3. I can't comment on the sprite-s quality, because I don't know what it's supposed to imitate or not imitate (Asimov is an unknown name to me)

EDIT: Yeah, it's definetly GIF. I almost suspected APNG for a second. I wonder why the picture has compression artifacts, though.
 
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dflemstr said:
Jourdy288 said:
Ah, thank you, is this better?:

1177528.jpg
Wait...
1. That's not a real jpeg because jpeg's can't be animated. I suspect that it's a GIF somehow.
2. Don't use jpegs or GIFs ever for game development, you really need to use PNGs because otherwise you'll lose too much image quality. At least a flawless ARGB color space is required to make good per-pixel sprites.
3. I can't comment on the sprite-s quality, because I don't know what it's supposed to imitate or not imitate (Asimov is an unknown name to me)

Ah, thank you, I just made that GIF as an example, in the game, it would be an infected dendrite (a type of white blood cell). I am using SVG, is that OK?
 
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Jourdy288 said:
dflemstr said:
Jourdy288 said:
Ah, thank you, is this better?:

1177528.jpg
Wait...
1. That's not a real jpeg because jpeg's can't be animated. I suspect that it's a GIF somehow.
2. Don't use jpegs or GIFs ever for game development, you really need to use PNGs because otherwise you'll lose too much image quality. At least a flawless ARGB color space is required to make good per-pixel sprites.
3. I can't comment on the sprite-s quality, because I don't know what it's supposed to imitate or not imitate (Asimov is an unknown name to me)

Ah, thank you, I just made that GIF as an example, in the game, it would be an infected dendrite (a type of white blood cell). I am using SVG, is that OK?
Oh, I see, how stupid of me...
PNGs would really be the way to go in situations like these when the pixel art matters, because SVGs are vectorized as you know.
 
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I haven't read Fantastic Voyage at this time, but I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. :)

Would you mind posting a version of the image with a grey (or other suitable colour) background, though, please? I'm finding it a bit hard to see the animation very well due to the forum's fairly bright colour-scheme, unfortunately.

dflemstr said:
(Asimov is an unknown name to me)
Isaac Asimov was a science fiction writer who was most famous for his robot stories, for his fictional "Three Laws of Robotics" (which continue to make a good plot device even today :lol: ), and his influence on real-life robotics. :)

(Hehe, pardon my blathering. I rather like robot-related fiction, and Asimov's stories, you see. :p)
 
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Quick question: Aren't dendrites the part of the neurons that receive chemical signals from other neurons, causing them to become activated? I might be confused, forgotten a lot since Bio last semester...
 
Prometheus said:
Isaac Asimov was a science fiction writer who was most famous for his robot stories, for his fictional "Three Laws of Robotics" (which continue to make a good plot device even today :lol: ), and his influence on real-life robotics. :)
Oh yeah, now I remember. Read a book about something by him I think a long while ago, and then there's of course that "I, Robot" movie (that I didn't particularily like, but I digress). I generally like scifi in any shape or form but for some reason, I just haven't gone in the robotics-is-the-main-topic direction of sci-fi. A game based Asimov's concepts could help to enlighten me, but I think that it'll need more planning to go somewhere.

Or I might just decide to read his books, in which case I wouldn't have any interest at all in a game like this (j/k :p ).

@ the background; just make it transparent, and it'll be viewable in all media...
 
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dflemstr said:
Yeah, it's definetly GIF. I almost suspected APNG for a second. I wonder why the picture has compression artifacts, though.
I guess it was jpeg first, then converted to gif for animation.

The best way to go, if you draw in svg or other vector formts, would be to export them directly to PNG. This way you'll get rid of the artifacts and by enabling the alpha channel you'll get correct transparency.
 
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Vorporeal said:
Quick question: Aren't dendrites the part of the neurons that receive chemical signals from other neurons, causing them to become activated? I might be confused, forgotten a lot since Bio last semester...

Yes, but there's also the dendrite form of white blood cells in your immune system.
 
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I'd look forward to a game revolving around any of Asimov's writing
smile.gif


Fantastic Voyage wasn't particularly Asmovian, as he wrote to someone else's spec (possibly simply a novelisation, I forget). Asimov felt this jarring enough to write a "sequel" (Fantastic Voyage II) deliberately to explore the same theme from his own perspective.

I,Robot - the movie - bore little or no resemblance to the book of the same name, and was frankly Hollywood Rubbish IMHO.

Dr. Isaac Asimov wrote a good deal of "Pulp Fiction" in both SF and mystery genres, but is possibly known just as well for his writings on math, physics, biology, chemistry, biochemistry or religeon. Or probably a whole bunch of topics I forgot. He was quite prolific, and wrote hundreds of books during his lifetime (though how many of these were anthologies or re-anthologies I do not know, having not personally compiled a list).

He invented, for his stories about robotics, the "Three Laws" that you tend to hear mentioned in stories which contain robots. Ever hear that a robot was designed not to harm a human being or, through inaction, alow harm to come to a human being? Then you've read, watched, or listend to something written or influenced by Asimov.

Some of my favourite stories include those about the Black Widowers (mystery stories of which I have managed to find all too few - most seem out of print whenever I check) and Azazel (a demon about 1 inch tall - something of a cross between comedy and fantasy in genre, I guess). Other favourites include popular science - Asimov was notable for writing that looked simple - deceptively so - because it seemed to easy to read and understand what he wrote.

Yeah, I was sad when he died
sad.gif
he was "my first author" - the first author that impressed me enough that I'd pick up a book purely because it had his name on the jacket.
 
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