Wow, i keep trying to respond, but you are updating like a madman!!! (that's a good thing indeed ; )
Anyway, this will be long, and like you said, copied and pasted together. So beware.
You keep talking about devs, well, uhm, it's just me, the artists, and the people in this topic. Sort of a democracy, but i have veto (some would call that dictatorial, but that's not up for discussion. wait... Ah whatever
That being said, credits go to the main contributors ofcourse: PokeParadox has programmed the majority of the framework, and is always there to assist me with coding trouble, but is not actively involved in the game code. Then we have Amigo Bandito Cruijente who has done all the backgrounds and obstacles, as well as the complete main menu, the cute porq popping in distress, the signs, and some other things i forgot. Dragons_Slayer has drawn the hero and enemy birdsprites as well as the collectables, but is no longer actively taking part (DS if you are reading: still big thanks for getting this going graphic wise, without the proper sprites this would never have gotten the attention it did!), Last, but definately not least, Nick May has allready composed over half an hour of music for this game, with moods for each levelset, tracks with increasing tempo for the time limit levels, etc, etc..
About what graphics are final: If the general consensus is that something looks good, it's usually next step ahead. And if i really don't like something, i always try to say it as early as possible, avoiding unnecessary work. i Also value the opinion of the artists very much, i just about gave control to Amigo on the graphics department so far. He has a better eye for it than me. He draws, and if it works out slightly different than i imagined, i just make it work in the game.
Now my thoughts:
1. I've drastically simplified his colour scheme, because as this scale I don't feel the more complex texture works (and I think it looks slightly off against the toonier characters). We can easily make him brigher, or red, or... whatever - including putting the more complex skin texture back on him if the devs think he looks too naked
3. I have tried to make the character more robust-looking, and increased the eye size so that it is more easily visible. This involved scaling up the chest, the head, the head/jaw/chin spikes and the eyes.
GREEN DRAGON IMAGE
I like the more rugged look of the wyvern, perspective is also better, lighting seems good enough allready but can be improved a bit maybe.
But some more colour would be nice. It does not need a full texture, but maybe a different colouring for the tail, wingtips, maybe snout or some spots here and there, i dunno. Just a bit more colour anyway.
A. Landing. Someone mentioned "diving" on the player character - were you thinking face first or feet first, like this?
Yup, that was me. For the diveflight i indeed envisioned it attacking like a hawk, feet first. But if you show me a better alternative, i'll just do that
different programming, but as said, ill make it work somehow.
Hmmm... I must admit I'd thought that the Wyvern would probably leave one side of the screen and come back - possibly at a different height - pointing in the correct direction. After all, we're just testing at the moment. It's an interesting idea, which I'll leave open for the Devs to comment upon.
Yet another idea is to have two copies of the same character, one lit from above, as is, and one lit from above (but perhaps by less) and from below by lava. Then if there's a lava level, you could slowly move from an upper to a lower set, so the wyvern reacts to the ambient lighting conditions. Yeah, I thought that sounded too much like hard work too! Let me go render some dragons!
Fist idea: I'd like to have the graphics ready, in case you somehow don't have time anymore. But it's not a priority since it will not be in the pandora demo release i think. If i do turnaround, i need to do it for all graphics, and there is still so much other, more urgent work to be done.
While i'm on that topic, you somewhere asked if i want to be ready before pandora release. Partially. I want a large playable demo released the day i receive my pandora (last playtesting and tweaking is best done by me, so could be a day later. but hope to have it tested remotely by a devboard/prototype owner). Think 20 levels or so, enough to keep you busy for a while is the intention. Then work will continue and eventually a fully featured, one and 2 player, maybe networked Panjoust is the goal.
Second idea: errrm maybe, but not soon probably. Would be my best answer
OK - well, the Wyvern is my favourite largely because I already had several animations tha tI could "just throw into a render engine". However, there ARE more options. Here's some quick renders with defaultish skins (not optimised for the game in any way). I found it dragging towards the end so forgive me if the images get lifeless.
LOADS OF RENDERS
So - if one of those appeals more than the Wyvern, or the Devs want 2 dragons or something, let's see. I'd rather not do 12 dragons for 12 levels though, not this week.
Ta,
monk
i like the first 3, number 7, and the last spikey one. And more dragons are always better, no need for 12 though so let's first start with one
Wow, that WAS long.
Already thanks for all you effort so far, i think we can make this work some way
Cheers!!
