Human resource (Searching for job)

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Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Mon Sep 19, 2016 9:15 pm

Hello! I wanna be an adult game developer, but i had one problem.
I'm really know nothing about development. Some toying with GM and pixel art - does not count. So, when i'm thought about that, i decided to try find work. Of course, considering my abilities - the "grunt work". I will do everything that you want from me (of course, if you show me the way to do it). No money reward, of course. The only thing that i need - your guidance and your teaching.
English is not my native language. I understand people well, but sometimes they have problems in order to understand me. Oh, and I'm not going to work on projects that are contrary to the rules of this forum.
I am well understand that my "cool" resume is unlikely to be interested for someone (god! i think this is worst resume ever!)... but i'm just wanna give it a try.
With regards, Ryuanean!
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Tue Sep 20, 2016 6:49 pm

Sorry for anyone, who sent me PM. I can't answer, because i'm "Newly Registered" on forum. If you wanna ask me something - do it here please and i will answer! Thanks!

Edit: Some of my shitty experiments with pixel art:
Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Image
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Wed Sep 21, 2016 2:20 pm

And some more. Experiments with game maker:
Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Image
Image
Image

...As you see, ugly design and worst background included.

PS Sorry for multiposting
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby ValturNaa » Thu Sep 22, 2016 9:46 am

Hey, your pixel art is better than mine at least.
spr_ninja_0.png
spr_ninja_0.png (229 Bytes) Viewed 1575 times
This is about the best I can do with gamemaker's pixel art editor. I bet with the right tools, such as PyxelEdit, you could do very nice pixelated animations for gamemaker, and with tutorials like those on Heartbeast's channel you can learn a lot of basic GML commands. If you're interested, there's also a humble bundle for GameMaker going right now. $15 for studio pro, four export packs, and half a dozen games with their source code as examples.

I'd love to give you a hand with your games, within reason. I can direct you to more tutorials if you need them, or brainstorm designs, or share what I've learned over the years that I've been working on games. My skills are still limited in many areas, but I've been working at it for over a decade now and have found quite a few resources that might help you out. What aspects of game design are you interested in learning?
I'm not mad. I'm only forty and eighty percent crazy, and that's split between two personalities, which makes me almost half sane.
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Thu Sep 22, 2016 1:01 pm

Oh! My big thanks! I have never studied drawing or coding, so, my attempts to greatly looks as though I wander in the big sea of fog. I'm interested in many aspects, but much more in improving my code knowledges (Game Maker code, maybe flash too) and improving my drawing. I will be glad if you help me with code, but i really don't know how i can improve my drawing style. I tried to animate some monsters in my first game, but i think it's looked REALLY bad.

...And one more thing. I have to admit - I'm really bad with the tutorials. This is one reason why I am primarily looking for a mentor, not a manual or tutorial for learning.

EDIT:
Ah, and, of course, I will be grateful for any help from other people, who want to help, too!
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby ValturNaa » Thu Sep 22, 2016 6:55 pm

I've never "studied" any of the game stuff I work on either, much though I would like to. My local college's only computer class is geared toward seniors learning to turn on their computers properly, and I lack the resources for the online programs I've drooled over for years now. So everything I know is self taught or came through tutorials. Video tutorials in particular, as I often have difficulty with written code tutorials. Try taking a look at Heartbeast's instruction videos (linked from my last post) and see if you can glean anything from them. He's one of my go-to mentors at gamemaker code and also does pixel art how-to videos on that channel. He is presently working on a course for making rpgs (such as zelda, pokemon, or countless other titles) which is expected to come out in december, and I'm super excited to see it. If you like his style of video tutorials, Shaun Spalding is another great coding resource.

What program do you use for your pixel art? If it's just the pixel editor built into gamemaker, I can see why you'd have issues animating stuff. Gamemaker's sprite editor is like the notepad of pixel art. PyxelEdit is cheap (free if you are just after tiling aids) and has a number of features to help you see animations on the go, plus the tools to help you build nice looking tile sets. Photoshop has similar features for animations I believe, but it is well outside my price range. You might also look into piskel, a free online pixel editor, which has added drawing features such as basic shapes and a live preview to view your animations at scale while you work.

Another question, have you ever experimented with vector art? It's a very different process than pixel drawing, but inkscape is my program of choice for building my art (and completely free). It takes time to get used to inkscape, but can be worthwhile. Compare the pixel art from my last post, which is supposed to be a ninja, with this piece done in inkscape:
Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Tent Screen.png
The only pieces of this screen design that were not done in inkscape are the man behind the sign and the profile images of the monsters (I clipped those out of a full body concept image done for the same project that the screen is built for)

When it comes to character design I am much less practiced, and typically trace over other people's drawings. Like this:
Spoiler (click to show/hide):

scyther.png
The results come out very nice, but I have to rely on others to do the initial sketching. But I have done some experiments with animating characters that others have created, both in inkscape and in spriter, with fairly decent results. So if you're interested in new methods to try out, I may be able to help you there. Just don't come to me for help figuring out how to sketch something, because the best I can really do is direct you to google images for a reference. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I need to work with a character artist from now on.

If you're interested, I may have a few small gamemaker projects lying around which could use a pixel artist's touch, and you can see the kind of code I work with. They wouldn't be porn (I have personal issues with pixel porn anyhow), but they might be a chance to stretch your legs and I would answer any questions I could about how they were coded. I could also give you my take on game design and world building, which is limited but is something I've been working on for about twenty years now (honest. A couple years ago I had to finally throw away the last traces of a tabletop rpg game I started when I was eight or nine because my mother wouldn't let me play DnD at that age). World building is probably my very best skill to date. I can take a simple concept and expand it into a rather large and somewhat detailed world in a couple of weeks (unless I'm turning to a team to approve every aspect; that slows it down some), and over time can continue to build on that framework until I have hundreds of regions, thousands of years of history, and dozens of variations on common implements. If the game calls for that level of detail, anyway. Most games these days only take the couple of weeks for relevant details. Compared to world building, my coding skills are a joke. I'm still studying the uses of json. But I did manage a simple physics script for a swinging rope for a ninja game, which is one of those projects I could bring you in to help with.
I'm not mad. I'm only forty and eighty percent crazy, and that's split between two personalities, which makes me almost half sane.
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby ValturNaa » Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:06 pm

Fair warning, if you do work with me. If you can't already tell, I tend to get very wordy. I write novels and epics, so I type quickly and often use large words. When a specific word isn't understood, or when I can't think of the proper word, my explanations get very long. In addition I typically have thoughts trailing off in every direction. My brainstorming documents turn into a bit of a maze.
I'm not mad. I'm only forty and eighty percent crazy, and that's split between two personalities, which makes me almost half sane.
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Thu Sep 22, 2016 8:05 pm

Wow! A lot of information!
Hmm. I will definitely try this video tutorials. We will see what I can figure out from them.
Yeah, i mostly used GameMaker editor... but not only it. GraphicsGale (free edition), too. But there, I do not understand most of opportunities.
No. Never heard about vector art. Just googled it and, eh, i didn't quite understand the point. May you give me more information about this?

I will gladly work with you, but I must also warn you. Probably, my help will be really useless, at least at first ... and I probably will not be easy to teach. If you are not afraid, I am at your service.
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby ValturNaa » Fri Sep 23, 2016 12:46 am

I am happy to help where I am able, whether it is over chat while working on a project or directing you to a video tutorial on the subject. And I'm not afraid to teach someone who struggles with concepts. I've done step-by-step instructions before for someone who had no clue how to handle a gamemaker-like editor for one of the LoK projects I've been watching. We just need to get you enough posts to lose that "newly registered" tag so you can use PMs.

Well, the point of vector art is many things. It's simplicity, space, and object-based art. You can very quickly build an arm, duplicate it, and change its direction to have a matched set. Duplicate it again and tweak it into a leg, then duplicate that to make another matched set. Or build one branch of a tree, duplicate it to another location, and tweak it for that. Or duplicate a completed tree and draw snow over the top of one of them. You can sketch a mountain range and change a simple color gradient from green/black to blue/white to turn it from summer to winter. Because it is built on a set of points and curves rather than dots of color, you can also scale these resources to infinity with crystal clarity and no increase in storage size. Try scaling raster art from 360x300 to 1280x800 (a common screen size) and it will look incredibly blurry at four times the space (or more). In vectors, it will only get bigger, without increasing drive space. Vectors work best for cartoon level details, because extra detail adds memory and complexity, but for certain types of work they can be fantastic. But there's also an additional reason for building characters in vectors: you can duplicate the character in any given pose, tweak the vertices a bit, and keep going to create an animation of arbitrary framerate. Want a 3 pose walk cycle like they use in rpgmaker? Rotate one leg forward 45 degrees and the other back, and then reverse the two for the third frame. Need a higher resolution 8 frame walk cycle? Create your neutral and extreme poses and then work out your intervals from there. You can even rotate the vertices independently from the object itself or move them around to create extension.
Of course, my reason for using vectors is more personal. I can't use my mouse well enough to do more detailed art in other systems, and I start to have eye problems and headaches if I look too closely at pixels. That has been true even when playing games made by other people, but it's especially bad when I'm trying to create art. I can build vectors with absolute control over my lines, create it with any level of detail that I want, and then make it as small or as big as the project requires, either to use directly or to export as images. Honestly the hardest part of working with vectors (in my eyes, anyway) is making things be a set size. Typically what I do is use the export menu (the only tool I have found thus far that gives the exact pixel size of your selection) to create a standard sized box which serves as both a visual queue and a canvas for the export.
I'm not mad. I'm only forty and eighty percent crazy, and that's split between two personalities, which makes me almost half sane.
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Fri Sep 23, 2016 9:57 am

This vector art sounds interesting!
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:15 pm

How much message do I need to change the status? As far as I remember - ten? If so, then after this message I had to change status and we can start work. Right?
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby ValturNaa » Fri Sep 23, 2016 6:53 pm

Yeah, I have a lot of fun with vectors. That's why I encourage people to try them and find out if it suits their style or is useful to them in some way. For one thing, vector art makes floor plans really quick to make and can be used to great effect with repeating patterns such as bricks. Even with a skilled artistic team, I can slap a few buttons over a specifically sized rectangle, add text, and design a screen concept faster in inkscape than most artists can in gimp or photoshop. Building basic shapes such as for walls and mountains is also super easy, even if you prefer another program to do the rest of the design. Making it look good is another story, but if you put in the time to learn the program (and have some artistic talent), you can do really fantastic art. I saw picture once where someone replicated the cover of Frozen in inkscape, and it looked damn close to the real thing. Not sure how long that took but I'll bet it was less than the studio artists spent building Elsa in 3d.
I'm not mad. I'm only forty and eighty percent crazy, and that's split between two personalities, which makes me almost half sane.
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby evildumdum » Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:03 am

Keep in contact with valt Ryuenean. He's pretty damn good with the whole game making thing. My advice to you is to give yourself a basic understanding of at least one programming language and one platform before you consider game making. Even if it isnt your role in a team it still helps to know what is possible.
"If at first you don't succeed, try hitting it with a shoe."

Coder for Code Bunny Studio's working AOB: Monster Rising
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby ValturNaa » Sat Sep 24, 2016 3:45 am

Thanks for the vote of confidence, dumdum. I'm no Miyagi or Yoda and I damn well haven't produced any games on my own like GoRepeat, but I try. My skills in both coding and art are limited, but sufficient to allow me to coordinate my designs with people more knowledgeable in those fields. Mostly I'm a writer and world designer. For an idea of what I write, take a look at these stories I've posted on the forums.

Personally, I like to approach the design of a game from the perspective of writing, art, *and* coding, so a bit of knowledge in all of those fields can go a long way. I know the mechanics of art and code, even if I can't produce the detailed work, and that lets me coordinate with others with more specialized talents. Ultimately, my main approach to games is as a writer, and I try to look at games in the same way that I look at writing. You wouldn't write porn for kids and you wouldn't write about an old woman sitting in her rocker thinking unless you wrote for an audience who would appreciate that subject. Audience analysis and an understanding of genre is crucial to game design as well. An RPG should always have a story and some form of character advancement, and depending on the sub-genre can have other expectations as well. And so on. Basically it comes down to identifying what your target audience wants out of the game, and giving it to them. If I don't look at that, someone else will have to, or the project will flop no matter how good the art or the engine might be.
I'm not mad. I'm only forty and eighty percent crazy, and that's split between two personalities, which makes me almost half sane.
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby x3Darkie » Sat Sep 24, 2016 1:16 pm

ValturNaa Wrote:Thanks for the vote of confidence, dumdum. I'm no Miyagi or Yoda and I damn well haven't produced any games on my own like GoRepeat, but I try. My skills in both coding and art are limited, but sufficient to allow me to coordinate my designs with people more knowledgeable in those fields. Mostly I'm a writer and world designer. For an idea of what I write, take a look at these stories I've posted on the forums.

Personally, I like to approach the design of a game from the perspective of writing, art, *and* coding, so a bit of knowledge in all of those fields can go a long way. I know the mechanics of art and code, even if I can't produce the detailed work, and that lets me coordinate with others with more specialized talents. Ultimately, my main approach to games is as a writer, and I try to look at games in the same way that I look at writing. You wouldn't write porn for kids and you wouldn't write about an old woman sitting in her rocker thinking unless you wrote for an audience who would appreciate that subject. Audience analysis and an understanding of genre is crucial to game design as well. An RPG should always have a story and some form of character advancement, and depending on the sub-genre can have other expectations as well. And so on. Basically it comes down to identifying what your target audience wants out of the game, and giving it to them. If I don't look at that, someone else will have to, or the project will flop no matter how good the art or the engine might be.

Woah, what are you, ageist? I kid. Why is ageism a thing? Ageism should never be a thing.

In my opinion though, it's always nice to broaden the themes in a project. I don't think having some mature content (whether political, philosophical, sexual or violence) in projects are always detrimental. Hell, I believe I matured the way I am today thanks to consuming the things I shouldn't be consuming. Pandering to a specific audience doesn't always translate to a successful project. Many projects ARE successful simply because they broke the mold and be something different. I personally think to make a project successful you'd first have to be invested in it, and make it into something you'd want to play. Shameless advertisement here, I'm making Captivity simply because I want it to be a game that I want to play. Because I think having proper gameplay (and story and the other stuff) in a game with porn in it is like having bacon on the icing of a cake! Okay, that metaphor analogy isn't exactly perfect, but you get what I mean. My point is, make something you first would want to play. I believe that's the best way to create a successful project. Or you know, until someone decides they are no longer motivated and/or get caught up in legal trouble. *cough* *cough*
Last edited by x3Darkie on Fri Sep 30, 2016 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Captivity - A Hentai JRPG now being ported to Unity / Captivity PreFoundation - A direct tie-in side story manga
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=6124 / viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7013
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Sat Sep 24, 2016 3:06 pm

Thank you for all these opinions. I will take them into consideration. For now, I'm working with ValturNaa, but that does not mean I'm closed for advices or assistance. If someone else wants help me improve my skills someway, I will be very grateful!
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby ValturNaa » Sat Sep 24, 2016 5:11 pm

Feel free to disagree with my opinion all you want, but audience analysis is a very legitimate thing that is done in professional game studios and big publishing houses all the time. Children under a certain age aren't emotionally developed enough to even care about sex, and producing it for them is , and those who do find it interesting seek it out because they aren't actually supposed to be allowed to view it (I was one such child myself). Studios have to be very careful to warn their viewers about potential porn and let the viewers take the legal risks of viewing content before the legal age. If you fail to take proper precautions, you're liable to *cough* legal action *cough*. Also, think about the most popular projects today. Each one of them is very specifically tailored to please audiences of a certain age. For instance, Harry Potter, book 1, is very specific to eleven year old boys. It is also diverse enough to appeal to eleven year old girls, thirty year old girls, and thirty year old men. It was originally marketed to eleven year old boys, who loved it and told their friends, who told their friends, and so on. By the time the third book came out, Harry Potter had become one of the biggest hits of our time, and it still grew in popularity from there.

Also, I disagree with the bacon on a cake analogy. Solid gameplay doesn't have to be anathema to porn games. I've enjoyed several nutaku titles which have solid gameplay and repeatable porn content. They encourage a lengthier play where you can collect and upgrade girls and unlock the porn content, and then play it through whenever you're in the mood for a porn video. Flash videos are merely something to play instead of youporn or toonhub when you need a quick release. There are hundreds of them out there, and chances are you're only going to play each one once or twice. I do go back to pokemon off white periodically, but that's the only one I can honestly say I go back to. But once you've put in the effort to unlock scenes from a hundred flower knights, valkyries, or whatever flavor of Nutaku that you prefer, you're going to want to hold on to that and come back to it. My only real issue with nutaku games is the lack of animation. They're heavily dependent on their voice acting, which is all in Japanese, and they don't even include much written description, instead making every girl extremely talkative. Slap fully animated scenes onto a nutaku game and I'd have my perfect outlet.

You can also mix the two methods. Breeding season is a good example of a game of that type. If all you were after was a quick fix, you just start a new game and start repetitively breeding the monsters you buy. If you wanted more gameplay, you would save your game and keep playing it through several in-game months to get super monsters. Sadly, the developers (who began here on LoK but moved) went backwards at times and eventually broke up.

That being said, yes, building something you want to play *is* important. But that is only one aspect of good game design and if that's all you have, it could be the cause of *cough* losing interest *cough*. It's just as important to build something around your audience who then puts pressure on you to complete it.
I'm not mad. I'm only forty and eighty percent crazy, and that's split between two personalities, which makes me almost half sane.
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby ANooB » Sat Sep 24, 2016 7:54 pm

I like your pixel art, Ryu. My only complaint would be that parts of it are pillow shaded. Try looking into how to paint lighting and your stuff will look about 25% better. :D
Spruce your games up using free vector content: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=7109

There're no such things as mistakes, just happy little accidents. ~Bob Ross
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby Ryuanean » Sat Sep 24, 2016 9:38 pm

Thanks a lot! Yeah... shading a little bit hard for me. I will try to improve it!
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Re: Human resource (Searching for job)

Postby x3Darkie » Sat Sep 24, 2016 11:29 pm

Just for clarity, I understand that audience analysis is a very real thing and I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm also not telling you to not use audience analysis to your own advantage and that you'd have to follow my suggestions to the letter. I'm just saying maybe take a different approach to stuff. I still firmly believe that a successful project starts with making something you'd first want to play. But yeah, my two cents.
Captivity - A Hentai JRPG now being ported to Unity / Captivity PreFoundation - A direct tie-in side story manga
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=6124 / viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7013
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