IC Forum Archive

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

With ZCT out of the way, I am moving on to bigger and more exciting things: namely Zombie City Survivors, my to-be first shareware title. You can read some of what I have planned in my blog, so I won't talk much about the details here. What I am here for is RECRUITMENT.

I have:
Artist: B Coma
Artist: ORC

I am looking for:

Artist: Someone who's good at spritework, and is willing to make a LOT of them. They'll be fairly small sprites, but with different sprites for every zombie type and several sprites for humans, we're talking hundreds, maybe even thousands of frames of animation all together. They'll also be doing textures for terrain, and some graphic art for menus and logos and whatnot.

Musician: I am imagining a style somewhat like the more laid-back acoustic guitar tracks in the Half Life 1 soundtrack. I'll probably need quite a few songs, so be ready for CREATIVITY.

Sound guy: Let's face it, public domain sound effects are usually lame and awful. I need someone to get me some good sounds, plain and simple.

I will emphasize again that this is NOT a freeware project. If you join me, you will be getting your share of the money when the game goes live. If I've forgotten any info I need to give, let me know and I will provide it.

Mister Toups · Posts: 4943

Sawtooth · Posts: 2350

for spritework for a shareware game (especially of the scale you described) you probably want more than one person. That stuff's pretty easy to get burned out on unless you're an ego-fueled sprite deity.

That said, I'd hop on if I wasn't already busy with other stuff (also if this was a mac title)

dark steve · Posts: 3002

Sawtooth wrote:

That stuff's pretty easy to get burned out on unless you're an ego-fueled sprite deity.

Sup deci.

Prof S. we are CRYING OUT for mac binaries.

B coma · Posts: 1455

I think I might be interested in contributing to the sprite work, since I need a good project right now. I'm not particularly experienced, but I've been dabbling in digital art for years and I've got a lot of spirit! PM me or something.

Sawtooth · Posts: 2350

yeah, mac binaries please please please (i will buy it!)

vision · Posts: 472

I highly approve of this!

There's something keeping me from each of the jobs (no time for heavy sprite work or means of recording guitar or sound effects at the moment), but I'm more than willing to help out (for free) with any random task there might be, from graphic design to testing to designing maps. No job too small.

GrimSweeper · Posts: 530

I'd love to help out but I don't think my skills in any category are anywhere near the level you need for a commercial piece.

But if you think you have a place for a casual pixeller, then I'll join up. I've only dabbled in that line and have achieved maybe shareware level on just MSPaint. I learn quickly, though!

Luck with this project, though. It's going to be a hell of a ride, in all possibilities and in a good way.

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

B coma and GrimSweeper: I would very much like to see a sample of your past sprite work. Either post it here or PM it to me.

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

place me in the i would love to pixel for you but i don't think my skills or experience are up to a commercial project category.

B coma · Posts: 1455

okay,

first, here is the really early stage of a shooter project that never saw the light of day. This was from when I was in high school, where I used to constantly bother a programmer friend of mine to make a game so I could make the art assets for it.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=2D08B7C726F31EF9

The demo is pretty minimal and it is as far as we got before we both graduated and parted ways. I kind of like the goofy ship in it, as I'm proud that I got the rotation to look right using MS Paint only, but the enemy there is more of a placeholder than anything. I also did a really minimal fighting game in Visual Basic with the guy for a class project but it is hilariously terrible and I won't link it here.

Like I said though, I'm really into digital art. I just did this last night and it's pretty representative of my style:

There was a little more to that one but I had one of those three AM moments where I didn't like part of the picture and cropped it off. D'oh. Also I created the character in my sig, which has made appearances in past avatars. I had something else pixel related that I wanted to post but I really need to go to work now!

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

Okay, I just had an idea!

EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO MAKE SPRITES FOR ZOMBIE CITY SURVIVORS:

Draw a zombie. 64x64 pixel maximum. Post it in here. Style, pose, colors, everything is left up to your imagination.

James · Posts: 1735

I could maybe manage some John Carpenter type shit in Reason 3.0 but it would most likely suck a lot and you wanted guitar music for some reason instead of ACTUAL zombie music.

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

I am open to alternatives!

B coma · Posts: 1455

okay, I cheated and did three frames but they're all well within 64x64. I blew it up a little to make it easier to see of course.

needs fine tuning but I think it gets the point across.

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

B coma I just hired you.

B coma · Posts: 1455

hooray!

Mr. Business · Posts: 1530

Even though I know I can't really do much of anything for this project, I made a thing:

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

That's pretty sweet!

nothingxs · Posts: 148

I can hook you up with a musician, and I'm almost curious as to how to be the sound guy.

GrimSweeper · Posts: 530

I attempted to pixel a zombie but I quickly realized that I still have troubles with drawing anatomy. My extremely rough sketches are decent enough (re: you can tell it's a humanoid), but I don't have the know-how to shift from pencil to pixel and convey ZOMBIE. So I tried freeform! No sketch, just draw directly on computer. That turned out worse and I gave it up as a lost cause.

I could possibly make something decent if I had a lot of time, but if that's the case I wouldn't be much use to this project. No point if it takes weeks for a single new piece and days for a frame, eh?

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

So in an attempt to provoke more interest in this project:

AJAX: ZOMBIE BASHER

A.K.A. The male protagonist, as sketched by B coma. Ain't he great?

kidnemo · Posts: 14

B coma wrote:

okay, I cheated and did three frames but they're all well within 64x64. I blew it up a little to make it easier to see of course.

needs fine tuning but I think it gets the point across.

Nice choppers!

I picture the head rolling around on the shoulders during the walk animation.

Gistelle · Posts: 21

What is going to be the overall mood of the game, Profesor Scissors? Will it be serious (like Resident Evil) or... humorous...erm...B-movie-esque (like Rivercity Ransom)? I liked having the option of rotating the map around in Zombie City Tactics, and with sprites...I was kind of imagining the game to look more like Persona from the Playstation.

Playing that Hungry are the Dead demo got me excited about this though....I could in-between some animated sprites if needed...

Uh...you plan on having a design document for Zombie City Survivors, Professor Scissors?

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

Zombie City generally doesn't quite take itself seriously, but it's also not just a light-hearted picnic. In terns of intensity level, I'd put it about on par with Shaun of the Dead. Graphically speaking, I'd say your comment about Persona was fairly accurate, although never having played it, I think more of Final Fantasy Tactics.

Design Document sounds like a goddamn good idea, though. I should get on that!

ORC · Posts: 46

I would like to help.

Most of my freetime is taken up by the Blizzard Art contest at this point, but I can contribute a handful of animated sprites and cutscene/title graphics (if you plan to include them).

EDIT: btw I would very much like to contribute character portraits if they are going to be in there. Only reason being that I would be able to use them in my portfolio much more readily than sprites.

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

ORC:

Judging from that image... and that one image you posted in the Giant Robot Survival Horror thread...

Please PM me with contact information. AIM or MSN are preferable.

Slyphglitch · Posts: 13

I could do a hack job if absolutely needed too.
I need to see a design document and see what your looking for.

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

Which position are you volunteering for? Currently, everything but Sound Effects Guy is closed.

oligophagy · Posts: 110

you're using only portable libraries, right? could i be the Mac Port Guy? i don't even care about compensation, i just want to play one of these damn things already.

dark steve · Posts: 3002

prof s tell him yes

professor_scissors · Posts: 1033

Yes, yes, and yes. Do you need anything beyond the (C++) source code to do this?

Since you aren't asking for payment, I'll give you the source code to ZCT as a thank-you gift, and you can port/play that or whatever you want.

oligophagy · Posts: 110

that and all the external resources (if i'm to bundle it up in a nice dot app).

and awesome to the ZCT source. seeing that thread has thus far been like seeing wounded puppies for me, wounded puppies using a non-predominant operating system. ;_;.

oligophagy · Posts: 110

UH-OH TEASER:

builds and runs, will package soon. then i'll make a new thread begging testers (had to get rid of the glAux dependency and fight the '\n' vs. '\r\n' fight) and not litter this one anymore.