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Digital

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Posts posted by Digital

    Adoptables Updates for 3/22

    in Feedback & Help

    Posted

    So, here are the updates for today. But first:

    I want to offer a great big thank you to @Hare, who has graciously offered to create 5 quick Adoptables for us for free, I can showcase (and I mean tease everyone) with two of them here today!

    To tease you guys a little, I am just going to hint at the eggs in this post. Both eggs will be free come launch, so you will have to figure out what they become.

    peta.png and petb.png

    Now back to our scheduled updates:

    As stated before, screenshots are from my local development machine, images are not final and were used for testing.

     

    • Power has a new look, a little orange lightening bolt across the site

      So, not really a huge change, but now where Power is referenced, it shows a little orange bolt icon to reference it.

      update_postbit.png
       
    • New Item that allows customized backdrops to be uploaded

      Now have the ability to upload your own image when buying a backdrop. This will most likely be a premium item.

      shop_custom_backdrop.png
       
    • New Item that allows you upload a customized image of your pet

      Along with the customized backdrop, we now have an item that will allow you to upload a new pet image. This I hope will encourage custom pets to appear where their owners have decked them out. This will be a premium item for purchase.

      shop_custom_pet.png
       
    • Pets now have their own page, with their descriptions, and this allows your pets to be rated and shared

      Every pet now has their own page, that shows a larger (256x256) image of the pet, along with the description. Also on their page, you will find a range of buttons to share the page on popular social media, as well as rate the pets. This page will grow in features in time, as we can do much more with it.

      pet_page.png

     

    What's next?

    So, outside of some admin stuff, and general clean up, we are getting close to where I feel comfortable releasing it on this board. I am hoping you guys will be up to being my initial testers and beating it to death to iron out any issues I have missed. The goal is still to launch Friday.

    What do/did you study?

    in Off Topic

    Posted

    I actually never completed any university level degree. I started learning programming as a teenager, and was fortunate enough (and stubborn enough to apply to over 200 job postings for entry level programmer positions) to land a job in my field before I gradiuated high school.

    By the time I got to university or college, the hardest courses for associates degree in computer science was too easy (I got an A- without opening a book), and I could justify going through years of general courses for comp sci courses that gave me concepts that I already had.

    As a note I am am not saying I am a prodigy, I was lucky to have learned a lot from a great mentor during my first job that taught me that all programming and software engineering is pattern and concepts. Learn those and everything else falls together.

    Big List of Game Creation Tools

    in General Game Development

    Posted

    Just now, Callum said:

    I imagine this will be very useful to many members! Thank you very much clearly a lot of time was spent compiling this @Digital - is there anything here you would personally recommend in particular?

    I have played lightly with Phaser and RPG Maker so far, but have spent some more time with MonoGame. MonoGame is very much a heavy hitter though, and not designed for the web, and requires knowledge of .NET based technologies, namely C# as most examples favor it.

    Phaser and RPG Maker (Phaser being javascript, RPG Maker (MV) being a game maker that walks you though it, but outputs stuff in Javascript) are both suitable for web.

    Horizon Zero Dawn

    in General Game Development

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Pepper-Head said:

    Definitely a good game :laugh:

    If you do end up waiting a bit, maybe you can snag a preowned and save a few dollars!

    That is my thought exactly. I usually like to give it a bit and see how long it takes to have other play through it and see how casual gamers (like me) enjoyed it. I find critic reviews to often be off in their assessments vs me as a person who plays my consoles occasionally.

    Forum Adoptable Update 3/21

    in Feedback & Help

    Posted

     

    51 minutes ago, Hare said:

    Do you plan on having alternate colors for the same creatures? If so, will all potemtial colors be hatchable from the same egg, or from separately colored eggs? Or should there be no alt colors? 

     

    52 minutes ago, Hare said:

     

    Do you plan on having alternate colors for the same creatures? If so, will all potemtial colors be hatchable from the same egg, or from separately colored eggs? Or should there be no alt colors? 

    Love the backdrop, description, and naming features. The store looks nifty too. Nice idea to help build some revenue for the site.

    Is the naming feature available to you when you hatch them initially? I'd love to be able to name my critters for free on the initual hatch (and evolutions like you said), but wouldn't mind buying an item to rename them if I changed my mind about the name.

     

    No plans for colorations as of now, however there will be an item that will allow the user to upload their own pet image (keeping to species) which would allow them to color it if they wanted to.

    Yes, since egg to first form is an evolution you can name it.

    Looking for Artists for Adoptables

    in Looking To Hire

    Posted

    Hello All,

    So as we get near the release of the Adoptables for the forums, I need to get some Artists working on, well, some.. Adoptables :o 

    Here are the specs:

    • 256x256
    • 3 stages to an adoptable, first stage is an Egg, other two stages can be up to artist.
    • Style should be cell shaded, as it will be hard to be too detailed in such as small canvas size.

    I personally love the style seen in Pokemon or even Neopets, as they are clean and expressive for the most part.

    Prices are negotiable as long as reasonable, but also note that Adoptables are released here on the forums, and available to other members. You will also receive full attribution as the creator of the adoptable. If interested, reach out to me via PM, or reply to this thread.

    Who here is a game owner?

    in General Game Development

    Posted

    20 hours ago, PaulSonny said:

    I used to run a pet site called BooPets but it is no longer around.

    I have worked on MANY petsites and currently involved in the development of a handful of in-development games.

    If you'd be interested in giving an interview, I can send over the questions for you? May need to adjust the questions a bit since you have worked on many, but that won't be an issue.

    Forum Adoptable Update 3/21

    in Feedback & Help

    Posted

    So, here is the update so far today, I think we are nearing the end of the initial rollout, and in terms of front-end features we are good to go for launch. I will be doing a lot of the admin backend code mostly to administrate the system from now on.

    Please note this preview is from my local development machine, the images are of Pokemon and of me. No, you will not have to deal with pictures of me as a backdrop when we launch, nor will you have to suffer with the likes of Bulbasaur (unless you like him - then enjoy :P)

    Also, the images I am using are not squared at 128x128 or 256x256, so they do appear stretched below.

    • Eggs are now purchasable items

      As mentioned you will find a selection of Eggs (both free and premium) in the Store here on the forums. These have been implemented.

      shop_egg.png
       
    • You can purchase backdrops

      This is one of the stretch goals, however adding new items types to the store was so easy, it only took me about an hour to get working so I went ahead with it. Backdrops will be a vanity item, allowing you to add a background image behind the pet. This will allow you to customize how your pet looks next to other peoples in threads. Right now these are hard-set, but I will provide a version allowing a user to upload their own (as premium option.)

      shop_backdrop.png
       
    • Pet descriptions are now editable, tell a story

      So here is how pet descriptions work. If you don't add a description, the current description of your pets current form will display. However you can customize this to tell your pet's lovely story.

      description.png
       
    • Evolution allows naming

      So, I know @SingSong asked about being able to name pets. Well, you can, however there is one limitation to this. You may only name your pet when you evolve them, or purchase an item to allow you rename your pet (A "writ of name change" type of item maybe?) The reasoning is that since evolutionary forms can be drastic, your name may not feel as good as good as it did early on. Allowing it to change as you evolve seemed like a good balance, while encouraging you to power up your pets.

      You will also notice any applied backdrops are also visible so you can see what your evolution will look like with your currently applied backdrop.

      evolve.png
       
    • Obligatory profile view and post view for those who are curious

      So, with the addition of the backdrops, here you can see them in action on the profile page and posts.

      profile.png

      postbit.png

    What's Next?

    So, as I was saying above, I am moving more into admin related tools for the system over the next few days. The system can be rolled out today without such, but would require a lot of manual monitoring by myself at a database level. I would rather have some tools available initially. That aside, we need adoptables!

     

    @Hare had offered to potentially help with some, and I will be posting a hiring notice in the marketplace shortly for more help. I would love to see this go live before the weekend hits, as from the development standpoint, we are almost there. I know this puts pressure on any interested artists, but we will see how it all pans out.

    Rant About Your Crap Day Here!

    in Off Topic

    Posted

    12 hours ago, Callum said:

    'Hmm I recon if I shut down the other machine and send half of our staff home early, Callum might actually have a nervous breakdown from his workload and that would be amusing to watch'.

    Pics or it didn't happen (re: mental breakdown) :P

    Sounds like a horrible day. I generally don't have really crappy days, but I work remotely (from the comfort of my own home), but next time my day does dump, I will be sure to share. I am sure one of the furry monsters that live here will decide to eat something causing no amount of ire...

    Forum Adoptables

    in Feedback & Help

    Posted

    As for art, since I at a point where we need to start talking art soon if we are going to have pets at launch of the system. Right now I have been using the Pokemon Go art (for testing only), and those are 256x256 in size. Smaller I know, but the forums only have so much room in the threads, and profile space.

    As for style, let's get that discussion started. :)

    As for my personal taste (and this is totally just me), I prefer a more cartoonish cellshading over realistic, but I understand not everyone likes that style as you lose a lot of what could be detail. I also prefer a more fantasy to a more real-life animal. Note, whether the creature is real or fantasy is a moot point here, as adoptables are an open platform.

     

    As a heads up, another preview will be released today with progress, we are getting very close!

    Game Owners "Rewards" functionality

    in Feedback & Help

    Posted

    13 hours ago, Callum said:

     

    An automatic system screams loopholes for abuse of glitches, but if the system was written well enough then it is a fantastic idea

     

    I would agree, however with the moderation tools on the forums, easily managed still since we can still set moderation rules if something appears abusive. The site owners can choose to turn it on and off as needed also if they feel their users are abusing it.

    Pokemon Go and Generation 2 Pokemon

    in General Game Development

    Posted

    5 hours ago, PaulSonny said:

    Me and the wife are often out walking and catching pokemon, reminds me of being a child again! We are very competitive to see who can catch the most.

    This, I mean it is only me, and my wife will usually glare at me when we are going on walks, but there is a certain childish to it all that makes it absolutely fun. I had just started on Silver when I stopped playing, so I am barely familiar with most Gen 2.

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