Sticky please? Well, 1) On a few other sites, the idea of having one thread compared to several millions on a subject that can be grouped together is normally the prefered method. 2) For the first month of this contest I expect to see more "Is this a pirate", "is this a ninja", "is this a robot", or "is this a zombie". It is a trend already getting established. So like that there is a rules thread, and there is an inspiration thread I figured this thread is appropiate. I am requesting it be stickied so people notice it and we don't have the garbage of "oh! There is already a thread for this"... well, less garbage anyways. Once the trend has lessened, I request it gets unstickied. (Just to have it easy to find while it is still appropiate) Anyways, this thread's purpose is for people to present characters and they think they are a certain element. People comment and criticise the idea (constructive criticism, please). The idea with this thread is to group together the posts, in a environment where the thread can get to thirty pages in length, and they don't have to worry about reading anything other than the first and last pages. If something important keeps getting mentioned, an FAQ could be posted in this OP. edit edit edit: I am not sure if I didn't make this clear. The point of this thread is for anybody to ask about their characters and how they fit their roles. -=- I'll start off with a few that have been bugging me (for an example set of questions). 1) In my game, if you get into the story line, you learn that all the characters in the game a characters living in cyber world. Their origins are from various interactive multimedia. IE: They come from games. Some from ROMS. Others from ISOs. Heck even in the comic my Title Character to this game, even stars in a flash game. They are all fragments of computer programming that have become full computer programs in themselves. Could this possibly make every body in the game a robot? 2) The Title character, a ninja, if you follow the plot is Jewish. Now, some people might have a problem with this... is it a real problem? Can a character be both Jewish and a Ninja (I seriously doubt it, but then...) 3) One of the bad guys in my game is a corrupt sprite . He is missing important code, and continues to live by feasting on the living. Not so much like a vampyre as Corrupt GI Guy mainly goes for the code of the sprite. Which the code is like the brain of the sprite... and Zombies eat brains right? There is even one scene in my game where GI Guy (currently fused with a character that went into obscurity in the comic) is consuming an NPC. Could I call the characters based on Corrupt GI Guy (GI Radd2 and GI R-bot2) Zombies? 4) My main character is a robot--er--even in the game he is from, but I am trying to do a sprite that fits either 40x32 or 48x32. I have decided for "use of technology" for my entry to limit itself to the GBA technology so that a greater portion of the game can be ported to GBA later (so far in this contest nobody has presented a GBA emulator that has a license we can use). I also want to keep the characters similar to the characters in the comic I am basing it off of. So I won't be making many 64x64 sprites, except for cinematic stuff. However when I tried to sprite Guybot, , he just looks like somebody wearing psuedofuturistic clothing. Could I put it off as him being like the enemy robot from Terminator II (I believe his name was T1000)? Or is liquid silver robots a bad thing? [Edited by - DakeDesu on June 17, 2005 4:41:26 PM]

Well, I'll offer my answers, but they're not official :P

Quote: Original post by DakeDesu

1) In my game, if you get into the story line, you learn that all the characters in the game a characters living in cyber world. Their origins are from various interactive multimedia.... Could this possibly make every body in the game a robot?

In my book, they're software, which is AI, not robots. Robots require a body. However, if the game takes place entirely in a virtual world, a character may be portrayed as a robot within the world, even if its meta-self is just code somewhere.

Quote: 2) The Title character, a ninja, if you follow the plot is Jewish..... Can a character be both Jewish and a Ninja

Jewishness is an ethnicity or a faith. Ninjaness is an occpation or a skillset. They are not mutually exclusive.

Quote: 3) One of the bad guys in my game is a corrupt sprite . He is missing important code, and continues to live by feasting on the living. Could I call the characters based on Corrupt GI Guy (GI Radd2 and GI R-bot2) Zombies?

Possibly, but not just because they eat "living" sprites. If it requires critical thinking skills to equate a character with a zombie, I wouldn't count it. If it looks and acts like a zombie, I'd count it.

Quote: 4) My main character is a robot--he just looks like somebody wearing psuedofuturistic clothing. Could I put it off as him being like the enemy robot from Terminator II (I believe his name was T1000)? Or is liquid silver robots a bad thing?

Sure.

Quote: Original post by DakeDesu
1) In my game, if you get into the story line, you learn that all the characters in the game a characters living in cyber world. Their origins are from various interactive multimedia. IE: They come from games. Some from ROMS. Others from ISOs. Heck even in the comic my Title Character to this game, even stars in a flash game. They are all fragments of computer programming that have become full computer programs in themselves. Could this possibly make every body in the game a robot?

No, I don't think so - not if they act like 'people' (see Tron).

Quote:
2) The Title character, a ninja, if you follow the plot is Jewish. Now, some people might have a problem with this... is it a real problem? Can a character be both Jewish and a Ninja (I seriously doubt it, but then...)

No, that's fine.

Quote:
3) One of the bad guys in my game is a corrupt sprite . He is missing important code, and continues to live by feasting on the living. Not so much like a vampyre as Corrupt GI Guy mainly goes for the code of the sprite. Which the code is like the brain of the sprite... and Zombies eat brains right? There is even one scene in my game where GI Guy (currently fused with a character that went into obscurity in the comic) is consuming an NPC. Could I call the characters based on Corrupt GI Guy (GI Radd2 and GI R-bot2) Zombies?

Possibly. Does he still have higher brain functions, or is he just driven by the smell of 'fresh code'?

Quote: 4) My main character is a robot--er--even in the game he is from, but I am trying to do a sprite that fits either 40x32 or 48x32. I have decided for "use of technology" for my entry to limit itself to the GBA technology so that a greater portion of the game can be ported to GBA later (so far in this contest nobody has presented a GBA emulator that has a license we can use). I also want to keep the characters similar to the characters in the comic I am basing it off of. So I won't be making many 64x64 sprites, except for cinematic stuff.

However when I tried to sprite Guybot, , he just looks like somebody wearing psuedofuturistic clothing. Could I put it off as him being like the enemy robot from Terminator II (I believe his name was T1000)? Or is liquid silver robots a bad thing?

We won't just be going on graphics - presumably the fact that he's a robot will be significant in other ways, referred to in the story and by other characters, etc etc? If so you don't have much to worry about.

I welcome others to make use of this thread too.

Re: my characters.
1 and 2 seem to be answered nicely. With number 3 and 4...

3) Well, he doesn't go with the John Romero style of Zombie. He doesn't go with the Voodoo style of Zombie (voodoo zombies being where zombies originated, and to become a voodoo zombie, one is normally pricked by a poison needle, inwhich they "die" for a short period of time, and wake up. This type of people currently are taking residence in many African Psych wards). The character follows a sort of thing like the Zombie Pirate LeChuck... except Corrupt GI Guy still requires the code of the living to continue.

Perhaps in game I need to show this more.

4) Well, his lines are more meant to follow the sorts of things Guybrush Threepwood would say (his name _is_ Guybot 3wood), either Guybrush or Captain Jack Sparrow... haven't decided yet. However neither of those are very pirate or robot like. But both are considered to be atleast pirates. (Yes, Guybot 3wood is meant to be both a Pirate and a Robot)... is Guybrush Threepwood style dialog okay for a pirate? What about Captain Jack Sparrow? Is my character required to talk like I am writting his game using an ergonomical pirate keyboard? (I know somebody has been waiting to show that picture since the contest started)

Anyways I look forward to responses to this post, as well as others who may use this thread to ask similar questions about characters.

Quote: Original post by DakeDesu
4) Well, his lines are more meant to follow the sorts of things Guybrush Threepwood would say (his name _is_ Guybot 3wood), either Guybrush or Captain Jack Sparrow... haven't decided yet. However neither of those are very pirate or robot like. But both are considered to be atleast pirates. (Yes, Guybot 3wood is meant to be both a Pirate and a Robot)... is Guybrush Threepwood style dialog okay for a pirate? What about Captain Jack Sparrow? Is my character required to talk like I am writting his game using an ergonomical pirate keyboard? (I know somebody has been waiting to show that picture since the contest started)

Provided someone would come away from the game with the impression that he was a [wannabe] pirate, it'll be OK. He doesn't need to talk with a salty air but making his piratical nature a part of the storyline or dialogue might be a good idea (i.e. have him/people talk about him being a pirate or wanting to be a pirate).

I think basically what's been said is that, if an outsider, unfamiliar with the contest, would say "Yeah, that game's got [insert combination of character types here] in it." then it's OK. Otherwise, it doesn't count.

At least, that's how I unsderstand it.

For some of you this VGCats comic shows a hypothetical but funny Zombie situation.

What about the main character in my game. He is a pirate ninja monkey.

Essentially, he's a kick ass monkey with an eyepatch and a parrot who says 'yarr' alot... the stereo typical pirate stuff.

However, he is a unique pirate because he is also a skilled ninja.

So, essentially, he's a monkey pirate that can kick ass.





Is this ok?

That's fine.

Awesome :)