Weekly Update: June 23rd/24th 2012 Last week had the big graphical revamping to the tiles. Well that was mainly outdoors. This week, Yoel remade/revamped/scratched indoor tiles. A small change he made me also do was change the hairstyles to have a dark (black) outline. That took a while, since there is about 22 male hairstyles and 20 female hairstyles all with 10 color sets each lol. But it give a nice contrast with the new vibrant tiles. Above: The player's classroom- player with Ms. Moran Another thing I added to the game was a new darker skin-tone. I wasn't happy with my older light brown skin-tone. Well, I really like it, but it wasn't right, it wasn't as dark as I would like. So rather then change it, I added a whole new skin-tone (so now 4 skintones). What was the dark tone before is now "light brown" and the new skin-tone is "dark brown". I'm delighted I add it. It will provide more looks to the random NPCs on the map (that took time to update the engine with the new skin-tone for randomly generated NPCs). Screenshot from the skin-tone selection in the character/player creation scene at the start. That's about it. A bit more event and interaction work was done. I don't want to show that off as that spoils the game really lol. To end this post, here is a big map shot which I posted on my personal facebook page. I was so impressed with how it looks (again, with the new graphics by Yoel) that I posted just for my family and friends to see. Now here it is for all of you.... I love this image lol..... Map: Glenhook - the second town in the game - YES THERE IS MISSING SHADOWS- THEY HAVE BEEN FIXED LOL
Nice update this game is definently coming together very well I will be keeping my eye on this thread.
On the first picture, where you took a pic of the classroom. You should add a shadow on the bookshelf, that matches up with the long shadow line it sits on.
Thanks lads. Scotty - ha - those red things are "Pods" - they are the vehicles in the game world. Like the cars of the game world. There is a funny story about them told by a guy in that town, so keep you eye out for him and be sure to talk to him. Oh and about the shadows, I've said in since the reveal. There is a million shadow errors in the game. Sometimes be it layering issues (shadows not "stacking"), and sometimes just the wrong shadow in place, such as a big square. I don't care for the shadow errors. I feel they are my lowest priority. Once I get the general look for the shadows in place, I'm happy since it get's across the design. EDIT: A great example of shadow mistakes are buildings have a 5 o clock shadow, and trees (plus other objects) have a shadow directly under the object aiming at 6 o clock. It's gets the design across, so it's not my concern anymore. I don't focus on my limitations with the art, I focus on my strengths which are how sick of a game world I'm creating for you guys!
Just can't get over how amazing this looks like! I know it maybe a stupid question at this time, but any ETA? I just can't wait
Just looking back at all the screenies and twitter pics. Still I think your three main Zenforms are the best looking Zenforms in the game.
Hi, I've read this topic in full today and I've got to say I'm really looking forward to this game's release! I like the idea of you releasing the game and pushing free updates to finish off the rest of the map & extend the storyline. I would like to suggest a few ideas to you. 1) For the Warzone/Minigames in the PCCom I think you should let players win/earn in-game currency from it but maybe limit to either once a day or once every few days. This will make the mini games portion of the PCCom stay relevant and keep players wanting to play it. 2) Another idea would be to partner with TapJoy and give some players who cant afford to spend and buy some goods a chance to earn in-game currency when offers are available.
For the first one, I agree. Give gamers a reason to play them, but just make sure not to make it unbalance the game. As for the second one... not so sure. That's bordering on IAP, and while some people probably would want that, it just sounds like an annoying way to get some in game money. I've played games with Tapjoy before, and they're usually freemium titles that force you to download other freemium titles to gain money to buy things to get you to the next level. While not technicallly IAP, its pretty damn close.
Yeah thats what TapJoy is pretty much, you download the free app run it and get rewarded in-gsme currency. Me personally I love it and use it all the time since sometimes I cannot afford to go the extra mile and purchase in-game currencies.
Ok, but I don't think there are any plans to bring in-game currencies to Zenforms. At least, I haven't seen anything from Neo about it. And in the interest of full disclosure I should say that I'm highly biased against them. I would much rather pay a higher up-front price than wonderafter having purchased a gamehow much I'm going to be nickel-and-dime'd just to complete the game. PS @Neo: thanks for the word on the avatars. I'm understand the feeling that it's important to get a unique look. I don't know if it will ever sit well with me (I'm in healthcare, and playing "as" someone who looks like they're going to perish due to a complication of diabetes in the next 5 years, in a word full of people with exactly the same body type just feels awkward). I hope that's not insensitiveI just mean it feels awkward to me when the game world seems *entirely* populated by the people out of Disney's Wall-E. I do have a word of caution: I used to post on art forums, and sometimes amatuers would post work and when professionals critiqued them they'd say, "You can't legitimately critique that part of my work; it's just my personal style." Let's be clear: bad, or sloppy, is not a personal style. If the only thing that makes your avatars distinctive is that you've given them all an apple-shaped weight distribution, well, it seems to me you haven't actually found a unique style, you've just attached one physical trait onto all of your characters because it makes them obviously look differentignoring the fact that it's a bit unrealistic for the game world. I hope that's something that gets revisited (even if it's only much later in the futureI understand that finishing the game comes first). I noticed one screenshot in which a character was wearing a heavy coat but had the same body shape. Because they were wearing an obviously thick coat, they actually looked like an average-proportioned human. Maybe that's something to look into. Again, round characters or not, I'm really looking forward to the game. PPS: Don't be too hard on the guys in the Monimals thread. We all know the game looks to be in super early stages, and nobody is going to hold off on purchasing Zenforms just because they say they're aiming for a late summer release. :-D At least I know I'm not, and I don't think for a minute that the game will be out in the late summer... but, I also think it makes you look worse to actually *say* that in their thread. Just keep doing what you do. Ok, sorry Neo, I didn't mean to just tear into you or your artists with this post. Still CANNOT WAIT for you game, it's going to be fantastic, etc. Keep working hard and ignore these forums posts until the game is done
Ha I've no plans on anything weird like that. No IAP or anything. Imagine you are playing Pokemon. Like the way that has it's own money system in the game world. Same with ZENFORMS. I'm not planning on charging you any more money after you buy the app. As for the body types- I've already said why there is only one body shape. I pay commission artists for the work. Since the player and NPCs can have any outfit on, it would cost me A LOT of money to get each outfit made for different body shapes. It was a simple design and cost decision. Nothing more. What did I say wrong in the other thread? Didn't I make a statement just like you are doing now? I questioned if he'd have the art in time. From what I've seen it looked very crude (EDIT: By that- I mean early artwork. NOT BAD ARTWORK! - to be clear) ZENFORMS looked very crude for a long time. Hell, last week and this week, I only revamped a lot of the artwork. I'm 2 and a half years into development lol. I don't lie to fans, and I think as an indie developer, you shouldn't lie to your fan base. Be honest with what you are doing. Let them see the struggle you are going through. Show them the hard work you are putting in. I hope that guy takes his time instead of rushing it. I hope this clears up any confusion for you. And I love this video, so I'm posting it here too (I posted it on the CP forum recently lol) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=urcqQC02YbY
Ok, I missed that the first time around—didn't realize that you had paid a commission and would have had to drop a lot more to get multiple body-types made. My mistake! (I thought they were done by the same artist who is continuing to work on the game, and had thought that his pay would basically be determined by the success of the game—didn't realize he was working on a commission basis). [EDIT: removed stuff that wasn't really relevant to Zenforms, just sent a private message to Neo so it doesn't derail his thread]
wow with all these upgrades hope it could still run on my ipod touch.btw thanks for the update neo and God Bless.
Do ou plan on having events like in Pokemon that last a limited amount of time? Like in Pokemon you receive special items and can capture special Pokemon, do you plan on having anything like that?
just to clarify, when I was talking about in-game currency above I meant a single currency that you can earn and use in-game, as opposed to a system with multiple currencies, one you can earn in-game and one that you have to buy with IAPs (aka freemium system). I buy IAPs from time to time, but mostly on games that are premium for the most part, and include extra purchases that either act as DLC packs to extend content in a game, or in some way enhance the experience without unbalancing it. I do not buy IAPs in games that are centered around them, and that introduce pay walls to make player pay to keep playing. Neo, you've said mutliple times that you weren't using the freemium model, and you haven't given anyone a reason to doubt that.
Wow this game looks Like it could be the new life that Pokemon has needed for years.. I guess because Pokemon has basically refused to advance in anyway it makes sense that an indie dev would come along to pick up the slack and do what nintendon't. I know it's not really my place to ask for this but I would love if this game had just click to where you want to walk movement instead of a virtual dpad. I feel the click to walk/drag to walk is much more conducesive to a touch experience as I feel that the virtual dpad make it seem like you wish you work programming the game for a system that has a dpad. Also any word on if it will be a universal app?
