Uploading my castle demo level. Note that it's just a little "walkthrough" level without any goal etc.

Yeah this is very, very good It was worth waiting
Only thing that I find a bit off are the parts of the level where there are more then 2 lanes available but not usable. It gives some sort of reminder that player movement is limited. But I think this could be visually masked with some extra fences or some iron-fence doors it the wine cellar.
Apart from that it's really great and very similar to what I had in mind to do but didn't do it- leaving the platform concept and doing the straightforward castle floors.

...
Btw, since we are now on the page No.12, if someone missed my game-sketching announcement from the page No.11 just click here:
http://www.opserver.de/ubb7/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=314099#Post314099

I am unsure what I should be doing right now. I checked etherpad and updated my area, but now what should I be doing. I am a bit late jumping in, so I feel a bit overwhelmed.

Great to have you You could post some of your artwork related to the areas that you are interested in doing for the project or/and maybe give gameplay sketches a try(there's also game-menu sketches that needs to be done).

The near-future steps are these: once the project level-style proposals are done(we are waiting for Germanunkol), George and the team leaders(Joozey & me) will decide on game visual direction and we will have a starting point for building the project prototype. In the meanwhile, all of us that are interested in making the gameplay sketches can do so following the guidelines & limitations from my post(http://www.opserver.de/ubb7/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=314099#Post314099)

Once the visual direction is decided, I will make a development-segments list, assign(offer) some of the members the tasks that I believe they can do good, and leave the opportunity to all members to choose from all the segments what they want to do.

List will be divided to visual & visual-core segments. If member is not assigned(offered) with the task and wants to do work from visual-core segment he will be asked to do small custom artwork following my guidelines to see how he will handle it, and if member wants to do work from visual segment he will just have to sign-in his name, take task/tasks and start working. If the finished work is good it will go into the levels.

Hello team,

we have reached the end of the style design proposals and now we can get the visual direction set.
It has been agreed to speed things up by making a vote only by George & team leaders, and also, to skip any character decisions for now and only decide on a level art-style.

I have already made some classifications in the ArtPad about level visual styles and now I will post them here also. Feel free to take a look and maybe change the style description of your work if you think that it was wrongly classified.

    LEVELS
    1.    Full 3D levels
    2.    3D levels with 2D elements
    3.    Full 2D levels
    4.    2D levels with 3D elements

    LEVEL STYLES
    1.    3D Semi-realism (Bug, Ganderoleg)
    2.    3D Semi-realism minimal (SirCamaris)
    3.    2D Semi-realism (Germanunkol, Txesmi)
    4.    3D Platform-like, artistic & minimal (Guardian, Txesmi)
    5.    2D Sketch-like & cartoonish (Gandreoleg)


I expect decision about level design direction to be made in the few following days, and then we can all finally start working on the game's prototype.

I will try to work out some gameplay sketches, hopefully I can present them in the next days. Stay tuned

Hi all, I uploaded another style oriented level to skydrive.
My main focus was atmosphere and overall Art style.

You will have to add the team member song Fields of Light to the game folder as I have had trouble uploading larger files.

The file is the one marked “gmixunt_platformer.cd”.

I hope it's not to late I don't have time for any game-play ideas anytime soon so I may just wait to see what's next.

One thing that bothers me, is why are we using the term “castle” to describe an Art style not yet agreed upon? Did I miss something or is it just a reflection of the term “temple” in the “Forest Temple” game George referenced? Is it just semantics, both words seem vastly different visually to me?

Just a question, trying to clarify not comment.


Your friend Guardian

@Guardian

I have tried it & it's cool I believe this one also falls under 3D Platform-like, artistic & minimal so there is no need to change the style list.

Castle is just geometrical reference for style proposals. It could have been forest, factory, village, space station... I went for castle theme because it represents indoor design(which is much more style-driven then outdoors) and also because castle can mean lots of things so everyone can use different, original approach in creating it, as everyone did. The proposals were not really about the real, actual game-space but more about the style of that space: realistic, semi-realistic, platform-like, minimal, cartoonish, abstract...

...
I believe that prototype level art-style will be resolved by tonight so that we can, once the number of gameplay ideas is o.k., divide the work & finally start developing the level prototype.

I have tested the level and I think that (for your particular level) the wind effect adds a lot of feel to the game.
Please don't forget to add the current date as a part of the file name for all your uploads, guys. Thank you.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
////////////////////////////////////////////
Hello team,

the decision about game-level prototype technique & style direction has been made. We decided to go with 3D levels that have 3D & 2D elements & to give semi-realistic visual approach a try.

It has also been considered that, in case prototype quality proves to be non-satisfactory, we keep a backup choices in this order:
backupNo1./3D Platform-like, artistic & minimal
backupNo2./2D Semi-realism.

I hope everyone is o.k. with these choices and that we will all have lot's of fun doing this project

////////////////////////////////////////////
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

In a few days I will post in ArtPad, as I mentioned in the few replies up, a development-segments list and offer some of the members the tasks that I believe they can do good. All of us will also have the opportunity to decline/accept offers and/or choose from all the segments what they want to do for the project.

List will be divided to visual & visual-core segments. If member is not offered with the task and wants to do work from visual-core segment he will be asked to do small custom artwork following my guidelines to see how he will handle it, and if member wants to do work from visual segment he will just have to sign-in his name, take task/tasks and start working. If the finished work is good it will go into the levels.