Ideas for betters backgrounds in Incredibuilder?

[TheAnalogKid]

[Moved from Games Showcase]

Hi,

I'm starting to cooking the next version of Incredibuilder. In this version I'd like to have better background graphics. At the beginning I had a beach, which looked good but wasn't really related to the game and lacked originality. Now I have auto generated backgrounds filled with blocks at different perspectives. In the first place I though that would be not too bad but that "not too bad" feeling always stayed at that level and I'm not satisfied with that. I want something way better, related to the game; something original and that stands out. I might seem that I want an artist to achieve that but I don't have that luxary, unless someone tell me he wants to volonteer?   But anyway I want your ideas on that because I lack inspiration right now. What do I want to communicate or what feeling/mood do I want to communicate might be good questions as well.

Thanks for your support.

P.S Your comments for the game are always welcome: http://www.java-gaming.org/topics/incredibuilder/18500/view.html

[Riven]

Maybe a bit offtopic, yet maybe not...


If anything, get rid of the Tetris look. It's such a major turn off. People know it, people have a certain feeling about it. If they don't like Tetris, they will not play your game. If they do like it, they are faced with a totally different game.

If you want your game to become a success, you should give it a unique feel, as far away as possible from Tetris as possible.

[h3ckboy]

It is similar to tetris though isnt it?

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[TheAnalogKid]

The gameplay has some tetris elements but it's really FAR from being a tetris clone. I guess you didn't read the games post or didn't tried the game to speak this way.

[h3ckboy]

I did, but it was a while ago.

And I have actaully read some of the posts.

I konw you have the hammer, some saw or something.

[TheAnalogKid]

If anything, get rid of the Tetris look.

What do you mean exactly? The game reuse the basic concept of tetris for the pieces only. I can't get rid of that of course.

[Riven]

What do you mean exactly? The game reuse the basic concept of tetris for the pieces only. I can't get rid of that of course.

Well, the grey tiles in the background are IMHO very dull. Removing those (revealing the backgroundimage) is probably a better option. Further, let's say you have this L shaped block. Currently it's 4 identical sprites. What if you could make it 1 sprite that shows the 'building block' - something with bolts (for iron), or brickwall patterns. These are probably very bad examples, but once you spice up the gfx, you'll probably find more players that want to give it a whirl.

[TheAnalogKid]

OK! This is a really useful reply!  I agree with you then. It's too bad my game get ignored because of false or incorrect impressions. 

[zoto]

I just tried your game for the first time. I would recommend making the blocks look like parts of a building, like a brick texture or windows on some blocks, basically keep with the construction theme.

A few things I noticed when i played briefly:
-In the instructions , brake should be spelled break and knifes should be spelled knives.
-When you break out the bottom blocks the pieces above them don't shift down.

[TheAnalogKid]

I just tried your game for the first time. I would recommend making the blocks look like parts of a building, like a brick texture or windows on some blocks, basically keep with the construction them

Yeah, I'm thinking about that.

Thanks for the errors in the instructions too.

Anybody has ideas about what backgrounds I could have?

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[Eli Delventhal]

Well, there are a lot of ideas, but what if you go with multiple themes? Stick with the idea of construction, and say that one theme the blocks are girders and bricks and the background is a typical office building construction site, say another theme is the blocks are bamboo and rope and the background is a Japanese pagoda, etc.

You could have a lot of cool settings where you're building a lot of different types of buildings.

[h3ckboy]

Well, there are a lot of ideas, but what if you go with multiple themes? Stick with the idea of construction, and say that one theme the blocks are girders and bricks and the background is a typical office building construction site, say another theme is the blocks are bamboo and rope and the background is a Japanese pagoda, etc.

You could have a lot of cool settings where you're building a lot of different types of buildings.

yeah taht would add more of a mission to it.

It could say : "build the japonese pagoda before the time runs out" and then add a client if you feel like it.

[TheAnalogKid]

Well, there are a lot of ideas, but what if you go with multiple themes? Stick with the idea of construction, and say that one theme the blocks are girders and bricks and the background is a typical office building construction site, say another theme is the blocks are bamboo and rope and the background is a Japanese pagoda, etc.

You could have a lot of cool settings where you're building a lot of different types of buildings.

Yeah, that's a good idea. That's funny because I was thinking exactly about that this morning.  But before I was kind of uninspired. I'm a bit of unmotivated right now as I have to redo all the graphics. 

Thanks! 

[TheAnalogKid]

yeah taht would add more of a mission to it.

It could say : "build the japonese pagoda before the time runs out" and then add a client if you feel like it.

That's interesting. I'll see...the game play is already well elaborated (if you play the 23 levels to date and the 2 game modes) so I don't know if I want to introduce yet new concepts.

[h3ckboy]

"if you feel like it"
It is better to ahve too many ideas tahn too few

[Darrin]

slow moving animation in the background.   Brick clouds perhaps?  brick birds? brick rabbit?

[TheAnalogKid]

slow moving animation in the background.

Yeah, I was thinking about having moving clouds.

Brick clouds perhaps?  brick birds? brick rabbit?

I'd like to have rather realistic graphics. If I had an artist I would think about cartoon like graphics as a possible style.

Thanks for the suggestions.