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[AlphaProspector]

Well, speaking of updates, I finally got another finished and colored sprite. The third kawaii moe uguu fairy of my sugary trio. Now, considering the other artist has basically abandoned me without a single reply for over 40 days. After checking that he seemed to have an equally dodgy track record with schedules for other parties, I ended up asking this same artist to resketch and produce the sprites for the main characters too.

I may adjust a couple of thingies but I'm happy with the results since for this one I had mostly written references and very few images to aid.

But I've been in such a, ummm, "grim dark" mood recently. The silence of the other guy cost me so much time and frustration, ugh. I don't want or have to be chasing people around so before hiring anyone I tend to establish a 1 week contact policy. Past one week I may drop a message asking for a progress report (except in some cases like the BG, where I know it can take an era, especially for hand painted BGs) or even just to say hi and talk about life. There was a point where I thought "I'm giving up, that's it". But then, after a brutal work day at my job, I kept thinking "no, I have to do this, I'm not bloody giving up!".

I'm glad the artist is very enthusiastic and even encouraging me, and that stuff like Raiden IV is being released on PC. Hell, Dragon's Dogma and CAVE shmups are getting on PC too. So at least things brightened after some very complicated days. Switching artists is a painful (and often costly) decision but, well, I already approved the new sketches and I've been really happy so far.

Also paid for a bunch of BG art so that's going to take a fair bit but at least I can work on the filtered photo BGs in the meantime.

Pehesse: dat animation, man, that looks fantastic!!! Have you considered Live2D for your character portraits? (Although seeing those animations I guess you can just do them by hand?)

 

[mStudios]

Post

Out of curiosity, what engine are you using for your visual novel?

 

[HellBlazer]

Visual Studio is the new default Unity scripting editor on Windows.

Oh damn, wow. Hopefully this will allow better debugging via VS. It's really annoying when half the expressions you want to "watch" return an error...

 

[AlphaProspector]

Out of curiosity, what engine are you using for your visual novel?

Mine is a VN with very few complex mechanics and I'm considering at least a mobile port (I was amazed to see it running on my Windows phone without a single slowdown although of course I would prefer to play the 1080p version on my PC), so I'm using TyranoScript, which provides html5 and Live2D support and, since I'm familiar with the former, I'm finding it easy as hell to use.

There is also Tyrano Builder (the friendly editor, which I also have) but that's a bit more limited, although very powerful to set up quick templates and tests. It has a fantastic feature added (Preview from Here) that lets you test specific points and I love it.

My first VN was done in Ren'Py but since then I've gotten very rusty at it. (I may still tackle something on Ren'Py later but I speak japanese and have access to Shimekoku, the TS dev.)

 

[Pehesse]

Pehesse: dat animation, man, that looks fantastic!!! Have you considered Live2D for your character portraits? (Although seeing those animations I guess you can just do them by hand?)

Thanks!

I know the feeling of frustration that can come from the lack of contact, though my experience comes from the opposite side. Guess you just have to find the right people to work with... As tough as it is.

As for Live2d: I'm not exactly sure what it does, to be honest, or how well it could integrate into construct 2... Do you use it yourself? What does it bring to the table?
Though really, I don't animate the battle cut-ins (aside from engine translations, that is) because the sprites are too big, so the resulting spritesheet would outright kill my memory usage. The character sprites are memory hogs enough :-D

How will the inputs work? Simple or complex like Street fighter (e.x Hadouken Inputs)?

Simple, simple! Think streets of rage. There are three main buttons: attack, jump and special, and every move comes from a combination of those, or a direction+one. As much as I appreciate complex fighting games inputs in dedicated fighting games, I didn't want that level of complexity here, neither from a design or a play standpoint :-D

Edit: wow, typing on mobile makes for mangled messages! Typos everywhere!

 

[AlphaProspector]

Post

You're welcome I guess it's just as bad when a commissioner disappears and leaves you with a lot of finished art... I've seen artists selling this kind of assets but I'm always weary of them because they carry the ideals and feel of someone else so I'm not comfortable even glancing at them.

Live2D is the bane of GAF, the nightmare of anime haters, the alpha and the omega, the Nepu-Nepu of sprites:

http://www.live2d.com/en/about/flow

There you go and I'm sorry for the damage it may cause!

Agreed about sprites too, god damn they take memory! (Same for huge BGs and effects associated if any, no wonder 2D shmups kept very small resolutions.)

 

[mStudios]

Mine is a VN with very few complex mechanics and I'm considering at least a mobile port (I was amazed to see it running on my Windows phone without a single slowdown although of course I would prefer to play the 1080p version on my PC), so I'm using TyranoScript, which provides html5 and Live2D support and, since I'm familiar with the former, I'm finding it easy as hell to use.

There is also Tyrano Builder (the friendly editor, which I also have) but that's a bit more limited, although very powerful to set up quick templates and tests. It has a fantastic feature added (Preview from Here) that lets you test specific points and I love it.

My first VN was done in Ren'Py but since then I've gotten very rusty at it. (I may still tackle something on Ren'Py later but I speak japanese and have access to Shimekoku, the TS dev.)

I use Live2D for my portraits too. We're building our VN engine from scratch since we're goign to use a lot of non-VN elements.

Does Tyrano allows you to do puzzles, too?

 

[bumpkin]

Hehe I love how this looks, tbh. I'd play it completely done in this style. Sometimes you work best and are most creative when working within your own limits. Heck, I'm an artist by trade and I feel that I'm most creative when I hit my own artistic limits.

Noogy! Speaking of art... Any pro tips for someone looking to hand draw animated character sprites for a game? I bugged you forever ago via PM but I think you forgot about me.

 

[AlphaProspector]

I use Live2D for my portraits too. We're building our VN engine from scratch since we're goign to use a lot of non-VN elements.

Does Tyrano allows you to do puzzles, too?

I should look into that. Do you have a Twitter account? You should drop the puzzles question @nyumedia so we can page it to the dev. (Japan loves Twitter a bit too much so a lot of communication is done through it.)

I would imagine that with some Javascript or html5 magic it could be doable. Not so sure about the editor (builder) version though. The script version? Most probably. (Although I wonder how complex the puzzles you have in mind are.)

Oh, you guys are using Live2D as well? Sweet It truly brings things to life.

 

[Jupiter_Shrooms]

post

Same here. At this point I basically expect artists to up and disappear. I don't let it frustrate me anymore. One artist went dark for 4 months, but now he's back and producing some pretty nice art so I'm glad I didn't burn that bridge. I basically send a ping every 2 weeks or so.

The way I handle disappearing artists is to commission from multiple artists. I'm currently in contact with six different artists, who work at their own pace, so if a few disappear it doesn't halt the project completely. Of course, the downside is you'll need to deal with conflicting art styles. Also, I commission piece by piece, and never a large whole set at one time, so if an artist does disappear it's not too big a loss.

 

[bkw]

Storyboard time:

It's always interesting to see storyboards. They have a certain loose art style that's great to see. What's happening with the close up of the foot in the first panel of SC2? Looks like an outdoor environment, and I can't tell whose foot it is.

 

[Jacksinthe]

Visual Studio is the new default Unity scripting editor on Windows.

Installing now. Hopefully 5.2 isn't a buggy mess like 5.1 - 5.0 was OK for me but the previous version (5.1.2p3) i was using was a joke. So many editor issues. At least compile works but hot fuck if I didn't have so many Animator issues.

Can't stream it from Germany.

Probably just going to go back to twitch and have to archive the old fashioned way

 

[mStudios]

It's always interesting to see storyboards. They have a certain loose art style that's great to see. What's happening with the close up of the foot in the first panel of SC2? Looks like an outdoor environment, and I can't tell whose foot it is.

Is the moment she steps out of the school building.

About the artists disappearing. I have dealt with it for a long time. I have a well document where I stated what I expect from each of the artist, I make them read said document.
I have stuff like:

"If you're not committed, don't even bother."
"If you're gonna tell me that you're going to take 5 days, but take two weeks. Don't bother. I rather you to tell me that you're going to take 2 weeks, so I don't expect anything soon."
"Please, make sure to match the artstyle given."
"If I hired you for three background, and you're going to do only one. Don't bother"
"Be honest to yourself and to me."

I might sound like a cunt, but I have dealt with so many irresponsible people, that it's not even funny anymore.

 

[KevinCow]

I got a sketch from my artist earlier today of what my new main character might look like.

I think it looks pretty sweet. I just said ice powers and a battle axe, and he came up with the lion thing, which is a bit of weird fit for ice powers, but the concept of an ice lion is totally badass so I'm cool with it.

I can't wait to see what it looks like colored.

 

[timetokill]

I got a sketch from my artist earlier today of what my new main character might look like.



I think it looks pretty sweet. I just said ice powers and a battle axe, and he came up with the lion thing, which is a bit of weird fit for ice powers, but the concept of an ice lion is totally badass so I'm cool with it.

I can't wait to see what it looks like colored.

Ice Lion is cool, or you could ask him to switch it to a Snow Leopard which would be mostly trivial at this stage.

 

[bkw]

Is the moment she steps out of the school building.

Ah ok. Seems like it's missing some panels then. Also, you probably noticed this already, but in that panel she's stepping out from right to left, but then in the next panel she's facing/walking right.

 

[Yoshi]

First draft of Big Blue's AI is done! I planned to reuse the previous match's, but in the end I scrapped every bit of it and started from scratch using another design. It's a lot cleaner, at least...

Some examples of what to expect:

http://gfycat.com/BareDecisiveFrog

http://gfycat.com/RemorsefulDisfiguredIrrawaddydolphin

Going to try to keep some surprises in store, even though it's hard to resist showing some of her more unique stuff :-D Going to be hard to resist going back and re-doing the other matches AI based on that new system, too... will depend on playtesting feedback, I guess. If they're fun enough as it is, probably best I don't go back and break everything for the sake of making it "better".

Time to spruce up the referee now, and have him stop referencing Carrion Wind!

Animations and overall visuals look really nice, though I can't stop to notice that the blue character's abs-lines seem really off. Considering most people are more defined in the upper abdominal area than the lower one it seems strange her abs-lines stop so low, also, usually there are two "rows" of muscle above the navel which are approximately the same height, but if the "rows" were approximately the same height with her, too, you'd end up with ~4 rows above the navel which is certainly unusual. The unnatural look is furthered by the intense blackness of the lines, but that may be an artistic choice (I'd choose the darker skin colour over black for that though, especially considering the character still seems quite bulky). Sorry for being so pedantic about such a minor detail, but it really seemed off right away for me.

 

[Pehesse]

Animations and overall visuals look really nice, though I can't stop to notice that the blue character's abs-lines seem really off. Considering most people are more defined in the upper abdominal area than the lower one it seems strange her abs-lines stop so low, also, usually there are two "rows" of muscle above the navel which are approximately the same height, but if the "rows" were approximately the same height with her, too, you'd end up with ~4 rows above the navel which is certainly unusual. The unnatural look is furthered by the intense blackness of the lines, but that may be an artistic choice (I'd choose the darker skin colour over black for that though, especially considering the character still seems quite bulky). Sorry for being so pedantic about such a minor detail, but it really seemed off right away for me.

Noted! Thanks for that very detailed feedback

I had done a pass to change the color of that area's lines to a lighter tone after Dascu said something about it being too dark, but I guess it still isn't enough. Probably shouldn't have drawn the lines at all, since it appears to confuse more than it adds. Too late to change now, though. Hope it doesn't detract too much.

 

[SeanNoonan]

Your hit feedback is awesome. The screenshake for hits is great, but the screenshake for the stomp seems off, perhaps you could match the motion of the stomp, i.e. vertical shake rather than horizontal; it'll better match the action, you know?

 

[Pehesse]

Your hit feedback is awesome. The screenshake for hits is great, but the screenshake for the stomp seems off, perhaps you could match the motion of the stomp, i.e. vertical shake rather than horizontal; it'll better match the action, you know?

You're right!

I was ready to call it quits on yet another problem I can't solve (getting to be plenty of those :-/), but looking at some tutorials, it appears it's possible to "redo" the screen shake effect without using the actual screen shaking behavior, which is limited to horizontal movement (that's one C2 behavior/feature I'd love to see expanded upon, tbh). So that's going to be today's plan, then - figure out how to get the screen shaking in a different way :-D

Thanks for prodding that research :-D

EDIT: actually, maybe someone around here can help? Here is my current camera management:

Ideally, I'd like to create a function "Screenshake" with 3 parameters: X, Y and time length. Calling the function would do the screen shake based on those three parameters, while still doing the normal process of following the two onscreen characters... I'm trying to figure it out on my end, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd be very much grateful!

 

[taku]

You're right!

I was ready to call it quits on yet another problem I can't solve (getting to be plenty of those :-/), but looking at some tutorials, it appears it's possible to "redo" the screen shake effect without using the actual screen shaking behavior, which is limited to horizontal movement (that's one C2 behavior/feature I'd love to see expanded upon, tbh). So that's going to be today's plan, then - figure out how to get the screen shaking in a different way :-D

Thanks for prodding that research :-D

EDIT: actually, maybe someone around here can help? Here is my current camera management:

Ideally, I'd like to create a function "Screenshake" with 3 parameters: X, Y and time length. Calling the function would do the screen shake based on those three parameters, while still doing the normal process of following the two onscreen characters... I'm trying to figure it out on my end, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd be very much grateful!

The easy solution is is to look at the Magicam plugin. It can do everything you are asking for, including screen shake not limited to horizontal movement.
However if you do not want to use Magicam, what you are describing is still possible to do without the use of a plugin. Either PM me or make a .capx template simulating your issue, post it on the Scirra forums and they'll surely help you out.

 

[Jacksinthe]

You're right!

I was ready to call it quits on yet another problem I can't solve (getting to be plenty of those :-/), but looking at some tutorials, it appears it's possible to "redo" the screen shake effect without using the actual screen shaking behavior, which is limited to horizontal movement (that's one C2 behavior/feature I'd love to see expanded upon, tbh). So that's going to be today's plan, then - figure out how to get the screen shaking in a different way :-D

Thanks for prodding that research :-D

EDIT: actually, maybe someone around here can help? Here is my current camera management:

Ideally, I'd like to create a function "Screenshake" with 3 parameters: X, Y and time length. Calling the function would do the screen shake based on those three parameters, while still doing the normal process of following the two onscreen characters... I'm trying to figure it out on my end, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd be very much grateful!

Not sure how C2 works but I use several objects for my camera with the actual camera being nested as the deepest child.

Parent to children flow:
Follow
Offset/Look At
Shake
Camera

Moving, say, offset will drag its children with it. Doing this - we can have the camera following the player with Follow, offsetting in any direction for viewport while shaking.

Nothing to it. Compartmentalize everything. No need to control all camera stuff on one script/object. The shake happens in local space in relation to the parent. When not shaking its position is always 0, 0. It can move slightly in relation to the parent while the parent moves however.

Will take you maybe 5 minutes to setup.

 

[Pehesse]

The easy solution is is to look at the Magicam plugin. It can do everything you are asking for, including screen shake not limited to horizontal movement.
However if you do not want to use Magicam, what you are describing is still possible to do without the use of a plugin. Either PM me or make a .capx template simulating your issue, post it on the Scirra forums and they'll surely help you out.

This is amazing! I'm trying out Magicam now in parallel, and it looks like it'll do the job. How come I didn't find this when I was looking into camera control earlier? :-D

Anyway, thanks a million! I'm fiddling with it now. Not sure how to lock its shake into a specific axis yet for controlled horizontal/vertical shaking, but I'm looking into it!

Not sure how C2 works but I use several objects for my camera with the actual camera being nested as the deepest child.

Parent to children flow:
Follow
Offset/Look At
Shake
Camera

Moving, say, offset will drag its children with it. Doing this - we can have the camera following the player with Follow, offsetting in any direction for viewport while shaking.

Nothing to it. Compartmentalize everything. No need to control all camera stuff on one script/object. The shake happens in local space in relation to the parent. When not shaking its position is always 0, 0. It can move slightly in relation to the parent while the parent moves however.

Will take you maybe 5 minutes to setup.

...and many thanks for this, as well :-D Though I'm not sure how much it applies to C2 - I'll have to look into it further! Certainly gives me food for thought either way, so thanks

 

[Jacksinthe]

So now there's another games company or brand or whatever that's brand new after last month with a 2-word name of "Absinthe ..." Not giving the second name but it isn't "game". Formed in August. No trademark registered or not. No legal entity.

What the fuck is it with me and names? I should have just picked a random string of characters from a PW generator or something.

I would care if he was in a different business but he makes games - that's a bit of a pinch.

Am I the only asshole that searched for weeks, deep as fuck and picked a name that didn't resemble anything close in the industry? Surely other people give a fuck and research like I do, right?

Edit: top of that, the slugline for my site as long as I can remember was "We make games" and only changed it just a few weeks ago. This sites slugline? "I make games". Really?

 

[Jobbs]

So now there's another games company or brand or whatever that's brand new after last month with a 2-word name of "Absinthe ..." Not giving the second name but it isn't "game". Formed in August. No trademark registered or not. No legal entity.

What the fuck is it with me and names? I should have just picked a random string of characters from a PW generator or something.

I would care if he was in a different business but he makes games - that's a bit of a pinch.

Am I the only asshole that searched for weeks, deep as fuck and picked a name that didn't resemble anything close in the industry? Surely other people give a fuck and research like I do, right?

Edit: top of that, the slugline for my site as long as I can remember was "We make games" and only changed it just a few weeks ago. This sites slugline? "I make games". Really?

I go by "Old Moon". Mere weeks after settling on that, Ori ATBF was announced and they were by "Moon Studios".

No big deal, though, they're different enough. I ain't changing it.

 

[JNT]

So now there's another games company or brand or whatever that's brand new after last month with a 2-word name of "Absinthe ..." Not giving the second name but it isn't "game". Formed in August. No trademark registered or not. No legal entity.

What the fuck is it with me and names? I should have just picked a random string of characters from a PW generator or something.

I would care if he was in a different business but he makes games - that's a bit of a pinch.

Am I the only asshole that searched for weeks, deep as fuck and picked a name that didn't resemble anything close in the industry? Surely other people give a fuck and research like I do, right?

Edit: top of that, the slugline for my site as long as I can remember was "We make games" and only changed it just a few weeks ago. This sites slugline? "I make games". Really?

Have you tried contacting the developers in question? Depending on the law where you are you could lose registered trademark rights if you don't contest similar marks.

 

[Dead Prince]

So now there's another games company or brand or whatever that's brand new after last month with a 2-word name of "Absinthe ..." Not giving the second name but it isn't "game". Formed in August. No trademark registered or not. No legal entity.

What the fuck is it with me and names? I should have just picked a random string of characters from a PW generator or something.

I would care if he was in a different business but he makes games - that's a bit of a pinch.

Am I the only asshole that searched for weeks, deep as fuck and picked a name that didn't resemble anything close in the industry? Surely other people give a fuck and research like I do, right?

Edit: top of that, the slugline for my site as long as I can remember was "We make games" and only changed it just a few weeks ago. This sites slugline? "I make games". Really?

imagine if their game is the same as yours.

 

[Pehesse]

Your hit feedback is awesome. The screenshake for hits is great, but the screenshake for the stomp seems off, perhaps you could match the motion of the stomp, i.e. vertical shake rather than horizontal; it'll better match the action, you know?

RE: Stomp

http://gfycat.com/AshamedSleepyFlyingfish

http://gfycat.com/SeriousCanineFritillarybutterfly

http://gfycat.com/FaithfulOblongHake

Here are some captures of the new shake effect. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to lock it onto the Y axis without causing camera snapback problems, and from what I see, fixing those (if they're at all fix-able) would require rebuilding the match systems from the ground up which is... not something I'd like to do.

Does the current added Y movement in addition to the X movement add to the shake, then? Since it's random, it still sometimes favors the X axis more/entirely...

Also, I've added something I wanted to try out but couldn't with the previous screenshaking interation: shakes on BB's walking. I'm not really sure, so I'll ask as well: is it too much? Not enough? Unnecessary? Detrimental?

So now there's another games company or brand or whatever that's brand new after last month with a 2-word name of "Absinthe ..." Not giving the second name but it isn't "game". Formed in August. No trademark registered or not. No legal entity.

What the fuck is it with me and names? I should have just picked a random string of characters from a PW generator or something.

I would care if he was in a different business but he makes games - that's a bit of a pinch.

Am I the only asshole that searched for weeks, deep as fuck and picked a name that didn't resemble anything close in the industry? Surely other people give a fuck and research like I do, right?

Edit: top of that, the slugline for my site as long as I can remember was "We make games" and only changed it just a few weeks ago. This sites slugline? "I make games". Really?

Dang, sorry to hear that :-/ Though as the others said, are your games dissimilar enough that it wouldn't be a problem? Also, can't your site registration date/blog posts prove anteriority, were a dispute to occur?

 

[Jacksinthe]

I go by "Old Moon". Mere weeks after settling on that, Ori ATBF was announced and they were by "Moon Studios".

No big deal, though, they're different enough. I ain't changing it.

I guess. 50% of a brand name is too close for me, though. At least yours has a different ordering.

Have you tried contacting the developers in question? Depending on the law where you are you could lose registered trademark rights if you don't contest similar marks.

I have contacted them. They wrote back they are on vacation and will return next week. They seem to be mobile only but I can't tell. Their site just went up last month with very few posts or updates. They do have a game released a few weeks ago on the play store.

imagine if their game is the same as yours.

It isn't but if it was I would most certainly quit doing this or hire a shitload of people to make things faster.

 

[Yoshi]

Maybe you are now big enough to have your own chinese mobile knock-off?

 

[AlphaProspector]

Maybe you are now big enough to have your own chinese mobile knock-off?

This or the infamous cyber-squatting (I think that's the term?). Damn, it all sounds rough though. I dislike so much the whole registration and name use, it's because of this crappy system that bands like Ghost or Rhapsody had to change their names. (The former put "B.C.", meaning "Because of Copyright" and Rhapsody added "of Fire" because there is a service called Rhapsody in the US, despite the band being italian...)

This reminds me to be extra alert when the domain name renewals happen or you can get cyber-squatted on sight, the site turned into a ROLEX REPLICA PHARMACY DONG ENLARGEMENT XXX GET GREEN CARD VISA LOOKING HOTLINE fake search engine, etc.

I've had the boss of my previous work embark on a bid war with some asian guy for a domain name. Of course he lost but at least he could register the TLD for our country. The clean .com without country indication are a never-ending nightmare.

 

[JNT]

I guess. 50% of a brand name is too close for me, though. At least yours has a different ordering.


I have contacted them. They wrote back they are on vacation and will return next week. They seem to be mobile only but I can't tell. Their site just went up last month with very few posts or updates. They do have a game released a few weeks ago on the play store.

Usually, the risk of confusion from a consumer perspective is the decisive factor whether or not a trademark is too similar, so it's hard to give an exact amount of likeness there has to be between two marks for there to be an infringement.

Regardless, you seem to have taken the appropriate first steps.

 

[cbox]

This code thing is starting to click, with hilarious outcomes.

I almost got seeking missiles to work,

And this is what happens when you mess up ienumerators, lol.

 

[SeanNoonan]

RE: Stomp
Here are some captures of the new shake effect. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to lock it onto the Y axis without causing camera snapback problems, and from what I see, fixing those (if they're at all fix-able) would require rebuilding the match systems from the ground up which is... not something I'd like to do.

Does the current added Y movement in addition to the X movement add to the shake, then? Since it's random, it still sometimes favors the X axis more/entirely...

The stomp looks awesome - it's a shame there's still quite a lot of horizontal movement, but it's a real improvement.

Also, I've added something I wanted to try out but couldn't with the previous screenshaking interation: shakes on BB's walking. I'm not really sure, so I'll ask as well: is it too much? Not enough? Unnecessary? Detrimental?

The walking stomps are the worst. Kill them with fire.

 

[SeanNoonan]

I guess. 50% of a brand name is too close for me, though. At least yours has a different ordering.

Is your company incorporated as an LTD or anything? Doesn't that give you some security?


(oops deebl post)

 

[Jacksinthe]

RE: Stomp

http://gfycat.com/AshamedSleepyFlyingfish

http://gfycat.com/SeriousCanineFritillarybutterfly

http://gfycat.com/FaithfulOblongHake

Here are some captures of the new shake effect. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to lock it onto the Y axis without causing camera snapback problems, and from what I see, fixing those (if they're at all fix-able) would require rebuilding the match systems from the ground up which is... not something I'd like to do.

Does the current added Y movement in addition to the X movement add to the shake, then? Since it's random, it still sometimes favors the X axis more/entirely...

Also, I've added something I wanted to try out but couldn't with the previous screenshaking interation: shakes on BB's walking. I'm not really sure, so I'll ask as well: is it too much? Not enough? Unnecessary? Detrimental?



Dang, sorry to hear that :-/ Though as the others said, are your games dissimilar enough that it wouldn't be a problem? Also, can't your site registration date/blog posts prove anteriority, were a dispute to occur?

I agree with Sean and the name "Absinthe" in itself is unique enough as a single entry but when multiple uses of the word occupy the same space that might be an issue. Imagine "Rockstar Games" and "Rockstar Productions", for example. Rockstar is a fairly unique enough word unlike something more arbitrary like "Blue Point" vs "Blue 64". They only recently availed themselves asnof last month, so I'm almost 2 years ahead of them.

Maybe you are now big enough to have your own chinese mobile knock-off?

Ha! I wish I was that important. Maybe some day in an alternate universe I'll rise above egg status.

This or the infamous cyber-squatting (I think that's the term?). Damn, it all sounds rough though. I dislike so much the whole registration and name use, it's because of this crappy system that bands like Ghost or Rhapsody had to change their names. (The former put "B.C.", meaning "Because of Copyright" and Rhapsody added "of Fire" because there is a service called Rhapsody in the US, despite the band being italian...)

This reminds me to be extra alert when the domain name renewals happen or you can get cyber-squatted on sight, the site turned into a ROLEX REPLICA PHARMACY DONG ENLARGEMENT XXX GET GREEN CARD VISA LOOKING HOTLINE fake search engine, etc.

I've had the boss of my previous work embark on a bid war with some asian guy for a domain name. Of course he lost but at least he could register the TLD for our country. The clean .com without country indication are a never-ending nightmare.

Squatting is crazy as fuck.

Usually, the risk of confusion from a consumer perspective is the decisive factor whether or not a trademark is too similar, so it's hard to give an exact amount of likeness there has to be between two marks for there to be an infringement.

Regardless, you seem to have taken the appropriate first steps.

I don't think they did it purposefully or with ill intent. "Absinthe" is generally a cool word and I can see how one would like to use it in a brand name but their second word drives me nuts because it doesn't roll off the tongue or sound "nice" to the ear. I think it's just a case of ignorance, tbh. I wouldnt care much if it were a different industry like music but this is a bit too close, IMO. A more arbitrary word gets more slack but Absinthe is quite specific.

 

[HelloMeow]

And this is what happens when you mess up ienumerators, lol.

Now that's a wave.

 

[Pehesse]

The walking stomps are the worst. Kill them with fire.

I agree with Sean

Hahahahaha

Will do :-D That was one short lived experiment :-D Godzilla Big Blue, disappear!

 

[SeanNoonan]

I don't think they did it purposefully or with ill intent. "Absinthe" is generally a cool word and I can see how one would like to use it in a brand name but their second word drives me nuts because it doesn't roll off the tongue or sound "nice" to the ear. I think it's just a case of ignorance, tbh. I wouldnt care much if it were a different industry like music but this is a bit too close, IMO. A more arbitrary word gets more slack but Absinthe is quite specific.

I wouldn't worry about it too much; you're distinguishable on your own merits anyway. Embrace being indie and not having to worry about the mountains of legal shit that comes with AAA

 

[JNT]

I don't think they did it purposefully or with ill intent. "Absinthe" is generally a cool word and I can see how one would like to use it in a brand name but their second word drives me nuts because it doesn't roll off the tongue or sound "nice" to the ear. I think it's just a case of ignorance, tbh. I wouldnt care much if it were a different industry like music but this is a bit too close, IMO. A more arbitrary word gets more slack but Absinthe is quite specific.

I don't think most cases of infringement are ill intent. Unfortunately, you have to do what you have to do to protect your IP.

 

[Jacksinthe]

I wouldn't worry about it too much; you're distinguishable on your own merits anyway. Embrace being indie and not having to worry about the mountains of legal shit that comes with AAA

I hear that. I'm not worried in the slightest, but I did shoot the other guys an email since they are new so they can make a decision. I personally wouldn't stick with it, I had several names that came close but were even less of a match and I didn't move forward. That's juste though :/

 

[Kalentan]

Does anyone know any good free 'map' makers. I would love to make a world map for my game but I got no real tools to do such. Only thing I know of is the Civ5 map maker and that's not really something I can use in game.

 

[cbox]

So now there's another games company or brand or whatever that's brand new after last month with a 2-word name of "Absinthe ..." Not giving the second name but it isn't "game". Formed in August. No trademark registered or not. No legal entity.

What the fuck is it with me and names? I should have just picked a random string of characters from a PW generator or something.

I would care if he was in a different business but he makes games - that's a bit of a pinch.

Am I the only asshole that searched for weeks, deep as fuck and picked a name that didn't resemble anything close in the industry? Surely other people give a fuck and research like I do, right?

Edit: top of that, the slugline for my site as long as I can remember was "We make games" and only changed it just a few weeks ago. This sites slugline? "I make games". Really?

It's easy to register a site and say you do things until you actually start producing work. I assume you're all registered legally, and if so you should be good to go. It would suck if a huge company came out with something without you having trademarked a name, for example.

Though it does suck that he didn't do any research, simply googling your name shows that you have the name covered well.

 

[wrestleman]

The "GAME OVER" kills me every time haha.

 

[GulAtiCa]

Had way too much time on my hands this weekend, started work on a possible open-world type Space game. Mainly experimenting. Not sure if it will truly turn into a full game just yet, but just something I did for fun. :lol

http://beta.zenfaproductions.com/space/

(Should note, that works best in Chrome and not really optimized, so the better PC/etc you have, the better it will perform)

 

[HellBlazer]

Does anyone know any good free 'map' makers. I would love to make a world map for my game but I got no real tools to do such. Only thing I know of is the Civ5 map maker and that's not really something I can use in game.

Tile-based maps? Tiled is pretty well-known/used.

 

[Kalentan]

Tile-based maps? Tiled is pretty well-known/used.

That should work! Honestly I just need a map that I can make and then edit (adding words/key) on top of it in another program.

Edit: Does it not come with pre-made tiles?

 

[JulianImp]

Well, speaking of updates, I finally got another finished and colored sprite. The third kawaii moe uguu fairy of my sugary trio. Now, considering the other artist has basically abandoned me without a single reply for over 40 days. After checking that he seemed to have an equally dodgy track record with schedules for other parties, I ended up asking this same artist to resketch and produce the sprites for the main characters too.

I may adjust a couple of thingies but I'm happy with the results since for this one I had mostly written references and very few images to aid.

But I've been in such a, ummm, "grim dark" mood recently. The silence of the other guy cost me so much time and frustration, ugh. I don't want or have to be chasing people around so before hiring anyone I tend to establish a 1 week contact policy. Past one week I may drop a message asking for a progress report (except in some cases like the BG, where I know it can take an era, especially for hand painted BGs) or even just to say hi and talk about life. There was a point where I thought "I'm giving up, that's it". But then, after a brutal work day at my job, I kept thinking "no, I have to do this, I'm not bloody giving up!".

I'm glad the artist is very enthusiastic and even encouraging me, and that stuff like Raiden IV is being released on PC. Hell, Dragon's Dogma and CAVE shmups are getting on PC too. So at least things brightened after some very complicated days. Switching artists is a painful (and often costly) decision but, well, I already approved the new sketches and I've been really happy so far.

Also paid for a bunch of BG art so that's going to take a fair bit but at least I can work on the filtered photo BGs in the meantime.

Pehesse: dat animation, man, that looks fantastic!!! Have you considered Live2D for your character portraits? (Although seeing those animations I guess you can just do them by hand?)

Damn, that's some awesome art! Still, it's always a pain to lose a team member, even more so if it's in the middle of development. Getting a replacement artist who can nail a similar style as your previous one can be hard, both on you and on the new artist as well.

The endless grind to finish my Unity VN editor add-on appears to be close to coming to an end, but I guess I won't say anything about when it'll be done since I've been miscalculating things for the past four months... At least according to my changelist, all that's left is finishing the routines that save and load the game state and then finish implementing a couple generic commands that I had overlooked for some reason (ie: there's a rotation tween, but not a one-shot set command).

I also got in touch with someone from Uruguay that was into making interactive documentaries, and we might end up arranging that they use my add-on for a game jam where the participants are supposed to make an interactive story. I'd be thrilled if that deal ends up working, since it's a great chance for spreading the word and making my tools better known.

 

[HellBlazer]

That should work! Honestly I just need a map that I can make and then edit (adding words/key) on top of it in another program.

Edit: Does it not come with pre-made tiles?

Oh, well no. I mean, it's a map/level editor, it does not make your graphics for you.

Plenty of free tilesets on Open Game Arts though, if that's what you want.

You could also look into RPG Maker if you want an all-in-one engine with ready-made graphics. Not sure if it supports SRPG-type battles though.

 

[Kalentan]

Oh, well no. I mean, it's a map/level editor, it does not make your graphics for you.

Plenty of free tilesets on Open Game Arts though, if that's what you want.

You could also look into RPG Maker if you want an all-in-one engine with ready-made graphics. Not sure if it supports SRPG-type battles though.

Ah... I was hoping to make a world map akin to this: http://cdn4.freefantasymaps.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/fantasy-world-4.JPG

Also...

Big question for people who are working alone. Do you guys find yourself having trouble keep going? I love working on my game but sometimes the lack of another there constantly giving feedback and working on the game as well makes me sometimes less prone to get down and work...

Doing programming, art, planning, story writing, etc... All by myself is daunting. Maybe I'm just a wimp...