Fwd: Sambuk Update

[Joel DuBray]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jessie Richards <jessiev...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 3:40 PM
Subject: Sambuk Update
To: Joel DuBray <joeld...@gmail.com>

Hi Joel,

I'm really sorry about the delay, between starting/stopping the water tiles,  working on the masts, and starting up some other projects, I got really mixed up and the Sambuk looked like actual garbage for a while there!

It's still pretty messy, but this is where I'm at so far.

- It's a small ship, but pretty ornamental and pretty, designed to attract attention as it is a merchant ship.

- The 45 degree mast has been a challenge, but I think it's pretty good, it still needs lots of work.  I'm not fully settled on the ropes, but they help balance the mast.

- The cannon is sitting on a little round edge piece which I'm hoping to make nearly flush with the floor, so it doesn't affect gameplay, but is just pretty.

- The front of the ship is kind of blobby right now, I need to make it better.

- The dual ladders to the upper deck may change.

- The hatch to below deck is just roughed in there, but I want it to be prettier than the others, it is leading the player to treasure!

- Below deck is far from finished,, but I made a cute treasure chest filler piece for now haha!

...The ship was kind of cotton candy pink and blue for a while there.. it was pretty bad.  I think I pulled it together!

    

Tell me what you think!

--

- Jessie V. Richards

[Joseph Domenici]

A few thoughts / questions:

1. Does it seem odd to anyone else that a directionally-set cannon is at the front of the ship? It will seem especially strange when the cannonball launches diagonally/nearly vertically to the other side of the enemy ship. Question for engineering: how feasible would it be to rotate the cannon sprite so that it matches the cannonball's vector?

2. Did we specify a 32*n, 32*n tile layout for the deck?

3. The 45° mast is unique and eye-catching, but it also takes up more visual surface area on the tiles it overlaps. Jessie is pretty good about putting different elements in separate layers, so we'll have to play around with its positioning so it doesn't directly cover nodes.

4. Idk if she intends to keep the treasure chest as a permanent doodad, but the treasure chest pops from its environment too much. Our target audience grew up on Zelda -- who wouldn't think to try interacting with it? I would rather the chest look more helm-like and the helm look more chest-like.

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[Joel DuBray]

Hi Jessie,

My initial thoughts are the cannon placement feels strange. I think part of it is the thickness of the hull. I feel that we could almost do away with the lighter brown outter hull, and just keep the green. 

I'm not at my desktop so I can't check, but I wanted to ask if the ship is meeting a 32x32 grid?

I think you did a good job with the mast, and our only concern is if it covers too many of our tiles. As long as it's in a separate layer, we'll play with it to make sure it doesn't cover too many of our movement nodes which are in the center of our tiles. The ropes on the mast should be taut or removed. Since they are slack, they are just begging for animation that I'd rather avoid. 

For the colors, I think we should go with a more royal pallete. I'm thinking a rich blue for the hull color, and we can make the helm more ornate with a rich brown and brass trimming: (http://sicoraconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/shutterstock_83682775-helm-920x314.jpg) like the treasure chest. The sail can be bleach white, and the two yellow flags in the back can share the same white. Hopefully this all goes well with your choice of deck color. 

If you get stuck again, please ping me on gmail! I often have guidance and suggestions for these things, but I like artists to explore their own ideas first.

I wanted to take this opportunity to give you our characters and some cannons(attached). You'll notice the stark choices we made with them. There are lots of bold trimmings, golden accents, and fun proportions. 

The world we are creating is almost mythic in it's treatment of maritime culture and the golden age of pirates. I think you'll have fun with these character pieces, and may even find inspiration in them.

So to recap, the actionable things are:

-hull thickness

-slack lines

-making sure our grid works

-color palette and trimmings on hull, sail, flags, helm

Let me know if you have questions!

cheers,

Joel

[Joel DuBray]

Thanks for the quick and detailed feedback email. 

I hope I captured all your notes in my response to her. 

As for the chest, we are going to keep that room empty and put whatever we want in it really. We have all sorts of crates, bunks, racks, and other things we can mess with. 

[Joel DuBray]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jessie Richards <jessiev...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: Sambuk Update
To: Joel DuBray <joeld...@gmail.com>

Hi Joel,

Thanks for all of the input!

The cannon does look odd and I had been working on how to fix it, and I think you're right about it being the hull.  Doing away with the hull completely looks very strange, but I think I can make a balance that would fix all of those issues.

Slack lines aren't an issue.

The boat is admittedly quite a bit larger than you initially asked for, it is 3 tiles wide on average, and about 11 tiles tall (of walkable player space).  It's still smaller than the other ships, but I couldn't cram the cannon, mast, hatch, and helm into a smaller space without it feeling very confined.

I will make the changes you've requested, and send you another update by the end of the week.

The other cannons and characters are fun and beautiful!  High five your other artists for me!

I can see this game coming together as a mythical and magical water world.  I'm excited!

- Jessie

[Joel DuBray]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jessie Richards <jessiev...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: Sambuk Update
To: Joel DuBray <joeld...@gmail.com>

Just to give you an idea of scale, here are all of the ships together (in my mast editing file, so there are a few oddities).

The edits have only been partially put into place so far.

p.s. I LOVE the plague doctor character!  I put him on the sambuk to stare at while I work.  If you guys ever do merchandise, I would definitely get something with the plague doctor character on it!

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 11:44 AM, Jessie Richards <jessiev...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Joel,

Thanks for all of the input!

The cannon does look odd and I had been working on how to fix it, and I think you're right about it being the hull.  Doing away with the hull completely looks very strange, but I think I can make a balance that would fix all of those issues.

Slack lines aren't an issue.

The boat is admittedly quite a bit larger than you initially asked for, it is 3 tiles wide on average, and about 11 tiles tall (of walkable player space).  It's still smaller than the other ships, but I couldn't cram the cannon, mast, hatch, and helm into a smaller space without it feeling very confined.

I will make the changes you've requested, and send you another update by the end of the week.

The other cannons and characters are fun and beautiful!  High five your other artists for me!

I can see this game coming together as a mythical and magical water world.  I'm excited!

- Jessie

On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 1:24 AM, Joel DuBray <joeld...@gmail.com> wrote: