Pro game artist looking for help/collaboration

[Michael V. Parent]

Hi everyone. I'm a life-long Amiga lover who learned pixel art on the Amiga (DPaint and Brilliance) who eventually became a professional game artist.

You can see my portfolio online here: http://www.holymonkeystudio.com/sprites.htm

Throughout these years of making games for mobile phones, GBA, DS, Iphone etc, I've never lost me dream of some day making the most stunningly beautiful (and actually fun to play) game for Classic Amiga's.

I'm enlisting help in not only eventually making a couple of full blown professional (and commercial) games for classic Amiga's, but to create a collection of super useful libraries and tools along the way. (I'm targeting CDTV and CD32 as the two major platforms )

I'm looking for some Amiga programmers with VERY STRONG knowledge of Amiga's amazing hardware and the tricks that game makers and demo makers have used for years.

Most specifically I'm looking for two things up front:

1) To have a program made that loads in tile maps, and allows the user t scroll around the tile map, and then designate vertical coordinates with little arrows at the side of the screen...these arrows would signify a vertical coordinate where some color indexes would be changed via the copper. The program would need to load tile maps, allow scrolling, allow the placement of these arrows throughout a tile map, and have an editor for editing the palette for that region as well as saving and loading palettes into that region (designated by the arrows)

2) A program and useable "library" (re-useable code) to use the repeating sprite trick to create a back play-field for a game. (as seen in some later Amiga games like Jim Powers)

I can offer small financial incentives for the creation of these tools etc...and hopefully we can get together bounties to make thing move along even faster...

The goal is not just to eventually make my dream Amiga games, but to empower all Amiga nuts like me to make the games they want better and faster.


Anyone interested in joining to finally create the ideal set of OPEN SOURCE tools to create super impressive Classic Amiga games, please contact me @

mail@holymonkeystudio.com and/or respond in this thread.

To help entice you,here are some still super rough mock-ups of some of the games I want to make:



I look forward to getting this rolling... It's a LONG TIME over-due.

PS. For those interested in helping to on a long term basis to help create my finished games, I plan on simultaneously creating versions of the game for PC, IOS devices, Android devices,X-Box Live and Mac using a cross platform dev tool that I'm already very comfortable with....My hope is we could generate enough income from these major platforms that we could release the Special, Amiga Only versions for free to the Amiga Communities...

thanks

[Michael V. Parent]

Hi fishy,
 
The key to making collaboration flake proof is to break it into tiny "milestones" that are mutually benificial.  It also helps to round up financial incentives.  I plan to do both.
 
My hope is to get enough hardware bangers together to first make a couple of tech demo's that can do these awesome tricks, and to make the code open to the whole comunity...so everyone can use and add to it.
 
Then scult the demo's into actual playable levels for a game.... then share that, develope more tools, code, etc.
 
I hope you can pitch in and/or benifit from this.  I know the pains of projects constantly falling victim to flake-deaths.  Its another reason to make it open and community-wide and Not dedicated to a specific persons games.
 
I think anyone who wants to make an amiga game (on Classic Amiga's) would love to be able to use:

1) Translucent tricks similar to SNES (I know how to do that)
2) Super tight palette and copper control for gorgeous levels. (we need some better tools to make that accessible to everyone)
3) Use the repeating Sprite trick to have dual playfield without the horrible 7 color front playfield limit (this too needs to be made more accessible)
 
Anyone who knows any hardcore Amiga hardware bangers, pleasse direct them to this thread.  I can't pay a ton, but I hope the comunity can pitch in with me to make it worthwhile to get this stuff readilly availible to the comunity.... for all or dream-game projects.

[Michael V. Parent]

Hi again fishy,
 
Yeah, I know alot about these tricks, and that you cant use them all at once;)  
 
But the first step is getting them each individually accessible to the majority of Amiga game makers, then start organizing a game authoring system which lets you choose which tricks to use where and lets you know which ones can't work at the same time.
 
You ever use Amos?  If you set yourself up with Amos Pro I can give you acual example files which explain how to get perfect translucent effects (not acidents).  hint:  It's a matter of careful palette index organizing and setting which bitplanes to blit while drawing your bob.
 
thanks

[Michael V. Parent]

Already making progress...two excellent programmers have volunteered to "manage" this project. Also, we've already hit paydirt via the following super knowlegable and helpful fellow:
http://www.codetapper.com/amiga/sprite-tricks/
 
 
Please help keep this project alive. Spread the word.  I promise to help make some of the most stunning classic amiga "demos" (game levels etc) ever so long as programmers can make my art move.

[Michael V. Parent]

Thanks much Khephern.  These are exactly the sort of folks we need to get in on this. I'll post on their forums asap.

[Michael V. Parent]

Hi Cammy,
 
It does indeed seem like we're on the same page.  Your project sounds great.  I too think one of Amiga's still untapped strengths is on the fly palette changing...like you said, into and out of caves...but also imagine for quickly flashing the screen brighter, then fading back to normal for during big explosions, or lightning etc...of course time of day, etc.  Or when entering a paralel dimension, or slowing down time... so much potential to make games look so much more atmospheric and impressive and so few have really used it.
 
I'd very much like to test your editors as they evolve..  Is your editor project going to be open source so others can easily add to it, etc?
 
A castlevania SOTN Style game is something I want to make too.. hopefully we'll both benifit from all our investments.  For now I can offer you the trick I mastered for a SNES type translucent effect.  Do you have Amos Pro?  I'll post example files explaining exactly how to do the trick in the very near future.
 
Your Haloween game is really clean and impressive, especially for a very fast made project.  Well done everyone involved!  The only thing that I see that would make it a lot better very quickly (if its easy to add in backbone) would be visual feedback for when you are sucessfully hitting enemies..like a quick animation that flashes the enemy white etc.

[Michael V. Parent]

Hi again,
 
For now, here are the two examples. (they are Amos Pro projects)  The one calles trans explains exactly how to make the translucency trick work.
 
The older demo:
www.holymonkeystudio.com/amiga/trans.zip

The second, prettier demo:
www.holymonkeystudio.com/amiga/a_demo.zip

[Michael V. Parent]

I've posted a bit of unfinished pixel art here...free for anyone to use.
 
https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/amigaarcade/index.php?sid=e4879a29770641259a25cf09cdfb99a6
 
It's in the 2d pixel art section.

[Michael V. Parent]

Great way to overcome a limit in backbone.  I can't wait until we're all finished with a super flexible Backbone substitute thats more optimized and allows for all these tricks (if not all at once )

[Michael V. Parent]

I'm American (grew up on the east coast, in Providence RI, lived in NY for a year, California for several), but now live in France.

[Michael V. Parent]

Use what for?  A drastically improved game authoring system/engine like Backbone?  Lotsw of people could make really fun games if they didn't have to do all the programming legwork that even great langualges like Amos require.
 
It's about freeing up people to be creative.  To use their time with what they can do best.
 
 

i do not know what you would use for it. When you need Amos-Extensions I have most of them...

[Michael V. Parent]

Yeah, look at games like Xenon 2 Megablast... the ST version is all processor, right? Thats a full screen 16 color game with lots of shots, enemies and a simulated 2.5 playfields (counting the back stars as 0.5 playfields )
[youtube]od0B1EQw47I[/youtube]
 
The A500 version looked the same (sounded WAY better)...so, if the Amiga could do all that with just its processor, what about all that blitter power on top...Then the Sprites...Amiga games should have incredible visual potential.
Lets make it happem
 
PS, how do you imbed a youtube vid like that?

[Michael V. Parent]

I work remotely as a freelancer for predominently American companies, so I can live anywhere.. I live near Vannes, which I find absolutely beautiful.

[Michael V. Parent]

I'm glad you mentioned Sword of Sodan, large graphics, and exceeding chip limit.
 
Please check out my "Sprite" animating tool "Spriter".
http://www.brashmonkey.com/spriter.htm
 
For ECS Amiga, you'd have to create the animations without the alpha, rotation and stretching of parts, but still the potential for fitting super smooth animations of large characters is mind blowing.
 
One of the projects that I'm trying to get going is a "library" capible of loading the data from Spriter and recreating the animations on Amiga.
 
[youtube]Pfhlsfc-EDM[/youtube]
 
 
  This is how we can create drastically better animations for game effects and characters and use a very small portion of the memory and file size.

[Michael V. Parent]

yeah, Battle Squadron was great, but the reason I mentioned Xenon 2 is that it has 2.5 layers of scrolling and seems all processor done (at least on the ST) so I'd figure Amiga wit hthe aid of blitter should have been able to do so in 32 color instead of just 16...since the ST had no blitter and theres only a 1 bitplane diference between 16 and 32 colors.