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Snake, my condolences. I'm so sorry about Amy. She sounded like an amazing dog.

I recently went through the same thing with my cat, Leetol. I'd had him since I was 6 yrs old, and he had been my constant companion for 19 years. He was a rag doll, and loved being kissed and held. We had moved to a new apartment and took him along with us. Everyone in our apartment complex was smitten with him. One morning, a neighbor knocked on my door to tell me he was acting strange in the driveway. Apparently, someone in our complex had callously hit him with their car (and never came forward to admit it). Despite extreme internal injuries, he was relentlessly trying to crawl back to our apartment to find me. After bringing him to the vet, I had to make one of the hardest decisions in my life to put him to sleep. I have never cried so much in my life. My eyes were swollen for days. Things are better now, and it doesn't hurt as much to talk about. Even though it happened over 6 months ago though, I still sometimes wake up in the morning expecting him to be there next to me. I know what you're going through, Snake. This kind of grief can only be healed with time. My thoughts go out to Amy and your family.

Red button? C'mon guys, keep it classy.

My two cents:

A site cataloging the different kinds of farts that issue forth from the buttocks.

• The question fart
• The trumpeting fart
• The snake hiss fart
• The wet fart

...and of course, the most illusive, silent-but-deadly fart.

[1. Hobo2. Eric3. Ghost]

Your guys' entries made me chuckle. Good stuff.

1. Hobo
2. Eric
3. Ghost

Yeah, I'm actually intrigued by this. I think Telltale Games could really come up with something interesting. I agree, the Borderlands games did have some problems. I think I'm not alone when I say that Claptrap was probably one of the most hideously obnoxious game characters ever. That being said, I enjoyed the Borderlands series for what they were: Loot-based games. Thanks for sharing, Ghost!

Congrats on your game! I had fun playing it and enjoyed the humor.

(Those rich punks at the bottom of the dance floor are jerks though. Screw those guys.)

Kind of late to this thread (as always), but I finally got the chance to play this game. I think I agree with a lot of the other posters here that the story was a little too ambiguous, but the phenomenal mood-building, voice acting, and art really made this game for me. I feel like most horror games these days have really become clichéd, unoriginal, an sadly un-scary. I was watching an LP of a game called "Outlast" recently, and found myself repeatedly rolling my eyes at the lazy uses of gore to "shock" the player into becoming scared. It's so refreshing to play a game that delves into psychological horror more than trying to frighten me with violence and jump scares. The haunting ending left me in a troubled, contemplative state afterwards. I know it's late to say, but wonderful job on the game, guys. I hope we get to see more stuff like this in the future.

Andail, great analysis. I pretty strongly agree with a lot of your points. It took me a while to get around to playing this game. (I got it on the last Humble Bundle as well.) It was well worth it though! Story, characters and world-building are what drew me into adventure games in the first place, and this one did not disappoint at all. Near the end of the game, I got very smug and satisfied with myself because I thought I had discovered the twist, and then I was completely blown out of the water when I was wrong. I love that a game can still surprise me like that. For this reason (and the many others you iterated) I adored the game. I do agree though that many of the puzzles felt a little uninspired to me as well, although the thing that probably disappointed me the most was the sprite scaling. Even walking a slight bit away from the camera caused the sprites to get blurry. I know this may sound a little nit-picky, but speaking as an artist, it kind of cheapened the game for me a little. Still, an amazing game. It was hard for me to put this one down and stop playing.

Good reads! Whenever posting on the forum, I unconsciously form pictures of who each user is and what their lives are like. I really love reading these interviews and further fleshing out who y'all are.

Came out of hiding on the forums just to tell you guys... your game is absolutely awesome! Had a chance to play a couple hours last night and can't wait to play more tonight! I love the game mechanics, and the overall quality is stunning! Fantastic work, you guys!
Probably my only (albeit minor and embarrassing) complaint are the heavy info dumps when talking to characters. Tons of complicated lore and character/location names for my simple, American mind to keep track of. It gets even harder for me when I talk to people like the court wizard, who makes a point of complicating everything he says. Again, minor, and probably reflects more poorly on my intelligence than the game itself.

He looks like Martin Freeman.

[dactylopus]

I'll probably be echoing a lot of the other people in this thread when I say this, (since I'm entering the conversation late) but I do agree that wearing clothes that are "less provocative" isn't really a solution to prevent rape. Not only is it shifting the blame and responsibility to the wrong party, it really isn't addressing the root of the problem, which will still exist regardless of what the victim does on their end.

As dactylopus mentioned, there are places in the world where the idea of wearing less provocative clothes are taken to the extreme. In parts of the Middle East, women are expected to wear head scarves and burkas to avoid showing any parts of their body that could incite lust in a man. (Apparently a woman's hair is just too sexy for some men to handle???) And yet rape is still very present in the culture. I also agree with Andail when he says that he doesn't think rape is perpetrated solely by sociopaths, who completely lack empathy and are unable to form close bonds with anyone. In part, rape stems from subconsciously viewing another person as lower than you, and thus deciding their desires are less important than yours. For example, I wouldn't say that most racists are sociopaths for acting on prejudices and causing harm. While yes, it is harder to change society as a whole and how women are perceived in our culture, it's really the only solution that tackles the heart of the issue.

Mine is a self-portrait! It's part of a bigger picture I did a couple years ago.

Aghhhh! Andail! I was literally right in the middle of making my post when you posted. D:

Unfortunately, it's 4am here and I have to leave for my flight in an hour. This is what I was able to throw together. I'm not 100% happy with it, because I think it still needs a little more work. Although the workshop will be over by the time I get back, I'd like to continue working on it.

Andail, I really want to incorporate a lot of your suggestions, I think you have some really awesome feedback. When I get back, I'll mess around with the pic more.

[*EDIT*]

Hey guys, I just realized that I have a family thing I'm flying out for on 8/30, so I won't be here for the entire workshop.
I'm really enjoying this one though, and I really don't want to scrap it. Basically, I have tomorrow only to finish it, so I'M GOING TO WORK HARD AND GET SHIT DONE!
Does anyone have any last-minute critiques for me?



A couple things I plan on changing...

• Dark orange outline on top and bottom of the piece (to match sides)
• Moving red-haired girl more towards the border on the left
• General cleaning up and polishing

*EDIT*
I forgot to thank everyone for their thoughts on my piece so far. THANKS EVERYBODY! I tried to incorporate all of your guys' critiques into the above draft as much as possible.

Quick question to Andail...
Are our next drafts due tomorrow, or is this week dedicated solely to critique? Gotta be on top of this since I already used up my "you may enter late" card.

All you guys have some interesting ideas that I hadn't really thought about initially: Just because something is random and unique to the player, doesn't mean it will still be fun. The main reason I shared was because it seemed like something that hadn't been done before, but maybe it hasn't been done for a reason. *shrug*

Someone linked this project to me. It seemed really interesting, so I thought I'd share:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/adventuros

[embed=420,315]<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RZmRfAx8S9k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]

[ThreeOhFour]

ThreeOhFour
As usual, I love what you've developed. The colors are awesome, and I love the soft, yellow highlighting on all the objects/cat. The only thing I'd play with at this point is the title. I like the positioning of the letters, but it seems a little plain to me as is. Maybe jazz up the lettering with some soft yellow-to-orange gradients?


selmiak
So sad you have time constraints. Was looking forward to seeing your stuff! Maybe next time.


Babar
I've never played Technobabylon, but it seems like a challenging game to do box art for! I think your 3rd sketch is the most striking and interesting. (The first two could be good too, but may need more reworking. There's a lot of dead space around the figures and the tree that I think would need to be addressed.) I love the green binary code in your third pic, and think the pic could be even more engaging if you worked in some bleak greys or very slight red-greys into the piece.


waheela
Daayum guuurl, ur pix are looking so fiiiiine! Don't listen to these people. You don't need to change a thang.


oraxon
Your game looks awesome, and your thumbnails really make me want to play! I love your composition ideas, and I think F draws me in the most too (besides A, which is maybe more standard and conventional). The only thing with F is that I wish you could tell the hair was beard hair from the barkeep. Maybe add a frowning mouth and chin at the top?


Soxbrooker
Interesting ideas you incorporated into your piece! I like the colors you introduced too! I think it would be nice to have the face in the foreground be a little more expressive, but you are still in the early stages, so I'm sure you plan to do that already.


Ilyich
Super awesome thumbnails, and great color choices. I can't even decide which thumbnail I like the best, they're all good! The only thing I'd develop more at this point are the title letters. They seem a little plain in sketches 2-4. I kind of like the direction they're going in sketch 1 though with the bars above and below the lettering.


calicoreverie
Very interesting and strange things to incorporate into your cover. Looks like a crazy game! I like your approach for the sketch, but there seems to be a lot of dead space around the figure in the foreground. I think this may cause problems for you as you develop the piece more and more. Maybe consider adding more things to catch the viewer's eye in the middle ground? I don't think you have to go overboard. Maybe a stray cat, or some garbage?


nihilyst
Epic! Reminds me a little of the Army of Darkness poster. Maybe it's the pose...



I've never played The Burger Flipper, but what I do know of the game, it seems you've captured the mood well! Some stuff you may want to consider is the positioning of the main character's head and spatula. I like the idea of covering the title a little, but the way you have it now makes it a little hard to read. I'd also consider maybe pulling the straight leg out towards the viewer a little more and adding some perspective to make the piece pop a little more. (Similar to the Army of Darkness poster above.)


cat
I really like all your composition ideas. They're all really unique, and I especially like the one you settled on the best. I'm not sure I have a ton to suggest at this point. I think the title could be centered on the image, but it is still in its early stages, maybe you already had this in mind.


Ascovel
I think the comic panel concept is definitely an awesome idea to pursue. I'm interested to see how you develop this. It may be useful to check out some comics that have unique panel arrangements. I think you could make the piece more dynamic by using diagonal lines for some of the panel outlines instead of the panels just being plain squares or rectangles. Here's an example of what I'm talking about (far right):



I like how the figure in the foreground breaks up the space by overlapping with the panel above him. That was a good choice.


Miez
Very awesome thumbnails. *_*
I really like how the initial thumbnail of your final choice has Ben Jordan's feet extend past the edge of the background, but I'm sad you didn't include that in your more detailed sketch. Did that part just get cut out when you were cropping it?


CitizenParagon
Awesome concept and perspective! I think you have a really solid starting sketch. The font for "needs" distracts me a little since it's a different font from "Unga" and "Mumba". Feel free to ignore me though if no one else is bothered by this.

I'm not quite sure this is clear libel or slander, mainly because there doesn't seem to be any malice or intent to harm on PZ Myers' part, and he seems to sincerely believe it is true based on multiple eyewitness/victim accounts. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation).

That being said, I'm not sure it's an appropriate thing to publish either, especially when none of the witness' names are used so no one can be held accountable for what is said. (Although if the claims are true, it is very sad indeed that there were no repercussions.) I feel like this is something better handled by the police than a vigilante blogger, but maybe I'm not understanding something other feminists are.

I do however think that Sarkessian may have an agenda, perhaps even a self-serving one, which may result in her over-egging the sexism pudding, and lead to her painting a slighty misleading portrait of the game industry and of game players.

And that's...just not cricket.

Interesting. Could you explain in more detail? I'm not sure I follow you completely.