Twin Crowns: Rashid now has flats!

It has been far too long since my last post.  It's not that I haven't been creative, it's just that all of my energy has been going into some very big projects that aren't ready to show yet.  As a way of taking a break I've been slowly chipping away at Twin Crowns again.
 

Amy Pond's "Pandorica Opens" Scarf

Being a Whovian (a fan of the tv series Doctor Who) I decided to dress up as Amy Pond for Halloween one year.  Being someone who dresses more modestly, I went for her outfit from "Pandorica Opens" and "Big Bang", one of the few with pants!  Since I'm also a perfectionist, I realized that the only way to get the scarf would be to make it.

Being a crocheter and not a knitter meant this was tough.

I scoured the internet for a suitable pattern.  On the way I saved every image I could find of Amy that had that scarf.  I not only looked at patterns for cable scarves but also looked at patterns that were supposedly made to look like this scarf.  Amy has two different knitted red scarves she wears, which apparently confused a few pattern makers.  The closest I found to the scarf I wanted was this pattern by Amanda Throm and while it taught me what the standard was for knitting a cable, it didn't match the pictures I had of Amy's scarf.  In the end I found nothing that would work.

There was only one thing left to do.  Make up a knitting pattern for my first knitting project.

It actually wasn't too hard.  I still have no idea how to cast on (I just crocheted a chain the length I needed and picked up the stitches from there), but once I understood the concept of knit and pearl everything else was easy.

So here's my version of  Amy's super long, thick, red, cabled scarf.  The pictures are of the scarf after a full year and a half of abusive use including being yanked on and dragged around by a toddler, so yours will probably look nicer.  I'm not a knitter so I don't know how to properly format the pattern, please forgive any errors.  Since making this I've decided that I don't like knitting so this will probably be the only knit pattern you'll ever see on this blog.

Open Game Art

Since Ludum Dare is coming up I thought I'd talk a little about a really cool resource for programmers, Open Game Art.  OGA is a collection of free to use artwork, sounds, and music for programmers so that they can mockup or even make entire games without struggling with finding an artist first.  (BTW, finding an artist is actually a lot easier if you've got good art in your prototype.)  The archives aren't the easiest to sift through and so the highest quality resources are a bit hidden but the search function works pretty well and there are some really nice things already there.  The goal of the site though, is where this place is really amazing.  The point is to make it easier for artists and programmers to find each other, communicate and appreciate each other.  The way that the forums are moderated really supports this.  The site has advertisements but they're hand picked and put in by the admin.  All funds goes towards making the site better including doing things like paying artist pro rates to make more resources for the site.  This is the part that makes this site a friendly place for pro artists and takes away a little of the "but it's free, gimme" atmosphere that some of these resource places can get.

This is also a good place for artists, even if OGA isn't running commissions.  As artists we all have art kicking around that we won't use.  Experiments, failed games, and so on just end up sitting on a hard drive and doing nothing.  Artists are encouraged to offer those pieces of art as assets.  Doing so gives you some nice visibility on a site where programmers gather, and makes you look easy to work with and dedicated.  If you're feeling bored you can also participate in the weekly(ish) art challenges.

Tiny 16 RPG

Isn't it adorable?  I've been making this tileset inspired by the games done by Skipmore.  I've tried to limit myself with this tileset, it has only 16 colors and the tiles are 16x16 pixels big and I tried to use as few tiles as possible.  I'm using Dawnbringer's palette, who worked very hard to make a flexible 4-bit palette for everyone to use.  I think he did an amazing job.

When I'm done I intend to have enough tiles, characters, monsters, bosses, and effects to make a whole but very simple RPG. There's a lot left to do still, mostly animation and characters.  I figure I'm about halfway done at the moment.

Weather Wizards Progress

NaNoWriMo has not only inspired many would be writers to actually write, but it's also inspired a lot of similar challenges.  In the VN community there's one called NanoReno, held in March.  The point of the challenge is to make an entire visual novel in that month.  You can use pre-made resources and be in a group.  I decided to give Weather Wizards a makeover for the challenge.  I didn't come close to finishing (the problem with working alone I suppose) but I did get much further along than my last attempt to write this story.

Things I've learned about making tiles

I like making tiles for pixel based games.  I prefer making RPGs, but there are lots of genres that use tiles to make up the graphics of a game.  Between my involvement in the Liberated Pixel Cup and my latest RPG project, I've learned a lot about how I thought making pixel art for games worked, and how they actually work.  I'm still learning, but I think I have enough info to share for those who would like to do the same.