Frontiers: an exploration game

Hi all!

I just wanted to share this Kickstarter project: Frontiers. It's a game that mainly focuses on exploration, just watch the video. ;) There's already enough funding, but there are still some interesting stretch goals to be met. 9 days left to pledge!

Greets,
Marcia

Divinity: Original Sin on Kickstarter

Hey everybody!

If you like RPG's, you will definitely love this! Larian Studios is having a Kickstarter to increase the scope of their upcoming title, Divinity: Original Sin.

The game features drop-in drop-out multiplayer, a dynamic dialogue system, a highly interactive world, tactical turn-based combat with environmental effects, and much more!

They also plan to include their own tools, so you can create levels and stories, and even publish them online so other people can play them. That's just awesome if you ask me!

Images say more than a thousand words, so make sure you watch the video! :D (You'll also see how great the game looks.)

I'll be Kickstarting once I've chosen one of the options! ;-) I would love to see it succeed, because I believe it would give a boost to the game industry in my little country (Belgium). And of course it just looks like a great game, they deserve it!

The Kickstarter Page (You can back until April 26 2013)

Divinity: Original Sin (official)

Greets,

Marcia

Awesome dog

Saw this one on Facebook. That dog is just awesome! :D
Enjoy:



Greets,
Marcia

New personal blog

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to say that I (Marcia) have a new personal blog where I'll post art, WIP's, etc. I'll be working on my portfolio site, so I needed a blog that fitted well with it.
Check it out: http://marciavanbel.blogspot.com/

There will also be tutorials on there, but game/tech news, music, and more will keep appearing on this blog, so keep checking it out from time to time.

In short:
My blog = personal work + handy tutorials I followed to make it
Area42 = games/music/tech/gadgets/movies we find awesome + news on our group

Greets,
Marcia

Powerup Heroes Demo Review

Hi everyone!

Earlier this holiday, Yannick and I downloaded a lot of demos for Xbox Kinect, and I wanted to share a game that we really enjoyed: Powerup Heroes.

Powerup Heroes is a Kinect fighting game by Ubisoft. By moving and holding a certain pose, you can attack your opponent. Every suit has different powers and you need to hold different poses to do the special attacks.

The suits. Each one has different powers.

 Unlike a lot of Kinect games, the movements are detected quite quickly and the gameplay just "flows". (Apparently, for some people it doesn't work that well, but for us it did...)

We haven't tried the full game yet, but there is a (local and online) multiplayer mode I'd love to try out. However, 50 dollar seems a bit too much for a game like this. It looks cool but it's not really "high-end". Like a lot of Kinect games, it should have a bit more polishing. Maybe when it costs less, I'd buy it. For now: try out the demo and decide for yourself! ;)

Some gameplay pictures:

Greets,
Marcia

Editing pictures and making collages with PicMonkey

Hi everyone!

Something I like to do in my spare time is playing around with pictures. You can do a lot of nice things with Photoshop, but it doesn't have to be so advanced (or costly). The internet has a lot of nice sites to edit photos easily. I just discovered this one and it's already one of my favorites: PicMonkey!

Collage mode
Let's start with the collage mode: just upload some pictures from your computer, select a layout, drag them in and adjust some settings like the spacing, roundness of the corners and the background color. It's also very easy to move the "borders" of the image, so you can change the layout even more! :)

Just an example with stock images

Edit mode
In this mode, you have a lot of options at your fingertips: basic stuff like resizing, cropping, auto-adjust colors, a text tool, some tools to make people look more perfect (whitening teeth, make them look slimmer...), stamps/stickers, borders, textures and -my favorite- filters like cross-processing, orton, lomo, etc...

Again, an example with a stock photo.

Premium features
PicMonkey is free to use, but when there's a little crown on an option, it means it's a premium feature. You can already see the result, but there's an image over your photo when you use them.

Conclusion
+ Free
+ Fast & easy
+ Nice interface
+ Cool effects/options
- Premium options
- Only upload from computer, not from URL/Facebook

=> Good for some quick and simple editing & making collages! :)

Enjoy playing around with it!

Greetz,
x Marcia

Zubatman!

Hi again,

So while I was roaming on the internet again today, I found a totally awesome mash-up of two of my favourite things: Batman and Pokémon! Behold: the epic combination that is Zubatman!

Making height maps with Unity3D

Hi everyone! Today, a tutorial! :)

For our course of Graphics Programming, we needed to make a custom terrain. This is done with a gray scale file, where black is the lowest point, and white the highest. Normally, we just had to do this in Photoshop, but for our retake exam, Sven came up with a good idea. Why not make it in Unity, and then export it? First, I was afraid that Unity had its own format or that it would not have an export option, but it worked! A quick overview:

In a new Unity project, click Terrain -> Create Terrain

Select the terrain, then click Terrain -> Set Resolution. Type in the desired width, height and length.

Now let's start "modeling" the terrain. Use the first 3 buttons: with the first one, you can raise/lower the terrain. (Hold shift to lower the terrain) I don't use the second one a lot, but it can be handy to create plateaus, since you can specify the desired height. With the third one, you can smooth out the terrain. Use the brushes, play around with their size and opacity a bit.

Just continue until you're pleased with the result! :)

Now, with the terrain selected, click Terrain -> Export Heightmap - Raw... And then select the right settings. So if you're on Windows, select Windows, and select the Bit Depth as needed.

Now open the RAW file in Photoshop with the right settings, and there you can resize it. Save again with the right settings.

For the textures:

Keep some tileable textures at hand, and import them in Unity, or use some textures that are included in Unity. (Import them by clicking Assets -> Import Package -> Terrain Assets)

Click "Edit Textures -> Add texture", then choose the texture and be sure to select a nice Tile Size X & Y.

Paint! Again, play with brushes, sizes, opacity and target strength until you're pleased with the result.

To export it: there is no way to export the texture as a whole, because Unity uses a blendmap, but this is a nice trick: go into orthographic top view, zoom in as much as you can, do a print screen and tweak it in Photoshop.

Another terrain made with the same method in the Graphics Programming Engine of DAE:

Good luck to use it in your applications!

Greetz,
x Marcia

To all digital artists, 3d modelers, level designers...

Download this!
Vertex is a free pdf book with almost 300 pages of tutorials and artwork.

Some topics:

• Z-brush tips & tricks (3D)
• Designing combat areas (Level Design)
• Creating a female face (Workflow, design, Z-brush...)
• Freelancing (tips & tricks)
• Tutorial on hand-painted textures (environment & character)
• World building (design, modularity...)
• Creating normal maps with nDo2
• Color theory (not just the basics, but really applied to games, characters...)
• Skin Tones (painting/texturing realistic skin)
• And even more!

A must-have for every digital artist/modeler! I'm really going to enjoy reading through this :D Thanks to a fellow student for posting it on our student's Facebook page. I guess every DAE student has seen it already by now, so I just post it for all the others who may pass by. :)

x Marcia

Sunny Sunday #2

Wiii, another Sunny Sunday! I always find these pictures so inspiring. :) Today's theme: people silhouettes. Enjoy! :D

Aah, the colors, they're sooooo beautiful... I hope they'll inspire someone to make a nice painting ;)

Greetz,
x Marcia

Steam Greenlight launched

A few days ago, Steam-users might have noticed that there was something different... What is Steam Greenlight?

With Greenlight, people can submit their games, and all Steam users can vote them up or down. Once a game has enough votes, it will be added to the store.

We have to be honest: there is (already) a lot of junk on there, but also a lot of games worth upvoting. I haven't looked thoroughly through it, but these are already 2 games that I have upvoted:

Project Giana by Black Forest Games

Project Giana is a remake -with a twist- of the old school game "The Giana Sisters". A Mario-like platformer where you can switch the protagonists and environments. With music from game metalband Machinae Supremacy and super-nice looking graphics! They had a Kickstarter going on, but it has already ended, but with success! Go give it a thumbs up!

Steam Link  --  Their site


A Walk in the Dark by Flying Turtle

A Walk in the Dark is also a platformer, but this time you play as a cat and you should really feel like a cat when playing... That already makes me want to play it. That and the fact that I absolutely love the art style of the game! Well done!

Steam Link -- Their site

Do you have some recommendations on Greenlight? Let me know in the comments! :)

Greets,

x Marcia

Happy Birthday to Final Fantasy!

Time flies I guess, because the Final Fantasy franchise is already celebrating its 25th birthday. Of course, they do something special for the occasion. Releasing the “Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box” for example.

So, what's in there? To start with: every main game!

• Final Fantasy (PS1)
• Final Fantasy II (PS1)
• Final Fantasy III (PSP)
• Final Fantasy IV (PS1)
• Final Fantasy V (PS1)
• Final Fantasy VI (PS1)
• Final Fantasy VII International (PS1, 4 discs)
• Final Fantasy VIII (PS1, 4 discs)
• Final Fantasy IX (PS1, 4 discs)
• Final Fantasy X (PS2)
• Final Fantasy XI Vana Del Collection 2 (PS2)
• Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
• Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

To clarify: FFX-2 and FFXIII-2 are not included. And (I did this part of the research, because I wondered) the games are not ported, so you will need a PS3, PSP and PS2 to play all the games.

Extra's: 

• 2 CD's filled with soundtracks
• "Crystal Artworks" art book
•  Movie about the franchise
• Statue of the 25th anniversary Moogle
• Item code for in-game "mogu mogu" earrings (in FFXIV)

The price of this 11-pound (5 kg!) box? 35 000 yen, which is about 355 euro (450 dollar).
Release date: December 18 2012. The bad news? There is no mention of a European or American release yet.

What I think about it:
Too bad there probably won't be a European release, and that the games are not ported to PS3. It sure looks nice and for 13 games + art book + music + collectible figurine, I don't think 355 euro is too much. However, since it seems to be a trend to HD remake a lot of old classics, maybe that in a year or 5, there will be a better deal. *crosses fingers* What? I can only hope, no? :-)

More pictures! Click to see them full-size.

Greets,
x Marcia

Planetary Annihilation = Funded!

Good news from Kickstarter-land: Planetary Annihilation has reached its goal! For those who don't know it yet, just watch the trailer. (The first half is the actual trailer, then it's more of an interview with the developers.) In short: it's an RTS covering multiple planets and the developers really like to blow things up. Things like... planets! I love the part where they're putting rocket launchers on an asteroid and use it to attack another planet. Really cool idea! :D

If you like this game, you still have 15 days left to make a pledge. For only 20 dollars, the game will be yours! For the other rewards and more information, check out their Kickstarter page.

When they reached their primary goal, they posted a video to express all of their joy.
I hope they can reach some of their other goals. Good luck! Greetz, x Marcia 

What's inside the cube?

Hi back everyone!
Now my exams are over, I'm alive and kicking and writing again on the blog :) Today I want to show you...
Curiosity: What's inside the cube?

Curiosity is a game by 22Cans, a pretty new studio led by Peter Molyneux (game designer of Black&White and Fable). Well, according to 22Cans, it is more of a social experiment than a "game". Curiosity features a gigantic black cube, made out of very tiny cubes, that up to a million players at the same time can chip away with a pickaxe.

Why would you do that, removing layer after layer (yes, by that I mean "no tunneling") of this mega-cube? Maybe because our friend Molyneux buried a secret at the heart of it. Not just any secret, no... According to Peter it is "extremely valuable" and even "life-changing". And only one player, the one who performs the last tap, will see/get it.
A journalist asked him whether it was 50,000 pounds, the price of the unique diamond chisel you can buy for your game (talking about "micro" transactions...) His answer: "No, that would not be very life-changing."

According to another interview, Molyneux said that this secret will be something that will be in the news, and that the secret is of such a nature that the one who finds it might keep it for him/herself, not sharing it with the rest of the world.

In this video, you can see a gameplay demonstration that clarifies certain things, including how colossal this cube is. If you like to hear Molyneux talking, you can skip back to see all about the evolution of the project. He also talks about monetizing in the game: when you spend real money, you actually invest it in their studio. And there are rewards: 50 cent -> you can be in the credits, 5 dollar -> access to the beta of the "big game" they are working on, 500 dollar -> you appear in the game. Ow, and apparently it's made in Unity3D, cool! :D

Curiosity will be out in September 2012 on iOS and Android. It will be free to play with DLC ranging from 50 pence to 50,000 pound (the diamond pickaxe). It is the first of 22 experiments that 22Cans will create.

Now, anyone who knows Peter Molyneux a bit, knows that he can exaggerate and be over-excited about his games but... Damn I'm curious...

Greetz,
x Marcia 

Western Zelda mash-up: Fistful of Rupees

A mash-up of Zelda and a western movie! Love the music and all the references to the games. The special effects are funny. Enjoy!

At the end of part one, you can click through to part two, and then for part three. :)

Greetz,

x Marcia