some mystery children

I’m not saying who they are. You have to wait for the game in December to find out!

what makes a good photo (game-wise)

I’ve been converting photos into characters, and some are easier to convert than others. But not always for the reasons you might think. The above photos seemed like they would cause problems at first: there are two photos, which is good, but in one the person is wearing glasses, and in the other she’s pulling a face. However, that doesn’t matter so much – I am sure the ancient Greek gods knew about lenses, and maybe some gods wore glasses for fashion reasons? And the face happens to fit a particular character who could shout at one point in the story, so I can use them both. (Normally I only use one photo per character, because converting them takes too long, but this one was easy to do.)

The best thing about this photo is it’s taken in daylight, so everything is very clear and not grainy, and no shadows.

This other picture was the opposite: at first it seemed like it would be easy, but it ended up taking ages, and that’s why the result looks a bit odd.

The person had again sent two photos, which is good (more photos means makes it easier for me), and one of them had a very interesting expression – the one I used. Plus the eyes in the photo were very clear, so I thought this would come out looking really good.  But then I noticed that the top of the head was missing!

I tried just drawing hair on, but that looked silly. I tried adding hair or crowns from other pictures, but they either weren’t at the right angle or did not fit that expression.

So I tried using the second photo, but it was much less interesting. Plus the hair was very dark and against a dark background, under artificial light, so there wasn’t enough color information to enhance.  The low light also meant that after processing a lot of subtle details were lost and the face just looked flat and wrong. The first photo looked much better.

Another problem with the good photo was that it had strong shadows, They made it look even better, but the minimalist look of this game works best without shadows. I managed to get rid of the shadows without losing the detail, but it took a while.

The real problem was still the missing hair. I finally found some that would fit, but it looks very untidy. Then I started looking for a suitable body. The untidy hair plus the expression meant that only one body really fit – the one you see. It’s not as dramatic as Zeus, or Apollo, or Neptune, but you have to remember that the Greeks had all kinds of gods. And it was the best I could do with the artificial hair! Actually I quite like it though – it has character. I do want every god to look unique.

In summary: the best photos are:

1. the whole head (or even better the whole body)
2. in daylight
3. with either a choice of photos, or one photo that’s exactly how you want to look.

If you don’t have any photos like that, still send them in anyway, I can always do something with them, but sometimes I need to be creative!

Well now you know.

PS thanks for all those who have sent in photos so far. It really helps to give the characters more personality.

Prometheus bound

This is Prometheus, punished by Zeus for stealing fire from heaven to give to mankind. I should probably change the left leg (his right). The line looks right before the chains re added, but after the chains it just looks odd.

The funny thing is, when I finished Prometheus’ face I found, completely by accident, that he looked exactly like a real person I know. The trouble is, this person is the complete opposite of Prometheus in almost every way. I keep trying to forget that

Eros, version 2

Now with less weird face, better proportioned arms, and better tailoring.

Eros firing arrows

An animation from Genesis of the Gods.  Eros is looking worried because he spends most of the game fighting for his life.

Hmmm… maybe I should make his right arm a little shorter.

the long term direction of Enter The Story

I just spent nearly two hours trying to say what I want to say in this post and I can’t say it in less than five thousand words! But I’ll try.

I have a goal of producing a new story every two months. Maybe every month eventually. It’s hard to describe what I’m planning – I might try and produce the next story after this one (Julius Caesar) in that way, and that will show what I mean.

The thing is, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about characterization what I really want from this series. I’ve been thinking about what I enjoy and what I don’t enjoy.  And about what is quick to make and what takes a long time; what players like and what they don’t like so much. Bottom line: Genesis of the Gods should be out in December, and Julius Caesar (wait for it…) in February. What do you think?

I need the name of a college!

Genesis of the Gods begins in a college in the USA. Somewhere with a department that studies Greek mythology. Can anyone suggest one?

Still working on that intro:)

I was just reading some web sites on “how to start a novel,” because this game is much more like a novel than a game, and I want it to start with a bang and hit the ground running.  I then realized that I’m doing the opposite of everything that everyone advises! They say start with a well defined character and well defined location (that’s why so many books use tropes) , but my main character is a cipher and my locations are entirely alien and mysterious. I mean, how many stories are based in heaven? How many stories star guardian angels? And they all say that the main conflict, preferably with a clear hero and clear villain, is clear and memorable from the start. So I’ve added a more dramatic pre-intro sequence (see the still image above), and I’m working on defining Peri’s identity and home base far more clearly.

Luckily the game is still flexible enough at this stage for me to make those kind of decisions!

Aphrodite

This is Aphrodite – the body is from an ancient Greek vase featuring the goddess, the face is courtesy of our very own Shantar. I’ll be using this as an example on the web site, when I ask other people to submit photos.

Shantar – if you’re reading this – is it OK to use the original photo next to this picture? And do you want me to use your name on the web site?  I’m using your name here because that’s the name you use when leaving comments on the blog. I could blur the photo and remove the name if you want to remain anonymous.

re: special request from the music man

I don’t know if anyone remembers the blog post about the Mad men competition but Rhe De Ville has reached the final! So far she has 235 votes, and the leader of the pack has 319. If anyone wants to view her video, and if you like it, sign up and vote for her, you’d make a certain composer very happy (and get yourself some free music – some of which may find its way into a future game!).