FailureBiWinning's Workshop

[FailureBiWinning]

So... anyone who's been checking out my map rips thread in the hacking section will know that I've been tossing around the idea of making custom maps (and a few bugs). Well, I've finally made one. There's just one problem: pardon the dirty pun, but every single image host I've ever used has sucked more balls than a vacuum cleaner locked in room full of golfballs (Imgur having recently joined their ranks). That said, I'm going to have to resort to the "guerrilian" method I've been using for my rips: slapping my junk in an attachment and hoping someone doesn't mind having to download to view.

Now, where was I... oh yes, the maps. Well, I only have one for now (made it using pieces of the Sealand and Airland Safari Areas along with pallets taken from the game). I call it "Star World," and I took much of my inspiration from the secret area of the same name that appeared in Super Mario World (right down to the map's shape). I'll admit, it's not my best... I was being a tad hasty with it.

What do you guys think? Should I try my hand a making more?

Edit: Fixed typo in copyright text.

[RacieB]

YES, that is awesome and it looks like it fits the aesthetic perfectly!

[FailureBiWinning]

Thanks. I didn't put as much effort into it as I did my rips, but I'll still worked hard at it. =)

I've got another, but it isn't finished: this one began life as a Medabots-themed map (with a shape resembling the Medals used in the series), but I lost interest in finishing it... until I got back into playing Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, at which point I immediately began to model the map after one of the areas in the game; that area was the Sealed Grounds (which the map was named after). I tried to do something different with this one: as the spiral goes deeper and deeper into the center, it gets less and less detailed (assuming that's how depth perception works). I'm trying to find something to stick in the middle of the map (hence why I said it's unfinished).

[RacieB]

Ohhh, that palette is nice

[FailureBiWinning]

As much as I'd love to take credit for the palette, I can't. Sealed Ground is just like Star World: the palette is taken from the game (in this case, shamelessly ripped from Stomy's Room). I wanted to match the color scheme used in the actual area.

I've got one more (last one for now, until I make another): I was on a Doom kick when I made this one. I wanted it to look like a bloody, deformed mess (and lazily recolored the coral from Sealand's Safari Area to look like dead trees); and named it after one of my favorite areas from Doom, the "Phobos Anomaly."

Edit: My girlfriend just finished sketching up some designs for her own bugs (something I haven't done yet) and she wants me to make sprites of them (they're not done yet). When I told her I'd be posting them here, hell immediately froze over and she permitted me to include the sketches as reference pictures with the sprites (normally she's so protective of her doodles and drawings, she starts hiding them the instant I mention sharing them on the web). I'll have them up here soon (been hitting quite a few snags with them... like figuring out how to make one of them look like a pair of eyes hot-glue-gunned together at the back-ends).

Edit2: I haven't finished my GF's bugs yet, but I have found the time to add a "JUMP!" Pad to the Phobos Anomaly map. This pad will serve as the sole means of accessing PA's sister map: Deimos Anomaly (also named after a Doom area). The DA map is largely empty save for a Jump Pad (which goes back to PA) and a building consisting of recolored Bug Shops stuck together. It's supposed to be a large building where experimental Bugs and "other mysterious things" are being worked on... I've been thinking about naming after another Doom level. "Hell Keep?" "Dis?" "Pandemonium?" The levels of Doom had such descriptive names...

Edit3: I've finished her bugs! RAR'd them because they belong to the same evolutionary line and the fact that I'm bundling them with her original sketches (which she permitted, and even suggested that I include "for completion's sake"). You'll notice that -contrary to typical Bugsite standards- none of them are named after computer terms. Suffice to say; she couldn't think of anything tech-related and made a bold leap to using biology-related terms (at least for the first bug). The bugs come in different style variations and use palettes taken from the game.

Edit4: SO. MANY. EDITS!!! Well, that was pointless... anyway, I finally found something to stick in the middle of my Sealed Ground map. Rather than replace the previous version of the PNG, I'll just attach it here (just in case anyone wants to try putting something else in the middle of the map; I'm open to suggestions, although I really like the edited Contra power-up I've stuck in there).

Edit5: REALLY trying to avoid double posting here... not that it matters; I'm starting to think that nobody around here has an issue with it. Anyway, I just finished designing my second homebrew bug (my first? He's still a work-in-progress, and I have quite a bit planned for him). His name is Legion (for he is many), because he's... well... a 2D polygon covered in an optical illusion (if you look hard enough, you should see many faces, hence his name). Note: When naming your own bugs, having experience with Biology and Demonology helps.

[FailureBiWinning]

Bumping this back from the grave due to me skirting the 200KB limit of the previous post... and because I decided to release the sprites of my first actual homebrew bug: Vortex! He began life as a crappy Spiral recolor (what I'm currently using for my avatar), but has since undergone a few changes that you'll see when you compare the sprites of both characters. He's still very much a work in progress, but he's still woth showing off in his current incarnation.

Some fast facts about Vortex:
1) When he learns a new move, it stays with him permanently and can't be overwritten by another new move... but this means that
2) He can't learn new moves after he's filled up his roster, but that shouldn't be a problem because
3) He'll always have learn the same moves in the same order.
4) Two of the moves he learns are based on weapons and abilities from other games (one from Thunder Force IV, the other from Contra Force. The TFIV weapon is depicted at the bottom of the spritesheet, and uses a palette from Telefang 1).
5) He also does not evolve, but... he does gain some special "bonuses" from reaching specific versions/levels.
6) Personality wise, he's a mixed bag... though my girlfriend likes to think of him as a bug version of the hacker from System Shock 1.

This -coupled with all the edits to the previous post- shows that I have way too much time on my hands, clearly... not a problem at all.
Also, I'm considering trying something in Dino Device 1 style; something like converting a monster from another game into the style... perhaps I'll try Melon Bread (favorite Treasure-game monster ever).

[RacieB]

Hmmmm, all of this is cool stuff =) I've considered doing fan Dinos for a while, my only problem is that a lot of the constellations I'd want to use don't have enough (if ANY) named stars so I dunno what I'd call the Elements. I may design them anyway and just name the Styles, dunno.

[FailureBiWinning]

Thanks (although Vortex still kinda looks like a crappy Spiral recolor).

I've started on Melon Bread; here's what I've got so far:
1a) I used his sprites from Alien Soldier as a base from which
1b) I've edited out the dithering to make it look smoother (DD1 doesn't use dithering to my knowledge)
2) I've combined the reshaded megadrive graphics with the colors from his Gunstar Super Heroes sprites (at least his eyes), and
3) Used some sprites from GSH to make up his teeth, eyes, and nose.

I know the edits are painfully simple, and it isn't in the actual DD1 style (or palette) yet; but I'm getting there.

You'll notice he's bigger than the Dinos. This is because he's supposed to be a boss-type monster that can't be caught (he's more of a traditional RPG monster than a monster-catching RPG monster). It kinda stems from an idea that Rachelle (my girlfriend) and I had: what if we combined the mon-catcher RPG with the standard RPG? You know... what if there were some monsters you couldn't catch along with the ones that you could? That -coupled with the fact that Melon Bread is awesome- is the primary reason behind making this (the other being because I wanted to get good at the style).

I would have done it from scratch, but scratch-made stuff is a little out of my league (I like having a base to work off of), so converting from one style to another shouldn't be too much of a problem... right?

[RacieB]

Ohhh hahaha, I remember Melon Bread now, what a weird friggin boss XD

[FailureBiWinning]

Melon Bread was the original "creepy and cute" monster; he was so adorable, you wanted to pet him; yet so ugly, he made babies cry!

On that note; I've updated Melon Bread a bit, namely:
1) I've reshaded the whites of the eyes
2) and the nose.

I used the back of Alchiba's head as a reference for shading round things... wait, Alchiba's head is basically it's body, so... was I staring at that thing's ass the entire time!? Um... yeah, ignore that last bit.

Edit: I've jumped to V3! This one has a new body palette taken straight from the game!

Edit2: I've leaped to V6! This one has way too many changes to list... but I'll list them anyway:
1) After studying the shading style a bit more, I've noticed that the dinos all have outlines that use the darkest shade of their main body color (Canopus uses a really dark shade of red, for example); I've applied this shading to everything except the main body
2) I've given the nose a new palette; it's the first time I've sampled colors from an overworld sprite instead of a battle sprite
3) The eyewhites and teeth have a new palette.

At this point, the only thing left to do is figure out how to go about reshading the main body... not exactly too thrilled about it...

Edit3: I've finally reached V7! This will be the last version; any changes made afterward will be listed as revisions. The change made here?
NEW BODY SHADING AND OUTLINING! It looks really odd when you zoom in on it but... you normally don't zoom in on the graphics when you're playing a game, and as long as it looks nice zoomed out, it should be fine... right?

Edit4: Four edits already? This is going to wind up becoming a wall of words like much of my other posts... anyway, FIRST REVISION! I've darkened the body palette by removing the brightest shade and recoloring the remaining palette using the previous darkest shade... er, you'll see what I mean when you look at the sprite timeline. Speaking of which; I've separated the development timeline from the sheet so that it'd look less cluttered (and left pieces of older version on the timeline in case people had need of them).

Also, I'm developing another homebrew bug (Rachelle's making a few of her own, but she hasn't shown me the designs or asked me to sprite anything yet); I call this bug "Jutte" after a weapon used by ninjas (real ones, not the westernized movie ones). I don't have a finalized design done yet (trying to focus on Melon Bread before anything else... so Jutte is going on my to-do list).

Edit5: This post is going to have seven edits done to it before the day's over with, isn't it... yeah. Anyway; no new edit for Melon Bread today, but I DO have something: the Candy Canopus! *wierd silence* What? Nothing? Not even crickets chirping? *crickets chirp* Much better. Anyhoo; Candy Canopus is just a purple recolor of regular Canopus, based on the one from the Dino-feeding Minigame. Why "candy?" Well, it's because of the unique Devices this Dino chooses to outfit itself with: They're all themed after candy (and drawn from scratch)! The Candy Devices can only be wielded by Candy Canopuses (Canopus-es? Canopuus? Canopi? Is there even a plural for this?) and, like the regular Canopus, Candy Canopus is the normal non-elemental type (the Devices are also no-element).

Edit6: JUTTE IS DONE! I figured it would be fitting to not only name him after a ninja weapon; but to make him look like one as well, and what better weapon to model him after than the one he's named after? Unfortunately, the real Jutte is not Bug-material... you just can't make it look like a living creature... so I went with the next best thing and made him into a Shuriken with an eye in the middle! I also used Jutte as a little reshading practice (Ergo: I took the shuriken star item from Telefang 1, gave it a new Bugsite palette, and reshaded it... well, attempted to reshade it; some parts of the original T1 shading still stick out, but I think it actually kinda works well with the monster).

In other news: Rachelle is putting her homebrew bugs on hold. Why? Because I finally got her a working copy of the PC version of Wolfenstein 3D (it seems she has an exquisite taste in classic FPS games, considering she's also played Ultimate Doom)! Giving it to her was the funny part in all this: when she saw what I had in my hands, she immediately snatched the game and ran upstairs screaming. She was already shooting Nazis by the time I got up to her room.