Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: "pal" Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english,scee.yaroze.mydemos Subject: Re: complaints Date: 25 Jul 1999 13:13:12 GMT Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 62 Message-ID: <01bed690$bf2bb560$LocalHost@pal-s-omnibook> References: <7n7n4f$6tn6@chuka.playstation.co.uk> <7ndks5$i4m7@chuka.playstation.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: Marseille-4-245.club-internet.fr X-Newsreader: Microsoft Internet News 4.70.1155 Xref: chuka.playstation.co.uk scee.yaroze.freetalk.english:4373 scee.yaroze.mydemos:469 > I have some of the most fancy graphics packages available but none of > these do the sort of things that programmers really need. These are > specialist functions which make game design easier. > Repeating tile creation. > Tile map editors. > Interactive sprite manipulation. > etc. > OK I could write these myself (and have done in the past on the PC) but > why should I? We all bought into a game design club which SONY promised > to support (I am not slagging off the support team but the amount of > resources which SONY seem to be making available to them). If I were a games company looking for a programmer, and a candidate told me : "I made a map editor on the PC, but I'm not able to use it for my NY programs", I would be very amazed, and he'd have a hard day convincing me that he's a competent coder. > 7) No incentive I hope the guys who originated the NY project won't ever read this. I hope the guys at Sony who are currently considering the possibility of a NY2 do not read this. What an insult. > Believe it or not I am actually producing a game for Yaroze but I am not > sure how long it will take. If I had all the graphics and sounds done I > could finish the code in a couple of weeks. However I have no idea when > I will be finished because the graphics and sound are such a grey area > (because they are down to your own personal standards and are limited by > your tools and artistic ability) I agree with you here. It is very easy to say that producing data is part of the job, and it is obviously part of the design (Silent Hill without textures or sound ?) ; however, people who bought a NY want to be either programmers or game designers. What I personnally want to achieve with NY is giving a playable shape to my ideas, and I do not have the time or talent to produce even ugly but recognizable graphics or sounds. Just consider how many images you need to put in a simple Bomberman clone... Maybe Sony should have looked closer at the possibility of providing us with a lot of basic data useful for various games. Maybe too, we just can find free data on the Internet. Some of us even rip data off commercial games. But had Sony given us those images and sounds, most NY games would have used them, and that would be no good for the image of NY - I don't think anyone would be pleased to discover the NY game of the month on OPSM to find it has exactly the same graphics and sounds as the previous one, and Sony surely cares about that. I think the best thing Sony could have done is actively interfacing the NY members with amateur artists via the Internet. I don't know how, however. An official web site where the advantages of working with yarozers would be detailed (although the fact that a distant partner would have few chances of ever seeing its work in-game may keep away many people), with screenshots of games, linked to a public newsgroup where artists could post sample work, and yarozers tell what they need for their games ? (Maybe we could start discussing this, what do you everybody think ? If not for NY1 (too late), maybe for NY2 ?) pal (palpalpalpal@hotmail.com)