Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!trsoft.demon.co.uk!ARoss From: Anthony Ross Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english,scee.yaroze.mydemos Subject: Re: complaints Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 00:29:51 +0100 Organization: I Lines: 85 Message-ID: <8cP5aGAv35m3EwiF@trsoft.demon.co.uk> References: <7n7n4f$6tn6@chuka.playstation.co.uk> <7ndks5$i4m7@chuka.playstation.co.uk> <01bed690$bf2bb560$LocalHost@pal-s-omnibook> NNTP-Posting-Host: trsoft.demon.co.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: Turnpike (32) Version 4.01 Xref: chuka.playstation.co.uk scee.yaroze.freetalk.english:4378 scee.yaroze.mydemos:472 In article <01bed690$bf2bb560$LocalHost@pal-s-omnibook>, pal writes >> 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. Come on now....any tit can surely write a map editor. The point that I was making was that "why should we re-invent the wheel". Such simple tasks are things which would be easy for the company to have ready for us in a few weeks but it was often left up to generous NY members to produce the tools. >> 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. I can't believe that you see this as an insult and not an indication of what many of us could do with. I wonder how many more fantastic games we could all produce if things were made just a little more straight forward and less restrictive. There is one thing which will convince SONY that NY2 is worth a go and that is 'will it be any more of a success than NY1. If we all stand and just suck up to SONY and say that they gave it all it needed then they may say 'why bother' (I have PSX owning friends who don't even know what NY is). SONY really need to know what we all need to get this stuff done efficiently (and quickly). > >> 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. Yes but you could use character shapes and things as basic ideas around which to build your code (I wouldn't dream of just cogging out last weeks graphics and sounds but it would allow us to keep going with the coding if we had a suitable image to insert in the mean time) >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 ?) I think that this is an excellent idea (similar to one I mentioned in another post) Thanks for the input. ------------------------------------ Anthony Ross