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Title:	CattleChess mock-up
Pixel Artist:	Mr.Pharand (Level 2 Quiet One :: 728 points)
Posted:	4/19/2007 8:55:39 AM
Statistics:	16 comments :: 10 favorites :: 0 avatars
(you may want to click to have it fullscreened, as it appears to chop off the right side for being too big, though no real content is missing, it leaves it looking awkward) This is a pseudo mock-up of CattleChess, a game that I'm not really sure we'll actually get around to making, but it served its purpose as catalysing me to work on these graphics which will eventually be used in a much larger project, CowPG (a flash/browser RPG where you take on the role of psychokinetic, telepathic cows). All the 'pieces' on this chess board will serve as either monsters or NPC's, so there was a hidden purpose behind the odd choice of characters. In addition, I kind of wanted to finish it up to use it in my portfolio for college application into a game design program (since most of the other work I'm putting in the portfolio is quite dated, I wanted something fresh). As for the concept of CattleChess itself, the idea was along the lines of you move the pieces, and they attack whatever piece they're capturing. 'Player 1 and 2' are just placeholders for where your actual input name would go, and the golden marker thing would sit and bob up and down indicating whose turn it was. If the player was in check, the piece would turn silver and flash (as indicated by pieces on the bottom). Lost pieces turn to stone and are transferred to the pedestals at the top (and the stone pieces are also at the bottom). Theoretically the king piece could be selectable from a number of variants at the start of the game to act as the avatar, but for this instance I just used the farmer (well, they look more like old west gunslingers from their colouring, but the original sprite has blue overalls and a red shirt). By the by, this is my first actual new piece in a long time, so C&C is welcome (and more likely to actually be taken seriously, relative to suggestions on something I'd made over a year ago).

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willroberts (Level 1 Rookie) at 7/17/2008 10:06:55 AM

i love the chickens. and the black marble. very very nice.

Warwolt (Level 1 Thug) at 3/21/2008 6:15:33 AM

The cickens and the water is amaazing!

The_Merc_FCS (Level 1 Thug) at 12/9/2007 9:57:29 AM

If that was a flash game, I would play it.

Excellent job.

ultima (Level 2 Hired Gun) at 11/27/2007 12:56:46 PM

those chess board pieces are so detailed better than i could do

Lollige (Level 9 Necrophiliac) at 4/21/2007 3:15:02 PM

Whoa!! these are soo cool!! Exept for the cat.. its allmost unvisible since its hovering.. I wish I could play with those!

MashPotato (Level 6 Made) at 4/20/2007 8:06:07 AM

Love those chickens. This is great!

EDIT: just thought I'd suggest that the robots on the brown side be a little darker, right now they match the cows on the light side, which might cause some confusion

Mr.Pharand (Level 2 Quiet One) at 4/20/2007 2:34:24 AM

Yeah, I get what you're saying. And I had actually planned to most likely stop using the background shadows because it would likely complicate backgrounds too much in the actual game (there's a reason most pixel games don't fuss with accurate lightning). It isn't visible here, but I had experimented with larger walls and so bigger shadows, and it to the point where I need to make several dozen new tiles for each texture to create the angles of shadows. It's not worth it and starts looking weird when you get really long shadows covering larger portions of the background. So yeah, I'm already way ahead of you.

Zenobia (Level 1 Depressed) at 4/19/2007 10:28:17 PM

I love this so much, you've got no idea.

It completely inspired me to think of games of my own.

jalonso (Level 11 Godfather) at 4/19/2007 6:28:14 PM

Great stuff with only one crit and its about the shadows in the play area not the UI. The board on which the game is played is shadowed from top left to bottom right. However the actual pieces have top down shadows. Its a nitpick and the pieces really need top down so I would ditch the board shadows. The UI shows you know shadows exist so it wouldn't be seen as odd with the pieces showing the top down with its impact.
Did that make sense...
...ditch the shadows on the board ;)

...k, one more little thing too. Did you try softening all the square corners to something a little bit rounded? just to kill the boxy look. Doesn't need it but just may be enough to change the dynamics.

I love it no matter what, as is.

iLKke (Level 7 Mass Murderer) at 4/19/2007 1:39:33 PM

You just got an extra point from me for that explanation :D

Mr.Pharand (Level 2 Quiet One) at 4/19/2007 1:23:29 PM

To answer some questions:

The cat is flying because it is time cat/kitten. Floating helper of cow.

The "ratfish" is actually called fishraht, related to fishmaus (which are a smaller, more docile quadruped variety). Though fish part is somewhat of a misnomer, because they are still mammals, and have more in common with dolphins or other cetaceans.

Robot is there because he is a robotic farmhand who helps you by growing things for you on your farm. He has a tear in his eye because while he can grow all sorts of delicious fruits and vegetables, he is only programmed to eat potatoes.

Cows have their heads lowered because your weapons in game for most classes are things mounted on your back (flintlock rifles, spears, staves). Having tested a few mounted weapons, the head raised up doesn't work at all.

Ranks were decided as follows:
-Chickenblobs serve as low level fodder monsters in CowPG, hence pawns.
-Robot is very stiff and mechanical, hence rook
-Fishraht is aggressive and lively, so a knight.
-Cows in CowPG are telepathic and psychokinetic (giving them magic-like capability), so bishop.
-Time Cat is queen because he's an important character, and wields powers beyond your comprehension, so queen seemed like a good idea at the time. There's only one of him, compared to cow which could also suit this role, but there are many adventurer cows.
-And farmer/person is of course an avatar of the player, and far more helpless than any of the other high units.

Mykola (Level 2 Flatfoot) at 4/19/2007 12:57:08 PM

I love that the cats are flying mid air

and wow superb quality overall..

iLKke (Level 7 Mass Murderer) at 4/19/2007 11:59:44 AM

You really seem to have a fetish for oddball boardgames.
Ratfish is my favourite, and of course the chickensacks! :D
Hope to play that RPG sometime.
As for critics, the only thing I see that is off is the placement of the cows head. It should be a bit higher on the body. From the back it looks as if the cow is grazing, but from the front the cow looks scared shitless because of the wierd posture.

Setzer (Level 8 Cannibal) at 4/19/2007 11:26:41 AM

is that a ratfish?

some of the pieces feel a little out of place rank-wise (and why would a robot be on a farm? who cares =p)

Johannest85 (Level 3 Stalker) at 4/19/2007 10:30:25 AM

I would like to play this :D looks real fun. Just wondering why the cat is flying?

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