Star Odyssey - Official Thread

[D--]

What are you talking about? "Death Adder's Minion" is an official forum title. Look at people with a similar number of posts as yours and you'll see they have the exact same title.

My apologies. I didn't realize titles changed so rapidly here. It took some hunting to find a user with a similar post count. I guess it was merely a coincidence that I rolled past 10 posts at the time this thread's criticism really escalated.

It made it seem like a mod with a grudge was having some fun. I'll strike out that text from my other post to avoid creating drama and misdirecting the topic.

[TmEE]

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/faq.php...q_new_faq_item ^^

[enix2093]

I'm somewhat surprised by the antagonistic attitude of many of the people in this thread. This is the only time I've seen people telling a company how to make and sell its game ...

YOU'RE suprised at the attitude? Hi kettle...welcome to being black.

This is probably also the first time you've been involved with a company whose main product is based on fan demand - the same fans who are your entire buyer base; the same ones who have a voice here. We're not the ones who made the decision to open a direct line of communication with the customers, but it's here, so don't be suprised that we feel "entitled" to have an opinion.

But the sense of entitlement here is flabbergasting. It seems like many of you actually expect to see production halt and restart to suit your every criticism, and that you think Super Fighter Team sucks for not doing that.

Nobody is asking you to revamp the entire game here. There was a suggestions that, if possible, the random encounter rate be lowered...IF POSSIBLE. I think most of us assume that since you're working with the original devs at StarFish, you could easily ask them to make this change, but then again we don't know all of the background stuff, so if you say it's not possible, so be it.

Then there was my concern that the whole project may be a waste based on gameplay, and that hatchet was buried and done with...but your overreaction to the cover is uncalled for. It's a cover art. This doesn't affect the PROJECT at all. Obviously it only took me one night to totally revamp the cover.

Funny thing is that rather than simply shit on your idea and offer nothing in return (ahem), I put effort into bringing something to the table. Is it such a stretch for you to consider compromising on your art? There's no way in hell it's THAT final.

As for your vaseline-covered leather, I don't buy it as being "due to low res" because if that were the case, and I might be way out-of-line with this assumption, all of the text and screenshots would also be blurry.

Post the legitimate cover sample in high res without any of the art, etc. Just one half of the leather. I'd like to see it.

[retrospiel]

I am pretty sure you just now ruined any chance of your cover being used.

[enix2093]

I don't believe I did. I just want to see the mystery cover he's referring to. I'm willing to eat my words...so I edited it to be more PC.

Maybe they're not understanding that the cover is the face of the game. It's important, and if they're willing to listen to what everyone is saying, this is something that could be resolved easily. If they don't like my cover, that's fine. Seems like most of the [buyers] here do. I don't see why it's such a stretch to consider what I've brought to the table, at no charge. I want to see this shit look good as much as they do, and everyone in this thread does.

[Phosis]

I actually like the cover...

[D--]

As for your vaseline-covered leather, I don't buy it as being "due to low res" because if that were the case, all of the text and screenshots would also be blurry.

Post the legitimate cover sample in high res without any of the art, etc. Just one half of the leather. I'd like to see it.

I will leave it to Brandon to do this. I have no authority to release anything on my own because I am a contractor who delivered a product. If I run into the SD card I shot the texture on, I'll post a square of it. However, what I have on my computer is owned by Super Fighter Team at this point.

Now then, I will try to explain this again. When I submitted the finished product to Brandon, I submitted two PDFs: a gigantic 103MB lossless copy where the image data is stored as zipped CMYK TIFF and an 800KB copy where the image data is stored as lossy RGB JPEG for web preview.

These are PDFs, meaning elements are contained separately. The text remains perfectly sharp because it is vector data pulled from embedded fonts in the document. The rasterized graphics are compressed. In the case of the web preview, these are down-sampled from 600dpi to 72dpi.

The quality of this web preview degraded further when Brandon rasterized it and saved it – for a second time – at an even more lossy JPEG level. Because the vector data was rasterized for the first time it was crisp. However, the raster images were degraded a second time.

If you were to rasterize the full quality PDF I delivered to Brandon, you would have an image that is a 6540x4200 lossless TIFF (including the bleed border). Now, unless I'm mistaken, the image being presented on the website is a far cry from this size. Brandon says this is to prevent early bootlegging and I believed him – if he were trying to hide problems with my textures, he would have simply told me to redo it.

You're really reaching if you think I'm going to go behind his back and post SFT property without his permission just to prove you wrong.

As for the random battles, Brandon did not seem to think this was a problem since he did not hire me to edit the battle rate. How many Super Fighter Team projects do you think I would be involved in if I randomly listened to a message board and dialed down random game stats under Brandon's nose? I do what I'm hired to do: period.

As far as I am concerned, I have nothing left to explain.

I don't believe I did. I just want to see the mystery cover he's referring to. I'm willing to eat my words...so I edited it to be more PC.

I know this isn't the answer you want, but ... buy the game. Or, get a friend to buy the same and scan the cover for you. Or, ask Brandon to release something higher quality.

You're really barking up the wrong tree telling me I should change things. Please don't mistake me and think that I am treating this as "my art." It's a box a game goes in, and it was made and delivered to a client based on his requests and timetable. He saw the work in progress and made more requests: I applied those changes. When he was fully satisfied with the product, my job ended. If you want me to work more, convince Brandon that he isn't actually satisfied and have him request more changes.

Or, better yet, prove yourself to be trustworthy and experienced and just get him to hire you next time. Then you can have fun dealing with back-seat designers and explaining to Brandon that he has to throw out the 100 prints he just ordered because you changed your mind after someone insulted your work on a forum.

[retrospiel]

It's like watching two cars collide.

[D--]

It's like watching two cars collide.

That was Page 15.

Now it looks more like a match falling into a gas tank

[enix2093]

As for the random battles, Brandon did not seem to think this was a problem since he did not hire me to edit the battle rate.

You're the one making it seem like you have some kind of part in the dev process. Nobody else ever suggested that.

How about we quit measuring out e-penises and consider working together?

I don't give a shit if your cover looks like crap, to be honest. My solution would be to just print my own cover - and I did. Aside from the runes not being quite as visible as I hoped, I think it looks great...and I didn't need to go past 300dpi, which is print quality anyways. For a print size this small, 6540x4200 lossless TIFF is a bit overboard, lol

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/4899/sdc10080q.jpg
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5980/sdc10082r.jpg
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4926/sdc10083n.jpg
http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/3896/sdc10086.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/876/sdc10088y.jpg

I'm just trying to help here.

[D--]

300dpi might be the print quality of a consumer-grade desktop inkjet printer. As I understand it, these are printed by a professional printing house capable of much higher quality. Magazine printing usually begins at 600dpi. I created accordingly.

I'm glad you're happy with your cover and that you're making it available for other people who are unhappy with the cover Super Fighter Team has chosen.

I only said that I was one of the programmers and wrote custom software for the project that was needed by Brandon. I never indicated that I had any role in direction of the project or decision-making. I only do what I am ordered to do and advise within the capacity of my role.

I'm just trying to be accurate.

[Joe Redifer]

Hey, D--, if you want to e-mail me a proper version of the cover, I'll be happy to host it on my server so everyone can see it. joeredifer@film-tech.com My e-mail has a limit of about 25 MB or so (per e-mail).

[retrospiel]

I don't think that hosting space was the issue here, but whether he could upload stuff without checking back with Brandon [Cobb].

You're the one making it seem like you have some kind of part in the dev process.

He's the lead programmer.

I'm just trying to help here.

Sharing your PSD source files with us mere mortals would definitely help. ;-P

My solution would be to just print my own cover - and I did.

I think something went wrong during the print as the actual title artwork looks washed out and lacks any color aside of blue?

Anyway, what is the side of a book called in English that's facing away from the wall into the room, holding the title for indication ? - I really like how that looks in your print!



But all in all I still prefer the Japanese original that you guys started with:




Printed version of D's Star Odyssey edit of that cover:

Star Odyssey ad

Pretty much perfect if you ask me.

[enix2093]

Sharing your PSD source files with us mere mortals would definitely help. ;-P

Sure. If anyone wants it.

I think something went wrong during the print as the actual title artwork looks washed out and lacks any color aside of blue?

Not sure what you mean by this. The print looks exactly like the computer file except the runes don't look as defined when printed due to the dark color being placed on top of the dark blue color. Everything else matches perfectly. If you mean the "Star Odyssey" words on the front being blue, that can be changed. I went with the front title being blue to match the book's cover appearance, but I can easily convert it back to the "gold" look.

One thing I think might look better about mine after seeing it from a distance: I think I should toss the runes and move the title/art and "compatibility" part down so that it's more centered like the promo poster and Japanese cover.

I'll join in with you in agreement and say that even in comparison to my cover, I think the promo poster does look the best/most appropriate.

The part of the book you're referring to is the SPINE.

[old man]

I'm tired of RPG's. I think you guys should reprogram this to be a run n' gun style game.
lulz, I kid, I kid

Here's five points I would like to make:
-You guys be hate'n
-There is no Sega anymore. It's just Sammy running around in a Sonic mask, and they always sucked.
-Joe's cover is the best
-I will buy this game and like it, by god!
-Repro's are cool
-I wish I could fly