The Savage Empire Remake: Wasps, Bears, and Waterfalls (Oh My!) (Updated & Help Wanted!)
In an update to a thread concerning his project at the Exult forums, Scythifuge has posted screenshots of several new art assets that he has created for his Exult-based remake of Savage Empire, including stackable waterfall tiles…
Waterfalls!
…and a variety of fauna, including a huge bear and a giant wasp:
That is one big bear.
He also lets slip that he is, at present, working on a few “tricks” which he hopes will allow players to wade through water, or allow him to create hills using settings built in to Ultima 7 and Exult Studio.
Update: And because he’s that kind of cool guy, Scythifuge has added a couple more screenshots to the Exult thread. This one is a screenshot of some hill and (semi-transparent) water tiles he has been working on:
Translucency!
…while this one is of a deinonychus (with a deer next to it for a size comparison):
Dinomite!
Now, as promising (and frankly awesome) as that dinosaur looks, Scythifuge cautions in the Exult forum thread that it will be a while before he can complete all the animation frames for the beastie, unless an animator offers to help out.
So if anyone out there feels like working on some monster animation frames for a while, pop on over and make yourself known!
(via Petrell)
I appreciate Scythifuge’s efforts, but… are you kidding me? Those sprites look really ugly and unprofessional, and their style doesn’t really match Ultima 7’s (especially those underdetailed waterfall tiles)…
I look forward to seeing DERG’s superior quality Savage Empire remake. It will surely put this one to shame. 😛
Civility, gents. Today, we meditate on civility.
Its all good. Out of the years that I have been posting graphics, it is the first outright negative comment. If I never got a negative comment, it would be like being in a relationship where there is never an argument; unhealthy! As a reminder, most sprites so far are WIPs and concepts.
Though DERG, I would absolutely LOVE to see some of your sprites! I look at sprites all of the time while I continue to learn, so please share!
Meanwhile, I have posted another screenshot on both the Exult forums and the project Facebook page. It shows the first dinosaur sprite, a deinonychus!
This looks pretty good to me. I think the first comment is sarcasm. It completely falls into the art style of ultima 7, the pixels are literally the exact same size. Everything does look pretty professional. Looks pretty to me.
I never got a chance to play this game, I would absolutely love to see what this game is about. I always wanted to play a game in the exult engine past u7. This is definitely one of the games I’m watching for.
Thank you very much, Micromagic!
I truly hope that the game is finished one day, though I need frame artists and coders to join up. While I draw multiple-framed objects and have some animations, it takes a bit longer to draw all of the different frames for npcs and creatures.
After this project, I want to revisit a project that I have some cyberpunk sprites for.
I just noticed that Scythifuge posted couple more screens. One showcases experimental shallow water and hill tiles and other one shows first dinosaur sprite (deinonychus).
Keep up the good work, Scythifuge!
Thank you, Petrell! I am plugging away at it whenever I can. Taking a break from the tedious mountain walls was a good thing, because it allowed me to come up with the other stuff.
The water idea was something that I started to experiment with a while back and decided to revisit. A few people have brought up Martian Dreams to me, so I revisited that game and have been looking at the hill tiles.
I am shrinking the bear just a tad…
Some objects get altered and balanced as time goes on. Until the issue with Exult Studio shape size limitations is resolved, the 3d size of creatures such as large dinosaurs will be an issue.
WTF, I just noticed the update. Thank you!