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Rich passed this on to me, thought it would be interesting to get involved with, and possibly too long a delay if I leave it for the newsletter...

http://lostgarden.com/2007/05/cutegod-prototyping-challenge.html

In a nutshell...
take the excellent tileset that he has created, follow the game mechanic guidelines set out in the challenge, and create a "God" game. (IndyGamer Review)

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This looks cool. Thanks BatVink & Rich. Very good project for DB-users!!

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Wooow! That tileset is extremely nice, and the fact it is a God game is even nicer. Me thinks I'm going to check this one out...

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I'm trying to work on it, but the tile sizes are somewhat odd and difficult to work with.

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yeah they're odd numbers, which is quite weird.. so the easiest way around it is to offset and put less on-screen than what you'd want to. it's still all a case of offsetting.

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I like the fact that they have all the game mechanics set out for you, gets rid of a lot of the planning but it doesn't really feel that free to do what i want with the game, never the less its a very good competition that i wouldn't mind getting involved in, even though i do most of my work in the art side of game development.

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It's not really a competition, more a challenge to create a game within the guidelines. The first one he had, all you got was the media and that was it. People had to figure out what to do.

Just a case of coders challenging themselves to create this within the time it takes him to release a new challenge.

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This challenge looks utterly fascinating and fun. I know that I could make a game with his art exactly like he wants. Problem for me is that it's not really a proper competition, and I couldn't possibly justify taking the time do make the game. If I did, I couldn't use his tiles to develop it any further either

Hopefully someone represents with DBP, it looks like it would be a fantastic game if made properly.

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His artwork is limiting, and no doubt Drac knows this. (given he used to do this for a living)
It's part of the challenge.

It'll become easier as more challenges appear and "Planet Cute" artwork becomes a larger library to work with. Certainly is going to be interesting to see what people make with this though.

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What a COINCIDENCE!!!

I just so happen to be successfuly, finally I get to use that word, making a map editor. Phaelax is right about the tilesize. I can tell just by looking at the pictures on the Lost Gardens Website...

That's ok, I'll just adjust my code to let me say what the tilesize is, instead of only making it 32 x 32. How inflexible of me.

Just one thing I'm not clear on. What exactly are we to NAME our program?

Mickey III

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Or you could download the trial version of Microsoft Expression Design and export them to a more standard tilesize.

Or you could output as vector artwork, then write a vector engine in DBP

Or you could just scale the png's in Paint .NET, Photoshop (or whatever you prefer)

Or you could put all of the tiles on planes, and use their size to scale them

lol just some suggestions. Personally I've taken a completely alternative route and created 3D models, but then again I'm not using DBP; nor am I competing but after seeing the prototype it let my mind wander to create something of a more complete game that wouldn't be amiss on XBLA

note: the images are exported as PNG 101x171x72dpi

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According to his site + his reply to a comment, his tiles are free to use for whatever purpose

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I think the tilesize issue is misunderstood. The whole point of these tiles is that you don't need to consider borders. Just work to standard square tiles with the correct offsets, and the borders will work themselves out. Remember to ensure the topmost tiles are drawn to the front.

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Thanks for the Suggestions, but I pretty much figured it out. Now just to finnish the Demo/Messy Coded version of my map editor to get this challenge done...

This is my first challenge, I'm having a blast learning to code in DBP, and (for some reason I feel like saying this), I LOVE Gimp2!!!
Not to mention blender 2.43, which by the way, if you look in the Exporting Blender to DBPro thread, I've posted some examples that work perfectly for me...Plus I have some that aren't posted...

Thanks again,
Mickey III

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The visible portion of the images are not square, but offsetting isn't a real big issue. That was easy to work out, now I'm overlaying the shadow images. Layering everything deciding which shadow gets overlaid where is a little more challenging.

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If anyone does anything newsletter worthy, or gets a DB Pro mention on their site, let me know and I'll feature it in one form or another.