Should be a good year for Fancy Pants Man!
Rural Squiggleville. I’m still experimenting the exact graphic style of World 3, so this is still pretty rough, but I’d love to get some early feedback from everyone out there. The idea is to refine the style and art, but keep everything looking handdrawn, which is no where near as easy to do as I had hoped it would be. I know I’m a much better animator than background artist, but hey, might as well try, right?
And remember, that’s 5 independently scrolling backgrounds there, just like in the swimming videos. Far more work, but I’d say the parallax effect is worth it.
Squiggleville Mark III:
Awesome!!! Great work!!!
Wow, that looks incredible.
Every single tidbit of info on World 3 you release makes me more and more hyped. I can’t believe I’m anticipating a flash game this much.
Fancy has always made people hyped
man, i wanna see some footy’ for this level so i can see all the 5 moving backgrounds that you drew up, the art looks great! keep up the AWESOME work.
hmmm, comments about the art style, well, i’m not really liking the “bow” on the tire-swing, its a bit too big and floppy and makes the art look a little less professional.(not that that has anything to do with the actual “style” but hey, input is input”
the style in it self is awesome, one of a kind, there is not other game i know with that much detail. if the whole game looks like that it will probably get an award just for the art!!
(p.s. when is Frasers ride coming out???)
@jesus_minime – Ah, yeah, good call on on the ‘tire bow,’ heh. There’s still a lot of work left to be done on the level until I can show off some footage, but you know me, I hate keeping things secret.
Thanks for all the awesome feedback, everyone! Definitely got me back in the drawing mood, got a ton more work done on the level, got a few sections that I wasn’t sure on looking much better now 😀
I just got to lol about our avatars.
😀
The foreground flowers were a late addition, definitely haven’t settled on the look of those yet, I think I was just loading up the foreground to see how much detail I could put in it, heh.
The houses were a lot more detailed earlier, but you start to get lost in the visual noise after awhile. I like the balance that the two tones strikes, and the further into the distance something is, the more muted the color has to be, or it just draws too much attention. Don’t think of that image as a flat surface, too bad that doesn’t come through in still pictures…
On a purely gameplay-oriented note, I don’t really like Fancy Pants guy running in the middle of a plane (i.e. I prefer him to be running on top of a line). The one guest for level 2 (the night forest one) did this and I was slightly annoyed when I started running “in” instead of “on” the hills.
Also, I don’t like the fadedness of the foreground underneath Fancy’s running path. It should be closer in intensity to the path compared to one of the background grass colors.
And on a final note, I think the purple houses should be a little bit more faded to fit in the background.
@Brad: I still think that the houses stands out to much which those grey colors.
And I got an idea about how that background would look with multiple scrolling layers..
I think it looks very good, but needs some more work, especially on balancing the detail and simplicity that seem essential for your style.
Also, hurray for 5 layers!
I love the style, just brilliant. Can’t wait to see it in action.
Personally, I feel the shack at the back should be less noticeable so maybe a bit of blurring or something (similar to the trees at the far back).
I can see where people are going with the layer on which FPM stands on too. From a practical, gameplay stand-point it’d help to be a bit more defined as to where the ground (which FPM interacts with) is.
What would be simply awesome would be dynamic layers, like the tree after a certain amount of time has a squirrel pop out of the branches and run off. Or something. Maybe that’d be too demanding.
Out of curiosity, how does the FPS hold up with 5 scrolling layers?
I have no qualms with it myself.
In the screenshot above, I think it looks great. But on a practical level, some people may want to know where the ground actually is. Which could easily be done (in this context) by adding a path etc.
It’s simply awesome, I can’t wait to play this game.
🙂
that tree is very good
Second image updated with feedback. I can’t really make the front house any lighter, it starts to pull too much attention. Tire swing updated, I like that one much better, so good call on that.
Pulled the ground collision much higher up, funny thing about that is it was by far the lowest ground collision in the while level, so I evened it out. I don’t want FPM running quite on top of the ground, there’s actually quite a bit of 3dish ground in World 2, I just want a lot more of it in 3, straight flat ground is a bit boring…
And oh yeah, shrunk both the houses a bit, blurring that back layer now, lets see if I can keep it like that based on what else I add to it.
I’m commenting because I feel left out and unloved . . .
(This moment of CFA (Crying For Attention) is brought to you by FairlyObvious Incorporated TM pending)
and to all of you that hated the bow, you have wounded my soul.
Well then I’m just going to blame you for the bow 😛
I do like the changes you made to the second pick. The tree was looking a little off in the first pick and the lighter color works really well in the updated version.
You may hate me for this idea, but if you really like the lower ground collision, you could simply make a brownish path where the grass is dead from running over it. That way, you could have flowers on both sides of Fancy Pants man to create the 3d effect for that plane.
Yeah the noose tire swing is so much better than the bow. It gives 3D. I think you could let the flower that was in the first picture. Like Fuzzy One Three I think that flower on both side of FPM would be great. I prefer the lower groud collision. Like in the swimming video you could put a marked pth for those who don’t like to run in the middle of a plane.
The backgound house is too much blur. Could’nt you put it nearer. It is too small comparate to the trees. Are they giant trees ?? ^^
I prefer the second screenshot a lot more, and the new tire swing is much better (sorry FO!).
By moving the ground, you can see more of the tree’s roots and I actually like that. Looks more natural than in the first screenshot.
@usoppu: Just look at the size difference of FPM and the tree in the foreground. Consider that the houses are for people the size of FPM, and the trees in the background (being part of a forest) are most likely older than the tree in the foreground. And thus, maybe be bigger.
Problem solved.
Im new (o…o) but the pictrues are great, i cant wait for FPA World 3
Hmmm, a footpath. You might be on to something there…
New version makes the colors of the houses looks fine!
Aka, I like the new shot better!
hi!
ooo shiny!
like!
Looks awesome. I think you should have a backround layer in front of the layer FPM actually runs on. then it would look even more 3D and you could do caves and stuff where people can’t see where they are going. also you could do tall grass and stuff where you can only see his hair, etc. Plus, this would solve the “running on straight plains” issue.
The update looks much better!
Watching the tire in perspective makes it look much better, bow or not. Also, WJUK is right, that window looked better with a different colour.
Thanks for showing us this much and taking our feedback this much into account.
@Brad; Seriously! Can’t you get the Ajax edit comments to work?
omg. this is awesome. the best game I have ever played.
you rock on brad! 🙂
Love it! 😀
Have you thought about making fancy pants 1 and 2 into iphone/ipod touch apps? I think they’d be a huge hit!
The second pic is better!
But it does sadden me to know that most people will not remember the tire swing bow, or the clearly visible purple shack.
Sorry for posting twice in a row, but…
Where is the Mayor of Squiggleville? If that is Squiggleville, the Mayor must be there, right? If not, I propose a petition for the Mayor’s presence in the new game!
Brad are you going to mack another page of world 3 and videos
because thar awsome:)
by the way…. do u have any tutorials on how to animate a character doesn’t have be your fancy pants dude per say lol of course but to make the animation as smooth as yours…..help pls
I love your work by the way
Hey everybody! New user here. I’ve played Fancy Pants since the very beginning, and loved it ever since I first set my eyes on that first little room with the spotlight. Never thought to join here, but, well, now I have!! Anyway, on topic:
I love those new bushes, but they look a little too fade-ey in my opinion. What if you kept that little scruffy line the same color but made the outline a little darker? Just a thought.
New shot posted, after trying a ton of different styles for the grass, I think it came out like that on accident, but I like it, so…
I’ll make another post tomorrow trying to respond to everyone, just wanted to get the picture up before I went to sleep.
love the new grass, dude!
Oh, and I forgot to mentoin, the new grass does indeed look awesome.
How would fancy pants man look if he was a nerd B)
Hey man, loved playing both FPA 1 and World 2. Was looking at your updated screenshot of World 3 and I can’t wait to try it out. I love the free-flowing feeling of running and jumping from each ramp and platform…very flowing games.
Have you ever thought about making the level indicators (Lifebar, Lives Indicator, Collectible Indicator, etc.) as having a slight white glow effect behind it, or flip it to be white text on a slight black shadow effect? It would make them easier to see in certain parts of the World.
Anyway, can’t wait to play | intendedwisdom
@Brad: *hint-hint*. It’s the easiest one. I use it on most of my blogs. And it shouldn’t get wiped with WP updates…
Ive noticed that squiggles have been added to the level. Hopefully this means that it could be completed soon.
What tip of moves will M.r fancy pants have naow that hes in world 3=^]
Brad do you know naw wen world 3 is going to come out
because it’s alredy 2010:-/
John Junner, there was a two-year interval between World 1 (2006) and World 2 (2008). Therefore, 2010 is a perfect release date for World 3. Assuming there are eight worlds total, this also means that the game will be finished by 2020. That’s a good enough time for anyone, right?
Secondly, I asked this in Fancy Metroid, but I’m not sure if Brad checks that regularly: Will there be guest artists for World 3?
I’d explode if I had to go another whole year without releasing a game, heh.
I get updates for all the comments, sometimes I’m just not answering comments cause I’m working on World 3, hope y’all don’t mind that, haha.
Not sure yet, I like working with artists that I respect, though, so I’ll be trying to involve other artists in some way.
I notist that FPM on the secand pictur is a-littel bite
strater than the first one:>
Now that I have pretty much completely transfered to the forum I almost forgot about the main site….
Oh and John. That’s probably because of FPM’s standing still animation.
WOW! since when did THIS happen??
this=(http://www.miniclip.com/games/fancy-pants-adventure-1/en/)
i didn’t know brad updated the build?? OMG!!