This is going to be great, someone should post this on the pixeljoint forums; There lots of highly talented pixel artists there who love weird restrictions. Could be worth a mention on the wayofthepixel forum as well
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This is a heads-up that submissions for AGDQ 2016 will open on October 10th and will be due on October 17th. As before, I'll be organizing the submission and if possible I'll make an overall pitch video, although I probably won't use greenscreen this time. We're very solid on Brain Age thanks to the diligent work by micro500 and xy2_ and all of the artists who have contributed who are nearly too numerous to mention. Aside from Brain Age, we don't technically have any other committed content for AGDQ 2016 and I'm actively looking for suggestions.
I think Super Scribblenauts is still possible but volunteer efforts on that game have stagnated; I'll try to rekindle that this week. We can always pitch another race but I don't currently have a game selected and I'm looking for suggestions. Aside from that, I've been holding out hope that Masterjun, p4plus2, or Tompa can come up with some kind of glitchfest or exploit run but none of them have committed to anything as of yet. Finally, we can always show a console-verified run of some sort but I'm not sure what to pitch and I'm looking for suggestions there as well.
This is the first of three deadlines; once we make the submission we wait and see what gets accepted by the game selection committee, with an answer likely by October 28th. From that point there's literally only about a month until the soft deadline for all runs to be functionally complete; I'm setting that deadline as December 6th. Finally, the marathon starts less than a month after my soft deadline and we could be on as early as January 2nd. When you look at the schedule this way there really isn't all that much time left to prepare, so we need to get moving as soon as possible.
Loved that ending, made me giggle and smile :D
Also I have a new batch of drawings
1. Doctors without Borders - The logo of the cause of the event
2. Alienware - It was one of the sponsors last year, so maybe it will also be next year.
3. Portal - Now you're thinking with portals
4. Cake - The cake is (not) a lie
5. Checkers - Tried to do a Chessboard set but it looked ugly
Also tried to do something simple, a honeycomb, but didn't quite liked the results (as is not something striking). Here are the links though: 1, 2, 3
Nice video. It gave me an idea to play with sounds and make some famous beat.
Maybe Portal can be made looking more broken, not just with parallel portals? Unless this one is some meme already.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
I'm loving these new images!
As a test, I played around with the Yetee drawing to optimize some of the lines for Brain Age. Here's: the result:
It isn't changed much, but a few lines are thinner to prevent needing extra passes. I will most likely be doing this to more pictures since it doesn't change the result too much.
Maybe Portal can be made looking more broken, not just with parallel portals? Unless this one is some meme already.
Usually there's something in between, like text (But the pose is that one). There's also the same image but falling. Maybe switching the parts or even rotating them look better, I'll give it a try:
micro500 wrote:
I played around with the Yetee drawing to optimize some of the lines for Brain Age.
I tried to make thicker lines but should had considered that straight lines (horizontal and vertical) can simple be left with 4 pixels, although sometimes the proportions of thickness doesn't look as good. I'll try to keep it in mind so you don't have much extra work when revising the images.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
I played around with the Yetee drawing to optimize some of the lines for Brain Age.
I tried to make thicker lines but should had considered that straight lines (horizontal and vertical) can simple be left with 4 pixels, although sometimes the proportions of thickness doesn't look as good. I'll try to keep it in mind so you don't have much extra work when revising the images.
If the line needs to be thicker for artistic reasons, that's fine. Otherwise if you think a single line would work fine to, try to do that. There were a few spots in the Yetee drawing that changed it to a single pass didn't change it enough to ruin the image.
Another thing I did was tweak the diagonal lines. Take a look at this comparison to get an idea of what I did:
Removing that extra point makes the lines quicker to draw, and doesn't change the image much as long as you remove the point from the correct side of the line.
Sponsorships are unpredictable and I have no way of guaranteeing if someone that was a sponsor in the past will be again. Again, though, if you're uncertain if something will work, I would suggest making it anyway since we're planning on just having me submit a bunch of images to staff for approval.
I feel like this should be rotated 180 degrees, as it looks like the person is coming up out of the floor from the ceilling instead of out of the ceiling from the floor.
I could watch these videos all day!
micro500, ever think about making a TwitchPlaysBrainAge lol(maybe for after the TAS block or after the charity run)? have people send in designs, have people vote in chat, once a design is done, remove it from the design picking list so it doesnt get chosen again.
just an interest thought and a helluva lot of work lol
I could watch these videos all day!
micro500, ever think about making a TwitchPlaysBrainAge lol(maybe for after the TAS block or after the charity run)? have people send in designs, have people vote in chat, once a design is done, remove it from the design picking list so it doesnt get chosen again.
just an interest thought and a helluva lot of work lol
I'm.. er.. not sure why xy2_ decided to announce that video outside of this forum so early - the whole point of having a thread with a huge (spoilers) alert in the title is to, well, try not to make a bunch of spoilers, but there's no real harm - we were going to include that movie in the submission anyway, so it's only jumping the gun by a few days.
In other news, my current plan is to have the video done by Thursday and to submit on Friday. We do not currently have a firm commitment on a total control TAS, so we'll have to wing it. We also don't have any firm suggestions on console verified runs, although there's honestly a fairly limited library to work with at the moment. We all have to face the reality that there is no way to keep upping the hype we created at AGDQ 2015 but I'm not willing to admit total defeat - I'll do everything I can to make this memorable, probably by hamming up Brain Age for a start. :)
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We're a couple of days into the submission process for AGDQ 2016 and the submission thread already has massive numbers of comments about rejected games. I encourage people who are interested in TASVideos participation at GDQ's to take at least a quick glance through the thread - it will help enlighten everyone about how much competition there is for time during the marathon and how few runs actually make it in. We've been very fortunate to have a high acceptance rate but we have to make a convincing case.
I've spent today doing research on what needs to be pitched and how. Lacking other options I'll be pitching a console verification of [1746] NES Super Mario Bros. 2 "warpless" by Aglar & andrewg in 18:29.26 (thanks for the suggestion, ais523!) as well as an undefined "total control" run with the hope that we can actually pull off something interesting. This last bit is a bit risky, but only somewhat - there are at least a couple of things we know we could do now, but none of them are as amazing as Pokemon Plays Twitch.
I'll write up submission text likely tomorrow or Thursday, finish up video selections late Thursday night and Friday, and make the actual submission no later than midnight PST on Friday. I'm a bit behind schedule on video creation but I've largely been stalling hoping something else will come out of the woodwork. I'm still confident I can put something useful together, however. Thanks to everyone in IRC who has helped make suggestions!
Again, another batch of drawings:
1. NES cartridge - Was considering doing something for the sticker, but had no ideas so I left it blank.
2. Dr. Kawashima - The character from Brain Age
3. The Creation of Adam - A fresco painting by Michelangelo. I was thinking on giving a shot to a few famous paintings, but due to painting restrictions I think it'll be difficult if not impossible to create more, like say The Mona Lisa...
4. Weighted Companion Cube - The cube from Portal games
5. Aperture Science - Logo of Cave Johnson's company in Portal games
6. Bandage Girl - Character from Super Meat Boy
7. Dr. Fetus - Character from Super Meat Boy
8. Goo - Character from World of Goo
9. Alien Hominid - self explanatory
10. Dota 2 Logo - self explanatory
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Here's a final draft which I've finished condensing. We have a maximum of 10 categories across 5 games we can submit. Each game description is limited to 400 characters, and each category is fairly limited as well and if you type too much and submit the form deletes everything and you have to start over so I'll generally try to keep the category descriptions short. Everything we do at AGDQ 2016 *will* be console verified (in contrast to SGDQ 2015), and we want to make absolutely sure it's always clear to viewers that this is not human reflexes so each game will be "TASBot plays..." or have that verbiage inserted in some way as a form of disclaimer.
Here's what I'm planning on pitching:
Game: TASBot Console Verifies...
Description: Sometimes some plain old console verification is in order. In this run, TASBot will play your choice of Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) either using warps or the longer but more entertaining warpless run, or if SMB2U isn't yet ripe for return, we can also offer Ecco the Dolphin or the short and entertaining Zelda II!
Video link: https://youtu.be/LKL08w3h1ik
Category: SMB2U Warps by Aglar and Andrewg
Estimate: 07:41 (07:41.16)
Category: SMB2U Warpless by Aglar and Andrewg
Estimate: 18:29 (18:29.26)
Category: Ecco the Dolphin by Itresad
Estimate: 20:45 (20:44.95)
Category: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link by TASeditor
Estimate: 5:36 (05:35.93)
Game: TASBot Vs. Humans
Description: The Streeeeemerz speed TAS competition at SGDQ 2015 was a huge success that bears repeating. During a set time any viewer can submit a TAS of a just-announced game, ending with a race of the fastest viewer-submitted TAS pitted against already prepared human runners. We can use a freely redistributeable game or even a game as part of a Humble Bundle tie-in. See: http://tiny.cc/TaS
Video link: https://youtu.be/LKL08w3h1ik?t=23
Category: Speed TAS competition by dwangoAC
Estimate: 15:00
Game: Twitch plays Super Scribblenauts
Description: Twitch chat interacting in Pokemon Plays Twitch was one of the most memorable moments of AGDQ 2015 and we want to bring back that fun... for a price. This should be a donation incentive or limited to subscribers and will involve Twitch chat directly solving hilarious puzzles in Super Scribblenauts by interacting with a channel bot and creating objects by popular vote.
Video link: https://youtu.be/LKL08w3h1ik?t=232
Category: Twitch plays Super Scribblenauts by dwangoAC and micro500
Estimate: 15:00
Game: TASBot plays Brain Age
Description: In Brain Age we solve a series of simple math problems, but the answers we give aren't quite what you'd expect. Watch as we deftly draw FrankerZ as the correct answer to 1+6 and generally treat the answers area as an art canvas. This features full DS console verification via stylus control and screen capture. If this is scheduled near the end we can incorporate memes and notable events as answers.
Video link: https://youtu.be/LKL08w3h1ik?t=67
Category: Calculations x100 by micro500, xy2_, and many talented artists
Estimate: 25:00
Game: TASBot takes total control of....
Description: Finding an arbitrary code exploit and gaining total control of a console game is non-trivial and has proven to be quite entertaining in the form of Pong and Snake at AGDQ 2014 then SMB on SMW and Pokemon Plays Twitch at AGDQ 2015. In this run, p4plus2, Masterjun and others will flex their mastery once again with something that's sure to surprise the audience.
Video link: https://youtu.be/LKL08w3h1ik?t=51
Category: Total Control by p4plus2, Masterjun, and others
Estimate: 20:00
I'm pandering to an entire committee here, and I'm not sure what will sell these ideas the best. Adding up all of the estimates (which might be quite wrong) runs over an hour and a half, and that's without any setup time included. There is no way that every idea we're pitching will be accepted, so we need to accept that and figure out how to ensure the stuff that should be seen gets a spot. If something that gets accepted somehow goes completely sideways between now and the marathon we will likely be allowed a concession and can swap it out but I'd rather not do that unless we have to.
I'm being careful with the credits - if the credits are too long, they tend to just say "...and a bunch of TAS'ers" and not credit anyone, so I'm trying to find the fine line between crediting everyone and having no one credited. I have limited time left and need feddback as soon as possible - anyone have anything they'd like to see?
Here is the pitch video:
Link to video
Update: The TASVideos submissions for AGDQ 2016 have been submitted, with several hours to spare. They will go live and be visible as soon as someone on the committee has a chance to vet it. Also take note that I created an endorsement video which is tacked on to the end of the Pins Done Quick Twilight Zone submission video which you can find here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgI7linEoHQ
Now that everything is submitted we should have an answer on what makes it and what gets cut by the end of next week, based on the currently defined schedule. I'll post a follow-up once we know what was accepted. Thanks to everyone in IRC who provided feedback and didn't get sick of me asking for it. :)
Edit history:
- Changed Brain Age estimate to 25 minutes at micro500's request
- Updated Brain Age description to something a bit better, need feedback
- Condensed to get down to 400 characters, altered significantly
- Continued condensing and clarifying, updated categories, updated ending summary
- Updated "bonus game" wording
- Added Snake and SMB on SMW because it fit
- Updated date for Twitch plays, updated Brain Age categories
- Updated SMB2U game choice, need suggestions for other titles to pitch
- Added Ecco the dolphin, reworded race
- Added Youtube link
- Reveal surprise game as Super Scribblenauts, hiding it wasn't working
- Add Zelda II, video links
- Condense Brain Age categories, reword to get to 400 or less characters
- Added times and made slight rewordings
- Updated TASBot vs. Humans category, noted that everything has been submitted
Encode of the current WIP:
Link to video
Right now I have enough images to get me through question #12, but I will need someone to draw up a BSOD image soon. Here's a reference image if you need one.
The error should start with "A problem has been detected...", with that text being cut off on the edge of the screen. Maybe mention an ERROR_MATH or something like that, and also include "TASBot" in the error message as well. If possible, I'd prefer it to be white text on a black background, but if that isn't doable that's fine.
Nice. Do you think it's worth it to make the thing you did at 4+7 later, and to write "pffff whatever" instead of the question mark?
Also, I think if the melody of SmoothCriminal is simulated by the pencil sound (even if there won't be a melody there) it would be quite recognizable.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Nice. Do you think it's worth it to make the thing you did at 4+7 later, and to write "pffff whatever" instead of the question mark?
This would, unfortunately, require redoing the seed. The manipulation done in 4+7 is short of the hardest manipulation I've done in the entire set (6 numbers in a row!) even though it looks really natural, and relocating it would require an answer ending in 11, 12, 15, 18 or 19 to even have a shot at reproducing this.
feos wrote:
Also, I think if the melody of SmoothCriminal is simulated by the pencil sound (even if there won't be a melody there) it would be quite recognizable.
This is more doable (to an extent): each frame, the game has a set sound for each action (tap, slow line, fast line), making it fluctuate from low pitched to high pitched back to low et cetera every frame. A pseudomelody could be reproduced using these facts.
Love the current encode! Especially the big equation one (cos squared bla bla), the pause after its written makes it better lol.
I'm sure if it were possible, twitch chat would love sandstorm. duDudu
1. Doctors without Borders - The logo of the cause of the event
2. Alienware - It was one of the sponsors last year, so maybe it will also be next year.
3. Portal - Now you're thinking with portals
4. Cake - The cake is (not) a lie
5. Checkers - Tried to do a Chessboard set but it looked ugly
Also tried to do something simple, a honeycomb, but didn't quite liked the results (as is not something striking). Here are the links though: 1, 2, 3
It isn't changed much, but a few lines are thinner to prevent needing extra passes. I will most likely be doing this to more pictures since it doesn't change the result too much.
Removing that extra point makes the lines quicker to draw, and doesn't change the image much as long as you remove the point from the correct side of the line.
1. NES cartridge - Was considering doing something for the sticker, but had no ideas so I left it blank.
2. Dr. Kawashima - The character from Brain Age
3. The Creation of Adam - A fresco painting by Michelangelo. I was thinking on giving a shot to a few famous paintings, but due to painting restrictions I think it'll be difficult if not impossible to create more, like say The Mona Lisa...
4. Weighted Companion Cube - The cube from Portal games
5. Aperture Science - Logo of Cave Johnson's company in Portal games
6. Bandage Girl - Character from Super Meat Boy
7. Dr. Fetus - Character from Super Meat Boy
8. Goo - Character from World of Goo
9. Alien Hominid - self explanatory
10. Dota 2 Logo - self explanatory
