Help freeSiege to rebirth! Artist needed.

[MCMic]

Hi!

I discovered a great free game, freesiege : https://sourceforge.net/projects/freesiege/

I contacted the old development team and they don't work (actively) anymore on the project, so I cloned their code on github and I'm hoping to give this project a new start.
I'm not sure if I'll spend a lot time coding or not, for now I just corrected a little crash, and I'll continue to try and correct bugs that are found.
Here is my clone : http://github.com/MCMic/freesiege

But what this game most need, is datas!
The images are non-free and most of them are ugly, So I would like to replace all data files!
The music is also bad and non-free and need to be replaced. Maybe I'll code something so the game alternate between different musics.

So I would need to know if some of you would be ok to help this project with some art work.
The images need to be coherent, we can use two style, one for the characters running, and one other for the blocks the user make.

If any of you have any question, ask them right here!

PS : you should compile and test the github version, it's the best one. The screenshots on the sourceforge website are outdated.

[Julius]

Have a look at the stuff found on OpenGameArt.org for sure you will find some nice sprites and music to replace the existing there.

[michalg]

Post some screenshots

[MCMic]

Have a look at the stuff found on OpenGameArt.org for sure you will find some nice sprites and music to replace the existing there.

I looked a little, didn't see any images that would fit, if you find some, please post links :-)

Screenshots (of the git version):

[charlie]

Try looking through the Wesnoth data.

[TheAncientGoat]

That looks.. Pretty darn sweet actually. +1 on wesnoth data, too There where a bunch of cool sprites released on OGA too, lemme see if I can find em: http://opengameart.org/content/10-basic-rpg-enemies . These have a different perspective and are imo not as nice, but could work: http://opengameart.org/content/10-more- ... lus-a-boss , http://opengameart.org/content/10-fantasy-rpg-enemies . But yeah, browse the wesnoth art repo's too, lots of nice stuff there. http://search.freegamedev.net/ is your friend as well

[Julius]

Yes the wesnoth data would probably be cool. They have also nice music and audio you can use. You could use their editor to make some nice pictures of castles, maybe one good and one evil and simply use that as a background?

For the game buttons itself, maybe you could use colorized versions of this: http://opengameart.org/content/runes ?

You have to be a bit creative, but for sure there is sufficient cool art freely available.
In fact I have a hard time to believe you didn't find anything of OGA.

Out of most of the stuff here:
http://opengameart.org/browse-menu/images/6/10

You could easily "puzzle" something nice for your game.

Of course it's not ready to be just plugged into you game, but that's hardly something you could expect right?

[MCMic]

I'm not convinced about wesnoth datas.
The style is pretty complexe, I would prefer something with less details.
And the perspective is not the good one, I need sideways characters.

About the music I'm thinking about that : http://www.jamendo.com/fr/album/46834
Especially the "8-bit party"

@TheAncientGoat :
http://opengameart.org/content/10-basic-rpg-enemies -> this isn't bad! But I need animations :-/
http://opengameart.org/content/10-more- ... lus-a-boss -> not the right angle
@Julius:
Not convinced by the runes, I think fast-done squares on inkscape would look better ^^

[TheAncientGoat]

The current "square" pieces look fine, imo. The only thing that needs changing are the backdrops, units, and unit portraits..

[MCMic]

The current "square" pieces look fine, imo. The only thing that needs changing are the backdrops, units, and unit portraits..

No, the license isn't completly free.
So I need to change them as well.

Yesterday I spent my evening looking for a free font, it seems impossible to find oO
OpenFontLibrary.org is all buggy.
I need a large font for the menu.

[TheAncientGoat]

Loads of free fonts, a lot of font sites that don't explicitly have "Open Font's" in the site description still offer open fonts if you look at the individual licenses. http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/ has nice ones, but maybe not what you are looking for. http://www.fontspace.com/category/fantasy has lots of fonts as well, if they're "Commercial Use Friendly" you're pretty safe in using them

[Julius]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_softw ... _typefaces

[MCMic]

http://www.fontspace.com/category/fantasy has lots of fonts as well, if they're "Commercial Use Friendly" you're pretty safe in using them

I looked around on the site, I found this which showed as "public domain" : http://www.fontspace.com/amit-kumar/sumananki
But when I download it, there is license file in the zip that say it's "all rights reserved", redistribution not allowed...

How can I trust this website after that -_-

[TheAncientGoat]

Dude, anyone can upload their fonts. The guy uploading it obviously just labeled it incorrectly (the font isn't that nice anyhow :\ )

[MCMic]

I found this one : http://www.fontspace.com/cheapskate-fonts/winks
Real GPL, pretty good (at least it will be find for a first replacement of the non-free actual font) but it miss the character ":" that is used in the menu :-/
Anyone here now how to modify a font? Would someone help me adding basic punctuation to this font?

[EDIT]It's ok, I finally use that one : http://www.fontspace.com/cheapskate-fonts/swift which has all the punctuation I need.

[MCMic]

I've redone the veteran with this : http://opengameart.org/content/imperial-guard

The old one and the new one:


My border isn't perfect :-/
But I'm no artist ^^

[Julius]

It's actually much better than the original Good idea using the WWTactics portaits. They should also fit pretty well to the weshnoth pixel characters if you choose to use those for the bottom part.

[Julius]

Made some icons:
http://drop.io/tpp2nio

based on this:
http://opengameart.org/content/magic-an ... face-icons

So mine are also LGPL

Pretty much hacked together (not such a great 2D artist), but I guess they could be worse (like the current stuff). Included some blanks to add pictures in.

If I am really bored I might do some more some time in the future.

Btw, I can't get the game to show in the right resolution, so I can't really playtest it. But if the big stones actually represent some of the monsters then maybe you should use the same pictures for the block as for the ones below?

[MCMic]

Made some icons:
http://drop.io/tpp2nio

based on this:
http://opengameart.org/content/magic-an ... face-icons

So mine are also LGPL

Pretty much hacked together (not such a great 2D artist), but I guess they could be worse (like the current stuff). Included some blanks to add pictures in.

Cool, I'll try them ingame.

I looked into wesnoth datas, And you were right, I think I'll find some things that fit. Especially in the portrait, for the knight and the soldier.

I changed the music, but I can't "git push" since this morning, a bug from git hub it seems. I've created a discussion on the support website, I'll see if I get any answer.

If I am really bored I might do some more some time in the future.

That would be great

Btw, I can't get the game to show in the right resolution, so I can't really playtest it. But if the big stones actually represent some of the monsters then maybe you should use the same pictures for the block as for the ones below?

I don't understand what you mean.
Ths resolution cannot be modified in this game, it's 800x600.
And I don't understand what you're saying about stones.

[MCMic]

Wow, I test them ingame, it's really cool!
The only thing is, they are less visual than the old ones, I mean that as the backgrounds aren't colored, it's harder to see the patterns easily.
We should propably change the background color and put the icon in the same color, just darker. (like it was on the old one for the letters)

And thanks for the blank ones, I'll try to adapt my veteran to fit it.

[Julius]

Well if I start the game only about 2/3 of the screen show up at full screen (at 1440x900), and I can't switch to windowed mode. Is there any cfg file I can modify? I am still using the build from the free siege webite however and not the git.

Regarding the stones, what I meant is that it might be better to use the actual sprites appearing below also inside of the stones instead of using portrait pictures.

[Julius]

http://drop.io/sfuumpy

updated the basic icons, I think you are right, with a colored background it's better (the wood one can stay as it is). Which of the blank ones do you need with a colored background? all of them?

[MCMic]

If you use the git version, there is a config file (~/.freesiege under GNU/Linux).
The first int is the sound, the second one is the fullscreen, put "0" in the second one.
You can also launch the game like that : "freesiege --windowed"

I've started to replace sprite by portrait from Battle for wesnoth and your blank icons combined, it works pretty well.
I've done :
-the soldier
-the knight
-the dragoon
-the bomb sprite (I took a stone in BfW)
-the fireball sprite (from BfW too)
-the cannon sprite (I've redone it)

Thanks for the colored version, I'll try them ingame tomorrow.

I would need (I try to do it myself but the result isn't perfect) :
-a dark version of the 110x350 for the dragoon
-a reddish version of the 110x110 for the knight (mine version is red but too dark)
-a yellow/gold 50x110 for the soldier
-a bright version of the 110x110 (I'm not sure if it will be the plant or the cannon, but it will be used)

But the color for the units must differ from icon colors, the point is to recognize them well. (for example, when you start a new game and a pattern is already done, you have to notice it right away)

Oh, and the selection square isn't enough visible, I'm having trouble seeing what I'm selecting.

Thanks a lot for your help.

My sprites will be on the git as soon as my problem is resolved (http://support.github.com/discussions/r ... p-code-411)
I also need to update the licenses files with the informations from BfW.

[Julius]

Can you just upload the pictures you choose for knight, dragon etc here so that I can integrate them with colored version of the stones directly? I think that will be easier than me just providing the blank version. I don't have time to work on it today though.

[MCMic]

Can you just upload the pictures you choose for knight, dragon etc here so that I can integrate them with colored version of the stones directly? I think that will be easier than me just providing the blank version. I don't have time to work on it today though.

The pictures are now on the git.
But I prefer to have the blank versions, because I keep the sources on the git.
See the files units_*x*.xcf in the xcf folder : http://github.com/MCMic/freesiege/tree/master/xcf/