Retro Affect Blog

GDC Promotion Time!

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:11:39 -0800

The big bulk of our GDC promotional materials arrived today, and it's like Christmas in March! Whoa, March? Holy crap, it's already March. Game Developers Conference is just a week away! How did this happen?!

Today we received the remainder of our business cards, and we also received about 300 postcards that were mentioned in a previous blog post. On top of that, we got a slick business document to hand out to some very important people at the conference. Look at all this Retro Affect stuff!

We're going to be handing out all three postcards at GDC, but each of us will be armed with a different one. If you want to get all of them, you'll have to track down all three of us at GDC. It'll be like collecting pokemon cards, but not as expensive. (Actually, if you paid for a GDC pass it will be just as expensive I guess...)

Neeka, one of our mascots, has already collected all three. Yes, they are delicious.

After we got all this awesome printed Snapshot spam, we thought we could take it one step further. Handing out business cards and post cards just doesn't seem like enough now a days, so we took to the skies...

We're takin' this thing to San Francisco, YEAH! See you at GDC!!

The Grand Canyon: Winter Edition

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:08:36 -0800

Last weekend, I took a little trip to the Grand Canyon. Fun fact: it snows there...a lot. Oh, I knew it was cold in the winter, but over a foot of snow in 24 hours?

Visibility was unfortunately limited to the cliff I was standing on, but for just a moment, they lifted enough to catch a glimpse of the sheer magnitude of the canyon.

Words really can't describe how large (grand if you will) it really is. The low flying clouds along with the stark contrast of white snow and red rock made for some pretty inspirational photographs. I thought I'd share them with anyone looking for either some cloud/mountain/winter/dessert reference, or maybe just an excuse to make the trek out to Arizona. Anyways, enjoy!

Some Art Previews

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:43:28 -0800

With Game Developers Conference just around the corner at 2 weeks away, we've been working on putting together some little promotional materials for Snapshot. We're printing 3 different 4 x 6 postcards this year, each with a different image on the back. Here are some little sneak previews of what the art on each card looks like.

Be sure to try and find us at GDC if you want to grab one of these super amazing hand painted (in Photoshop) images immortalized in the form of ink on paper. Any true collector of Snapshot memorabilia should have at least 20 of each. We've had these cards appraised and we expect each one to be worth millions by the year 2844.

If you can't make it to GDC, we'll probably figure out something to do with these things once the conference is over, but for those who can make it: See you at GDC!

Depict1 on Bytejacker (Go Vote!)

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:34:11 -0800

Through the tubes of the internet my global game jam game Depict1 has reached all the way out to Bytejacker, an awesome indie games centric internet video show.

The game was featured in the Free Indie Rapid Fire for this week, so that means it's up for voting in the Free Indie of the Week as well! So if you really liked Depict1, then you can go show your love by voting for it right here on the right side of the page.

It's kind of awesome how far this little 48 hour game has gone.

Game Jam Result: Depict1

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:49:48 -0800

This past weekend Retro Affect hosted a Global Game Jam location for the great city of Gilbert, Arizona. Think Phoenix if you don't know what a Gilbert is. It was a great time filled with friends, games, and jam. Raspberry jam... LONESTAR!.

So I proudly present to the world the game that I created in 48 hours. (6 of those hours were spent sleeping.)

DEPICT1

Download Now!! (v1.00)

I don't actually want to give too much away about the game, so hopefully that screenshot will entice you enough to give it a whirl. It works on Windows platforms, but should run well enough on OSX with one of those fancy run-windows-programs applications.

This was created from nothing using Game Maker 8. The Game Jam actually started at 5pm on Friday, and I spent a majority of that night brainstorming with the other jammers. An idea for a game that uses a tutorial to deceive the player came up, and I thought it would be a cool idea to pursue.

Saturday was spent making every single component for the game that I could, and Sunday was spent making all 30 (!) levels that are in the game. I also asked a good friend of mine Alec Holowka to pitch in for music, and like a true hero he always delivers.

Oh, and I totally did not sleep between Saturday and Sunday. In fact, right now while writing this blog post I have been awake for 34 hours. And hey, look at this! It was featured on Indie Games Blog!

I would love to hear any feedback about the game, so if you have any be sure to drop a comment in the form below.

Global Game Jam a go go!

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:04:03 -0800

The Global Game Jam starts....now! Developers from all over the world come together for a most creative 48 hours and Retro Affect has opened its doors as the Phoenix site. Watch us while we work at the Global Game Jam website or you can watch AND chat us up here.

This year's theme is deception. We set up a progress board where we'll upload images of our work throughout the weekend. If you're lucky (and we're productive...), we just might post the fruits of our labors when we're finished...

Photoshop Animation to Sprite Sheet

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:50:58 -0800

Helloooo readers (and fellow animators)!

After a bit of searching, we couldn't seem to find a complete way to go from a framed animation in Adobe Photoshop to an ideally packed sprite sheet. Lo and behold, the RA Animation Exporter for Adobe Photoshop was born and we'd like to share it with the animating world. Download it now!

From a PSD...

...to a PNG sprite sheet

Click "Read More" to learn more...

Getting it to work requires no programming experience! Many thanks go to jugenjury on ps-scripts.com and Mark McCoy from torquepowered.com who supplied a couple sections of code.

Before we begin:
- Make sure you download these files, which contains: RA Animation Exporter.jsx, example.psd and exampleResult.png
- Have Photoshop CS3 or higher (it should work with CS2)
- Works with PC and Mac!

Using the Animation Tool in Photoshop:
For anyone who's never used Photoshop's animation tool, it's fairly easy to pick up. "Frames" simply alter the visibility, position and style of your layers, not its contents. If there's a layer that remains the same, you can turn its visibility on across all layers.

In terms of this script, you can have as many or as few layers per frame as you wish. Whatever appears in each frame is what will appear in the final sprite sheet. Just make sure there are no blank frames and that all layers are unlocked. I should also note that I use the framed format in Photoshop and not the timeline.

Framed Animation

Here's pretty basic video tutorial on how to get started. Once the background layer is unlocked, the animation in this video should export perfectly.

What the script does:
- Saves the .PSD in order to revert back after the sprite sheet is finished
- Creates a merged copy of each frame
- Using the width, height and number of frames it determines the most optimal size for the final sprite sheet based in powers of two.
- After resizing the canvas, it places each frame in its consecutive order starting at the top left of the canvas.
- Once the final sheet has been laid out, it runs through a process that prevents a white halo appearing on the image. If you're unfamiliar with "White Halos", you can learn more about about it from our friends at Blurst.
- Finally it uses Photoshop's Save For Web and exports the sprite sheet as a PNG-24 onto your desktop under the same name as the .PSD.

Photoshop, javascript and you:
Working with Javascript and Photoshop actually became surprisingly easy. The two most valuable sources are the Adobe Photoshop Scripting Guide and the Photoshop Script Listener (found on page 73 in the Scripting Guide).

Basically the script listener will log any action taken in Photoshop into a text file on your desktop. If you look at my script, the bits of incoherent code are from the script listener. I added a comment on top of each section with what it does for easy reference.

The script that we use has a few more features catered to our own engine. Here's an example that you might find useful for adding your own functionality:

var answer = confirm("Write a text file?"); 

if (answer == true) { 

    fileOut.open = new File("~\Desktop\fileName.txt"); 

    fileOut.open("w", "TEXT", "????"); 

    fileOut.write("Number of Frames:" + numFrames); 

}

This prompts the user with a yes or no question and writes a text file on your desktop if they say yes.

Installation:
First off, I've provided a .PSD that has a basic animation and a .PNG with what the script should output to your desktop. Once you download all three things, let's put the .JSX in the right place!

Navigate to your Adobe Photoshop directory and place the .JSX into

Adobe Photoshop CS4\Presets\Scripts

Launch Photoshop (or relaunch if it was open). Open up the example.psd I gave you; an 11 frame, bouncing ball. Run the script by going to File » Scripts and choose RA Animation Exporter. If for some reason it's not there, you can click Browse instead and locate RA Animation Exporter.jsx manually. The end result should be an image called example.png on your desktop that looks exactly like the exampleResult.png I provided.

Known issues:
I wrote and use it with CS4, it seems to work well with CS3 and I haven't tired it with CS2, the version Animation first appeared. If you do, let me know! Here are a few things to keep in mind:

- Make sure there are at least two frames of animation
- Make sure there are no locked layers in the .psd
- Make sure every frame has at least one layer visible

Feel free to post comments, suggestions or any changes you've made yourself!

***Updated February 4th, 2010***
v1.1

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue that caused some PSDs to set all layers to 0% opacity before placing them in a sprite sheet.

New Features:
- For pixelated animations, you can now turn off the "dehalo" section by opening the script and changing:

var dehaloImage = 1;

var dehaloImage = 0;

***Updated March 1st, 2010***
v1.2

New Features:
- You can now have the exporter put your frames one after another in a single row.

Under the new Settings section of code in the script, change:

var sheetGrid = 1;

var sheetGrid = 0;

*** ***

Download the RA Animation Exporter v1.2

Retro Affect interviewed by Fall-Damage

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:35:43 -0800

Fall Damage just released their newest podcast, which features an interview with Retro Affect. We talked about Snapshot, as well as a game Kyle made before Retro Affect was formed, Verge.

Be sure to check it out:
http://www.fall-damage.com/2010/01/fall-damage-level-18-the-slash-forums-show/

It's so quiet around here!

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:46:41 -0800

...and I'm here to explain why!

We're working really really hard on Snapshot, and sometimes we just forget that we have an awesome website to update. So far we haven't shown any media involving the new version of the game. We have a single screenshot currently posted on the site, but for now that's all we want to reveal. I know, the prototype trailer released last year is getting a little old, but I think you'll be happy once we start revealing what we've been working on.

You see, these things just cannot be rushed. We need to make Snapshot as good as we can possibly make it, and well, these things take time. Eventually we will get to the point where we will want to show off more and more of the game, but for now we'll just have to keep our faithful readers on the edge of their seats.

I know things have been unusually quiet, and some are beginning to question "Where did Snapshot go? Is it vaporware?! Was it abandoned?" Fear not, my internet brethren, Snapshot is alive in well in our hearts and in the computers at the Retro Affect studio. So while you wait patiently to find out what exactly has been going on with Snapshot, you should go play some other amazing indie games, like Captain Forever for example. Or how about some Blurst games to hold you over? And even check out the upcoming gravity platformer vvvvvv!

That's all I've got for you for now, so keep your eyes peeled, and at some point in the coming weeks we will have some new Snapshot stuff to reveal to the world!

Introduce yourself... DAVE!

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:42:39 -0800

Hello Internet!

I'm Dave. Software Neurosurgeon here at Retro Affect. I joined Pete and Kyle just after March of this year, the three of us founded Retro Affect, and since then I've been developing the engine behind our games. Someday soon we might give you an introduction to the engine to show off what we've been working on and some of the neat stuff it's going to allow us to do. Keep an eye on the site, you may like what you see.

I've been working on video games for a few years now. Mainly developing game systems for MMOs. It's a huge change to be working on the Retro Affect Engine, but it's got all it's own challenges.

So, now I'm hanging out in Gilbert, AZ and it's a great time of the year to be down here. Video games and golf on the weekends, and developing games during the week. Not a bad deal, eh?