SlipStream POC Preview

[OVERRiDE]

Hi All,

 

Just sharing a little project I've been working on for the past few weeks.  This is not a finished project by any means; this is just a proof-of-concept for the basic gameplay ideas I want to flesh out.

 

SlipStream is a side-scrolling shooter that allows you to move in three dimensions in order to evade enemies and collect power-ups.  This is using the sprite-scaling features of the Jaguar's hardware to enable the three-dimensional effect in real-time.  Another unique aspect of this preview is that I have generated all graphic assets using AI ( there is one exception; the explosion graphic is taken from JagStudio ).  I plan to continue polishing the basic mechanics before moving on to creating additional levels and objectives, but I am putting this out in its early state to gauge interest and take any constructive criticism the community has to offer.

 

ROM File for loading via GD or EMU:

shooter.rom

[SlidellMan]

Hmm...while not everyone will like the AI-generated graphics, you are making something that has potential. The Jaguar could use more Shmups.

[+CyranoJ]

Nice start  Keep going!

[KidGameR186496]

27 minutes ago, SlidellMan said:

Hmm...while not everyone will like the AI-generated graphics, you are making something that has potential. The Jaguar could use more Shmups.

Yeah, not a fan of that aspect but the concept has potential. Sort of reminds me of Vertical Force on Virtual Boy but in a horizontal viewpoint.

[OVERRiDE]

45 minutes ago, KidGameR186496 said:

Yeah, not a fan of that aspect but the concept has potential. Sort of reminds me of Vertical Force on Virtual Boy but in a horizontal viewpoint.

I believe in full transparency regarding the production process, so I have revealed this information.  If I had not, would you have been able to tell that the assets were generated via AI?  Lol.

 

That said, I am curious exactly what about this you guys are not fans of.  Are the graphics bad, in your opinion?  Or is it just the concept of them being generated by AI that you are not comfortable with?

 

The reason I am using AI are as follows ( again, full transparency )

• Fast iteration
• Keep production costs low
• I am not a graphic artist by trade, and do not have one working for me at present
• Keeping production costs low means the end product will cost less

All that said, AI generation is not a magic bullet.  I have had to manually touch-up all of the assets to get them to this point ( besides the backgrounds ).  And this pipeline is not good for animated sprites; eventually I will need help from an artist to take things to the next level.

[+Sauron]

1 hour ago, OVERRiDE said:

I believe in full transparency regarding the production process, so I have revealed this information.  If I had not, would you have been able to tell that the assets were generated via AI?  Lol.

 

That said, I am curious exactly what about this you guys are not fans of.  Are the graphics bad, in your opinion?  Or is it just the concept of them being generated by AI that you are not comfortable with?

I imagine there are plenty of reasons why people wouldn't be a fan of AI-generated artwork, ranging from the ethical to the practical. However, if I were doing a Jag game on my own, and considering my own lack of artistic talent, I would at the very least be tempted to use it myself. Actually, scratch that. I would definitely use it if I didn't have a capable artist assisting me. Ultimately, the decision as to whether or not you want to use it is up to you, everyone else's opinions on it be damned. 

 

[WAVE 1 GAMES]

49 minutes ago, Sauron said:

I imagine there are plenty of reasons why people wouldn't be a fan of AI-generated artwork, ranging from the ethical to the practical. However, if I were doing a Jag game on my own, and considering my own lack of artistic talent, I would at the very least be tempted to use it myself. Actually, scratch that. I would definitely use it if I didn't have a capable artist assisting me. Ultimately, the decision as to whether or not you want to use it is up to you, everyone else's opinions on it be damned. 

 

I have thought about this too. I like the idea of using AI generated art for a game, however the thing I have found is most of the AI generated stuff comes out weird and only very rarely do you get something that looks usable.

 

To that end I will say that what the OP has managed to get generated here looks pretty sharp. The fact that you can't get animated AI generated graphics is a drawback but for doing things like environment backgrounds (like an alien worlds terrain) I think this can be a very useful tool for small developers. The whole AI art scene is very fascinating to me and I have been messing with it over the past year, but I haven't actually tried to make anything usable from it mostly just goofing around.

 

I'm really interested in seeing how this turns out. A Jaguar game made completely with AI generated graphics is definitely something new.

[+CyranoJ]

3 hours ago, OVERRiDE said:

• Keeping production costs low means the end product will cost less

 

Urgh.  It is possible to release free games, guys.

[agradeneu]

Cool proof of concept, well done!

 

 

Is the intro done by AI too?

 

As I understand it, it will be a commercial release eventually?

[42bs]

I have no problem with AI generated graphics. Why not? It is just another tool. Some draw pictures pixel by pixel. Other take a photo and modify it to make it look as it was drawn pixel by pixel.

 

My only problem is to "see" in which Z level I am and where are the power ups.

 

Keep on!

[BeeSociety]

Very cool. I love the ability to go in and out of dimensions, I haven't seen that before.

I think the graphics and music are awesome.

 

Well done.

[agradeneu]

AI art looks random and sometimes makes not a whole lot of sense. 

The other issue is the absence of animations.

 

To be honest, I dont think AI is yet to subsitute real artwork, but if there was no better option, it is something to consider.

 

However, for a commercial product, I don't think that works. 

[SlidellMan]

As someone who has used AI art generators on Discord, I can say with confidence that it is great for coming up with fake movie screenshots, character designs, and color palettes. However, as I said previously, it is severely limited and the end user still has to import into Photoshop, Paint.NET, GIMP, Krita, Open Canvas, et cetera to make corrections to what was generated. @OVERRiDE I can lead you to some pixel artists if you decide to make this a commercial product.

[Fadest]

As a guy who work on a Plouf Of Concept (I guess it is hard to translated, plouf is a french onomatopoeia for an object falling into water and sinking) for next week that uses AI generated artwork for background and portraits, and free assets for the rest. I think AI is nice to define a style for the visual aspect that a programmer can't do by himself. And it's sometimes hard to embark a graphist or artist on a project that could in the end finish in a trash bin...

[roots.genoa]

33 minutes ago, Fadest said:

Plouf Of Concept (I guess it is hard to translated, plouf is a french onomatopoeia for an object falling into water and sinking)

"Poof of concept" maybe?

[OVERRiDE]

On 5/21/2023 at 2:24 AM, agradeneu said:

Cool proof of concept, well done!

 

 

Is the intro done by AI too?

 

As I understand it, it will be a commercial release eventually?

Thanks!  And yes, intro graphics are all AI generated.  The only graphical asset in this demo that was not generated by AI is the explosion animation ( this is borrowed from JagStudio )

 

If I can polish this game into a state that I consider production ready, I would consider a commercial release.  But there is a ton of work ahead to reach that point, and I have not even attempted to contact any distributors yet to discuss the options.  That said, if and when the time comes I would likely lean towards a digital release in order to keep costs low.

On 5/21/2023 at 9:20 AM, SlidellMan said:

As someone who has used AI art generators on Discord, I can say with confidence that it is great for coming up with fake movie screenshots, character designs, and color palettes. However, as I said previously, it is severely limited and the end user still has to import into Photoshop, Paint.NET, GIMP, Krita, Open Canvas, et cetera to make corrections to what was generated. @OVERRiDE I can lead you to some pixel artists if you decide to make this a commercial product.

Thank you for the offer!  My problem with taking on an artist at this point in the project, is that in my experience artists expect to get paid from the beginning for their contributions. I am working on this because I want to do it, not because I expect to get paid for it.  If you have any artists that would be interested in helping the project out, without expectation of financial compensation, I would certainly love to hear from them!  Otherwise, its still too early for me to take on a paid resource to assist.

 

On 5/21/2023 at 6:01 AM, 42bs said:

I have no problem with AI generated graphics. Why not? It is just another tool. Some draw pictures pixel by pixel. Other take a photo and modify it to make it look as it was drawn pixel by pixel.

 

My only problem is to "see" in which Z level I am and where are the power ups.

 

Keep on!

Thanks, this is good feedback!  Currently you must get a feel for the scale of the objects to understand their z-position, after you've tried it a few times you get the feel for it.  I've also considered some color coding to make things easier to understand ( perhaps shading the objects lighter / darker depending on distance, for example )

Edited May 23, 2023 by OVERRiDE

[LordKraken]

Real nice start and this is a pretty good use of AI imo, although for having experimenting quite a bit with midjourney, I think it only works during prototyping.

 

Now on the unique feature of your game, i.e. movement depths, I'm a bit scared that it is going to make the game very hard to play. Always seeing the ground with projected shadows for all objects might help... But really looking forward to see how you're going to solve that problem

[walter_J64bit]

It looks like a Neo Geo game.