NicBoone- spriter Application

[Nicboone]

Byond ID:
Nicboone

Age:
25

Gender:
N/A

How would you define yourself? (Coder, Mapper, Spriter):

I work as an artist, I could probably do some spriting as a hobby

If Coder, what languages?
None

Any previous experience developing with SS13?
None

Proof of any previous or current work:
These are examples of my work, I dont really have any sprite stuff up- i mostly work freelance illustration, but Im confident spriting wont be an issue.

https://www.instagram.com/artofnicboone/
or my website
http://www.nicboone.com/portfolio.php

How well do you know Git?
Passing knowledge of it, have used it before

Your primary job is server development, not policing the server. You may be given Moderator-level of access but you should *not* be invoking any administrative actions unless there are no moderators or Admins online. Do you understand? (Yes/No)
Yes

Anything else you'd like to add?

considered adding an application for moderator as well, But I felt I should probably try this out first. Id like to show the server some support, and seeing as donations are currently closed- this fits the bill. Id also like to add that a donation shop would be great, and custom items, while super cool, could totally be raised in price slightly to make room for the shop.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

You definitely have a lot of talent. I'm very impressed.

What areas would you be interested in working on? We've definitely got a lot of things to do, and we're definitely interested in new help! ☺

[Nicboone]

You definitely have a lot of talent. I'm very impressed.

What areas would you be interested in working on? We've definitely got a lot of things to do, and we're definitely interested in new help! ☺

hey thanks, I appreciate that!

I suppose I could do gear and character related sprites, I could do map stuff, but Id prefer gear and character stuff. Id need to know the specs of what youll need- file types, sizes, etc- but if you have a list of things you need, maybe i could use them as a test?

[McRipfist]

Who do you play IC? I base everything I know off of how people are IC.

[Nicboone]

Who do you play IC? I base everything I know off of how people are IC.

IC I am Nic 'Rare' Redax. Been meaning to make an ID like yours but never got around to it.

[Gorglol]

Cool stuff! You seem to have a good grasp of color theory and shape in general. I doubt you'll have much issues making good palettes for them sprites

[Nicboone]

Cool stuff! You seem to have a good grasp of color theory and shape in general. I doubt you'll have much issues making good palettes for them sprites

Hey thanks Gorglol, im glad you think so!

[NescauComToddy]

Impressive, indeed! You have a lot of talent In the art of drawing, even more than most professionals I know these days.

The dev team will always be happy to have more people In It, particularly someone with your skill.

[Feweh]

I like your character in-game and never had problems with you.

[Nicboone]

@feweh, thats great to hear- tbh i wasnt sure people knew me, ive been making an attempt to improve the rp and robustness lately


@NescauComToddy, Thats sweet of you, thanks

[apophis775]

We'll get this reviewed by our Dev Team as soon as we can. Dev is on a little bit of a "break" ATM for "mid-terms" (many of our devs are students) but should pick back up shortly.

[Nicboone]

We'll get this reviewed by our Dev Team as soon as we can. Dev is on a little bit of a "break" ATM for "mid-terms" (many of our devs are students) but should pick back up shortly.

great- thanks apop

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

hey thanks, I appreciate that!

I suppose I could do gear and character related sprites, I could do map stuff, but Id prefer gear and character stuff. Id need to know the specs of what youll need- file types, sizes, etc- but if you have a list of things you need, maybe i could use them as a test?

Sprites in BYOND are typically limited to 32x32 palettes. That means 32 pixels wide, and 32 pixels tall. Typically we aim for even smaller than this: 15x20 seems to be the average size of an object in game.

Interestingly enough, we've actually got a checklist we can send you of some new stuff we're hoping to replace and add. The checklist also has two paragraphs also loosely detail some guidelines. Typically we deal in .DMI files, but for now .pngs work fine. .pngs can very easily be imported into DMIs.

[Nicboone]

sounds good to me- I mainly use photoshop, but im sure i can find a program to convert PNG files to DMI on google or something.

Please do, if you PM me, I can provide my email so you can send me the list and styleguide- I am also on discord if that works better for you.

[forwardslashN]

Your artwork is very impressive, and you certainly skilled. I do have a few questions I like to ask anyone applying: If you had to change one aspect of CM, art, music, gameplay, or anything, what would it be? What aspect of the game do you enjoy the most right currently and why? If you were given a chance to work on CM, what do you think you'd be interested in working on right away/long term? Finally, have you seen any of the Predator/Alien movies, and which one would you say is your favorite and why? Thanks for applying, and I look forward to hearing from you.

[Nicboone]

Your artwork is very impressive, and you certainly skilled. I do have a few questions I like to ask anyone applying: If you had to change one aspect of CM, art, music, gameplay, or anything, what would it be? What aspect of the game do you enjoy the most right currently and why? If you were given a chance to work on CM, what do you think you'd be interested in working on right away/long term? Finally, have you seen any of the Predator/Alien movies, and which one would you say is your favorite and why? Thanks for applying, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks Forward! to answer your questions;
theres a few things id like to change honestly. In my heart of hearts, I would have loved this game to have worked in anything but byond. Im well aware that simply isnt possible, but byond is a huge hinderance to both cm and the rest of the ss13 games. I think id love to see some art updated for the intro screen. Its one of those things where there is a lot to love, and a lot of things that byond limits as well that makes the barrier to entry kind of high. I pretty sure I couldnt choose just one, I have talked with some people at great length about this very thing IRL. Ive given a lot of thought to how things work, and if its even possible to emulate in other experiences without the complexity. For now, because im an artist, lets just say art. Its what im best at- even if i love to talk shop about design.

The part of cm I like the most, believe it or not, is how real it all feels when you finish. The having to suit up and arm, the large teams working together, the first time you hit the planet, the final fights you have. It really amazes me how many times ive felt strong emotions with a game built with such limitations. Theres something very real about the complexity and freedom of the game that most games, even triple A studios have failed to capture.

If you guys bring me on, I really would like to play around with spriting gear and character related stuff. Both in the now and long term. While I can do map assets, I am not quite as interested in them as I am in weapons, items, and character sprites.

I have seen literally every movie in that universe. I honestly kind of hated the predetor films....I REALLY hated the alien v pred films. But man, Alien and Aliens are some of my faves of all time. Its actually part of the reason I got into art and games.

Thanks for the time man, heres hoping I can join your ranks.

[Rahlzel]

Your artwork seems very inspired and is certainly intriguing.

I'm drawn to this one for some reason.

The helmets and suits imply they are astronauts or combatants of some kind, but I can't put my finger on the importance of the barcode on the man's neck with the receipts or papers flying in the air, one of which is not just taped but sealed with wax to the woman's back.

I'm very interested in knowing how this works and what it's about, and why this is significant of "Human Defeat".

On another note, Apophis is very interested in speaking with you, but he's on vacation until April 5th. Are you willing to hold out a little longer until then?

[Nicboone]

Your artwork seems very inspired and is certainly intriguing.

I'm drawn to this one for some reason.

The helmets and suits imply they are astronauts or combatants of some kind, but I can't put my finger on the importance of the barcode on the man's neck with the receipts or papers flying in the air, one of which is not just taped but sealed with wax to the woman's back.

I'm very interested in knowing how this works and what it's about, and why this is significant of "Human Defeat".

On another note, Apophis is very interested in speaking with you, but he's on vacation until April 5th. Are you willing to hold out a little longer until then?

Sure, im not in a huge rush- does he want to speak to me here or on another program[ discord/slack]?

the piece youre asking about was done for a game I worked on called "Uniwar". Its one of the endgame images you get if you lose as humans. weirdly enough, @elantzb and his girlfriend brij modelled for me on this one- he also plays here on CM.

I had this neat idea that maybe the amount of people going to whatever this war was is so high, that they leave the bodies there. So wherever they go, they keep a final will and letter to a loved one on them, placed on their armor with a special wax seal. I mostly liked this idea for the visual of "defeat" implying all those papers you see flying past them are another death, and the body count was super high. in retrospect, I think id probably would have liked to make this clearer, but there were certain constraints I had to work around.

[Rahlzel]

Ohhh cool! Knowing that those are wills makes perfect sense now. Their narrow width made them look like receipts of some kind, which might also have a deeper meaning if the point of the drawing is that the receipt givers (corporations) had won over humanity's wellbeing. The barcode on the man's neck being some kind of RFID chip implanted as a form of payment system when he was a child and he's now fighting against it.

I really enjoy artwork that makes me think. It's artwork like Duchamp's Fountain (an upside down urinal) that I outwardly despised in school to the inclusion of writing a paper in art class called "Fuck You" Art (I scored an A, oddly), which touches base on how artists are using lame, effortless ideas as a means of impression.

This is another good example of yours. At first glance I thought both hands belonged to the woman, but after a closer look I realized one hand belongs to someone else.

It's good to see that Duchamp is not the norm. You're combining thought and talent to make the viewer pause and think about what the inner meaning is. THAT is art.

Top marks.

[Nicboone]

Ohhh cool! Knowing that those are wills makes perfect sense now. Their narrow width made them look like receipts of some kind, which might also have a deeper meaning if the point of the drawing is that the receipt givers (corporations) had won over humanity's wellbeing. The barcode on the man's neck being some kind of RFID chip implanted as a form of payment system when he was a child and he's now fighting against it.

I really enjoy artwork that makes me think. It's artwork like Duchamp's Fountain (an upside down urinal) that I outwardly despised in school to the inclusion of writing a paper in art class called "Fuck You" Art (I scored an A, oddly), which touches base on how artists are using lame, effortless ideas as a means of impression.

This is another good example of yours. At first glance I thought both hands belonged to the woman, but after a closer look I realized one hand belongs to someone else.

It's good to see that Duchamp is not the norm. You're combining thought and talent to make the viewer pause and think about what the inner meaning is. THAT is art.

Top marks.

awh, thanks. Im still VERY early on in my career, even at 25 - i always hear that we shouldnt compare ourselves to the people who got the chance to start earlier, but sometimes that cant be helped. But it feels pretty good to hear all these positives from you guys.

[Desolane900]

sounds good to me- I mainly use photoshop, but im sure i can find a program to convert PNG files to DMI on google or something.

Please do, if you PM me, I can provide my email so you can send me the list and styleguide- I am also on discord if that works better for you.

DreamMaker has an import function you can use.

[Nicboone]

DreamMaker has an import function you can use.

rad, thanks. Ill have to go over the process the team uses once the verdict comes in

[apophis775]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I've been gone and then a bit busy catching back up.

Do you have some examples of sprites you can post or send me?

I was also wondering what you were looking to do with us. Also, You are an immensely skilled artist who could probably work on any server they wanted, so I was wondering, why us?

[Nicboone]

Hey Apop,

Yeah, Let me see if I could forward the sprites i did for joshuu in PM. Im out of the house right now and may need a few to dig it up.

Thanks for the compliment- Honestly, I played a few servers, but never had the fun I experienced here. I love the Alien franchise, and the community on this server has been the best ive encountered so far. From day one people have been very helpful, friendly, and fun- and honestly you are one of the only servers to weed out a LOT of toxic bullshit Ive seen around. A big draw for me was that I wanted to contribute here. Donations were closed, and I hear you guys could use some sprite work. I think its my way of trying to express gratitude and give something back for the experiences ive been having here, especially as its become pretty much the only server I play anymore.

Im pretty interested in doing Character related sprites, such as items, clothes, armor, etcetc- but am not opposed to anything in particular. Something I went over with joshuu was replacing the crate sprites, which im pretty stoked about.