Lesson Three: Creating a freestyle adventure
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/0nfchyu53t95o5l/God-School01.png?raw=1)
"Welcome to
The Freeheart Fantasy Guide! My name is
Hastur and I'll be trying to give you some tips and advice for you to create the most awesome, inventive and unexpected adventures!"
"This lesson will be divided in two. Each one will have a separate assignment, so stay on your toes!"
"As you can see, we have six subject you will be addressing with me:"
- Making the basic art that will be needed
- Drawing keeping in mind movement and edition
- Think about points of view
- Add side-characters to the mix
- Dealing with replies
- Taking the passenger seat
"But enough introductions! Let get this started!"
3.1 Making the basic art that will be needed
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/qrzpwjxyoimkpqp/God-School02.png?raw=1)
"First we will take a look at the things we are going to need to do before starting our freestyle adventure."
"We are talking, as you know, about games with images. In the previous lessons you've learned about drawing and layers. Now let's try to get real and use that knowledge to craft our own worlds and characters!"
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/asfo87abuss5mbb/God-School03.png?raw=1)
"One of the most important decisions is the size of our layout. I usually prefer nothing north of 650px wide (to avoid cropping and large file sizes). This will not only help the forum but also the users with slow connections or that access the forum via smartphone. Remember to keep it RGB (
NOT CMYK, as that's for printers) and you are done."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/fnr6otk0z7o79zh/God-School04.png?raw=1)
"To loosen up is always nice to draw some lines and get the feel of the tool you are using (either a mouse or a digital pen)."
"This is a good stage to decide HOW we will go about things in our adventure. Remember that freestyle adventures don't have many templates that you can use over and over for long. So choose a tool and style that you feel comfortable with and that gives you enough freedom to draw from a dragon to a cup of tea. From a cave to a castle. You get the idea."
"Either geometric and hand-drawn have pros and cons. Just go with what you feel is right and everything will be fine."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/rdhor76vjtjs0o5/God-School05.png?raw=1)
"Remember to zoom in a out to see how things will look when you have to make them bigger or smaller. Keep in mind the 100% zoom level because that's how it will be actually seen. Don't stay too much in 200% or higher zoom levels, or could you end up losing perspective of what you are actually trying to accomplish."
"Now, do you see all these pixels right beside me? That's good. In fact, that's just what we need. I HIGHLY recommend avoiding the BRUSH tool for this kind of games. You will have to make a lot of art for a freestyle game, and the pencil will give you the workspeed and precision you are going to need for this."
"What? You WANT to use the brush? Here, I'll show you why I don't think it's a good idea."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/caj24duv2fb7r3k/God-School06.png?raw=1)
"As
you've seen before, brushes can cause some trouble. Here's another example: Let's say you have to draw a very mean orc about to punch your main character. The action scene is quite long to draw and you need more than one frame to explain what's going on. So you have to do it fast."
"Notice how in the brush example the green skin does not quite merge with the black lines of the drawing? Well, as you already know that's because using the paint bucket with the brush tool usually ends in trouble. Explaining why, how it works and what needs to be done to make it look awesome instead is far beyond the intentions of this lesson, but it's enough to say that using the brush takes more time than what you will have to run a game like this."
"So, my advice? Go with the pencil tool."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/h13jhsw8ji10c5k/God-School07.png?raw=1)
"But how about your main character? You don't want to be spending time drawing him over and over with every update. Instead, it's a good idea to draw a few template poses and closeups that you can quickly edit later to make it easier for you."
"Main characters, side characters, items you are going to need, all that is a must. You should have them done before launching the game. Don't get too exited, though: you don't know where the adventure will actually go in a
freestyle game, so don't waste precious time drawing things that might not even appear in the story. Go with what you need for starters."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/0mrap6se9mj9fba/God-School08.png?raw=1)
"A few backgrounds are a good idea too. They will save you time, and you can place characters and items above them using layers for quick and great results."
"Using your time wisely is one of the best advises for running freestyle games."
3.2 Drawing keeping in mind movement and edition
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ut7yf4h2lj5f483/God-School11.png?raw=1)
"One of the best ways to save time and achieve awesome updates is to draw everything keeping in mind possible future editions and movement."
"This will surely make all our artwork gel together and in the same time, save us time to use it for more important things (like MORE ART)."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/jl9146733nzjkf2/God-School09.png?raw=1)
"See, here I'm showing my different face expressions. You will also notice that the sword on my back is changing with every pose. That's because the sword and the belt are on different layers. That would be really helpful if I, for example, lost my sword: instead of erasing or editing the image,
Arles would just have to hide my sword's layer!"
"I know
you've already experienced with layers, so let's focus on it's many uses in a freestyle game rather than explaining how they work."
"Oh, and you will also see my alternate style. Mmm, I don't look so bad in blue, huh? Anyway, this method of thinking and creating every part of the game will allow for quick changes and more time to focus in the main things."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/dc5gn9zhva13giq/God-School10.gif?raw=1)
"See? The magic of layers and careful planning!"
"Seriously though, if you draw keeping in mind possible character movement, changes in clothing, poses and background, things will be much easier in the end if a player wants to, say, use your own loincloth as a bandage."
3.3 Think about points of view
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/mhm9sju97ssonv7/God-School13.png?raw=1)
"Freestyle adventuring is about the story more than the mechanics. So you should try to exploit that and make your storytelling as awesome as possible. One way to do that is by mixing things up, changing points of view, camera angles, backgrounds, special effects, or whatever you think will make the readers go WOW!"
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/jhvrxmlih8yro4h/God-School12.gif?raw=1)
"You can really do whatever you please. Close-ups, takes from behind, from above, dark backgrounds, light backgrounds, general views, and the list goes on and on."
"Think about your game as a movie. And then tell yourself '
How can I make this scene look REALLY COOL?'- If you do that, a river of ideas will flow through your head."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/egho9pzc19jb35g/God-School14.png?raw=1)
"Keep different files for every point of view or major change. Layers can only do so much. Sometimes you need different files to keep yourself organized and sane."
"General-view, Close-up, From-behind, and so on."
"As you may have noticed, I use
.psd files because I work with
Adobe Photoshop. In your case, you might be more familiar with
Gimp, so
.xcf files will be your bread and butter."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/vb5rw0a8hn9shdf/God-School15.png?raw=1)
"Now let's say that you have a princess as a character. You mostly use a tiny sprite to place her in a background and make her interact with the world."
"But what if you need to show how beautiful she is? Or the shape of her headband. Or a gesture. For these things, a tiny sprite is not enough. Different angles, zoom distances and points of view will help you give meaning to what you are doing."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2432a3l909kzics/God-School16.png?raw=1)
"Don't be shy either! Did the main character just find the
Coolest War Horn in the region? Make him feel like it! Play with the background, with the position of the item and the colors. This little things can turn a dull moment into an exciting discovery!"
"Remember this: when you run a freestyle game you are telling a story. The more interesting it is, the better time the players will have helping you making it."
![Image](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/cg76ahmswe0v1jd/God-School17.png?raw=1)
"That's it for now, folks. Don't worry, we'll be back next week with the final part of the lesson."
"For now head to the
Assignment Thread and do your best to put to test what we have discussed here!"