122 replies to this topic

[Taco Chopper]

My opinion.

I've been submitting "joke shots" since before Rover was born.

Me too. If people are overreacting now, like they did when Alison, Naldrag and I posted all those crappy joke shots in that one SotW earlier this year, then whatever. As far as I know (and care), it's just a fad. For everyone complaining about them, it'll be over eventually and you can continue submitting shots with scenery and what have you. For the people who are (I almost accidentally wrote whore because I type too fast) supporting them, fair enough. It's all opinion, and whinging about who's right and who's wrong over screenshots, of all things, isn't going to fix the world's problems. It's like comparing Big Scary Orderlies to the Beatles.

(no offence to BSO, but it's a fair comparison right)

[Lemon]

Did I hear a rhetorical question being asked? Away!

I don't even have words for this. How is this even contributory?

It's a general message to the state of affairs in the Screenshot of the Week thread and a plea to PureZc users as a whole to, as the poor kittens poor situation illustrates; hang in there. It's ridiculous, but so is the arguments/tirades being posted in here.


I do so ever hope Ventus wins. It bothers my eyes a lot that Twilights shot has more votes.

[Zelfore]

Twilight_Knight

Spoiler

First Thoughts: To be honest I find this screen to be rather confusing. (Not more than some others, but still)
Personal Opinion: The graphics are obviously nice and you can tell thought was put into the placement of some things. One odd thing I noticed was how the castle tower comes out taller than the rest of the castle; 5px compared to 4px. I'm guessing this is because it's supposed to reach the bottom level, but this doesn't work either because of the water flow, probably should've stuck gravel underneath.
Also, the character look like he's trying to dangle from the edge, I say 'trying' because his feet reach the bottom level; even is it's supposed to be the normal climbing method, it's not well expressed because of the cape.
Overall Rating: I'll give you a 6/10 for graphics.


Furion

Spoiler

It's a long story.

First Thoughts: Wait, where am I looking again?
Personal Opinion: Classic often has the minor problem of preventing proper detail, it looks like patches of grass stick out everywhere and...well yeah, they're just patches of grass. The water flow also seems a bit odd, I take it it goes through the cave and comes out the other end, but the waterfall looks too rapid for it to work.
Overall Rating: I'll give it a 6/10 for mountain placement.


Sheik91

Spoiler

Ceci n'est pas Magritte.

First Thoughts: LINKS, LINKS EVERYWHERE.
Personal Opinion: Hmm, looks like Link is stuck in a room that infinity plays back all his deaths in the area, how he ended up in the sky zone in the first place is a mystery.
Overall Rating: You get a 'Joke Tag' for the newest game invention of "Where's Linky".


Alison

Spoiler

Let me in, the voice cried softly, from outside the wooden door.
Scattered remnants of the ship could be seen in the distance,
Blood stained the icy wall of the shore.

First Thoughts: MAN, you're good! How did you make that realistic image of a woman?
Personal Opinion: I think navigating through this place would be fairly difficult, it looks like one of the screens where a glitch occurs and you have to figure your way out of randomness.
Overall Rating: You get a 'Joke Tag' as well, because of Random Butterfly! *floats away*


ChunkeM0nkey

Spoiler

First Thoughts: Looks fun, when can I play?
Personal Opinion: The placement of the object and terrain work together rather well, the overall natural look is very nice. The biggest problem is the enemies, not just the koopa but the goombas also don't fit properly with the style for some reason.
Overall Rating: Here's 5.5/10 because I know this dude.


Ventus

Spoiler

As link looks at the looming tower he thinks (how will I conquer this tower Piercing the heavens)

First Thoughts: I can't see! *scree~ech* *crash*
Personal Opinion: I actually like this alot, and the rain doesn't actually effect it too much; it's just that the main attraction IS effected. The blue bricks of the tower is being greatly obstructed by the rain, it just reflects too much off of it. There's also the choice in cloud design, I've never seen clouds so small and in a perfect line like that. Just be more creative!
Overall Rating: I'll give you a 7/10 for the looming feeling. "Oo~ooh, Shivers!"


blackbishop89

Spoiler

Emptiness... is a very bad feeling.

First Thoughts: It's missing something. *taps chin*
Personal Opinion: I think it's lacking in realism, if you were trapped in a cave in the middle of the night with no way out, why would someone say "This screen is empty."? Is it your self-concise telling you you're doomed? Are you imagining someone smiling or is it to express the joy in their voice?
Overall Rating: You've earned the 'Joke Tag'. Still too many questions left unanswered. *ponders life*


Adem

Spoiler

I was worried there wouldn't be any real gameplay shots.

First Thoughts: I like the house, did you make that or was it borrowed by somebody?
Personal Opinion: It reminds me alot of the beginning screen for the original LoZ. The simplicity actually works very nicely here, I love how you can't see the current items you're using. (Shiny buttons!) The biggest problem is the square water, and even THEN it somehow fits, I just can't explain it!
Overall Rating: 8/10 for simplicity and common sense!


William

Spoiler

I like donuts and trolling. Oh and sodomy too.

First Thoughts: This screenshot, it speaks to me.
Personal Opinion: The interchanging of the colors in the tree looks beautiful along with the compliments of blue through it all. The links seem rather excessive, otherwise great pic!
Overall Rating: Please take this 'Joke Tag', you and your mule have earned it.


Shane

Spoiler

Her iz my screne from my new quests "links in water land world". Im defntately gona finish thiss quest so everon shuld be exited

First Thoughts: Huh, well that's new. Wizrobe statues, why didn't I think of that!?
Personal Opinion: The tile placement seems to odd, and it's hard to tell if link is standing of the water or black tile, or if that's even really him. The statues should also have some variety, maybe make them face the opposite direction or even downwards. It also seems odd to see trees and bushes so close to the ocean, even blindingly green ones.
Overall Rating: Here is a 'Joke Tag'. Good luck on your quest!


Pokemonmaster64

Spoiler

I think I got DoR's complicated palettes understood. Now to figure out those mountains.

First Thoughts: I'll be honest, I frickin' love this!
Personal Opinion: The color choices actually caught my attention immediately, it didn't even cross my mind of being a joke shot until you said it. I'm not even sure the full reason why I like it, but I do. The only problem was...I thought the water was mountain at first...yeah. Ground design isn't even needed for this masterpiece, its already got my vote.
Overall Rating: Take this 9/10 along with my Vote, for originality and color display.


Robin

Spoiler

DID WE DIE IN CHRIST AND RISE WITH HIM A NEW CREATION?

First Thoughts: Hulla-guh ba-what?
Personal Opinion: Uhm...? Other than the lack of shading on the faces it's a very nice compilation of the same sprite. Ah...- Keep up the good work?
Overall Rating: It's dangerous to go alone, take this 'Joke Tag'.


Dawnlight

Spoiler

The real joke here is where that stupid switch is.

First Thoughts: Nice dungeon, too many colors. o_@
Personal Opinion: I really do like the layout and design of this place, but there's just too many colors going on; dark gray, light gray, tan, brown, red, blue and green? I think you need a more select choice of colors, the tans and grays are fine but maybe allow more spacing, one screen shouldn't hold so many differences. Also choose between blue or red, the green is fine and perfectly natural but you should consider replacing those vines with more tarps, perhaps replace the tarps with more vines?
Overall Rating: You're worthy of this 7.5/10, didn't pass the bill but you made it up the hill.


Ebola Zaire

Spoiler

[3:52:31 PM] Alison: i got killed by a gun
[3:52:35 PM] Alison: called The Elements of Harmony
[3:52:36 PM] Alison: i quit

First Thoughts: He's so getting hit. -_- Hey! A mountain made bridge!
Personal Opinion: Color and design fit very nicely here, enemy and object placement are well thought out, and I love how the borders and pedestals mix with everything overall. I'm actually okay with the bridge for the most part, but if you're going to add darkness to the water, I feel the mountain bottom should share in that, it looks too unnatural otherwise.
Overall Rating: Please accept this 8/10 for a job well done! (But not quite perfect. =I)

 [/hr]
Lo and behold my first critique, one of many to come!
First I'd like to note that none of my comments are sarcasm, maybe overblown or hyped, but not sarcastic.
I look forward to reviewing everyones pics next week, til then, adios!

[Russ]

It reminds me alot of the beginning screen for the original LoZ.

Oh my gosh. Rem, what have you done!? That's... genius... I knew there was some reason I liked that screen so much. Dang, I'd change my vote now if I could. Congrats on having it be so subtle! Genius...

[NoeL]

Woah, Zelfore! Epic first post Welcome.

[Red Phazon]

I liked many of the shots this week, and am stunned at how many there were to choose from. I don't recall seeing this many shots in quite a long time (Of course, I'm not on PZC too often, but still.)

Woah, Zelfore! Epic first post Welcome.

Epic first post indeed! Also, welcome.

[Radien]

For those of you -- I forget who, and I don't really care -- who argued that we should just ignore the joke shots, fine. I am now ignoring the joke shots. But that also means I am going to ignore 1.) the people who think they are clever and making a point, and 2.) the arguments of everybody who submitted a joke shot but wouldn't admit it.

To those people, I would like to introduce you all to a nice wall over here. It would be more than happy to listen to your retorts, and I invite you to feel oh-so-clever as you type them. Perhaps you'll even be able to fit another captioned 4chan macro image in there somewhere.

That's also a good suggestion and thanks for the comment as well. I intended to release a screenshot of an area I haven't shown publicly yet (good joke opportunity here!). Sadly this place doesn't have that much screenshot occasions and I thought this was one of the better screens to show (the others are mostly houses and castle walls, I prefer functional towns, and not the flashy pretty ones).
Thanks for the comment!

Well, one thing about Screenshot of the Week is that it only captures a tiny fraction of the whole. For comparison, Link to the Past was at least decent in the graphical respect, but a large number of the individual screenshots you might capture from the game are EXTREMELY dull. That's what happens when you zoom in too much on something that's meant to be viewed from a distance. Zoom in too close on a garden, and all you see might be a patch of dirt.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is this: don't break your back trying to get "that perfect shot" if you're happy with the area as a whole. I can see how it's a pretty expansive castle and the design flow won't always lead to screens that stand perfectly on their own.

Also, I agree, towns do not need to be flashy as a rule. They serve a very simple purpose, and it's okay to make them efficient and simple.



Okay, I'm calling it quits for this thread. I've been waiting for an opportunity to break my long, long absence from this contest with a shot from Awakening Courage, but I would rather not come back to see something like this again. Maybe I will enter next week. Or maybe I'll wait until the week after that. We'll see.

[Sheik]

I sense a great lack of artistic education. Go get a book about / that features René Magritte (or google it at least, because these days google > education, it sadly seems), who was one of the greatest surrealists. Even greater than Salvador Dali in my opinion.
Rover inspired my screen, but I did not recyle "his bad joke" or whatever it was you were saying. I created an homage to Z1, René Magritte (Rover, old school video games and Pop Art maybe even).

[Christian]

Are you kidding me? Like seriously. What has SOTW come too? Even though Ebola came close second for a vote, i ended up not voting for anyone.

Edited by Christian, 03 October 2011 - 07:15 AM.

[William]

William - F
I know where this screen came out of.

That was actually pretty clever; ironically it's pretty true!

Given what's on the screen, I feel it appropriate to ask: "What is this s***?" 1/10

Read above quote^

Think the only people doing wrong here are those telling others what to do.

QFT

William: Awful. I find this offensive.

Cool story, bro.

Anyway, Shane, when does that quest come out? I'm really looking forward to it. I've never played a quest in "water land world", so this'll be my first.

[Shane]

Made 6 overworld screens so far. Making those type of overworld shots are to much effort for me so the release date might be 2018. Who knows, maybe you get it a year early.

But dungeons, there going to be soooo hard when it comes to detail.

lol

Also btw, I voted for Dawnlight nice colours, details etc.

Edited by Shane, 03 October 2011 - 08:05 AM.

[Dawnlight]

Dawnlight

Spoiler

The real joke here is where that stupid switch is.

First Thoughts: Nice dungeon, too many colors. o_@
Personal Opinion: I really do like the layout and design of this place, but there's just too many colors going on; dark gray, light gray, tan, brown, red, blue and green? I think you need a more select choice of colors, the tans and grays are fine but maybe allow more spacing, one screen shouldn't hold so many differences. Also choose between blue or red, the green is fine and perfectly natural but you should consider replacing those vines with more tarps, perhaps replace the tarps with more vines?
Overall Rating: You're worthy of this 7.5/10, didn't pass the bill but you made it up the hill.

First off, welcome to PureZC . I was trying to avoid having a repetitive use of color in my dungeon screens. The dungeon itself is mostly tan walls with blue floors. I was trying to have color variety, but not go overboard. You are right that having so much variety is not always a good thing.

[Moosh]

Pokemonmaster64

Spoiler

I think I got DoR's complicated palettes understood. Now to figure out those mountains.

First Thoughts: I'll be honest, I frickin' love this!
Personal Opinion: The color choices actually caught my attention immediately, it didn't even cross my mind of being a joke shot until you said it. I'm not even sure the full reason why I like it, but I do. The only problem was...I thought the water was mountain at first...yeah. Ground design isn't even needed for this masterpiece, its already got my vote.
Overall Rating: Take this 9/10 along with my Vote, for originality and color display.

You have made a powerful ally on this day...

In all seriousness, though. Welcome to PureZC! Glad you liked my screenshot!

[Mitchfork]

They could, however, kill him. That would stop him from appearing in movies. The solution is so clear to me now.

Once again, Timothy McCorgi wins Post of the Year. It was a close race and I'd like to congratulate all of our other contestants for putting up a good fight; remember that we'll be having the same contest next year, so keep that quality coming!


Twilight_Knight
Not bad. I wish that the castle walls looked more like they were following the height curvatures of the hill. I think a small edit to the tile would make it look a lot better. Otherwise it's kind of a bare shot but that's probably the feel you were going for.
Furion
Way too much going on here. The ground detail seems pretty random and I think a cleaner approach would have looked miles better. I'm also concerned about the ground detail obscuring enemies and creating gameplay problems.
Sheik91
My favorite non-standard shot this week. I appreciate the structure in it and in terms of colors it's really aesthetically pleasing. Plus, I could actually see this being used in a quest as a dream sequence or something. It could be really cool if you animated the Link sprites to spin or bob up and down or something.
Alison
Pretentious hipster garbage. Can't believe anybody buys this indie folk shtick. I do rather like Spiderland though.
ChunkeM0nkey
Looks cool, keep up the good work. Not really much else to say unfortunately; I think on another week this would have got more attention.
Ventus
Can't really see what's going on because of the rain. I'm sure that it looks better animated. I'd encourage you to not put those clouds in a straihgt line on top, it would look really good having them in a more random orientation.
blackbichop89
It's not empty though.
Adem
Why are there Tektites in Kakariko Village?!?!?!! Otherwise this is an okay GameBoy shot. I'd encourage you to use more ground detail (the tops of those lower cliffs are really barren). Also there are border shots that you can use for the water (see William's shot).
William
A SS what? What did the SS do?!?!
Shane
Definitely bad (that's one achievement down) but lacking in vision. If you're going to make a "water world" I at least want a Kevin Costner reference.
Pokemonmaster64
This screen wasn't as bad as it could have been; however, it could have been a lot worse. The irony of using the mountains correctly was not lost on me. The trippy palette does not improve this screen.
Robin
I have seen the light.
Dawnlight
Really solid screen. I think it flows pretty well and even though there's not a whole lot going on in this screen in terms of gameplay, it looks interesting. The only thing that I'll point out is that you might want to consider not using the floor borders around the snakey fence/wall thingy on the right side of the screen. Too many floor borders really make a screen look busy, and sometimes hard to figure out at a glance.
Ebola Zaire

Ebola: I love it. Especially the effect with the river flowing under the mountain. My only complaint is the bottom right makes the perspective a bit confusing for a few moments.

If you could see where that mountain hits the water, it would probably make a lot more sense, but I was really running out of space. Thanks for the comments anyway.

Ebola Zaire
That's cool. Nice caption and dmap title. We need to finish this quest sometime~ 6

We really do, tell Robin to stop working on his stupid real game.

Honestly, literally, absolutely no complaints. To me, this screen is perfect. 10/10 and vote.

Appreciated.

Ebola Zaire: I think I see what you were trying to do making a natural bridge over the water,
but without foamy water borders, I can't tell when the cliffs are touching the water and when they aren't.

Probably a valid criticism. I'll look into seeing what the tileset offers.

Ebola Zaire
WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY, GOOD NIGHT.
$3.02

There's no windmill on my screen.

Ebola Zaire - A-
Well designed down to every detail, and you know how to make something that is otherwise ordinary look very interesting. Props for that.

Much appreciated, even though I didn't earn your vote.

Ebola Zaire
First Thoughts: He's so getting hit. -_- Hey! A mountain made bridge!
Personal Opinion: Color and design fit very nicely here, enemy and object placement are well thought out, and I love how the borders and pedestals mix with everything overall. I'm actually okay with the bridge for the most part, but if you're going to add darkness to the water, I feel the mountain bottom should share in that, it looks too unnatural otherwise.
Overall Rating: Please accept this 8/10 for a job well done! (But not quite perfect. =I)

I see what you're saying, but that's really over-complicating the tileset. Valid criticism, I just probably won't do anything about it.

[Ventus]

Ventus ~(Zelfore @ Oct 3 2011, 12:13 AM)~

Spoiler

As link looks at the looming tower he thinks (how will I conquer this tower Piercing the heavens)

First Thoughts: I can't see! *scree~ech* *crash*
Personal Opinion: I actually like this alot, and the rain doesn't actually effect it too much; it's just that the main attraction IS effected. The blue bricks of the tower is being greatly obstructed by the rain, it just reflects too much off of it. There's also the choice in cloud design, I've never seen clouds so small and in a perfect line like that. Just be more creative!
Overall Rating: I'll give you a 7/10 for the looming feeling. "Oo~ooh, Shivers!"

Ventus
Can't really see what's going on because of the rain. I'm sure that it looks better animated. I'd encourage you to not put those clouds in a straihgt line on top, it would look really good having them in a more random orientation.

Okay thanks for some input on this

Yeah it looks Better in Zc then here.
And the clouds I'm working on Since they are just Prototype Clouds

I see now where i must Improve "making clouds and work on better rain
That does not make the screen hard to see

Thanks all who gave Input

And also Welcome Zelfore Enjoy Criticing everyone's Screenshots
And congrats On first EPIC post