I think that the reason mlu 2 is failing and going very slow is because of having no graphics designer.

Without a new graphics designer there will not be much process and whatever version of the game you are playing it will all look the same.

This means that there will not be many new features or adventures added into any future versions of the game. There will not be any new minerals unless they look exactly the same as the previous ones.

Now is the time that we have had our fun with mlu and if you really want this game to continue you need to become a part of the mlu maker's team. The mlu maker's team has one person currently which is alexxz4.

So if you want to help start posting your own art onto this topic. You can have anything such as a new title screen, new environment settings, new elements, new gadgets, New upgrades, New "weapons", New secrets, New message screens... New Anything.

Just make sure everything is your own work. This means DO NOT take something off google images and slightly edit it and then upload it onto this forum. I mean make everything from scratch. If you do start copying stuff from others we risk losing mlu forever or you might make alexxz4 have to pay a copyright fine.

Don't think your own work is crap! All you need is the right tools and a bit of creativity. There are many ways to design your art. Each program that you use will have its own limitations. Not all of these programs cost money but its best to use professional ones. If you don't know where to start AVOID "Microsoft Paint" This is the reason most people fail. Instead of paint use graphics gal free edition or something else as paint is not going to get you far although if you have practice with paint you can create OK sorta work but just avoid paint if you can.

Here is something to get your imaginations going and to show that you don't have to be a professional to make good graphic's.



This picture was made by me from scratch. It took about 1 hour but looks quite good.

Now this picture only serves one purpose which is to introduce a new element i want to add into the game. "molten rock"
Molten rock remains solid and does not cause much harm unless you drill into it or it falls(like the current rock in mlu 2)
If drilled into it will turn into lava and flow everywhere.
If it falls down when you drill under it, it will also fall then flow everywhere.

Anyway the rock is the only thing being "added" to the game unless you wanted the background to sorta become the title screen.

Now This was done in a professional program called "Adobe Fireworks CS4" which is not free.

But the point is I am not a professional graphics designer or anything like that. I am just a normal 15 year old who goes to a expensive school. ($8000 per year) This school does not specialize in technology or computers it is more christian based.

Just know that i can not be the new Graphics designer and do everything and i am limited in what i am do. I really specialize so far in a few area's so that's why we need more people.

I am good at:
>some environment things such as smoke or clouds.
>menus or display screens

I am bad at:
>Gadgets
>Ships
>animation

I made this picture with not much trouble it just took me a bit of time.

If i can do this everyone on the forums can.

So show alexxz4 what you have got and maybe he will add what you want into the game.

NOTE: I have not been told to say this i have nothing to do with alexxz4 i just felt mlu needed to be saved.

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Just make sure everything is your own work. This means DO NOT take something off google images and slightly edit it and then upload it onto this forum. I mean make everything from scratch. If you do start copying stuff from others we risk losing mlu forever or you might make alexxz4 have to pay a copyright fine.

Well, about half of the minerals are from the wikipedia or images.google.com. Here are few examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Native_gold_nuggets.jpg
http://www.mii.org/Minerals/Minpics1/Marble.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Platinum_nuggets.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plutonium_pellet.jpg
And that was when I still had Sethness as my graphics designer. I really do not care if you rip graphics from the web if they are good. (Btw, I got the intro ship from Mars Miner). I havent received any copyright complains so far, so why be so careful. Of course if you could come up with something better than you could find online, then be my guest.

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Not all of these programs cost money but its best to use professional ones. If you don't know where to start AVOID "Microsoft Paint"

Well, there are still good uses for MS Paint, like pixel-level editing and background cancelation. Plus it is very fast, unlike all those flashy Photoshops and GIMPs.

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There will not be any new minerals unless they look exactly the same as the previous ones.

Well, it is not like I can not add effects to an image, like glow, color tone, contrast, alpha values. So I can add new minerals no problem, when I need to add one to the game.

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Now this picture only serves one purpose which is to introduce a new element i want to add into the game. "molten rock"

It looks good, except it is 1.7 MB (you could do much better with PNG and even better with JPEG). I really can not afford to spare 1.7MB of memory for something you will only see once. Plus, the graphics need to have the same style as already in the game.

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I am good at: >some environment things such as smoke or clouds. >menus or display screens

Well, you could do the pop-up information windows and gadget deployment pop-up panel like this (http://mlu.site50.net/images/gadgetpopup.png). You click on the gadget button and a panel pops up with all the gadgets (the icons will be over the rounded rectangle) and you can deploy a gadget by clicking on it.

Ok alexxz4 i can do that gadget popup easyily just tell me what you want the resolution to be and i will make it better.

Ok well i did not not what size to do it but just look at this pic and if you like the design and everything about it i will upload just the gadgets panel for you so you can put it into the game

Well, that drawing I made was just to illustrate my point. You didn't have to use the same design.
The gadget button should be smaller and more on the dashboard.
Plus, there are 11 deployable gadgets, not 7 (i just was lasy drawing all 11 on the diagram)

happy now?

That look creepy-alien-like. Anyways, make it straight upwards like the original. It should stretch from the dashboard all the way to the top, with spaces for 11 gadgets. The gadget button should be smaller with rounded corners. It should not cover the money gage.
Anyways, if you can't do the button, just do the panel.

ok If I have to do this one more time i will die...



As you can see the main problem is the room issues
Not much room for pannel.
No room for button

ok, thats enough for now. Just post all the images alone, I'll adjust them to what I need.

Don't worry bout the button because there are too many space issues maybe just make it pop up by pressing g...

The image should have transparency. As of right now it has a white background.

no i can't do that i have tried turning off background and having it clear but that does not work it is so annoying...

you may need to cut around it or something.

It has a shadow that is part of it but the shadow can not be removed.. It is an auto stupid shadow.

it is a variable transparency, but the png is flattened out so it is all lost. I am sure fireworks has a way to export as a PNG with alpha.
Anyways, I'll remove the shadow myself, so it would look fine.

I got MS paint skills, so if you need something small(like 32 x 32), I'll see what i can do.
BTW i got an idea about molten rock.

I'm almost finished with integrating the panel. I'm having problem with positioning though. The green rounded rectangle are not located at uniform distances from top, which complicates it a bit since I have to adjust each individually.
Anyways, here is what it looks like
http://mlu.site50.net/MLU2.jar
Comment if you find it useful (or not)...  

--Last edited by alexxz4 on 2009-08-03 20:37:17 --

its great in the game...

i just think that they are a bit small but they look great and i really would be useful for people who hate remembering keys you have to press.

For me its not that usfull since i really don't recognize the icons that well.

It would be nice if each one had text below them saying what they are.