To John Tiller Software - A appeal !

[wiggum]

Hi !

I know that wargames are not about fancy graphics but...

I can see the effort that goes into the OOB and the Scenario design but the graphics of the SB games are a shame !
I dont talk (or care) about the 3D stuff, only about the 2D graphics/artwork that look like they are from some old DOS game.

It starts with the game exe icon.
The RV icon is so butt ugly no sane person would put it on its desktop.
I created a new icon in one minute that looks much better:


It goes on with the firebase graphics that you see when calling in artillery.
They are just some pixelated black and white image.
Ever wondered why sometimes you only see a ugly pixelated grey wall in the artillery dialogue ?
Because a section from the picture gets chosen randomly, thats why the clouds and water.bmp look like they do. It took me not even five minutes to create this by changing the bitmap:


Then you have stuff like the victory point graphics, they look like a strange shape from mars.
I created my own victory point graphics (every nation has a unique national symbol)...
Then you have the blankbox graphics, they look bad at standard FullHD screens because they repeat, with a bit effort you can create one that still looks nice !
Then you have the strangely colored counters and unitbox graphics. Baby blue german fallschirmjäger ?
The unitboxes look boring, i added some nice background image (every nation/branch has one that fits).
Or the vehicle counter graphics, they look awful !
They are way to small and sometimes flawed, missing the pixels for the tank cannons...

As you may can see i also use some mods created by the community and took some ideas and graphics from the great MapMod.
This guy did the official artwork for East Prussia '14 and France'14 !
So it looks like John Tiller Software is finally starting to use some proper artwork, at least for the "Panzer Campaigns" and "Panzer Battles" series.
But the new "Squad Battles" game "First World War" still uses the ragtag DOS style artwork of the other SB games....

John Tiller Software, please put some more work and love into your 2D graphics and the artwork of your "Squad Battles" games !
Its a disrespect to your customers who pay 40$ for the games to use such flawed (in some parts) and ugly artwork...we have the year 2014 !
Even 2D wargames can and should (!) look decent and modern !
It should be easy to give the "Squad Battles" games a graphic overhaul, maybe pay the MapMod designer...your customers also have to pay...

It would be nice to get some official response to this, thanks.

[Richie61]

Nice vehicles

Tough when you only have a 35x35 and 98x89 pixel area to do images

[wiggum]

@ Richie61

Yes, the vehicles are from your RV mod, they are great.

But my post was not about all the community artwork mods but about the staggering lack of work JTS put into the Squad Battles artwork !
Just look at the example about the artillery dialogue...
They use the same flawed bitmap for all their Squad Battles games since ages !
Why ?
My only explanation is they just dont care, and thats a NO-GO for a 40$ game...even for a wargame !

[-72-]

http://grogheads.com/?p=6386#more-6386

If anyone is interested in how to proactively interact with the company.

[wiggum]

Sorry but i think this has nothing to do with playtesting.
As a company who wants to sell a product i should be able to provide some basic quality standard in terms of graphics/artwork.
As said already, there is a staggering lack of work JTS put into the Squad Battles artwork. Im not talking about spending thousands of dollars for designers. Im talking about basic stuff that anyone with a simple graphics editor can do in 1 hour !

And even if they had to spend 1000$ for a artwork designer.
This is 25 copy's of the game, thats nothing. Its a joke !
The artwork in some parts looks like someone with very limited skills did it in MS paint in a few hours.

Just as a example the flawed original artillery dialogue artwork compared to how it should look if done properly:

Flawed and ugly original:


Done properly (5 minutes and a basic graphic editor):

[-72-]

Um yeah right... I guess my point wasn't about there are several ways to interact with the company.

Although frankly the message that I posted was for anyone interested in interacting with the company, since I apparently had to spell things out.

[TheBigRedOne]

OK

I'm getting a little tired of this forum turning into the "bitching about JTS forum". If you have an issue with Tiller Software, including your dislike of his graphics (something we all do), direct an EMAIL to JTS, not here. Tiller is not on this site, Rich Hamilton is here sparingly. You will not get an official response to this post here no matter how much you think you are entitled.

Simple solution. You don't like the graphics, either find a mod, create an art mod, or stop buying the games. Either way, take it to JTS. This forum is not the place for rants like these, it isn't productive and no-one from JTS is going to reply to you here.