A lot of the game UI is built over top of still images - since I'm not an artist its the easiest way to get things looking decent.
I'm planning to get a few stock photos for the new version - didnt see any reason to hide the source & figured I'd throw the link up here for you to have a look:
https://www.shutterstock.com/search/aflPosting this for 2 reasons:
1 - to give people a chance to comment on what images they like the best and where abouts in the game you see them fitting?
2 - To see if we have anyone with a legal background here? AFL protect their IP really aggressively and for PC2011 I had lawyers involved to make sure I wasnt overstepping. I'm not sure that i buy the "worry-free licensing" claim on this site. As i understand it players own rights to their image, as the AFL owns rights to logos etc, and use of many of the images here (the ones with AFL players in them) would be a problem. Although being a not-for-profit project as PC2019 is would likely help here.
Some of the stuff i really like here is the more generic artist rendering/safe to use images anyway, so either way will find some images to change to look of the game and make it feel new/different to PC2011.
Heres some of my thoughts:
Live-action footy shots would be great if i can feel 100% confident on the legal side - until then leaving them out.
Some of the crowd/stadium images would be nice to include
Toying with moving the intro screen to use something like this:
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/aussie-rules-football-stadium-marked-green-710562838?src=cB7W_PvSFV4cT-ITy_v1_w-1-0Since i grew up playing footy in the country this is nostalgic. Might be able to find a home for it in the regional league screens spleplace:
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/afl-footy-field-pole-1152328151?src=cB7W_PvSFV4cT-ITy_v1_w-1-48Trophy cabinet might have a home. Sadly the crows cabinet doesnt look like this, but makes me wonder if we could split out the image to dynamically add trophies to some cabinet. Sounds very 90s-game ish but i always enjoyed the growing treasure-room image on Pirates way more than i should have as a kid. Getting bloody old.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/9-silver-cup-trophies-on-glass-1067247809?src=cB7W_PvSFV4cT-ITy_v1_w-1-82I like this, but have no idea where I'd put it. I've been guilty in the past for finding places in the game for graphics that looking back on PC2011 now didnt really fit (the graphing components i bought and got a bit carried away with)
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/icon-australian-rules-football-field-stadium-1171419325?src=cB7W_PvSFV4cT-ITy_v1_w-1-24