In the TINS '08 thread Kibiz0r asked about the possibility of a TINS or Speedhack t-shirt being made available. Thomas Fjellstrom recommended we could add some designs to the Cafepress store's Allegro merchandise. I had forgotten there was Allegro clothing and merchandise available. More prominent links to the store would be nice, here at allegro.cc or on alleg.sourceforge.net and this could raise the proceeds and product awareness as well.

Long story short, here's my idea for an Allegro t-shirt design. If you have one you'd like to see for Allegro or one of the coding competitions, post it here!

I only have a layout design for now, and no example but I'll put something together tomorrow on the other computer as it has better design software on it.

Front :
(Allegro is underlined and is in a larger font size and slightly wider than the second line. The text area runs across the center of the chest.)

      Allegro
 Game Coding Library

Back :
(alleg.sourceforge.net runs across the shoulder blades and there is a grid of depot game screenshots underneath it with their titles - maybe 2X2 or 3X3 depending on what looks readable and nice)

alleg.sourceforge.net
 
  Game 1     Game 2

  Game 3     Game 4

Do we have an official slogan/motto or anything? Just for something to put under the logo/URL...

Perhaps "Log in, try to learn, and then give up after getting mocked by the regulars!"

"Hey now, play nice with the newbs. "

I would buy a speedhack shirt just so I could explain to people what it meant. People would just assume I was into music if I wore a shirt that said "Allegro".

With some proper designs I'll have a reason to reogranize the store

Can I get one of those "Event Staff" shirts? Even though I'm not event staff?

Thomas, do you know what kind of format it has to be in, and what size/resolution the design should be?

I've put together some screenshots of allegro games I like to play but I still need to fix up some of the pics of the game titles for transparency use. After that I can reformat/resize everything and make a composite image.

Are there accepted standard fonts I should use for the text on the front side of the shirt and for the url on the back?

Is anyone working on a design for TINS or SpeedHack or a different Allegro t-shirt? Let's hear your ideas, people!

The images for the dark tshirts seem to have a limit of 10x10 inches on the front at 100dpi minimum, pockets are 6x6 inches, both prefer 200dpi, the classic cap wants 200dpi minimum and 5x2" so It pretty much varies per item I think.

"Allegro. If at first you don't succeed, come to us."

Yikes! That's what I saw when I went to look at cafepress's men's t-shirts to get a blank white t-shirt picture front and back. I had to 'photoshop' a blank one up.

Here are some draft previews of my proposed t-shirt front and back :
Front :
{"name":"596041","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/4\/6\/46870817de104efd4550a24f63e06ca0.jpg","w":900,"h":900,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/4\/6\/46870817de104efd4550a24f63e06ca0"}
Back :
{"name":"596040","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/1\/2\/12a9bff1b223a2b9aef191e392407053.jpg","w":675,"h":675,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/1\/2\/12a9bff1b223a2b9aef191e392407053"}

No offense, but wearing that would be just... wrong.

There's nothing wrong with showing some pride in Allegro or the games people have made using it. If you're too ashamed of Allegro then don't buy one. If you don't have any constructive suggestions for t-shirt ideas, don't post here. If you have actual reasons you don't like it - ie. poor layout / you dislike the font choices / would like a different design - then you are welcome to post those concerns.

To those who are interested, here's the layout I used :
The image on the front is 10"X4" using the Eurostile font.
The image on the back is 10"X12" with the title text in High Tower Text font.
Each game in the grid got a 5"X5" area with a 4"X3" area for the pic and a 4"X2" area for the game title / logo. The title text on the back has a 10"X2" area.

I've made up some blank templates so I can alter things if I need to. Hopefully the 10"X12" area on the back won't be a problem - Thomas, can you verify the specs for the size on the back of a few different t-shirt styles? I made everything in 200dpi so hopefully the resolution will look good. That makes for 800px by 600px game pics which seems reasonable.

This design should look good on a white t-shirt but I would need to redesign it partially for the black texts on the front, the "HeroQuest" text and the title text on the back for dark colored t-shirts as those would disappear into the background.

If anyone likes the layout style of this t-shirt, I could redesign it for different groups of games given links to game pics in a 4:3 aspect ratio and game logos/titles in their respective fonts/designs.

So what does everyone think? Please be constructive, as comments like "That's teh suxorz!" are not welcome.

OK, no matter how you bullshit me here about pride in Allegro and the games people made. Wearing a T-Shirt about a game programming library just isn't right IMHO. I mean, I love programming, I love Allegro, but not to that extent that I would wear a T-shirt about it. I haven't totally been eaten by g33kiness. I bet most people here share my opinion.

So, to prevent you from saying this post isn't constructive, I'll bitch a little about the t-shirt. On the front, its too plain. Its just Allegro, game programming library. I admit, I didn't read what is possible to put on it, but we could at least put alex on there, or something more colorful, etc. Like this, its just too plain.

Behind, again, I don't know if its possible, but I wouldn't use plain square images, I would make them... I don't know how to put it. On the borders, they would not be edgy, and they would be blurred on the borders, so there wouldn't be such a definitive transition from picture to white. I would write the name of the games with the same font, not with pictures, it would look more uniform and that means it would look nicer IMO.

This is just my opinion, don't know if its possible, but, I think that way they would look better.

I'd wear an allegro t-shirt, but something simpler. Have some code on it or something.. maybe even just:

#include <allegro.h>

I have a T-shirt with an entire program coded on the back.

wearing a programming t shirt is just way too geeky

Thank you!

I'd wear the Alex t-shirt. The image could be even bigger. As it is now, it is so small it should be on the left side, not centered.
.

Put a screenhack entry on the back.

This is something I can actually work with, so thank you for that. As to what is possible to put on the shirt, whatever you can come up with is what we could put on it.

Here's a more colorful version of the front overlay, with some added text shadows :
{"name":"596044","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/4\/b\/4ba830eaf0bd36cbb0c2a5e626abcb44.jpg","w":2000,"h":800,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/4\/b\/4ba830eaf0bd36cbb0c2a5e626abcb44"}
Again, more ideas are always helpful.

Can you make a small example image to show me what your desired effect is?

I made up a small example of how it would look this way. Personally, I like the logos better as they help show more of the personality of the game and the time invested in them.

With text game titles in High Tower Text font (the text in the image scaled down very poorly)
{"name":"596045","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/5\/c\/5cfa74490fb9d7ed8e25b06126bc0b06.jpg","w":600,"h":600,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/5\/c\/5cfa74490fb9d7ed8e25b06126bc0b06"}

There are some images of A and Alex on this thread on Allegro logos if anyone wants to use it in their t-shirt design.

I'll be looking over http://cooltext.com/ to see if I can come up with some more ideas.

I don't like the screenshots on the back. I think a simple logo on the front and a screen hack entry on the back would be better.

I also am in favour of a screenhack entry somewhere on the shirt.
I would not buy a shirt about programming (or anything; I wear the plainest clothing I can get my hands on), but I think it would be cool nonetheless.

Here's another can of worms: Which screenhack entry gets to be on the back?

My vote's for Cursor*n.

Perhaps a design for the back that more people might find acceptable is a collection of 10 game logos - 2 across and 5 tall, from the top ten rated games on the depot. I'd need a list of the top ten most downloaded 5 star games first and then I could collect their logos and make a prototype t-shirt back. alleg.sourceforge.net would still be on the back in the same place.

Re : ScreenHack -
Did anyone ever vote for a winning program for ScreenHack '08?

I think it would be nice to have separate shirts - one for each competition , and maybe a couple designs for general Allegro t-shirts, instead of mixing a main allegro t-shirt with one of the competition t-shirts. Ie... If it's going to be a ScreenHack t-shirt, then on the front make it "Allegro ScreenHack" and not just "Allegro" by itself as ScreenHack only represents a part of Allegro and not the whole.

Sign me up for a Grozilla t-shirt!

Screenshots on a T-shirt? That's just weird...

From the statement "no screenshot, no download" also follows the opposite: "screenshot? download!"

But where do you put a download link on a T-shirt?

Edit: I like the idea of a TINS shirt though, maybe as a prize... Which of the TINS logo's do you think is most suited to be put on a shirt?

Visit http://allegshirt.net/1

If there were a TINS t-shirt as a prize for the competition, I would totally actually make an effort!

"I made a game in 72 hours and all I got was this lousy shirt!"

I'd buy it. Someone make it, please!

Why not? Part of the purpose / effect of a t-shirt is to advertise. The first thing people will think when they see "Allegro" is what's that? They get closer, then they read underneath it "Game Programming Library". Oh, that's cool, I've been studying programming, maybe that's worth checking out. I wonder if the library's any good? Then they get to see the back of the shirt with examples of the games on it and think hey, those games look pretty good, maybe I'll check out alleg.sourceforge.net. It could happen.

There could be a link to the depot on the back underneath the game pics.
www.allegro.cc/depot isn't too long.

I just think it would be nice if the people who see the Allegro t-shirt could see an example of what Allegro can do.

It only makes sense if you win it

Make the t-shirt and I will win. That is a guarantee, I swear it on my prized collection of Dragonball Z trading cards.

I don't walk around programming fairs all day.... 99% of people would ask me what a game programming library is.

It's a great way to meet people.

"What's a game programming library"
"It's a library for programming games"
SMACK

Reminds me of when I did Yahoo Hack Day, except I got two shirts.

What about an official TINS shirt?
On the front there would be a slogan, like "Make a computer game in 72 hours?".
And on the back something like
"TINS 2008
29.08. - 01.09.
<homepage url>"

The same thing for Speedhack of course.

I might wear a T-shirt with the Allegro logo tucked in a corner. I would not wear a T-shirt with some random screenshots on the back. My own maybe because I have some connection to them and at least I'll be able to respond to "why are you wearing a T-shirt with random screenshots of games no one has ever heard of" with "because I made those games myself." A selection of screenshots from the depot, I think, will always be too arbitrary to appeal to everyone, I think.
In general I prefer plain T-shirts anyway, so maybe my opinion doesn't count for too much here.

Nice, except I'd put the Allegro logo/mascot on the front.

Except you have the dates backwards. D:

Not in the rest of the world, mate.

How about the winner gets a t-shirt with a screenshot of his game on the back?

for free? how would that work?

It would be a prize for winning the competition...

What I wanted to say: Who pays for it?

I don't know, there was mention of giving a t-shirt as a prize before, I was just inputting my own idea.

CGamesPlay, with the Allegro bank account.

Or I would should the store get enough people buying stuff

All I need are some decent properly made images to slap on some merch...

Dude... That rocks! A game on a T-shirt I must be a total geek;D

So I have this to work with...

http://blog.bigcat.unimaas.nl/~martijn/tins08/tinslogo06.gif
http://amarillion.bafsoft.net/tins07/tins07_logo.png
http://amarillion.bafsoft.net/tins05/tinslogo05.gif
http://amarillion.bafsoft.net/tins/tinslogo.gif

And also maybe...

http://blog.bigcat.unimaas.nl/~martijn/tins08/left_border.gif

Which one do you like best?
Ideas?

The red design is the best IMO. That single block on the front, to the left of the shirt would look amazing.

I just want a shirt that says "TINS 08". When you suffix something with a year, it just makes it sound so exclusive.

It'd also be nice if it had a brief caption of what TINS is, like "TINS 08: 72-hour game coding competition" and on the back have the Allegro logo, or Allegro.cc or something.

Throw in a link to baf.cc for good measure as well.

Will they be available in "tall tee" sizes?

No. That'll encourage Allegroids to get some exercise so they are no longer "tall".

It seems like there is more interest in a TINS t-shirt than an Allegro shirt now so I cleaned up the background image from the TINS website and joined the two parts of it together to make a new image. The image is separated into layers - the background, the sprites in the foreground and their shadows beneath them. I guess regular png's can't contain layers so unless you have Microsoft Picture It! you won't be able to separate them yourself. Here's what it looks like :
http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/596098

The dithering was removed from the sprites because one part of the image was dithered and the other wasn't, and I picked out the background pattern that seemed to look the nicest at all viewing sizes. I transparently masked out the non-sprite pixels and remade the shadows underneath them.

If there is any more of the image around some where, I'll add it in to the remade image if you find/post it.

Here's the sprite overlay by itself :
http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/596099

I don't like the "Allegro game programing library" design, it is wrong! it couldn't be more wrong, it should be "Allegro Low Level Game Routines", instead. The recursive acronym is clear enough:

       Allegro
Low Level Game Routines

Oh cause Joe Schmo at the grocery store will totally see the recursive acronym!

Allegro should have been named Agaprol.

Anyone who doesn't see the recursiveness of the acronym obviously isn't cool enough to know about it anyway.

Here's a logo:

Allegro
Some of us probably hate you...

taking back my comments about this tshirt thing.

i actually might buy this

I'd rather have the allegator on a corner of my chest. (where a shirt pocket is usually placed

Does it come in purple?

I just found the wiki's collection of Allegro logos and banners and some more logos on the sourceforge allegro logo pages p. 1 , p. 2 , and p. 3.

Is there anything there people would like to see on a t-shirt?

Somoene start a wiki page with all of the stuff they'd like to see