AuthorTopic: Commercial Critique Challenge - Pokemon Red/Blue  (Read 139379 times)

Offline Ryumaru

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Commercial Critique Challenge - Pokemon Red/Blue

on: May 25, 2013, 08:37:49 pm
For this challenge, we will especially be focusing on the limitations of the gameboy and it's 4 color grey palette. Whatever revamps you make should include a version with these 4 colors, as well as a palette swap that introduces hues you find pleasing.

If you are having trouble deciding what to revamp, how about tackling some of the pivotal screens of the game? Such as the battle screen, overworld, or the pokedex

Here is a rundown of the limitations:
- 4 grayscale hues ( black, 35 brightness, 65 brightness, white)
- 4 palette entries per 8x8 tile
- 3 palette entries per sprite ( with 1 reserved for transparency)
- 160x144 screen size

Battle:


Overworld:


Pokedex:


Here is an example of my pokedex revamp:



HARD MODE: Think you could recreate the entire pokemon world in this amount of tilespace?


wiki says that these are the palettes available for gameboy games being played on the gameboy color:
« Last Edit: May 27, 2013, 03:12:21 pm by Crow »

Offline Seiseki

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #1 on: May 25, 2013, 10:08:33 pm
The screenshot you based it on has aspect ratio issues, it's not a 1:1 pixel ratio. Some pixels have been doubled.





So I tried to follow the 8x8 tiles for the gui.

Some things I tried to fix.

1. Margins, I removed the bottom part of the gui box to make more space around the text. I also re-arranged the name tags and the arrows.
2. Stronger font for better readability, I'm not sure it's more readable, but I think it sticks out more. Not entirely sure about this though.
3. Softer appearance with more AA and 4 tone palette for the GUI.
4. The :L5 text field can't really be placed anywhere else, so instead of wasting space I added 'level' for clarification. I think it looks more interesting, but it might just end up cluttering it.
5. I wanted pokeballs that looked more like actual pokeballs. Since I had to stick to the tiles I couldn't add any spacing in between.

The hp bars look a bit like windows progressbars, lol..
I think rounded looks better, but I wanted it to blend in with the GUI arrows.

Offline ptoing

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #2 on: May 25, 2013, 10:36:10 pm
So I had a quick google around and found some other shot and fixed the Mewtwo Pokedex thing accordingly.
This should be correct, but please doublecheck, Ryu.

There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline yaomon17

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #3 on: May 25, 2013, 10:41:09 pm
I'm not really sure if I am doing this right  ???

EDIT:
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 03:35:48 am by yaomon17 »

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #4 on: May 25, 2013, 11:05:31 pm
Seiseki: That font is quite beautiful and fitting of the source. I also like the real pokeballs and don't think the lack of space between is a problem. the level 5 is a bit odd to me, but I think it's very subjective. Looks good! Below I had a throw at moving it further ( I also used some sprites from G/SC)

Ptoing: Thanks! It must have been the removal of the border that did it. I will replace all instances of that screenshot.

Related: Does anyone want to take a stab at making some nice, AAed fonts for us all to use in our pokevamps? :]

Yaomon17: YES! way to think outside the box a bit with a very unique GUI. However, I think the black text on the dark bg ( specifically fight, item, pkmn, and run) would be a bit hard to see on an actual gameboy screen. perhaps the lighter palette entry would be better, and then highlighted to white.

« Last Edit: May 25, 2013, 11:58:50 pm by Ryumaru »

Offline Crow

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #5 on: May 25, 2013, 11:18:42 pm
Higher res back sprites would've been so great. My guess is that it wasn't possible due to storage limitations for the GB cartridges.
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Offline Seiseki

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #6 on: May 25, 2013, 11:55:55 pm
Way to think outside the box, quite bold design yaomon!
I don't think there's any transparency in the text though, nor any of the gui elements?
And levels for the pokemon go above 100, or at least to 100, right?

Also, you have to sets of fonts, one smaller one larger.
I'm not sure if that would be a problem. In my edit the level consists of 2 8x8 tiles.

--------------------

Is there transparency for the pokemon/trainer sprites?
If so then yes, that 4th one with stripes and shadow seems like a nice idea.

The shadow should use the darker gray though?

Also, good call on darkening the dialogue box when there is a popup, although it would add another set of dialogue box gui tiles.

I wonder about the hp bars, why didn't they make them a bit thicker? are they 4x1 due to memory constraints?
If they really had to be that cheap to save memory, then I get a feeling these edits are pushing it way beyond gameboy limits.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2013, 11:59:11 pm by Seiseki »

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #7 on: May 25, 2013, 11:57:07 pm
Higher res back sprites would've been so great. My guess is that it wasn't possible due to storage limitations for the GB cartridges.

I've been trying to find out how much memory was available on the cart and if there was any space left over; I'm sure the smaller back sprites were done to save space, but I wonder if there was another way to conserve space or if there was any extra left over that would facilitate the higher res back sprites. Apparently, pokemon gold and silver were playable on an original gameboy and it was definitely a full color game. I know the cartridges would be different, but am skeptical that there would be that much difference to add 100 more pokemon with front and back sprites, and update the original 151 with higher res'd back sprites as well.

Offline Seiseki

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #8 on: May 26, 2013, 12:00:35 am
Back sprites might be due to time constraints too.
It's also a cheap way make them feel bigger, since the outlines and everything is thicker.

I drew this pikachu earlier today, while glancing a bit at a reference.
It has a bunch of problems though, should have just drawn it from scratch after I figured out a better pose.

« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 12:03:20 am by Seiseki »

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Pokemon red/blue [DRAFT]

Reply #9 on: May 26, 2013, 12:07:27 am
Way to think outside the box, quite bold design yaomon!
I don't think there's any transparency in the text though, nor any of the gui elements?
And levels for the pokemon go above 100, or at least to 100, right?

Also, you have to sets of fonts, one smaller one larger.
I'm not sure if that would be a problem. In my edit the level consists of 2 8x8 tiles.

--------------------

Is there transparency for the pokemon/trainer sprites?
If so then yes, that 4th one with stripes and shadow seems like a nice idea.

The shadow should use the darker gray though?

Also, good call on darkening the dialogue box when there is a popup, although it would add another set of dialogue box gui tiles.

I wonder about the hp bars, why didn't they make them a bit thicker? are they 4x1 due to memory constraints?
If they really had to be that cheap to save memory, then I get a feeling these edits are pushing it way beyond gameboy limits.

The pokemon and trainer sprites use all for shades so I don't think they have transparency. I'm silly and will have to rethink my battle mock ups, I somehow was miscounting things 0.0  The thing under squirtle could be read as a shadow or as a plot of land like in ruby and sapphire. It was kept light so as to not take away priority from the sprites.

I doubt the thickness was due to memory constraints necessarily, there just isn't a lot of room on the screen. I could be wrong though.

I had that thought too, of time constraints for the back sprites. I think that is definitely something to keep in mind as a limiting factor for gamefreak: as for what it means to us, just keep it in the back of your head and pixel faster ;]