GR#206 - Sideview Houses - Gameart

[jahasaja]

Hi all,

Working on backgrounds for my game. Trying to make houses but the ones i make becomes quite boring. Any C&C is appreciated.

[Mathias]

Without context, knowing what it will be used in, it's hard to say. Might be perfect, since it possibly matches the environment's style in which it'll be placed.
Can you post a mockup yet?


Is it wise to analyze this isolated?

COLORS
All dark, all muted. Uninteresting.
Try mixing colors from all over the thing to other parts. Have you heard of the "all colors everywhere" ideology? It says that limiting all of one color group to one element or section may not be such a good idea. By spreading your colors around you're able to achieve stronger harmony.
Very little value (darkness/luminosity) variation.
Reads as excessively 2D and flat. Thanks goodness for that roof shadow at least.

SHAPE
Basic rectangle.
Monotonous repeated elements.
Except for chimney it's symmetrical.
Would it be appropriate to innovate some more interesting architecture? Different levels of roof heights, smaller annexed rooms that break up the rectangle silhouette. Look here. Scan all the cabin images and break them down into their MAIN shapes. Notice how they're put together.

How about some decorations, some ambience?
Meat hanging up to dry.
Farming tools hung up.
pair of boots
barrels
plants
rocks

Your door. At 1x it doesn't read well as a door. Looks like the doorway is blockaded or something. Reduce contrast of lines inside door.
Those hinges would read better if they were logically spaced - why is the distance from the door's top and the top hinge not =equal= to the distance from the door's bottom and bottom hinge?

[jahasaja]

Thanks for all the input.

A mockup is still a couple of weeks away.

I am still fumbling with the colours but at least I tried to do little of the "all colors everywhere" not sure if I got it though.

Did some fake 3d for some depth and spiced up some things. Still kind of boring though.. 

[revolver]

Its hard to say weather its bad or good without seeing the background on which it will sit, i like it with the bush at the side and the spade leaning against the wall

[astraldata]

You should at least give some idea as to what z-plane this is going to be on -- i.e. will the character walk next to it or will there be some grass or bushes between it and the character periodically, or will it be beside a clearing in a deep forest layer in front of some mountains on a separate layer, etc. etc.?

If it's close to the player's layer, I'd suggest variations using the bundled-up hay and the bush + shovel, sometimes 2 of them, 3 of them, all with different house widths and different locations of the shovel/hay if possible, with perhaps some plants separating the houses periodically.

[Mathias]

Good improvement.

An edit suggestion:



The palette control sucks, but the edit is only meant as a face value suggestion.

[jahasaja]

Thanks for all the input. I am full at work at creating a mock-up (the clouds elude me)

here is a new version where I started with Mathias edit as well as a new house:

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Perspective is twisted on your new house. You can see the right wall of the house, so everything should go to the left (and you see the right plane), but you can see the left plane of logs around windows and doors. Because of this it looks very weird.

Also outlining all plates on the roof with the same bright color isn't very good idea. Try to find some good reference for this type of roof and see how light bounce of it. I think that it would look at least slightly better if you keep bright color on bottom and right side of the plate while top and right should be dark. This way you will simulate feel of directional light.

And when I'm already talking about lighting, shadow on the left side of the house, cast by end of wall logs is also weird. It suggest that light is coming from the left, while lack of that shadow on the right part of the house and shadows of grass suggest that light is coming frontally. You should think this things through cause they can ruin your piece.

If you don't have that level of 3d perception you can use google sketchup to create simple model of the house and observe shadows. Program is very simple and user friendly.

[jahasaja]

Wow Sketchup is amazing thanks for the tip.

here is a new version tried to fix the roof, windows, door and changed the axe a little..



question: is not the light on the grass correct if the light is coming from the left and slightly front?

[astraldata]

Looks great man! Grass and all.

The only thing I can really add that hasn't been addressed already is that this dude has a lot of axes at his house. Might want ta ax him what he plans to do wit' all dem axes.

Kidding aside, I do think you should keep a version with the bush as well as a shovel, and perhaps bushes in front of the house too if this level is going to be more than one screen wide.

As far as I know, you never addressed my question about where the player will be distance-wise, relative to this building, so I'm not sure if the coloring/values/etc. are correct. Most 2d game art tends to be developed at the same time (i.e. bg colors, character, tileset, bg, and fg layers, in that order), but as a standalone graphic, not knowing what context it will  be used for, it looks very nice otherwise dude.

[YellowLime]

Google Sketchup is good for visualizing 2d 'casting' of 3d shapes simply and fast, but I think you shouldn't use it for shading reference
I'm almost sure that it shades faces prioritizing the differentiation between them, and not necessarily a correct light source.
(and in any case, I believe the lighting isn't modifiable anyways (direction, strength, dissipation...) so even then it would only be useful for 'high noon'-type scenes.)

Your house is shaping up nicely.
The colors you use should depend on:
1. the atmosphere of the game (darker and less saturated = spookier)
2. the rest of the scene (a background element shouldn't stand out too much, with some exceptions)

I feel as if there should be a bit more roof in the left side of the house, if you know what I mean.
Right now, it looks somewhat unbalanced to the right, to me.

[jahasaja]

Thanks for the feedback!

Yellowlime, Yeah maybe you are correct about the roof, I will try to add some tiles.


Atraldata: What can I tell you, the residents like axes :-). And as you and others have asked about the whole scene. Here is a screen-shot from the game:



Also here is video to see the Parallax scrolling (which is pretty bad in Game maker for some reason but that is not relevant here).

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Nice  , I like the atmosphere (cows are nice touch) and fight mechanics but final kill should have more frames, after peasant is on his knees he should cut him down or trust through him to make better impression on player.

Clouds are bad and generic. Try to make larger cloud forms and don't put them on each plane, randomize their position. You can easy find good reference.

Also road is too much "rocky" for that type of environment. Even if it's stone road it should have some grass patches and it shouldn't be so yellow.

[KAT]

This project reminds me a great Polish side scroller game on amiga called Doman Grzechy Ardana. Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Slf1QML_E

Awesome work!

[jahasaja]

Thanks for the input!

HarveyDentMustDie:

after peasant is on his knees he should cut him down or trust through him to make better impression on player.

Well I guess that depends on the player (you really are the Joker ). But I do agree that my fall animation has problems. I do not want to make it too gory though.

Clouds are bad and generic? I agree that they are not so good but I have not found any clouds that look like this in a game. Actually the clouds have been a real struggle for me. I have not been able to make ones that look really good even though I spent hours looking at clouds and other peoples work. Any C&C is much appreciated (or should I make a new thread about that??): 



I will look into the walk path.

Thanks for the nice words KAT that game looks cool, They don’t make them like they use to :-P!

[astraldata]

There are two ways to fix your clouds -- either larger cloud forms on a single layer as suggested by HDMD, which would allow you to achieve the detail level you seem to be going for with them, OR tiny clouds like you have right now, but more sporadic (waaay fewer clouds), with more similar shapes (although the sizes and spacing can still vary) with no straight lines on their base (a cloud shouldn't look like it can sit flatly on a table after all) and fix the spacing of them to look more natural (also some can be above or below moving at a slower pace, but on a different layer where they don't overlap with the others -- it looks really bad when they overlap).

The latter option would allow you to keep more of the look you're going for, multi-layer parallaxing and all, but the former option would give you the freedom to detail your clouds further with texture if you want a more detailed and textured look to your clouds instead of an SNES-era look (which I find nostalgic and personally enjoy the multi-layer parallaxing look for the fun of it). In the end it's up to you.

Though, that aside, I really like the look of this game, as well as the play style -- no further crits here; you've got a great-looking game there man.

[Mathias]

Wow, wasn't expecting you to just dump such a finished looking mockup on us so quickly. Nice!

LIGHTING
Since a 2D platformer, careful with your primary light source - the more overhead it is, the easier it'll be to create assets you can mirror horizontally without contradicting your light source.
You've chosen to light this scene with a prominent light coming from the left. As a result you can't have characters mirror (when they walk left or right) and still look like they're honoring the scenes lighting.
Even those closer trees. You can't mirror them now because the lighting will look wrong.
And I do like how you used the blue-ish tinted shadows on the houses' right-facing walls, but now you need to tint all shadows like that.
It doesn't make sense to only have blue-tinted shadows on the houses and nothing else.


I don't think the perspective of the houses matches the ground. Seems like we should see more ground if the angle of the houses' right-facing walls slant up that much.
By themselves, the houses look fine, but not once added to your scenery. Perspectives are clashing.


And I second the issue with the clouds. To start off, just try simplifying them. Less detail, less colors.

[jahasaja]

Wow all the positive feedback makes me very happy. 

However, the clouds still remain. I am completely stumped. The look I was going for was actually really flat clouds which is quite common.

example:

However, I am the the first to admit that I have not succeed. all the difference stiles that I have tried have come out bad. When I try to make clouds with fewer colours the style feels completely wrong for the game.

Mathias: actually all the enemies are done and they are all with lightning from the left. And no characters turn around in my game (I save that for the sequel :-P) so it should be fine.

as for the angle of the house. Perhaps I can add some more grass to make it look more natural?