Godhand

[Darion]

I haven't posted anything in a while, so I figured i'd post a mockup I did, eariler:



Tell me what you think.

[ptoing]

Make a game!
Crits:

On the font, the inverse italic style makes it a bit hard to read in places, i would rather use a straight font, or if you wanna keep it italic make it 2 pixels wide.

The ships are too dark, they need to be seperated from the bg a bit more. it looks cool as is in a still shot but in an actual game it might be strain on the eyes and also confusing.

The beam looks killer.

[Helm]

basically yeah, what ptoing said. And use separate palette for shots, don't use the same as ships. These are primal elements the mind must recognize instantly in shoot em ups.

[Meta|Fox]

What they said. also, if this where an actual game, that beam would be a pain to animate.

[Helm]

5 more frame variations and a lot of mutation filters/blending and playing it FAST FAST FAST for 1 second and it would look amazing.

[AdamAtomic]

Awesome!!  Way cool, looks like something that would have been right at home on the dreamcast...my only crit is the beams being shot out by the enemies are stylish but just look out of place - they look kind of...i dunno, they're neat designs but they don't look so much like dangerous projectiles to me.  You want your enemy bullets to be bright, easy to notice, and to look inherently dangerous!

[Darion]

Ptoing/Helm: Thanks, boobs.

Fox: Well, I would likely start from scratch, but emulating the structure of the beam. It would be difficult to animate around that frame, though. Thanks.

AdamAtomic: ... What? That doesn't make much sense. The projectile is pretty bright, too. Thanks, though.

Update:

[ndchristie]

i like this a lot, but i cant help but feeling that shooters thrive on palette variation and clear visuals.  as pretty as this is, it doesnt really have either.  maybe in-game though it will be clearer when they are all moving.....but the ships really need to stand out a lot more i think. the Homeworld series is a great example of how to use light and shadow on spaceships to make them stand out while also looking like they all fit.

[AdamAtomic]

sorry, i guess I wasn't very clear!  the enemy projectiles just don't look like projectiles to me.  this is a fairly subjective thing, my opinion may just differ here!  However, I think if you simplified them some they could still be stylish and effective; I think mainly the elliptical "shield" type surface looks out of place to me - its uniform line-width make it seem more like a solid structure than a beam or laser or something.

I did a quick edit to hopefully show some of what I mean...



There is a ton of stuff I like about this so far, those enemy shots just weren't working for me!  I could be wrong though, I often am

[Turbo]

Very nice. I like how you went in a totally different direction with the colour scheme and design than what is usual in shooters. The ship's colors are ok if it's supposed to be played at a size larger than 1x, not ok otherwise. The purple background adds a certain ambiance to it, but it makes it much harder to read -both ships and beams - , so i prefer the original black bg.

After a second look at it, the ships really could use a slight brightness boost.

[Darion]

Adam: Well, now it just looks very cliche. Have you ever played Zone of the Enders? An aura surrounds the main character when he is flying and what not, showing the force of his movement; that is what I was trying to imitate. You may be interpriting the shape wrong, which is more understandble.

Adarias: ... Dude ... play Einhander. It doesn't thrive on pallete variation and clear visuals. All shmups aren't bright and punchy.

Turbo: Looks fine, to me.

I've tried lightening the ships, but i'm not satisfied with the outcome. This is a mockup which is not really intended to mock; its just art. I don't intend to make it a video game from it. I'm taking this in my own artistic direction, whether or not a bullet wont "catch your eye" or a bullet "doesn't look evil." I wanted something dark and shadow-like (similiar to Einhander), despite how it would affect the player, because he/she wouldn't exist.

[ndchristie]

i guess i should rephrase now that i know your intentions : art intended to be viewed by others is communication, and good communication, realistic or abstract, is clear.  even if the statement it is communicating is that it is unclear, it should be clear to the viewer that the porpose is to not be clear, thereby successfully communicating.   this is forgotten by a huge number of artists, who then sit around complaining about how nobody understands their muddly little mess.  were this intended to be for other people to see, it would thrive on clarity or have a damned good reason not to.

that being said, this piece is fine as it is, because you arent making it for others and pursuing your own vision is what id consider 'a damned good reason'
keep up the good work

[David]

Right. [thumbs up]

[shine]

i think it's wonderful~~

[Darion]

Thanks guys. Sorry if I sounded harsh, but it seemed as if everyone expected to see a demo. 

[eghost]

Freakin' beautiful...