Haven't had time to do much with these lately. Some palette and cluster tweaks mostly. But I included the sprites they go with to show what I'm going for a little better:
Good to see this project continuing I'm curious if there's any gameplay yet?
The style of the portraits is great, love the colours and rendering.
Thanks man, I'm happy to hear that
The gameplay is arcade-style Castlevania, with a combat system that leans towards streetfighter-esque fighting. I'm planning to have seven levels as well as a town hub-area where players can upgrade skills, interact with npc's and the like.
The platforming gameplay isn't complete, but it's getting pretty close. Combat needs a lot of work still. Here's a little platform gameplay gif:
It would help to know aome things such as what is their intended use? Are they mainly for dialog boxes?
Yep, that's the idea. Here's a mockup of what I had in mind:
Will the background be filled or transparent?
Filled probably. Looks cleaner I think.
Will they be animated/speaking?
Nah, I like to keep things a bit abstract if possible. I'm hoping I can give just enough visual information to provide players with sort of an anchor and let them make up their own minds from there if that makes sense? Besides I'm afraid they'd end up looking like a puppet-show if I tried (tho that could look cool in it's own way).
Also i think the shared palette is great but each one can possibly use a splash of a unique colour somewhere.
Yes I should try and bring the portrait colors in line with the monochrome sprite colors.
Is there any back-story and personality for these guys and gals?
Are these all playable or some npc and some enemy?
Oh. Yeh I have a fair idea about their personalities but I haven't tried to put it into words before. Hmm, okay I'll try a short blurb for each of em:
Girl in red: Raised in a reclusive monk society. A bit naive and oblivious of how the outside world works but very competent at kicking ass. Protagonist female version.
Mercenary man: Army-mentality. Hard and rigid. Semi-boss/npc.
Police officer: Not friendly. Regular enemy.
Punk: Big and insane. Leads a street gang that's into mind-frying steroids and cybernetics. Area boss.
Lady in traditional dress: She's head of a group of semi-immortals who prolong life by feeding on the life energy of chi-adepts (like the protagonist). They don't like modern society much and only interact with it when they have to, like luring fresh victims into their lair. Area boss.