Mock-up/Sprites for TB RPG

[Opacus]

Here is a mock-up of a game I'm going to make. Instead of "over dithering" as I usually do,
I didn't dithered at all, and went for a smooth look. I hope you like this style:         

                                                             Nearing completion...

Here are the sprites and tile set seperatly:

Latest:


The tile:
Latest:

C&c, help me out a bit ,
SW

[snake]

The trees stick out a little compared to the rest of the background. One of them should probably be adjusted. I just have to ask though. Is this the perspective you want the characters to have? Not something more aligned with the top-down perspective?

[Opacus]

The trees stick out a little compared to the rest of the background. One of them should probably be adjusted. I just have to ask though. Is this the perspective you want the characters to have? Not something more aligned with the top-down perspective?

Thanks for the good comment there.
I wanted a bit of a weird touch, and make the characters stand out alot, so that's why I picked the odd perspective I think.
As for the trees, I agree with you on that, and I made a little edit, hope this makes the trees stand out less:

[im9today]

I don't think the rockish monster on the far right is the same quality as the rest. Trees could use a redo too. I like the tiny swordsman and the style in general though.

[ndchristie]

i thin, in general, the whole thing is difficult to see.  I think if you added either value shifts or hue shifts the whole thing would look much much nicer.

Still, is a very nice piece.  GUI ?

[Opacus]

Thanks for teh great comment guys, keep it coming!
I tried to give the monster and the dude a black outline (Except the rocky, I will redo him tomorrow) to make
them stand out more:

  or  ?

Adarias: I'm working on one, it's almost finished.

[AdamAtomic]

Something more like this would work better I think:



All I did was a levels adjustment on the sprites - the higher contrast and saturation helps them stand out from the bg now.

[Feron]

i dont like how the 'cliffs' are green - gets too blended with teh grass.

[Opacus]

i dont like how the 'cliffs' are green - gets too blended with teh grass.

Hmmm, I kinda like how they blend actually...

Adam: Thanks for the good edit, here's my update:
(Look Adarias, GUI!)
Here's what I changed:
-Gave the character/monsters a higher saturation.
-Changed the line around the water.
-Made the saturation of the water higher, to make it more 'blueish'.
-Added GUI.

Keep them comment comin!

[Akzidenz]

The type is super murky.

Type is generally something you don't want to stylize too highly (unless it's a title). Just pick a nice typeface, turn AA off, set it nice and clean. Remember, the only reason it's there is for the display of information, so the more difficult it is to read the less effective it is.

For small pixel-based type, there are a bunch of pixel fonts (Silkscreen is a basic example, you can find a ton just by doing google searches). But there are also faces that were specially designed at the start of the internet era to work beautifully at a variety of small sizes without the use of AA. Verdana, Georgia, and Tahoma are all worth looking into, and your computer should have them installed already.

Also, from an interface standpoint - it's odd that you have the hero/enemy HP displays on the opposite sides of the screen from the hero/enemy sprites.

So, yeah. Sorry for not being able to critique the sprites more, but the other people here will do a better job of that anyways.   

[Opacus]

The type is super murky.

Type is generally something you don't want to stylize too highly (unless it's a title). Just pick a nice typeface, turn AA off, set it nice and clean. Remember, the only reason it's there is for the display of information, so the more difficult it is to read the less effective it is.

For small pixel-based type, there are a bunch of pixel fonts (Silkscreen is a basic example, you can find a ton just by doing google searches). But there are also faces that were specially designed at the start of the internet era to work beautifully at a variety of small sizes without the use of AA. Verdana, Georgia, and Tahoma are all worth looking into, and your computer should have them installed already.

Also, from an interface standpoint - it's odd that you have the hero/enemy HP displays on the opposite sides of the screen from the hero/enemy sprites.

So, yeah. Sorry for not being able to critique the sprites more, but the other people here will do a better job of that anyways.   

Thanks for the comment!
I will change the letters now, I will post the update soon.
Good point on the hero health being on the opposite side too.

Udate: Here it is,


Keep the comment coming!

[Dusty]

I'm all a fan of desaturated pieces, but I think there's a line you have to draw with that. This is so desaturated that it's hurting the contrast, and things just look smeared to me. The cliff walls don't stand out enough, especially, and everything just looks really bleached.
I messed around with the colours a little, they're still far from vibrant colours, but I personally think it helps break things apart.


[edit] by the way, the rock monster seems a bit out of perspective, sharply out, I think it's mainly because of his pose furthers this. Also, I'm not really feeling the decoration on the gui, it seems to have a negative effect with the text, probably because the colours are so close together between the little dots and the font.

[Opacus]

I agree with you on the cliff walls, so here's a little contrast increase edit:

But the point is, that I made it look bleached, so the monsters would "pop out" more. Otherwise, like earlier comments state,
the monsters and the chracter would blend in with the background, making harder to see.

[.TakaM]

i like the look of the grass and water, the trees look very unfinished and the cliffs just seem needlessly boring, so a quick edit!:

just a quick sketch of some cliffs, more generic yes, but I think looks better
for the trees, I think they'd look better with more mass on the bottom half of the 'leaf body'

keep it up

edit-

sketched in an edit of your tree (bottom left)

[Opacus]

i like the look of the grass and water, the trees look very unfinished and the cliffs just seem needlessly boring, so a quick edit!:

just a quick sketch of some cliffs, more generic yes, but I think looks better
for the trees, I think they'd look better with more mass on the bottom half of the 'leaf body'

keep it up

edit-

sketched in an edit of your tree (bottom left)

Thanks alot for your comment Taka. Your rpg mock-up was the thing that inspired me to do this in the first place.
So, I completely redid the tree:

I'll edit the cliffs soon too.

Edit: I think the colours on the tree are out of place now, so:

[.TakaM]

the colours didn't really look out of place, just the way you used them-
for such a 'boxy' design for the tree tops, you really need to embrace it's shape to get the most out of it, something like:

edit-
and very happy to inspire

edit-

changed the trunks a little, its best to make trees and such stand out more than tiles you walk on, but not as much as characters etc

[Opacus]

the colours didn't really look out of place, just the way you used them-
for such a 'boxy' design for the tree tops, you really need to embrace it's shape to get the most out of it, something like:

edit-
and very happy to inspire

You keep remebering me why you inspired me, damn you're good!
Would've never thought of to use the colours like that. So off course, here's another edit:

[Feron]

i like the look of the grass and water, the trees look very unfinished and the cliffs just seem needlessly boring, so a quick edit!:

i definitley like the cliffs better in this edit.  maybe not as hard and bold but i definitley think it looks better.
btw new trees look awesome.

[.TakaM]

further messing around with the colours, I think this is perhaps a bit too much but when you compare this image to what you have now I think it becomes very apparent that its currently too desaturated

[Opacus]

New edges, yay!
Less desatured,  or  ?

[Dusty]

But the point is, that I made it look bleached, so the monsters would "pop out" more. Otherwise, like earlier comments state,
the monsters and the chracter would blend in with the background, making harder to see.

I don't think that's justification. Nearly all games have to do the same thing, and that is to make the sprites pop out more, and bleaching the colours isn't the way to go.

[Opacus]

I don't think that's justification. Nearly all games have to do the same thing, and that is to make the sprites pop out more, and bleaching the colours isn't the way to go.

Well, as you can see I gav it higher saturation in the last update anyways

[Feron]

 

i'd also like to see a couple more grass tiles to break up the monotony.  also a dirt tile would look quite nice underneath the monsters.

[Opacus]

Dirt tile eh? Suggestion accepted...proccesing......



Edit: I think I'm done with it now, I'm happy with how it looks. Posted it at Pixel Joint, so go there and fav it!

[Dusty]

Well, as you can see I gav it higher saturation in the last update anyways

I saw, but I was gone for a bit, but didn't want to just ignore the point you said. So even though you made the change I still felt the need to reply.

Anyways, looks great now. Though those two, what look like indents in the side of the trees, bug me for some reason.

[Stwelin]

Personally, i think it looks very white-washed, but i think you've gotten that impression from all the people commenting on the desaturation.

Here are my suggestions:
1.) use a color other than green for the shadows (of the trees), maybe purple.
2.) the top (3) water tiles. put dirt between where the waterline is and the grass starts (to give the allusion that the water is lower than the other tiles, like you did with the ledges), so it doesn't look like a puddle.
3.) use a different color for the menu. all the muted greens make it really mono-tone. (you want the game to POP. )
4.) on the tiles where the grass meets the dirt, add a darker green on the *bottom* of the little wisps of grass to give it depth (make it look like the grass is actually on top of the dirt)
5.) again on the grass-metting-the-dirt tile, clean up the dithering job, remove the single pixels of green on the dirt, make the little 'spikes' of grass shorter, grass blades aren't that long.

It's looking really good, i think the finished product will be really great, it's come a long way.

[Kamae]

The background is looking pretty good but the sprites look out of place. Because of the perspective they look like they'd belong to a sidescroller, not a RPG

[gliding]

It almost looks like it was drawn on a white sidewalk with chalk! If you really want to make the characters pop out  then make them signifiacantly more saturated. As they are now, the sprites are not saturated enough to use such justification.