Zelda Gameboy Color inspired stuff

[Dusty]

Before I post the graphics I'll say I was very inspired by the Zelda GBC games. Link's Awakening and the Oracle games were great games and the graphics were quite charming and simple. You can find some of their likeness here:

http://www.spriters-resource.com/gameboy/lozla/index.html

Anyways, I was gonna have a stab at making my own Zelda-like game and I wanted to do something a little new for myself. I don't usually work with restrictions nor smaller resolutions, so I thought it'd be pretty fun to do graphics fit for GBC... and it is fun. Even though my graphics won't be strictly fit for the GBC hardware I do want to try to stick to the restrictions as best as possible(4 colors per tile, mostly). I think I might stretch that a bit for some things like transparency on sprites, but I dunno. I'm also not referencing the graphics as I work on them, but I do compare them when I'm done to make sure it doesn't coincidentally look like I simply edited tiles(which has happened a few times so far).

So ya, tiles so far here:


and a small mock-up:


A small edit today, can't decide on what cliffs are most fitting:

[jams0988]

Very nice tiles. The Zelda tiles are very nice to look at, and so are these. =)
At 1x, the second cliffs read most like cliffs to me, but they're all very close, really.

[Dr D]

A small edit today, can't decide on what cliffs are most fitting:

Definitely the second for me, a nice little amount of detail that matches the look of the other tiles, but it's not so noisy (ie. the third picture) to look at. The first looks too plain/simple imo.

Pretty nice work with these so far, keep on going, and maybe try to incorporate some of your own ideas into the Zelda tileset too, would like to see some new objects and stuff.

[Ryumaru]

I concur with the others, I think the second cliffs are the most successful. As far as the tiles go, I must say I think you're channeling LoZ just a bit too much. Without seeing them side by side and out of the context of these forums I would assume they are in-game images. Technically the pixels are all well placed but it would be nice to see you push the uniqueness in the small tiles.

[Dusty]

I concur with the others, I think the second cliffs are the most successful. As far as the tiles go, I must say I think you're channeling LoZ just a bit too much. Without seeing them side by side and out of the context of these forums I would assume they are in-game images. Technically the pixels are all well placed but it would be nice to see you push the uniqueness in the small tiles.

Well it was kind of my desire to really invoke that feeling of Zelda, but just with my own work and ideas in place. It's kind of early on now, but hopefully as I progress and flesh out ideas I can start incorporating my own things into it. Though you say seeing them out of context makes you think they're actually Zelda graphics, I'll still emphasize in reality that they're fairly different and much more detailed than their Zelda counterparts:



Though I do get what you're saying, and some others have brought it up in IRC so it's not something I'm pushing aside just yet... but the original direction of this was to have my own twist on Zelda tiles. Graphics-wise I feel like I did my best to do my own thing, but I think the biggest culprit here is tile layout. I really am a big fan of how simply, yet efficient the design of tiles were in the Zelda GBC games. They were so simple in design but were so easy to manipulate and create appealing level designs with that I really wanted to see where that took me.

[Ryumaru]

Yes looking at the comparison makes it easier to see the differences ( although I think I actually prefer the roof styling of the original more, it enforces the perspective better imo) your windows especially are good.

I think with same layout it will be difficult to see it as anything more than a "revamp" . Will look forward to seeing you include more unique assets.

[Dusty]

Well here's a kind of example of some things I plan to branch off into:


Making my own level props, messing with current designs and such. It's all something that I'll mess around with as I progress and hopefully it will benefit from it. I mean it's not going to make it go from a Zelda-lookalike to something totally different, but I hope to make it look a little more unique.

[Grimsane]

intriguing, and yeah at glance it's instantly identifiable as Zelda, and I was like wait.... looks at the ref you posted, oh okay yeah. 

and being so close to the style is actually really good, I've seen quite a few games go a bit too far from that style and mood captured in Zelda LA/LTTP and I think the main reason it's so close without direct ref'ing is how well the mid-years 2D Zeldas went about things in a simplistic and stylistic manner, if you observe the way things were then it's quite easy to reproduce something almost identical because of that, I think your's have some definite appeal, are you using your own version of the GBC palette or using the real deal/someone's 'close to spec' palette? I like the subtle detail in your dirt tiles btw.

I remember playing Link's Awakening on GB and GBC (deluxe or DX edition or something heh) anyway hope you go alot further with this it's quite awesome 

[PypeBros]

very promising so far. I just regret the "blurry" effect you got in the grass/dirt and dirt/path transitions.

[Dusty]

I agree, it's something I had noticed and tried at fixing it with a new pattern:


As for the palette I just searched and found a small one that was a compilation of various colors found in different games. Though I have added a few of my own colors since apparently the GBC supports 32k colors or so, so I didn't think adding my own would matter much.

[Friend]

I have a few things to say that are HIGHLY subjective.

Perhaps the shrubs are too perfectly round. I suspect they are supposed to be cabbage instead of shrubs, but something about them bother me. Maybe it's the lack of contrast from the grass making them blend in too much and like like green medallions. The whole palette has a cool tone to it whereas links awakening has really high contrast and hue differences in one place at a time that contrast well. Like redder greens aside notepad yellow and a very pure blue roof for a house. Maybe the work could benefit from more contrast and hue juxtaposition.  And making visual points of interest such as the hedge in front of the house, cuttable foliage etc visually distinct

[Dusty]

Did a more proper mock-up in Tiled with all the new cliff work and some newer stuff. This is giving me a lot more insight into the practicality of the tiles so I can add/tweak/adjust to more properly work:

[Grimsane]

great work so far, was going to ask if you plan on doing day night cycles with pallete swapping, and thought I'd shamelessly test my palette at the same time



just noticed the grass bordering the cliff in a few sections is flush not sure which I prefer actually, instances like the cave as a subtle indicator look clever actually, and maybe where you can jump down from cliffs if you are going to do that, I can see how you've done it for areas that need buffering like where it goes past the path top right, and with dirt chunks like that shrub under the cliffs, so if you choose both you won't get away entirely with autotiling unless you are doing the mapping manually in areas

[Dusty]

Ya, this isn't a very well-designed level. It's just me tossing stuff around to try to fit in stuff as I create it. I had actually pondered the idea of night/day game mechanics but I think ultimately I wouldn't do anything like that.
And the roundness of the shrubs may be, this is like my... fourth iteration of the bushes and they're pretty hard to work with in such a limited space.

But here's some more props and stuff; tree is giving me a hard time.

[Grimsane]

something like this maybe?

also GBC spec stuff, 56 colour cap

32 are for a background palette, plus 8 hardware sprite palettes, with 3 colors plus transparent each. Typically, the sprite palettes shares some colors (black, white or others), so the total colors displayed are less than 56.

so 32 colours for your tiles, you've got 26 already, and technically I think you can have any 15bit colour within your palette, because it uses the 15bit colourspace like the SNES. And I'm sure the 8 x 3colour combos for sprites will be manageable for you, judging by the vague idea of the monster/NPCs you'll have.

[Dusty]

something like this maybe?

Ya I'm gonna have to keep stabbing at the tree until I get something I like.

also GBC spec stuff, 56 colour cap

32 are for a background palette, plus 8 hardware sprite palettes, with 3 colors plus transparent each. Typically, the sprite palettes shares some colors (black, white or others), so the total colors displayed are less than 56.

so 32 colours for your tiles, you've got 26 already, and technically I think you can have any 15bit colour within your palette, because it uses the 15bit colourspace like the SNES. And I'm sure the 8 x 3colour combos for sprites will be manageable for you, judging by the vague idea of the monster/NPCs you'll have.

As far as I know the 56 colors applies to colors on the screen at once. Though I'm not interested in going this deep into the restrictions. My interest is to invoke the feeling of a GBC game, not necessarily to strictly adhere to the hardware restrictions. Though what I do want to try my best to stick with is the 4 colors per 8x8 tile, though I've already knowingly cheated on that with the roof windows.

[Ryumaru]

I would urge to stick with the 4 colors per tile even on the roof windows. I think it's important to understand that the closer you follow the restrictions the more you will invoke the GBC feeling. It is impossible to make assets that don't follow the restrictions to invoke more of that feeling than the same graphics tailored to fit the restrictions.

It will lower the subtle rendering a bit, but this would be something that a GBC artist would have to deal with.

[Dusty]

I would urge to stick with the 4 colors per tile even on the roof windows. I think it's important to understand that the closer you follow the restrictions the more you will invoke the GBC feeling. It is impossible to make assets that don't follow the restrictions to invoke more of that feeling than the same graphics tailored to fit the restrictions.

It will lower the subtle rendering a bit, but this would be something that a GBC artist would have to deal with.

I am actually trying hard to stick with the GBC restrictions. While the window was a conscious decision, I was also playing around with alternatives that did adhere to the restrictions. The last version I toyed around with was this:



I also tried a method similar to yours but I didn't like it originally because I felt a blue window frame would stand out too much when it didn't match the wooden frame of the house. But now that I added various colors house I could sneak it in while still matching.

[r1k]

maybe something like this

I notice that the dark brown isnt very noticable at 1x, and can be replaced by black, allowing you to add in the blue for the roof.  having the beige where the roof should be does not seem like a good solution to me.

I also kind of prefered the first version of the bushes.  Im not sure if the dark purple is the best 4th color you could use for the bushes, perhaps replace the purple with black and bring back the dark green.  I think its worth trying but Im not sure if it would be better.

this is looking pretty cool  so far, though I id like to see more tiles that are derived from links awakening, like the hedges.  I also just noticed the signs look a bit blurry.

[Ryumaru]

I would urge to stick with the 4 colors per tile even on the roof windows. I think it's important to understand that the closer you follow the restrictions the more you will invoke the GBC feeling. It is impossible to make assets that don't follow the restrictions to invoke more of that feeling than the same graphics tailored to fit the restrictions.

It will lower the subtle rendering a bit, but this would be something that a GBC artist would have to deal with.

I am actually trying hard to stick with the GBC restrictions. While the window was a conscious decision, I was also playing around with alternatives that did adhere to the restrictions. The last version I toyed around with was this:



I also tried a method similar to yours but I didn't like it originally because I felt a blue window frame would stand out too much when it didn't match the wooden frame of the house. But now that I added various colors house I could sneak it in while still matching.

I really like that, much more unique solution and it looks really pleasing to the eye (imo) also breaks up the grid a bit.

[Grimsane]

there is a stray red pixel under the outer bottom window frame, I noticed it immediately on zoom, and I agree with Ryumaru and am rather keen on the window breaking the roof

[Dusty]

Ya, caught the red pixel the other day, just hadn't fixed it in the version with that window. Thanks

Updates:

[PypeBros]

I really love those new trees. If you can technically afford that, just !go for it!   
and meanwhile;

I thought it would be much better to ensure those mountain-barriers actually look like a barrier and avoid breaking the line with a highlight.

I also have the feeling that going with grass up to the barrier provides a more natural result than the current grass-to-dirt-to-barrier double transition.

(did I mentioned those little grass blades are über-lovely, btw?)

[Grimsane]

only just noticed how much of a perceptual mind f#@k those cliffs are over on the right, easy solution


love the new additions and tiles, and the more I stare the more I see the trees looks like this to me


I remember the trees were more top down in the original zelda titles, and the rendering looks good but you are definitely moving away from GBC aesthetics with 6 colours per tile on them.

*I think the problem I am finding with the tree is that the higher shading of the foliage implies a different angle than may be intended, but it might just be me, here is a rough edit of what I think looks more natural in the relative perspective to the rest of the tiles:


and the roots a bit

[Dusty]

I'm not seeing 6 colors per tile, as far as I know I stuck to the 4 colors per tile restriction?

[Grimsane]

[Dusty]

Tiles are 8x8. I'm simply clustering them in a 2x2 format(16x16) to make it easier to make levels and eventually makes for much simpler tile detection when it comes to coding.

[Grimsane]

ohhh okay, that makes sense, one thing though is it makes the more 8x8 colour centric tiles like the trees look slightly juxtaposition'd, and that'd afford you this level of subtly


all existing colours bar 1 darker purple tone

*shadow was too subtle

* chest suggestion

[r1k]

with 4 colors per 8x8 pixels, another minor thing you could afford to do if you wanted was have more light hit the top of the treasure chest, something like