Meat Bulb

[Daimoth]

The arrow was a light source reminder.

I'm calling it "Meat Bulb" for now. They pop and damage players. They're going in a gory pixellated Diablo 1-like thing.

Anyways, I'm still very new to pixelling, would you guys mind scrutinizing this?

Also, do you guys know of any good references for a living thing exploding?

[Grimsane]

They're going in a gory pixellated Diablo 1-like thing

side scrolling action/hacky slashy RPG? the angle of that definitely reads as side on, looks interesting, is it faceless/featureless? or are you going to do just a large mouth or a singular eye, or pair of eyes or face etc?
because at the moment without any other context their featureless-ness isn't entirely appealing, looks like it has the potential to be a grotesque kirby too.

Also, do you guys know of any good references for a living thing exploding?

just play the original quake or any game with 'gibbing'  maybe watch a youtube video and isolate a gib-splosion and use that as rough reference would be one suggestion

[Daimoth]

It will be isometric. I was hoping that read as 330 degrees, but it's not even close. Then again, I'm not positive which type of isometry I'll be utilizing.

The Kirby thing did occur to me ("Shit, it's hell-Kirby!" *face palm*), but I've been brainstorming. I'm thinking boils and pustules, and if anything is going to be exposed I want it sort of stapled or nailed open. I really want to push the violence with this project.

Or, I might scratch all that and make it an eyeball monster. Or maybe I'll make both and get two monsters finished for the effort of one-n'-some-change. In fact, I am going to do that.

How does one determine where it's "okay" to soften the outline? I'd like to soften more (the black outline around the bulb looks bad when you zoom out), but I've got like no confidence with the technique. Is there a tut somewhere? I can't find one.

[Grimsane]

well without addressing the perspective, here is how you could push the softness (and roundness, you have approached the curves with alias friendly lines, but it doesn't read as round as it could)

and also a crude example of 1 direction you could take it, if you want to reinforce horror, eyeless is probably the way to go, that or pure black eyes. It's been established there is something inherently creepy about omitting facial features whether it eyes mouth or nose (mostly but not at all restricted to humans) but your ideas sound decent, although with the very "anime" style you got going I'd avoid too much detail, but I could see big gaping gashes with staples etc working if rendered right, and not up for reconsidering your view format? a side-scrolling horror-filled-gore-fest doesn't sound too bad, and it won't restrict incorporating the other design ideas and mechanics in, minus the additional dimension of movement of course, it reminds me of what I've seen in screen shots of maple story but with horrific grotesque monsters and theme instead.

and if you were gonna go with the mouth probably go wider than in my doodle

[Daimoth]

That helps so much, thanks.

I'm actually building an engine that supports side-scrolling. I'll figure out how to bound tiles in such a way that they can be horizontally subdivided, effectively creating a convincing background/foreground boundary.

Hopefully in the end I'll be able to capture some of the magic of the old Splatterhouse arcade cabinet, I love that game. Those stages will ideally play more like isometric beat'em-ups than Maple Story.

Anyways,  I think I will omit eyes and try a pinned-open mouth. I'll also detail the little toenails at the bottom, hopefully that'll move the aesthetic away from anime some.

Another idea I have is to make the globular part transluscent, and have something moving around in there. Maybe it tears its way out and does... Something. Or maybe I'll make it completely transparent and fill it half-way with sloshing green liquid. Or blood.

I have too many ideas.

[Grimsane]

couldn't help myself from messing around some more 



you could utilize the kirbyness to your advantage and have them appear uber cuddly and suddenly open there grimacing mouths and freak the hell out of the player

also function over form points, it better have 4 legs at the moment if it is 2 it seems impossible to move, and going with an eye monster mightn't actually be the best idea unless it has something else like giant razor sharp claws, because lets face it if a giant eye ball monster comes upto you besides freaking you out and bumping into you, or even crying on you, it won't be able to do much, whereas a giant mouthful of teeth that could bite your head off that's another thing entirely

also here is a quick 3D model I just slapped together in moments and colour reduced to show you what it would look like from iso view


sounds interesting is this side scrolling engine different than this. what you've implied is an isometric diablo-esque game? 

and oh okay, wasn't entirely sure whether anime was intentional or not, although horror in that style is possible, and alot less effort to sprite in so it may be a consideration. but a happy combination could work, even just rendering them like these simplified to get into your game fast, but make sure they are flexible enough that you can detail and polish later if you want a more detailed and gritty art style. just another possible suggestion

and the idea of having something visible sloshing around etc is a decent one but I'd recommend saving it for another monster "too many ideas" = potential to pursue each idea separately, and not trying to cram them all in to one, or trying and then ditching the idea completely because it doesn't ultimately fit with the one you are doing. just some advice

[cheatsguy]

On the kirbyness, you could make the character look a lot like it but adding to the tortured soul/violent feel (razor-sharp teeth, clamped-open eyes, creepy forced grin, etc). It'd creep out former kirby players for sure.

[Daimoth]

Sweet ass suggestions. I like the cute/scary duality, I might borrow that.

I'd like to keep the two legs (it has a sort of nonsensical weirdness that I'd like to preserve), but if it just won't work, I'll go to three, or maybe five. Five would be weirder, more mutant, I think. Maybe the face can spin independent of the legs? That would work especially in the version where the bulb is a giant eye.

The nice part of having all these variations on the bulb monster is that it can pad the monster diversity in the game. Bear in in mind that I won't be deciding which one of those ideas to use, I'll be using all of them - in different places. I find it retains some of the efficiency of  something like a simple palette swap, but its not as monotonous.

Also, this:



Is an awesome reference image for this.

[Grimsane]

well regarding the limbs, think about the animation and motion, you could conceivably pull off 2 legs but it would require alot of twisting/rotation, a very pivoting walk (as I see it that is the only plausible way it could stay balanced with those form of short knuckle like legs) which I wouldn't recommend rotation should be generally avoided it's alot more work to pull off, or as you said add at least a 3rd leg for 'tripedal' motion (1 way to try and get your mind around possible solutions would be trying to simulate such a walk with a 3 fingers or combinations of thumb and fingers) always try and consider centres of gravity and weight to retain some level of believability, unless you are going for something completely sublime or surreal, one thing is you could have the leg being mostly obscured by the body, and essentially only make its presence visible during some of the walk frames, will save you some effort but provide you with the hassle of figuring out the 3 dimensional location of the leg, but possibly irrelevant if it's to be re-sprited from a different angle

edit: whoa that's some creepy ass reference

[Daimoth]

I understand what you mean, and you're right. It would either be difficult or an error. I don't mind using cartoon-ey physics now and again, though. I'm very willing to leave a composition error in if I like the effect. Usually I end up scrapping it in favor of something more correct, but sometimes I get pleasantly surprised.

Regarding the engine, it will be isometric, but player location won't be restricted to tiles the way FF Tactics is, for example; you'll be able to move freely. I think an isometric engine could handle a corridor-like stage that isn't diagonal on the screen - that's what I was musing about up there. The engine certainly won't be strictly conventional, in any case.

Loved the additional edits, btw. What were you going for with the red/brown palette?