Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Tidbit on October 09, 2010, 03:41:48 am
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For about the past two months, I've been working on a game which has gone through many shapes and forms. The current form follows the lines of an "8bit man" that is lost in a "16bit world". The style of the game follows a room by room exploration format. The story line or how the games evolved isn't why I am here though, I'm here to get advice and good critique on the art being used in my game.
Lemme show you all some screens:
(http://imgur.com/Qjn0U.png)
(http://imgur.com/UuHHe.png)
*blue Backdrop is a placeholder*
Theres been a bit of...a split between people who agree and disagree that the art is 8bit for the character and 16bit for the level art. I would like to side with the people that agree, but I want to get a well rounded opinion, which hopefully you guys will be able to fulfill.
C&C to your hearts content.
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Pretty neat looking. :)
I think the most obvious thing is that there's very obvious tiling on your grass and dirt. It doesn't look horrible, but under anything more than a passing glance it sticks out.
I really like your bushy tree background. Once it's properly dressed with a good backdrop, I think it'll look great. :)
The water could also use work. It's hard to immediately tell that it's water.
As for the 8 bit man in a 16 bit world... I think it's a little bit hard of a concept to convey. When you're in a 16 bit environment, especially a pretty one (which I think yours is), I know that I at least do not take much notice of the character being less detailed. Really, he doesn't look 8 bit so much. It just looks like he was done in a different art style, or that someone was more lazy in making him. You could probably convey your concept better by going with a 2 bit sprite. It'd make a bigger contrast, at least.
bit argument aside though, I like how that's shaping up. It has a lot of promise. :)
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You know I never thought of using a 1bit sprite...and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense! Would you know where I could find restrictions for 2-bit sprites?
Tiling has actually always been an issue of mine, any ideas how I could fix it up a little bit more other then adding some more shading? And as for the water, that will have a ripple/wave effect on the surface (hopefully), and I could possibly get an under watter effect thing as well.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_depth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_depth)
That should be a good start. Basically, if you go one-bit, you have two colors, one being your transparency. You could use black, or you could use some other color and it's still technically 1-bit. Think like the alien ships in Space Invaders.
2-bit would be a little harder to convey. You're technically allowed 4 colors, one being transparency. But I think if you go 2-bit, you need to stick to black and greys, like Gameboy graphics.
As far as eliminating the grid by making your tiles not, well, tile, you basically need more tiles. Variation tiles to make it so that it's not immediately obvious that there's repetition.
The easiest way to make alternative tiles that will fit together that I've found was posted on this board a while ago, but I can't find it. :(
Basically, the idea is you should take your original tile, divide it in half both ways, horizontal and vertical, and then flip the pieces around so they're all facing the opposite way, before putting the pieces back together into one tile. From there, erase everything except a 2-4 pixel border all the way around in your new tile. This new "frame" tile will serve as the basis of all your new tiles. Just fill in the middle part such that it is flush with the border you've created, and you can make limitless numbers of tiles that "fit" together, but have unique variation and thus, you eliminate the obvious tiling.
If anyone knows the tutorial I'm talking about, could you please post a link to it? Not only because I suck at explaining things and I probably didn't make any sense, but also because I want to credit the guy that came up with the technique. It's proven very helpful to me, time and time again.
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I agree with the above I think you could benefit from varying tiles. I also don't feel that the background really looks 16-bit. I feel your game looks very 8bit to me.
I think you would benefit a lot if you took a look at videos of this game:
http://kotaku.com/5510532/love-of-the-pixel-leads-to-endearing-game-with-a-twist
It should really give you a good idea of transitions of different number bits.
SeanZ
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I really don't like what the character looks like. Its very out of place with the backdrop. I've got a feeling that you could add more to him.
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Thanks for all the comments every one. I am currently working on a new palette (either 1 or 2bit) for the main character. And as for it not fitting in the BG, the sky part of it is temporary and will be changed. And I'm also looking into the tiles.
==EDIT==
I think I'm going to have need to remake my tiles, or make new ones entirely. And the method lukkas provided me didn't really work out to well.
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http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=9865.msg107103#msg107103
I think this is what Lukkas is referring to.
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http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=9865.msg107103#msg107103
I think this is what Lukkas is referring to.
That's exactly what I meant. Thank you :D
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Well, heres some new work I've been doing, that guide has really helped me out!
(http://imgur.com/eXeNX.png)
As you can see, I've edited the characters appearance a little bit, and his palette. I've also fixed some of the tiling issues and, yeah I'm still working on that back drop.
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Hi, quick lunchbreak edit.
I warmed up the grass and added overall contrast between the tiles colors, especially the shadows which were desaturated.
Made the surface rocks the same color as the ground in order to have a visual connection betwenn them.
Also simplified the pixel clusters trying not to have single ones. I tend to do this a lot and the result is the sand paper style.
The character could be even more simple.
It was fun to do :)
(http://whitenights.free.fr/pixel/TidBitPlatformerEDIT.png)
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I have a few issues with Moket's edit, the underground vines have no readability anymore; they're just a green glob now, and the background for the underground makes me think that it's water--almost. Otherwise the new contrast makes most things pop, which is good. The new grass makes the whole scene more lively as well.
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I concur with moket's edit of the underground rocks, only I would go to purple instead of blue, because then you've got a color triad between the Green grass, Orange foreground rocks, and Purple underground rocks.
Something like this (quick photoshop hue edit):
(http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/4766/purples.png)
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Vermolius, yes that's right, I was going to do them but work was calling me :)
Tried the purple like Rydin suggested. The rocks are a bit lost now...
(http://whitenights.free.fr/pixel/TidBitPlatformerEDITC.png)
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I think with my edit, I went a little overboard with saturation to show my point. My bad, sorry :ouch: You could definitely get away with making the rocks almost grey with de-saturation. The purple should be more of a subtle thing. Like, you see it and think "hey those rocks are grey," and then when you zoom in you realize, "whoa, they're actually purple..."
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hehe, no worries, I will try that, this post is ours now.
What I meant was I *should* do those rocks or perhaps I should do a mockup myself instead of jumping on the one by TidBit ;)
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I have to admit I surprised a little bit when I saw all these edits. There are some things I liked and well some things I really didn't like :-\. To sorta jump start it all, I like the more saturated colors, and how some of the tiles look. Though, I don't like the new grass or the edited trees and character. I'll also mention, that the below ground part, weren't rocks, but well...dirt.
Any ways, I suppose I'll get my point across fully when I get a new screen up.
UPDATE
WOO
(http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7154/newbg.png)
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zxW zxzell, well it sure has been a while since I've shown you all an update.
(http://imgur.com/85t4b.png)
I've had the ruins for quite awhile actually, I've just never been happy with the tiles until now.
C'n'C away.
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I'd say it looks pretty good so far. I'd make the background less detailed, and the hearts more simple, but other than that, I think it's rockin. ;D
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I've reworked the BG a little bit, but I'm not going to touch the hearts. Every thing isn't supposed to be as simple as the character is :P.