Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: winged doom on November 01, 2011, 05:52:45 am

Title: RENEGADE
Post by: winged doom on November 01, 2011, 05:52:45 am
(http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/305/5/6/renegade_logotype_by_winged_doom-d4eomt6.png)

It will be a platform run'n'gun shooter that is inspired by PROBOTECTOR - also known as Contra Hardcorps :3


>> official devlog (http://winged-doom.blogspot.com/search/label/RENEGADE) <<
Title: Re: "Renegade" game sketches, art and animations
Post by: winged doom on November 02, 2011, 06:52:03 am

(http://www.pixeljoint.com/files/icons/full/chars_2.gif)
Title: Re: "Renegade" game sketches, art and animations
Post by: pistachio on November 02, 2011, 06:55:31 am
The style of the game seems very similar to STEALER, mainly due to the palette. Intentional? It's up to you if you want to differentiate from that game. Nonetheless, it looks promising.
Title: Re: "Renegade" game sketches, art and animations
Post by: winged doom on November 02, 2011, 07:20:14 am
The style of the game seems very similar to STEALER, mainly due to the palette. Intentional? It's up to you if you want to differentiate from that game. Nonetheless, it looks promising.

Yes, intentional. It's gonna be prequel to STEALER. I'm not finished that game because gameplay (like in Flashback and Saira) has appeared too hard for realization. One programmer now tries to make it, but work was tightened.
So, meanwhile i work over Renegade
Title: Re: "Renegade" game sketches, art and animations
Post by: winged doom on November 04, 2011, 12:25:56 pm
(http://www.deviantart.com/download/267131468/renegade_menu_by_winged_doom-d4f1jyk.gif)
Title: Re: "Renegade" game sketches, art and animations
Post by: winged doom on November 08, 2011, 05:57:39 pm
(http://www.pixeljoint.com/files/icons/full/pack__r1668268481.gif)

some graphic for game - application icon 32x32 (in top-right corner), tiles, animations of enemy and sprites of bugship
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: Corinthian Baby on November 08, 2011, 09:49:32 pm
I appreciate what you're doing with the blue tinted grey scale. However, it's really hurting readability. It's hard to distinguish the sprites from the BG, and, as creative as the environment is, it's accentuated more so than the actual player/enemies.

You might need more/brighter shades but try to create a clear distinction with priorities and saturation.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: jams0988 on November 09, 2011, 05:43:33 am
This looks pretty amazing. =)
Sort of echoing what Corinthian said, adding a few bright highlights to foreground elements/enemies/players might make things a bit more readable.

I wanna see it in motion. Really cool art style!
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: Terley on November 09, 2011, 02:39:10 pm
I really like the atmosphere of this, although I think that your palette may be watering down the detail in parts. It'd be worth trying to draw out the foreground a tad more to distinguish whats actually a playable platform. An easy you could do this is to simply make alterations to your palette in way by giving higher contrast to your foreground and less to your background. A toggle of saturation here will also push back or draw forward parts.

(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6685/palletalter.png)

No preference to the hue's used although, I feel it may be too purple.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: SimTheDog on November 11, 2011, 03:14:45 pm
I'd play this game. That's some really cool previews you have there! My only problem is the "Insert Coin" screen. It looks a bit empty. Normally in those sort of screens, the whole cast would feature in the background or something like that so I think that the screen can be improved.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: StaticSails on November 11, 2011, 05:19:04 pm
I'd play this game. That's some really cool previews you have there! My only problem is the "Insert Coin" screen. It looks a bit empty. Normally in those sort of screens, the whole cast would feature in the background or something like that so I think that the screen can be improved.
Or if you don't want to make any new assets you could just have that pan over a random level. I think Contra did that if you waited a while to press start.
Title: Re: "Renegade" game sketches, art and animations
Post by: Lazycow on November 12, 2011, 09:03:11 am
(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4302/compo.gif)

What about giving the foreground more contrast? (opps, I forgot to recolor one soldier)
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: SimTheDog on November 12, 2011, 11:52:22 am
The updated one works out much better! I can easily tell what the background is from the main platforms.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: Ryumaru on November 12, 2011, 05:59:44 pm
Yes, the latest update is much better in terms of readability. In fact, if you wanted to keep more of the atmosphere you've created that is more about the lower saturation palette ( which is very nice) you could tone down the saturation of the foreground and add some slightly darker values.
In terms of priority, these are your main tools to exploit- saturation and value. From there you just incremently take away from these based on the priority desired ( sprites full value, full saturation; foreground partial value, full saturation; background partial saturation, partial value) etc.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: jams0988 on November 13, 2011, 05:09:13 am
The latest edit is nice looking, but I think it sacrifices a lot of the game's atmosphere for readability. The edit right before it is still the best I think, striking a good balance. It was more than readable enough, I think, while still keeping the original moody style intact. =)
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: Mathias on November 13, 2011, 06:52:00 am
Yeah, not liking those new dark saturated blues in the foreground at all.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: Corinthian Baby on November 13, 2011, 07:45:03 am
I think a balance between the last two edits would be best. The readability of the second one (and pushed further I would argue, because the sprites bleed into the foreground) without sacrificing the style and atmosphere of the previous edit/orig image. Maybe the sprites should be most saturated, whereas the foreground is only lighter,or more saturated than the BG, but less so than the sprites.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: winged doom on November 16, 2011, 08:25:27 am
i like both variants, but now i ask myself -  if i make front more contrast, atmosphere will be lost or not? i think i should try
thanx for crits  guys :3
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: Terley on November 16, 2011, 02:27:59 pm
In terms of readability I do like Lazycow's edit, but for a game I feel this could all be perceived as too harsh on the eyes. The contrast with this is too extreme in my opinion but you definately could push the values more without loosing too much atmosphere. It is definately a stylistic option but with higher contrast you've sacrificed your control of saturation.

The motivation behind my edit was more to push you in the right direction as I didnt want you to stray too far from what works with your original concept, I feared too much of a radical change could put a huge spanner in your works.

Here I've made another edit to quickly to illustrate if you did want to inject a tad bit more contrast into this without sacrificing too much atmosphere,

(MEGAQUICK EDIT)
(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8858/palletalter02.png)

Also to distinguish the sprites a bit more, you could give your sprites a particular colour variable, I've also outlined your sprites.

Hope this helps you out.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: Corinthian Baby on November 17, 2011, 04:30:44 pm
I really like that edit, much more clearly defined. However, I might even argue for the sprites to use that higher saturated blue from lazycow's edit, just to make them pop more. Especially if the mockup is the intended resolution, the sprites are relatively small in comparison to the landscape, you don't want them to get visually lost.
Title: Re: RENEGADE
Post by: jams0988 on November 17, 2011, 05:07:08 pm
I really, really think they're more than readable enough now. Keeping in mind that they'll actually be moving and animating in the game, I think they'll be pretty hard to lose track of. Besides, I played Contra: Rebirth a few years ago, and it was one of the most fun games I've ever played, in part because the enemies were hard to keep track of once in awhile, with all the explosions and such on screen. It added to the challenge for me, and never felt cheap. Sometimes, you had to kind of visually map out where the enemies were, since they'd be behind explosions or foreground elements.

So I don't think enemies need to be lit up like neon on the screen. Most players are pretty forgiving of things like that, I think, and it actually adds to the fun if they're not completely invisible/lost on a noisy background. Which, in this case, they're not. I can easily spot them on the screen, even when they're not moving.

Not that I'm arguing against Corinthian's suggestion of upping the contrast on the sprites, per-say. I just think they're readable enough now, and any changes to them should be for aesthetic reasons - they might actually *look* cooler in a bright blue color, in which case, I'd agree with that change, too. =)