Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: elise on August 01, 2007, 07:01:35 am

Title: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: elise on August 01, 2007, 07:01:35 am
I wanted to try my hand at making a gameboy mockup and felt like making it ridiculously cute and all that... and I tried to stick to what I know of gameboy specifications. The key word being 'tried' because I'm pretty sure I messed up when it comes to sprite and tile size. It's my first time doing games/sprites/tiles so I'd love to hear any c&c.

Anyways... here's the cluttered version:
(http://nevermore.cc/images/pixels/gameboytest.gif)

Without the sprites:
(http://nevermore.cc/images/pixels/gameboynosprites.gif)

And here's my sorry attempt at a running panda sprite:
(http://nevermore.cc/images/pixels/pandasprite.gif)
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: Sherman Gill on August 01, 2007, 07:10:30 am
Awesome, but not very readable. Don't know how you could make it more readable though... Maybe have thicker outlines on the characters? I 'unno.
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: Xion on August 01, 2007, 07:51:05 am
Hey, these are pretty groovy.

Like Sherm said, sort of hard to see what's going on and all. I bet this would look pretty sweet animated though, with everything in motion. In the walking animation, the far arm gets too long when outstretched. I think the ground tiles could be simpler.
Were you just pixeling things in the same style and throwing them all into one scene, 'cause that's what it looks like in the first one. Thundercloud next to happy cloud above conifers by a cactus? But you said it was the cluttered version so I'm sure you're well aware of the fact that it's...well, cluttered. The 2nd version looks more game-feasible. The bunny's eyes look kind of soulless and creepy.
But...
Um...
Uh...


...


I really like this...I...I have nothing more to say. Great job. Make some more animations, or possibly add a couple more frames to the one you have.  :y:
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: robotacon on August 01, 2007, 10:57:08 am
Super cute!
...but shouldn't you atleast go for a GB-Color palette?
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: ndchristie on August 01, 2007, 01:20:53 pm
No reason to make this in color unless you really wanted to from the start.

I agree that thicker outlines are needed to make the characters stand out more.

tilesize is 8x8, usually seen as 16x16
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: Vertigo-zero on August 01, 2007, 02:18:50 pm
maybe thickening the outlines isnt needed.
If the background scrolls by (at different speed than the foreground) it is readable enough

Example: (Snake had the same problem but solved it that way)
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=3732.0 (http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=3732.0)
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: ndchristie on August 01, 2007, 02:26:11 pm
Mh, i would call that "patched" rather than "solved."  It's always better to make it so that your screen actually reads rather than rely on motion to distract the player from noticing how much it doesn't.
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: Overkill on August 01, 2007, 02:53:05 pm
Just screwing with it over the course of a few minutes, it looks like thicker outlines do improve readability somewhat.
(http://xs218.xs.to/xs218/07313/elise-edit-gb.png)

Aaand for the hell of it, using the CGA palette (with the gray brightened to white)
(http://xs218.xs.to/xs218/07313/elise-edit.png)
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: elise on August 01, 2007, 03:31:44 pm
Thanks for the feedback. :) I tried to make more readable versions...

Here's one with the outlines:
(http://nevermore.cc/images/pixels/gameboyedit2.gif)

And one where I just removed the darkest color from everything but the the characters and things you can interact with:
(http://nevermore.cc/images/pixels/gameboyedit1.gif)
Forgot to put the villians and balloon back in that one... whoops...

And the original just for comparison:
(http://nevermore.cc/images/pixels/gameboytest.gif)

Anyways, which one do yall prefer?

Xion - yeah, I kind of just threw everything into one scene just to see what it would all look like. I'm not great at animation but I'll see what I can do.  ;)
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: garsh on August 01, 2007, 03:43:34 pm
I really love this stuff and can't find any fault with it. Your style is incredibly cute, but different from typical cute styles that we used to see in games of this kind. Your style has its own personality and it's good. The rag doll look of your characters is especially awesome. For the record, I prefer the originals -- before the thicker outlines.

Instead of a thicker black outline, if you really feel like something needs to be done for readability, you might take a cue from real designers who worked with that hardware. There were many games back then, especially in the later years of Gameboy's lifespan, that used a "white" (lightest shade of cabbage green) outline, tracing the "black" outline. Does that make sense? I'm sure I could dig up an example if you need it, there were plenty.

The only problem is you'd either have to reduce the size of your sprites by 1 pixel on each side to account for the extra outline, or just throw the sprite size limitations out the window. You said you didn't think you were exact with that already, though, so it may not matter. Anyway, that would be my suggestion, if you think you need something to improve on perfection.

Otherwise I say congratulations. This is the kind of game I would have played for graphics alone. That's a real accomplishment when you're working with 4 shades of cabbage.
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: bengo on August 01, 2007, 06:42:32 pm
Alright, now I can see them. I think the black outline is a tad much, so I'd go with the second one. Great work, it looks especially good with the CGA palette.
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: Overkill on August 01, 2007, 10:20:46 pm
Okay, I like the second one, but maybe it would look better if all foreground objects (like the grass) have the outermost outline in the darkest shade, so they're more distinguishable from the background.

(http://xs318.xs.to/xs318/07314/elise-edit.png)
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: elise on August 02, 2007, 05:13:46 pm
Thanks overkill...  :y:


I made an animation of the sprite running (or more like walking kinda fast)... I had to make it relatively simple so no bad guys, jumping or other stuff. Just running and collecting points.
(http://nevermore.cc/images/pixels/gameboyrunning.gif)

Still doesn't look very... fluid... but not bad for my first attempt.
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: Jericho on August 02, 2007, 06:03:53 pm
I like how the apples ( ? ) disappear :)

I think maybe an easier way to make characters stand out other than thick lines is to actually give them a light outline  like in my example below.

I think someone else also mentioned something about the plants? Well you don't need to give them a full outline, just a little something to make them stand out more from the trees (again see example)

(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b307/unknown__user/other/gbex.gif)
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: TrevoriuS on August 02, 2007, 06:12:29 pm
Are you gonna build a ROM?  :D
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: elise on August 02, 2007, 09:01:43 pm
jericho - I really like how the sprites look with the light outine, but I don't think I could put it on the apples because it would add another color. Right now they're 3 colors + transparency. Maybe I could change them to lighter colored apples, though it would change the way they look when they disappear. Hrm.  :-\

trevorious - I don't think so... although my kids want me to.  ;) I'm just doing this for practice in case I ever want to make a rom or mobile game. I still have a lot to learn about tiling and animation.
Title: Re: Gameboy Attempt
Post by: PypeBros on August 03, 2007, 03:53:05 pm
imho, the animated picture is the one that reads and looks the bests ... the thick outline just makes things somehow clumsy and the white super-outline gives an odd feeling that the characters and foes of the game are paper-cuts displayed over a background (many many GB games suffered from this, esp. Disney ones).

Super Mario Land 2 (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%226+golden+coins%22&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2) (and iirc other SML) had no such outlines and read quite well.
If you're worried about fruits readability over the background, i'd suggest you try to make them giggle a bit: that typically improves recognition more than any kind of outline scheme you could think of.