Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: EvilEye on July 10, 2008, 11:01:03 pm

Title: Desert Tile
Post by: EvilEye on July 10, 2008, 11:01:03 pm
*UPDATE* - Consolidated everything since was getting too messy - also changed to .png format because .gif was messing with the pixels.

Older version:

 (http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/Screen7.gif)

*UPDATE* Made snow and lava tiles, also swapped the water out for an older version with modified colors

(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/screenshot12.png)

So far here is the latest:

(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/Terrain.gif)

 ( counter-clockwise ): grass, dirt, sand, swamp, lava, snow

Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: Ryan Cordel on July 10, 2008, 11:20:19 pm
Looks nice, but the monotony of the sand and.. green thing (Not entirely sure), plus the water kinda detract from the piece..
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: EvilEye on July 11, 2008, 12:09:52 am
Looks nice, but the monotony of the sand and.. green thing (Not entirely sure), plus the water kinda detract from the piece..

 The green thing is probably the placeholder swamp tile.

 I updated the water though.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: tomblifter on July 11, 2008, 12:19:36 am

 The green thing is probably the placeholder swamp tile.

 I updated the water though.
I don't know if its my monitor, or my eyes being too sensitive, but the new map seems to have too much contrast and hursts my eyes.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: Ryan Cordel on July 11, 2008, 12:20:33 am
Well, it is somewhat worse now. The water was good as it, since it didn't have that much of an obvious pattern, and now the color is brighter and there's a visible pattern emerging. I'd advise you to possibly break it up a bit.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: EvilEye on July 11, 2008, 06:34:44 am
 K updated, both the sand and the water.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: skeddles on July 11, 2008, 07:51:06 am
In my opinion, the sand is way too orange(saturated), but that may just be your/the style.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: huZba on July 11, 2008, 08:57:44 am
Usually the more you repeat something the less unique it should be. The sand and water tiles still have too obvious tiling. Grass and the brown stuff work better. You could use those previous versions of the sand here and there to break the monotony. So in short, smoothen the general sand tile and add a more unique tile here and there to make it more exciting. As for the sprites, they look like the float and aren't integrated to your world. Also the bottom gui isn't visible enough.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: EvilEye on July 11, 2008, 02:13:12 pm
 Updated the sand again.

 There is probably no way to have wavy sand and not see a pattern, unless I wanted to do more then 1 tile. I can always add tiles later though.

 The gui visability is probably due to the font coloring. I'll take note of that for later.

 The entire world is randomly generated, so things are set in places that sometimes look bad. Such as the mountains and trees being set between two tile elevations. Later I will probably add some code to fix that.

 *UPDATE*

 Thinking about switching to a minimalist style and adding details with the objects. Check out the new grass. Tell me what you think.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: EvilEye on July 12, 2008, 06:10:40 am
 Okay, big update using the minimalist style. I like it so I am going to use it  ;D

 Redid water, ground, swamp, sand.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: Dusty on July 12, 2008, 06:40:55 am
While I really like the transitional tiles(the cliff faces), I think the current stuff you've got is really boring. While the upper dirt section looks pretty nice, the desert just looks like you've applied a soft filter to it(I know you didn't)... I dunno, it just doesn't look all that great.

Oh, and I think the water is way too saturated and dark. In fact, I think it could all use a little toning down in the saturation department, but the water most importantly.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: Antago on July 12, 2008, 07:14:53 pm
Didn't the desert sand tile used to be different? I think I remember it being different (a much older version). Anyway, I prefer the older sand tiles, grass tiles, and dirt tiles to the newest version. The newest version has better water however
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: Dusty on July 12, 2008, 07:22:47 pm
Ya, he's missing a different version of sand tiles.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: EvilEye on July 12, 2008, 07:52:14 pm
Didn't the desert sand tile used to be different? I think I remember it being different (a much older version). Anyway, I prefer the older sand tiles, grass tiles, and dirt tiles to the newest version. The newest version has better water however

 The dirt tiles haven't changed, unless you mean the border. The oldest version of the sand tiles was scrapped. Same with the grass tile.

 I like the simpler versions I have now. They look a little better in-game ( to me anyway ).

 Unfortunately I can't spend too much time on these, since I am doing both the art and the programming for this game myself. When I get my new website made I will post a link to the beta version so you guys can test it out for yourself.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: tehwexxl0rz on July 12, 2008, 08:16:47 pm
I do NOT like the new bright borders. I think they contrast the ground waaay to much. In fact, I like everything better from the version labeled "Older". New grass looks less like grass, new sand just looks like random pixels, and new water doesn't look as wet with so much less contrast.

Sorry if I'm coming off as harsh, but I really think you should rethink these changes.

A suggestion for the water: considering the perspective, it might look more realistic to orient the waves horizontally. Also, I wonder if dithering is a good idea there.... since it's water, you don't want it to come off as rough.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: EvilEye on July 13, 2008, 04:08:53 am
 Well it should look a little better with objects. I hope.

 (http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/screen13.png)

 Also keep in mind this map is randomly generated.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: HughSpectrum on July 13, 2008, 05:02:54 am
I usually don't critique much, but I think something that stands out to me is that the edges placed against the water tiles do not appear to be actually going *into* the water, so it looks like you have a plate of land on top of the water, and it looks even stranger when you look over at other tiles the grass is on top, like the snow or swamp, so it doesn't have a sense of a thick land mass.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: huZba on July 13, 2008, 08:10:09 am
It just hit me that Warcraft 2 has tiles that work in a similar fashion. There's a map editor where you can check out how they've solved problems similar to yours. It's more complicated, but not by much i reckon. Also guaranteed to work on a randomly generated map.
There's some pretty cool tiles too. A single tree tile is a patch of trees, a lot of trees together is a mass of trees that doesn't have vertical and horizontal seams.
The grass is pretty flat like yours, but it also has lighter and darker areas. etc.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: Antago on July 13, 2008, 06:21:55 pm
Well I like the original sand tiles with the diagnol waving sand curves. It's far more appropriate; the newest versions are very flat and dull. Noisy too

The old dirt tiles (on the "old version" of your sample in the original post) were better because they stand out more as looking more cracked and textured, and yet fit the style.

The old grass too had good grass texture

The new stuff is more monotonous and flat in my opinion
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: Emtch on July 14, 2008, 02:51:04 pm
The pespective seems off. Note how the edges of the land is in an angled view, while the trees/mountains are top down view.
Title: Re: Desert Tile
Post by: EvilEye on July 15, 2008, 08:13:08 pm
 Well for anyone who is interested I just released a new version of my game.

 You can find it here (http://www.anti-soft.com)

 Some screenshots:

(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/screen2.jpg)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/screen1.jpg)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/screen3.jpg)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/screen4.jpg)