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Messages - mikemayday
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1
Pixel Art / Re: Dwarf Fortress game assets
« on: October 22, 2019, 06:38:47 pm »
I see your point with the predefined palette. I must admit I find searching for the right colour to be quite fun though!

I was never aiming to make the angle of the sprites the same as the tiles - those are essentially top-down and the sprites need to be as clear and representative as possible, which I couldn't achieve with a top-down view. So I did aim for a "slightly top-down but mostly side" view.
However I see what you mean with the angle being inconsistent and the tip with drawing them with a backdrop room is excellent - I haven't thought about that!

2
Pixel Art / Re: Dwarf Fortress game assets
« on: October 22, 2019, 09:24:43 am »
Hello,
I now have a good batch of standard sized creatures (32x32px) up for critique.


I need to correct the facing on some of the birds, since they're almost 100% side-view. (goose, rooster etc .)

I was a bit intimidated so I didn't start out with a specific palette in mind. I think this whole image could be reduced to 32 colours with a bit of work. Do you think that the project would benefit from it? There are literally thousands of icons to prepare (of course, many of them derivative), I don't think I'd be able to hold strictly to such a small palette. Of course I'm trying to be conservative for each given sprite.

I'm wondering what you'll think of these.

3
Pixel Art / Dwarf Fortress game assets
« on: January 03, 2019, 09:42:47 pm »
Hello!
I'm not sure what the etiquette is on cross posting between Pilejoint and Pixelation, but I remember getting valuable input in both places simultaneously, so I hope those of you who frequent both places don't mind.

I'm working on sprites for Dwarf Fortress and I'm interested in your critique.





The game uses 32x32 sprites for almost everything. Currently I'm trying to make one sprite for every function because there's a lot to cover, but variation is possible. Due to the size constraint, I'm not concerned with scale very much, trying to make good use of the available space instead. The game will feature advanced tactical situations so it's important for the symbols to be readable.
Likewise, I'm not aiming for a very consistent view angle. As long as everything is only slightly top-down, I'm satisfied - unfortunately you can put much more information in a side-view sprite, while the game itself is obviously viewed from above. So the display is rather symbolic in this regard.


Some notes about the sprites you can see below:
-wall sprites are composed of 8 possible sprites total (2 horizontal, 2 vertical and 4 corners).
-I've prepared borders for transitions of the floor sprites.
-The bush and sapling sprites have little impact other than visual so I've decreased their contrast, even though I think the original versions visible in the spritesheet above look better on their own.
-The unit sprites are composite, to reflect the unit's equipment. You can see a human warrior in chainmail, with no helmet, a sword and shield.
-There are automatically generated non-pixelart shadows around walls, to help improve readability of the view. Likewise, I'm happy with soft non-pixelart shadows around sprites.
-I've prepared three different variants of the water sprite, I'm not quite happy with either of them
-I think the bigger problem is the uniformity and attractiveness of the overall colour scheme, unfortunately the sprites are to be used in multiple situations, so it's hard for me to work out a compromise that both looks good overall AND is readable. Readability has priority here.
-The graphics are intended to be viewed at 100% size.


4
Pixel Art / Re: Dwarf Fortress Sprites - dwarves, tree, boulder.
« on: March 25, 2012, 10:36:03 pm »
Yeah... with crits from Pixeljoint I've been through quite a few iterations now, but I'm not happy with any of them in the end. They ARE supposed to be viewed at 1X.
Maybe it helps that they're supposed to be viewed on a darker background in the game? Anyway, try these:




I actually prefer them with the darker armour and brighter weapons.

And also, here's my try at a grass tile:






5
Pixel Art / Re: Small game sprites- 16px dwarves + 32px dwarf
« on: March 20, 2012, 10:32:54 pm »
Did some more work on the 16px military. It's tiny!



And just a boulder.

Does it match the tree in style?

I'm gonna have to do my own grass tile now I guess. Sad! Dusty's tiles are all very good, but that grass is a masterpiece. Don't know what else to do besides copying it :/

6
Pixel Art / Re: Small game sprites- 16px dwarves + 32px dwarf
« on: March 20, 2012, 02:17:01 am »
Well, the subject of those renders was the sphere, not the cube. And I think drawing a sphere with elements of linear perspective wouldn't clash with the surrounding cubical geometry being orthographic- the outline stays the same.
EDIT: just to explain more- I also thought it'd be a GOOD idea to just draw the tree in linear perspective, that's why I did those renders this way. But when it only comes down to half a pixel of a difference...

7
Pixel Art / Re: Small game sprites- 16px dwarves
« on: March 20, 2012, 12:28:29 am »
Yup, Dwarf Fortress and charming+nonsensical is a perfect two word description of the game :)
In the game itself the grass only alternates between two shades of green and four symbols. The visualiser pulled out the game inner data though- hence the wacky patchwork- which, I agree, looks interesting.

Now, I've cleaned up the tree animation a bit:


And this guy is up for critique:


step2: (trying out various thinks, tell me what you think works and what doesn't!).

8
Pixel Art / Re: Small game sprites- no.1: a tree (now animated)!
« on: March 19, 2012, 09:01:37 pm »
Ok, here's some old stuff I've been reworking lately. The frontend will be using different zoom levels and I'd like to have dedicated icons for at least both 16px and 32px.
So while I work on some larger icons I'm interested in your opinions on these fellas.
The original civilian dwarves were made by Tocky- fantastic lineart and old-school colours- but sadly those colours didn't match the rest of the graphics that have already been made for DF. Back then I remade them to some more vibrant colours.

The soldiers are: recruit, wrestler, swordsman, axeman, hammerman, maceman, spearman, pikeman, lasher, crossbowman, bowman, blowgunman


9
Pixel Art / Re: Small game sprites- no.1: a tree (now animated)!
« on: March 19, 2012, 04:07:52 pm »
The patchwork is due to the way the visualizer currently works - it transfers data from DF pretty directly- thus it retains the colour variation of the grass tiles that is present in DF. (it doesn't help that in DF every tile is a different species of grass... hopefully that will be changed).

10
Pixel Art / Re: Small game sprites- no.1: a tree (now animated)!
« on: March 19, 2012, 12:52:15 pm »
Trying out the messed-up perspective. Somehow it doesn't bother ME- what about you guys?
The creatures lovingly 'borrowed' from RedShrike (who agreed to donating his graphics for the project, yay!), tiles by Dusty (temporarily).


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