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Pixel Art / [CC] C64 newbie making Roguelike
« on: March 09, 2016, 12:27:29 pm »
Hi! Been lurking around, but decided to de-lurk to ask for some advice on Commodore 64 graphics because I'm totally out of my comfort zone here. Any pixeling I've done was decades ago on Amiga and PC/VGA so it's been relatively unconstrained so I've been having hard time wrapping my head around to what would be a good idea on C64 since the color combinations are so limited. (I am planning to make this to run on actual hardware, well emulated since I don't have a C64 anymore.)
Anyway, here's what I have so far:
First problem I encountered was that I used colours from the C64 Wiki, but when I tried it in Vice, it looked all wrong and I discovered that they have very different idea of what the colours should be. Most crucially the red is very different and the 7-8-9 ramp doesn't look nearly as good. So I tried some alternatives and settled on 7-10-9.
So, I understand that there are differences between even actual C64s, but in general, what would be the most suitable palette to use on my PC while making the graphics? I guess Vice, since it's my emulator, but...?
Secondly, I'm really not used to having to think about what I should use for shared colours, especially given how limited the 1 unique colour is that I can give the characters. Many of the ones I want to use are in the second half of the palette! Any comments or advice you could give for that? I'm really starting to understand why some games had really weird colour choices...
Thirdly, I'm not really happy with my floor. The fat pixels are making it really hard for me to draw anything irregular that looks good, since you only have 4 pixels horizontally! But hires floor is out since the only dark colour is the #2 red and I need that for my monsters, they become camouflaged in the floor otherwise. Any advice for what to do with the floor? I'm willing to make the pattern larger than 1 tile (in fact, the brown floor uses 3 tiles stacked vertically to break it up a bit).
Finally, do you think the Lich looks too much like a hockey player?
He was supposed to be wielding a scythe to get the L shape, but turning him into 8x8 made it a bit ugly. (Gimmick with the monsters is that they're all made to look like the ASCII letter that is used to represent them to tie them back to roguelike tradition.)
And of course, feel free to tell me anything else you think about my graphics, good, bad or ugly.
Anyway, here's what I have so far:
First problem I encountered was that I used colours from the C64 Wiki, but when I tried it in Vice, it looked all wrong and I discovered that they have very different idea of what the colours should be. Most crucially the red is very different and the 7-8-9 ramp doesn't look nearly as good. So I tried some alternatives and settled on 7-10-9.
So, I understand that there are differences between even actual C64s, but in general, what would be the most suitable palette to use on my PC while making the graphics? I guess Vice, since it's my emulator, but...?
Secondly, I'm really not used to having to think about what I should use for shared colours, especially given how limited the 1 unique colour is that I can give the characters. Many of the ones I want to use are in the second half of the palette! Any comments or advice you could give for that? I'm really starting to understand why some games had really weird colour choices...
Thirdly, I'm not really happy with my floor. The fat pixels are making it really hard for me to draw anything irregular that looks good, since you only have 4 pixels horizontally! But hires floor is out since the only dark colour is the #2 red and I need that for my monsters, they become camouflaged in the floor otherwise. Any advice for what to do with the floor? I'm willing to make the pattern larger than 1 tile (in fact, the brown floor uses 3 tiles stacked vertically to break it up a bit).
Finally, do you think the Lich looks too much like a hockey player?
He was supposed to be wielding a scythe to get the L shape, but turning him into 8x8 made it a bit ugly. (Gimmick with the monsters is that they're all made to look like the ASCII letter that is used to represent them to tie them back to roguelike tradition.)
And of course, feel free to tell me anything else you think about my graphics, good, bad or ugly.