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Messages - Keops
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1
Don't forget that what is "minimal" depends on what the tiles are. Some things just naturally need more tiles, or different kinds of tiles, so you won't have the same tile layout for different things. For example, you probably wouldn't need both diagonal and squared corners for terrain, but they could be useful for paved paths.

Since your game will probably have player-modified terrain, you'll probably need a tileset that can handle more weird situations than the diagonals-only one above. IIRC 16 tiles per required pair of terrains is the minimum that's procgen-friendly, which is similar to what you posted before - no isolated/narrow strips of terrains. In farming games, it's common for players to modify the terrain so a tileset where you can easily compute the proper tile for a given environment is probably more important than a minimal tileset.

Totally true and the main reason why I will slow down on art and focus on implementation and testing and then improving/polishing art. But your feedback has been invaluable so far. Thanks so much!

2
Ah, I think you misunderstood. By diagonals, I just meant diagonal transitions, i.e. corner tiles. They're still square tiles. Here's a simple example using just 2 types of grass, with 4 diagonal transition tiles (in theory you could use just 1 or 2 with appropriate flips, but for organic objects it helps to have variety).


Typically, the chief drawback to using a tileset like this is the limits it imposes on the exact shapes you can create, but some of this can be mitigated with careful tile design. For example, you wouldn't expect to create "vertical" or "horizontal" edges that are an odd number of tiles in length (since they must be created out of pairs of diagonals in a saw pattern), but for noisy organic surfaces like grass, it's possible to make two diagonals tile with each other seamlessly too, allowing for such scenarios.

Oo this is enlightening! Thanks so much for sharing that



I was experimenting and made this geometric flat color tileset so I can start implementing maps in Unity and not waste time in final asset production. Now my tileset looks bloated haha but I think I'll keep it and also keep this in mind too :o

So much to learn. Thanks so much eishiya! I _really_ appreciate it!

Ribs out!

3
For tilesets of natural features like grass and water, I prefer to do tilesets focusing on diagonals instead of verticals and horizontals, i.e. every tile is basically a corner tile. This allows for a smaller tileset, and more importantly, its structure encourages organic shapes by making straight lines harder to create. The drawback to this style of tileset is most existing automappers don't work well with it, though it could be managed with one based on Wang tiles.

I also think those single-column tiles are kind of useless in most scenarios, as IMHO they create distracting shapes in the environment. They're useful for small-scale games to depict smaller features, but for a large-scale game where a tile is the size of a person or smaller, they're not needed. They're also nearly straight lines by necessity in smaller tiles, which doesn't look natural for things like grass.

Hmmm interesting. Do you happen to have any of those diagonal tiles example? Also, how would this translate to the square grid style of traditional farming RPGs?

As usual thanks for your input eishiya, very appreciated!

4
Depending on the effect you're going for, a subtle vignette towards white around the edges at daytime could also be very pleasant. You could do this with a simple shader on the camera maybe...

Oh indeed! I will park this for the time being, but I will revisit it down the line for sure!

5
Quick question: What's the minimum viable tileset? I mean, transitions, corner tiles, dif. widths, etc. To make levels look varied enough and less grid-like.

I'm working on this and v0.1 at the same time and I've found it is way trickier than I expected. I've been tried searching for this as I'm sure someone has already cracked this problem but I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for, like a checklist or template of tiles for these kinds of semi-top down games.

This is what has been done today:

Spring tileset for v0.1



Testing it on Tiled


Transitions for scenes implemented in Unity (WIP date and time system implemented too) with persistence


WIP inventory (still used old grass tiles)


Any and all help regarding optimal tileset configurations and templates/examples will be GREATLY appreciated :)

Ribs out!

6
Part of the issue could be that you've been pretty extreme with the lighting in your examples. This is understandable as you're trying out a new effect and you want to see how far it can go.

Here's a random video on Hollow Knight. Not pixel art, but flat 2D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWM4J_FR7gM

I like how dynamic lighting is handled here. The background is quite dark except around the main character, but the main character stays well lit throughout. Of course, when your game isn't set in a world of bugs underground, this effect would probably be better used at night...

Interesting!

It's an option, use this effect only at night and maybe a subtle version at dawn/dusk. Still thing it is a good idea to include the option for those who like it and a way to toggle it off for those who don't like how it looks. Same for stuff like CRT filters and whatnot.

Thanks for your input! I still have to check out Hollow Knight btw :P

7
The dynamic lighting is looking very flat right now, like you're just lighting up sticker rather than a 3D object. I'm not actually sure that convincing whole-sprite lighting can be done with normal maps alone.

Yeah for sure. It looks weird and it's going to require a ton of work, but that was just a quick experiment, first time trying it. Going to keep testing, as I'm sure I can make tweaks to the maps, there's an option called palette map that guarantees some colors so you don't get strange lighting artifacts, I'm sure it can be polished to a very decent state. However, even in the test I loved the result, so I'm 100% on board with it, it can always be an option in the graphic settings, so that people that dislike it can just turn it off and have flat colored pixels :)

8
Your character moving animation towards and backwards from player`s perspective looks weird... I think? Or maybe this is ok and just adds uniqueness to the game (this comes to mind after argue about similarity between this game and Stardew Valley). Correct me, then, but my thought that this man`s legs moving too far to the left and right (cant explain this more precisely, sorry for my english).

Nah, it definitely has some weirdness, some people have told me and even I think it looks rather strange. I was aiming for a bit over-the-top or cartoony walkcycle but it still needs a lot of work. I envision it having at least double the frames for fluidity, the shape needs tweaking and also requires 4 diagonals.

Animation is my weakest skill as far as pixel art goes so if you have any tips or edits, I'd much appreciate that :)

Thanks!

9
So, update on the studies. I kept looking at stuff from other games and I think I'm at a place I like more with the "core" tiles. I still need to iterate of the cliffs, so that's probably next.


(I know Pixelation has zoom feature but I had already uploaded it 2X for use elswewhere heh, sorry)

Also made some interesting experiments with maps for lighting the sprites. Of course this will require rethinking the "diffuse" or base sprite, but it's pretty exciting to me. I'm not looking for the game to be pure pixel art so I will probably explore this further, use modern shading/rendering pipeline and stuff like 3D, particles, etc.







I'll keep you guys updated and once again thanks for the feedback! It really opened my eyes.

Ribs out!

10
Pixel Art / Re: thoughts on my kurama?
« on: August 08, 2019, 02:01:29 pm »
Nice edits Daramon! If I had the time I'd probably tackle the whole piece and see how far it goes. It's probably a good candidate for making an inseanely detailed/flowy animation too. Good stuff. Hope the OP sees this and learns from it. I still learn or reinforce what I know by helping others so it's win-win :)

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