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Messages - Lazy Brain Games
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61
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Chaos Chimera
« on: February 23, 2011, 01:29:49 pm »
Thanks for the replies guys ;) I haven't been too active with the artwork on this, as I'm still trying to nail down the gameplay. The screenshots above are a bit dated, here's a more recent one. I am pretty happy with the rock & ice. Most of my time spend on art has been consumed by the new HUD and gameplay system. An alpha build will be coming soon!



@Grinner
You're the first to note that indeed it is a mario glove lol. The readability on that glove is awesome, but it does look a bit out of place. I'm still working on that aspect :P This game has become sort of a mashup of Gradius, Contra, Street Fighter 2010, Megaman, Final Fantasy, and Burai Warrior. Quite a few different influences! The basic gameplay is very similar to an earlier game, Factorium:

http://lazybraingames.wordpress.com/factorium/

@Konrad
The flicker/opacity issue is something of much internal debate. For this game, I'm "cheating" like hell. The most retro-faithful game I've ever done was Cyborg Virus:

http://lazybraingames.wordpress.com/cyborg-virus/

I may work in some of the scanline/flicker stuff you brought up, as I do love the look of it too ;)

Thanks for looking!

-Johnny B.

[EDIT]

I just uploaded a video of the game on youtube. This will help you see how all of it fits together ;)

http://bit.ly/dQltOX

62
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: Ah/Chu
« on: February 13, 2011, 09:06:16 am »
I definitely like the psychedelic blue one better ;) Such exceptional work begs the question; what's it for?

63
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Boss Monsters
« on: February 12, 2011, 08:18:49 pm »
Wow, thanks guys! I think I have a pretty firm grasp on what needs to happen now ;) Now I'm hoping it at least makes sense why I chose the palette I did :P These are some really great edits! You both have so much more pixel skills than I do! I'm used to making all the assets for a game in 2 days, so I've never had an opportunity to really think about any this stuff. I'm really glad I've slowed down for this one, the game will be far better for it!

Both of these edits make the boss look far more scarier than before, some really great work! I'm still absorbing all the info discussed here, but it's obvious I have to go back and work on a few things :P One addition I'd love to make, if there's time, is to strobe the highlights when the boss is breathing fire or whatever. That ought to make for some pretty cool visuals!

Thanks again! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out with this. With any luck I'll have a playable alpha build in a couple of days on the indie db.

[EDIT]

Sorry StaticSails, I didn't see you reply there :P A while back I did take a look at that thread, and the current palette I came up with is a result of that. This is a testament to my overall dumbness when it comes to color. I never intended to start another discussion about palettes, they just always seem to end up that way. I've been a bit blindsided by this whole thing :P Players usually tell me "great graphics!" which is nice, but everyone on these forums knows they're... less than great lol. I think what I'm lacking is a straight-ahead "How to make a 16 color palette for your game" tutorial. Can anyone recommend a book for pixel art/computer palettes?

64
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Boss Monsters
« on: February 12, 2011, 09:48:27 am »
lol. My monitor is calibrated lol. I suppose part of the reason for picking such dark colors is that I'm trying to make things a bit scary, which is hard to do if you can see all the detail on something. While I certainly haven't been been basing my choices on this pic in particular, this is the sort of super-dark/highlight effect that I'm going after...

I'm pretty sure I can't post anything other than pixel art, so here's a link to a familiar sight, one of Giger's alien designs from the Aliens movie...

http://lazybraingames.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/aliendroolhansuedigiger.jpg

[EDIT]

Here's a pic of the Nightmare King from Little Nemo, this is sort of a pixelated (and slightly brighter) example of what I'm after...



Of course there's a number of things I've done totally inconsistent with this picture, but as far as the lighting, this is what I'm aiming for. Just enough light to let the player know what they're looking at, which I think might shed some light on my color choices (bad pun intended). Is there a name for this type of lighting? Anyway, the "low exposure" effect is what will keep things a bit edgy (at least that's my thinking). I suppose I never really articulated that, but I didn't really think about it that hard 'till I saw your edit.

Thanks for that edit! That really helped me understand what the heck I've trying to do! I guess I could call this "Retro Noir" if I wanted to be gimmicky about it :P Not a bad idea actually. Surely there's a better way to develop a palette for something like this, what that method would be... I have no idea :P Somebody must of thought to do something like this in a game at some point... right?

Thanks again!


65
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Boss Monsters
« on: February 12, 2011, 08:21:05 am »
Well, I was kind of on a streak, so I started the last boss. So, I think just doing all the artwork at this point makes sense. Once it's all done, I can go back sometime between Alpha and Beta to get some more mid-range stuff goin'. Once I polish off these bosses, there isn't too much else besides some cutscene stuff ;)

While he's an anatomical nightmare for sure, I do like the rib cage so far ;) Although he kinda looks like he's coming out of a birth canal or something, not sure if I want to make this game THAT freaky lol. This boss is going to have a few different phases, so there's going to be a bit more besides this, but this is definitely the "money shot" for me lol.



Thanks again everyone!

-Johnny B.

66
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Boss Monsters
« on: February 12, 2011, 05:53:27 am »
Well, I will admit I do feel silly asking for advice and then not listening lol. Although, most of my resistance to a new color palette stems from the fact that I'm desperately trying to get this game completed, I have 2 more to make after this one!

I think the best course for me will be to get this game into Alpha before I re-tweak any of the colors. When I posted this, I was more interested in if things "read" right, or if there was a lighting problem or something. But things always seem to go back to the palette. For some reason this still surprises me :P

I really respect your guys' opinions and appreciate you taking the time to try and guide a noob like myself. I'm just kind of crunching to get this game out the door. But you're totally right, I gotta work on the palette to make the visuals pop a little more ;)

Once most of the artwork is populated, I'll post a master image with everything, and then take it from there. At least that way if I have to rework things, it can all be done at once.

Thanks for your help!

67
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Boss Monsters
« on: February 12, 2011, 02:22:14 am »
Unfortunately, I'm past the point of no return with this palette :( Too much artwork has already been created. But, I was kind of thinking ahead and trying to formulate the palette for this game specifically. This is a 3-part series, the second of which is plant filled, so the dark green will be the main background color in that one.

Admittedly, the colors are garish, but for a game like this I'm crossing my fingers that players will forgive my lack of color knowledge (luckily no players have noticed my crazy palettes yet lol). You're totally right about the grays, they're extremely useful!

Next time around I'll be sure to get some more grays in there lol. Thanks for the reply!

68
Pixel Art / [WIP] Boss Monsters
« on: February 12, 2011, 01:25:23 am »
I'm near completing 2 of the 3 bosses for an upcoming game, so thought I'd post them up for some critique :) I'm still learning, but I like to think this is an improvement over my previous games. At this point, I'm stuck with the palette I've chosen, which is this...



I'm hoping this palette won't hurt anyone's eyes too much!

Here's the straight image of one of the bosses, the classic eyeball boss...


And here he is in the game (obviously there's some issues with the HUD :P)


This one still has a couple of problem areas, but I'm interested in any glaring issues you might be able to find ;)

This other one, I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to be yet lol.I'm just calling him "Boss 1" at this point :P


Boss 1 in-game...


Love it? Hate it? Let me know! :D I'd like to get a feel for how close these are to done before I start on the final boss.

-Johnny B.


69
Pixel Art / Update!
« on: February 08, 2011, 09:30:30 am »
[bumped!]
It feels like I've gotten somewhere with researching different palettes. This game is still a WIP, but I like to think these look promising, and not done by a blind person lol. Let me know how I'm doing for far and if there's any glaring issues! These are all straight captures from the game, I'll post up the actual sprites a bit later on ;) Thanks for looking!

-Johnny B.


 

 

 

70
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Chaos Chimera
« on: February 04, 2011, 02:38:07 am »
After reading that linked post, it's becoming more obvious to me how ridiculous my palettes are! I haven't been tailoring the palette for each game, so that's something that can I address pretty easily. Researching the more subtle details of palettes may be more daunting, but I'll just have to study up to get the artwork where it needs to be. I think I can abandon the idea of using the same palette for every game, so that's a least one step in the right direction lol. I'll see what I can come up with that's a little more sane.

Thanks for the reply! I needed more help than I thought!

[EDIT]

I haven't done a ton of research yet, but I can at least eyeball colors that are going to fit the game better. I did a side-by-side to demonstrate the evedent improvement overall. I'm hoping I'm not totally off base here...


 


I'm just going to start over so I can get a better feel for this palette, unless there's some other glaring problems with this palette that I'm not aware of (which is very possible!).


Thanks again for showing me how fully retarded everything was lol. I might be able to make something less absurd this time around :)

[EDIT]
I'm thinking this is a little better...

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