..That has nothing to do with fortresses or crafts. This is (ostensibly) going to be part of a Zelda style action/adventure game that just happens to feature a young miner as a protagonist. Predictably, it begins in a mine.

It's tiled as it is due to a limitation in the game system, so there's a lot of redundancy. The mirrored stuff is raw laziness, and because this is one of many backgrounds i'll be working on, any non-mirrored walls and details will have to be more afterthought. If myself and the guy I'm working with can muster it, this is going to end up being a pretty huge project. Well, huge for two guys, at least.

I'm going for a decidedly Genesis-y feel, and as such have ripped nearly all of the colors used from various genesis games. Also, this being one of my few forays into environment rendering, I'm looking for ways I can improve the visibility/readability. As it stands, the character gets lost in all the detail. It won't be played isometrically, the isometric tiles are there to give better flexibility to the level layouts.



and the character


Obviously any crits regarding him are also welcome.

Anyone remember this game? Pretty average platformer with a high difficulty level; nothing spectacular for the time but the overall visual style was much darker tha most of it's contempraries at the time, as well as having a fairly interesting premise, being based on a graphic novel which seems to have been influence by a combination of Solomon Kane and Iron Maiden's "Eddie".

I decided yesterday that I'd do a tribute mockup to a game that generated a great deal of fun and frustration in my childhood.
Obviously i'm still going for a distinctly Genesis/megadrive-eqsue look and feel. (not sticking to spec, though.)

RAMBLERAMBLERAMBLE whatever.



Main things i'm looking to do immediately - First, set up a decent palette for the stone tiles, without directly using the one in the game; the improve the quality, texture and readability of any stone objects O may or may not end up including.
I'm attempting recreate/reimagine the stage select area - So for those of you not familiar with it, here are a few screens:
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/9303/chakantheforeverman000.png
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6872/chakantheforeverman001.png
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/858/chakantheforeverman002.png

As well, Anything to improve the sprite itself. Be it color, shape...anything. I want to make this as awesome as my ability permits.
Any tips, criticisms, edits...and so on will be rewarded with a free tankard of mead*




*I lied about the mead thing.

Whew. it's been a minute. no time for animations this time around though   



no moon:



I've been looking at pictures of moons all day and i just can't seem to get it to look like an actual moon, as opposed to just a big glowing cheeseball. and the glow around it is crap.

Also, I need some tips on how to shade when the light source i coming from behind. i've done a few experiments and made a little progress but..still not quite right.

Naturally any other criticisms are welcome. i want to make this as awesome as possible.

Going for smoother motion/less detail...
I'm happy with what i'm capable of but not satisfied with the overal lresults. whle tehy're mostly smooth enough, they al have a certain stiffness about them that i'd like to rid myself of.
here's some examples of the better ones i've made; trust me, you don't want to see the crappier ones:

and my personal favorite

Now, i've actually never attempted any kind of background before this, and i've never had any instruction on the matter (and it certainly shows) but the whole thing comes off as lookin very flat, andi'd like to know how i can make it look more substantial:


Not doing these for any specific purpose, really, but i figure it's a good way to improve my overall abilityl, but i've reached something of an impasse on my own, so, i come here looking for external help.

(also did a screenshot mockup of an earlier take on the scene here,