Don't listen to them! it doesn't *have* to conform to anything. It's your art. Do what you want with it. Changing the size to something typical ofthe 8-16 bit era isn't going to make it look better.
And unless you were designing a game for hardware that would have a hard time processing tiles that weren't a factor of 4 there's no actual *need* to do so.

Personally I think it would look cleaner if the dashed-lines were solid, or at the very least more focused towards the up and right, that is to say, the bottom and leftmost "breaks" don't really need to be there.

Quote from: Corsair on August 08, 2009, 05:51:06 pm

IN the second, one the handle is way too far to the left.
I 'm actually going to question your use of the buster sword and master sword, since both icons are just so ubiquitous whatever you do with them will be -recognizable- but lack entirely in distinctiveness in design.

I found a version of the buster sword where the handle was intentionally offset, like the two holes in the base of the "blade" area are offset; not centered.
All swords need to be balanced, concerning weight, so the wielder can hold/swing them correctly. I think this has something to do the offset of the particular design I'm referring to. Imagining a crushing blow from this thing it stands to reason that the handle be offset like it is so that the part of the blade area, I currently have colored as pink, acts like a weight to intensify the impact of the blow, the more the offset of the handle towards the cutting edge, the more the weighty backside follows the swing bring more power with it. It's a physics problem. Probably doesn't make any sense, but that how I rationalized how my reference was designed. It may just be distracting.

Once finished, these will be seen by three people. Like I said, borrowing the designs adds a nostalgia and prestige factor. I'm not trying to innovate new sword designs. Instead, I'm kind of celebrating these old beloved designs. Think of it as a respectful homage. These swords are not for use in any game project, or any other type of project for that matter. Certainly nothing commercial.

What beoran said, having the handle offset in the *opposite* direction would have more of the effect you're speaking of. Granted we're not talking a bout a weapon aht could in any way be feasible in real life, but if one were to hold it straight up it would fall back as opposed to forward. Regardless of the handle position relative to the blade, the falling force would be exactly the same no matter where it were oriented on the hilt, Futhermore, if one were to swing such an off-balance sword to the side (not like any sane person would do something so potentially back breaking) the natural inclination would be for the backside to fall down, causing the blade turn up, thus making for an extremely awkward motion. Offsetting it other8 side would have a similar, but opposite effect. I'm honestly sticking to my guns here. As it is it *looks* off balance and it *is* distracting. Whatever the case, i'm not trying to argue with you. Unless the three people who are going to see this are familiar with that particular design you refer to then they're likely to think the same thing.

Also, I don't know if this was intentional or not, but what exactly do you mean by 9 colors? Like 9 concrete color or 9 color *ranges* because the AA you're using really just knocks the color restriction way out of the window there, and looks like it was done using photoshops pen tool with the AA on, rather than definite pixel-pushing.

EDIT:

yading all that it sounds rather harsh. I'm really not intending to be, so I apologize if any of this came off as confrontational. I didn't mean it :

This thing is co,ing along quite nicely.
Keep in mind that th dar shift towards cooler shades and the light shift towards warmer ones applies to more than just grey.

I"M also going to second the removal of the dithering on the crown. MOSt eyes can't differentiate between dithering and te so the dithering itself reads less as shading than it does as the crown having a rough texture.

IN the second, one the handle is way too far to the left.
I 'm actually going to question your use of the buster sword and master sword, since both icons are just so ubiquitous whatever you do with them will be -recognizable- but lack entirely in distinctiveness in design.

The only thing taht really sticks out in my eyes is the way the house sits on the back of the giant insect thing.The insect has a fairly apprent curvature to it, but the house is stilling placidly on a flat plane. The lazy thing to do would be to make it smaller, and more it more towards the center so it would b sitting balanced on it's back, the AWESOME thing to do woul ahve the house sit there half destroyed.