Lots of good things being said here.

Agreed.

Hmm, ok, interesting.  I would not call whistler warm and colorful at all.

With the exception of the blueish-grey BG, most of the colors it uses are yellow or orang-y, and alludes to more of a festive night involving fireworks and a bon-fire then a cold, gloomy kind of setting.

The big issue here is that your current palette isn't doing the trick and probably won't.  Relying on grey to create a mood is like relying on a stick to keep you warm - sticks aren't the only thing that burn and even if they were you need to use them right.  Right now you just have a rather dull wash that makes me more sleepy or disinterested than anything else and it's hard to know what to suggest.

I agree that the current palette isn't really doing the trick, especially when put with some newer computers and equipment. As far as the mood I'm attempting to create is concerned (which requires more then just grey; in fact more then just a visual aspect there has to be a heavy audio quality as well) I was thinking more along the lines of melancholy, gloomy, lonely, maybe even subtle; a sort of heavy kind of "gothic" atmosphere. In a subtle way, Shadow of the Colossus was somewhat of an inspiration in this regard (particularly in the solitude factor (and with more a dark/gloomy emphasis)).

As far as references are concerned, the following are about as close as I can find to showing my intent:
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s12/QueenDrusilla/GothicCastle.jpg
http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/d30-32/merced-river-in-winter.jpg
http://www.weatherpicturesweatherphotos.net/weather-picture-photo-mist-rain-RedDeath.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/410938189_a3a8462252.jpg

And while yes, the picture you posted isn't really what I "want" its still an excellent picture that may prove useful later in other projects, so thanks.

Also based on descriptions your monitor is broken and it's probably a good idea to stay away from making color judgments if you're being forced to use a different set of values.  It's a mistake i've made before, relying on bum machinery...and it's not one that is reconcilable.

Not really "broken", just about 8 years old at this point. It displays hues and colors properly, it just seems to display things a bit darker then most new machines, which just happens to be much more noticable in this project. This particular issue however should be easily reconcilable with a few quick brightness/contrast/palette alterations once new machinery is obtained.

I think you need to be louder and bolder when you do use colour, otherwise it'll look boring, not stylistic. Either have a small amount of colour in everything with saturations high enough that you can notice 'em at normal view, or go for solid flecks of reasonably high saturation colours in strategic locations.

'Course I'm not terribly familiar with exactly how to go about that, so the above are experiments I wouldn't exactly consider successes. I feel as if it could be pushed a lot further than I have, and to greater effect.

That's actually somewhat of a brilliant idea; the execution as you said was more experimental but I believe that idea could be utilized fairly decently.

I've also decided to put up two more screenshots, both with a little more color (or atleast, more going on) then in the previous ones. Obviously wip; the sky and BG are more placeholder until I get better at it (as evidenced by the accidental blur in the corner) and second still has some apparently glaring pallette issues on brighter monitors. The sprite in the second screenshot is also slightly newer then in the first, as it has a revised palette.


Not sure if either of these look any better, though. Also being in game, the second screenshot has two instances of transparency (afterimage, and the light)

So far it looks like I'll have to implement heavier shadows/more black, more contrast, try and weasel in some more color (this will admittedly be the most difficult thing for me to do properly). I also have to play Soul Reaver, apparently. Am I on the right track?

Try looking at pixel art when converted to greyscale.

Actually I was trying to specifically avoid doing just this - those sprites aren't meant to be in greyscale; hue is still a necessary element to them. Using those as a reference is more bound to mess things up then anythng else. That is, a direct reference anyway. I decided to look at some Castlevania Symphony of the Night sprites that I greyscaled and I think I've got a better grasp of how to change the shading. Make it a bit more bold and less reliant on "gradients", while not jumping into a 'kiddy anime' style of shading. (Though the edit below won't be much of an example)

The problem I see is that the contrast range isn't very high. Most of it is quite low with a lot of white added to try to add detail. So it looks a little strange to me as the brightness of the pixels doesn't seem very realistic. You could use more dark colours to improve this, but don't just add black and white to add detail.

On my computer it's displaying a lot of contrast for these. The 'wasteland' shot (which I forgot to add is incomplete; there is still sky to be added) on the ground goes from a near black dark gray (with a blue tint) to mid gray to white . Exactly how new is your computer/how bright are the settings set too? One thing I've noticed the game has a tendency to look a lot different depending upon which computer is running and viewing it. That is, the palettes are the same but the computers representation of them is very different.

I agree, your execution is way too blurry. (and think about what it will be like resized, then.)

I agree the execution is a little blurry; I've started to repallette the main characters sprite slightly; removing a useless color or two and upping the contrast and fixing up the shading a little. I'm not sure if you'll really see the differences here, but I'll post the two of them to show anyway. At the end of the post*

Also I don't have to imagine as alongside making sprite and backgrounds I've been programming the engine; those shots up there are in-game. Honestly, it only blurs the edges slightly. In my opinion it looks nice.

Try getting rid of gradients and replacing it with harsh shadow.

This sounds like a decent idea, actually. I'll see about giving it a shot sometime.

agreed about the shadowing and need for strong spot brights.

also, i think you can work more with color.  Here's an example of lower-to-middle-saturation that's beautiful and still conveys that grayness you want : [IMAGE]

Actually I disagree entirely, that image is far too warm and colorful and in my eyes completely lacks the atmosphere/style I'm attempting to attain. Though there will be key points with certain effects where color will be slightly more prominent; not majorly so though. Mostly with water and blood and possibly fire.
Also what do you mean by "Strong spot brights"?


*NEW > OLD

http://www.thelocal.se/7650/

Augh, that disgusts me. He is a disgrace to metal music in all of its form.

Still a WIP. A large golem or statue like thing, I suppose. Mostly making this to play around with the idea of a black and white sprite with a blue-ish/purplish tint to the shadows, though this ended up being a little more saturated and AA'd then originally intended. Either way, like I said, its still a WIP.

So without further adieu, C+C?

Looks amazing - my only complaints would be the character/enemy sprites, and the water. The two character sprites are lacking detail - making, particularly Kain, look awkwardly done around the outline and torso regions. Adding another color and fixing up the shading slightly could fix the problem.

As for the water, it looks too gelatinous to me. More like mud or goo then water.