February One Game a Month Game Art [C+C]

[JamesAFlanagan]

I am a programmer working on a game for the one game a month challenge.

I am a newbie to pixel art and I am hoping to improve.

I am aware that the shapes I am using are relatively simple, but I hope there is some advice you can all offer.

I created this palette for use in the game. I would also appreciate any advice regarding my choice of colours for the palette.



 The sprite sheet for my game:



and the game screen looks like this:



Thank you in advance

James


Just as a further addition: the sparkles/ stars are placed by the mouse cursor, so they are not fixed.

The themes of the game are 'Candy' and 'Loops'

which is why I choose the bright colours for the inside shapes( the blue, purple and green). The other objects (excluding the sparkles / stars) are not candies, and just part of the game mechanic.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

I gave you a comment today, but somehow it's not here anymore.
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Your color pallet is currently very hard to watch. Colors are over saturated. Also your colors are to similar so I can only recognize 2 or 3 tones out of 5. Lack of contrast and shadows makes everything look flat. Black color for background is a bad choice. You should create something interesting but not to distracting for background, or at least choose some more appealing neutral color.

Shading of circle object is bad. You can find some useful tips here -> http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299&PID=139322#139322

Your sparkles looks more like this -> instead of this ->

By changing contrast and rearranging some pixels, you could improve them.

I know that you don't have much time for this, but your objects are to flat, and you could make them more interesting
by changing the perspective. Something like this ->


PS Previous comment was a bit better, but I hope that this was helpful. 

[JamesAFlanagan]

Thank you for your advice.  I updated my palette to be less saturated, and made the colours less similar.



I focused on moving away from flatness, as such my updated sprite sheet is:



and my game screen is



I chose to take your advice about changing the background colour to a more interesting background colour (opposed to adding a background image).

However I couldn't find a colour that seemed to work better then black. As such I have left it.

I am not intending to work on this any further (as I am about to start on march's entry for the one game a month challenge).

But I would still appreciate any feedback, so that I can apply it in the future. (I will also be adding background images in the future).

Thank you

James

[Manupix]

That is not how you go about creating a palette 

Yours is still made of unconnected, nearly-primary color ramps. You'll need to do some reading about this!
Maybe start here and there, there should be plenty more here on pixelation.

Meanwhile, you should study and use existing palettes for further projects, you learn a lot about color doing this. I'd recommend Arne's 16 color palette and Dawnbringer's 16 and 32-color, which are pretty much 'universal' palettes; also try working with crazy, small challenge palettes you'll find both here and at pixeljoint.

[Johasu]

Is it really that beneficial to use those palettes vs selecting your own colors as you learn?
I really haven't looked into using preformed palette selections and always just choose my own colors as I go based on the texture and lighting I am aiming for.
How does it help you learn specifically? 

[Manupix]

How does it help you learn specifically? 

By killing the 'grass is green - sky is blue' thinking mode and learning to look instead; also by forcing color recycling (using the same colors throughout a piece). And also by having fun with color! The smaller and crazier the palette, the better!

Most beginners make similar mistakes: using 'obvious' colors straight out of collective memory; separate color ramps with little or no hue shifting and interaction; using a single ramp or sub-palette in each image element. Palette challenges help kill all these at once by forcing creative and thoughtful color use when the 'obvious' is forbidden.

[sgray]

Just to pipe in a little, the sparkles seem a little too distracting/overwhelming of the game pieces below them, partially because they're uniform pointy blobs from a glance. Giving some variety in sparkles and potentially removing a sparkle or two would go a long way to both increase visibility and match the expectation than sparkles are animated.

A quick example:

[Probo]

I really haven't looked into using preformed palette selections and always just choose my own colors as I go based on the texture and lighting I am aiming for.

Personally I think its fine to build a palette as you go, especially if youve not imposed many restrictions on your pixel art. but you need to be making those colour choices from a more informed perspective.

Im not Colour Theory expert, but Something like Hueshifting is a simple concept that dramatically improves the look of your colouring. A green object is rarely pure green, and changes colour as well as lightness and saturation where the light hits it. which includes the shadowed areas! If you can see it, lights hitting it from somewhere

you really should read those links Manupix posted, theyre full of good stuff!

[JamesAFlanagan]

Thank you everybody for the good advice.

I am intending to use Arne's 16 colour palette for my next game and I am going to keep in mind that I can use multiple different things to suggest the same thing (sparkles). I knew the sparkles were not amazing, but I could not think how to improve them (despite many attempts).

Thank you very much.