Mars Tileset Help/Feedback

[Jmrhdb]

Try to avoid the temptation to add more detail to unimportant background elements. More often than not, that extra detail doesn't actually help, and only distracts.

Got it

[Chonky Pixel]

Chonky Pixel,

For the lower sand, I tried to ovoid single spaced pixels like you mentioned in your other post, however when trying to give it texture I guess it came out as noise. What would you do to fix it?

Good points on the sun ill defiantly fix it.

With the new lower sand texture, just the removal of a couple of dark pixels (they're joined diagonally) will help really help remove noise. Think in terms of 'clusters' of pixels of the same shade. A cluster, where all the pixels are touching, can have shape and definition. A single pixel does not. In my opinion, sometimes a pixel joined diagonally to another pixel can 'count' towards a cluster, but if it's just two pixels alone, usually not. This might all sound a bit odd, but clusters are one of the keys to good pixel art.

As for grander strategies, you've tried the main two now. Previously you tried putting a texture across the whole area. The newer verison gives a platform for the characters to walk on.

As this is for a game, you could concentrate on the latter. Maybe develop your texture into something made of stones or similar, then build out that tile set for use as floating platforms and the like. What's good about it so far is that it looks a bit like it's made of something solid. The light and shade suggests form, unlike the previous texture that didn't quite know what it was. You could develop the pattern by working on the clusters and pushing that 3D effect further.

Your original look seems more "Streets of Rage" than platformer. You could imagine your characters being placed lower on the screen and they'd seem closer. If you want this effect, you could try thinking of the sand as seen from a distance.

If you remember all those films, cartoons, TV series etc. where people find themselves in a sandy desert, what comes to mind? For me it's not a lot of detailed texture, it's some very large wiggly shapes. Much like the more distant mountains in my edit, you get sand dunes that are characterised by being smooth, the detail coming from ripples of sand that are whipped up by the wind. On a smaller scale, you will probably still see low ripples. There won't be much detail because sand can't form very complex shapes unless it's wet or has vegetation growing in it. But you'd still get something like those rear mountains on a lower, smaller scale.

Some inspiration:

This guy on Twitter is pretty incredible. This is an old background of his, but demonstrates the rippling sand effect. You can see that the grainy sand texture is implied by the occasional bit of crosshatching.
https://twitter.com/Contra_Bonos/status/1219022388496674816/photo/1


General sand and ripply stuff.
https://www.google.com/search?q=sand+dunes+ripples&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=JsSCuOUYCNpIvM%253A%252CwKapMrqyHM3O6M%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQ8dj63Uc-soEYHbwlcetJbZVmYTw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjIlLya0MnnAhU8UxUIHTnLBlgQ9QEwAnoECAoQIA#imgrc=JsSCuOUYCNpIvM

[Jmrhdb]

I went and fixed a few more things, but its still very far from being presentable in a game. I tried to fill the background with wavy sand (without the rocks) like Chonky Pixel suggested but I could not get it to look right with the distance perspective.
I did make a wave sand texture but like I said it doesn't work well in the picture and believe me I tried several different times to make it work but Its to difficult for me to do it. If anyone would like to take up the challenge and make it work that would be really cool.

Anyway for now im going to call it here and work on other things but thanks for all the help!

[Chonky Pixel]

Apologies, I tend to ramble on and I obviously wasn't clear. I was suggesting the wavy sand as a replacement for the foreground, lower part instead of the ground texture you have there currently. For the background, a non-textured look is fine. Apologies if I sent you down the wrong path.

I would concentrate on rock placement (as suggested by Eishiya) as it's still looking very regular and unnatural.

See here:

https://www.newsweek.com/life-mars-microbes-chilean-desert-822195

Your wavy sand does indeed look wavy. Well done on that! The waves are on a small scale and you could probably get the same or a better effect with less detail, but it's a great start.

I'm having a think about how I would approach adding texture to the background sand. As it stands, the patches of light and shade you're using are starting to hint at something with shape and form, but they don't quite come together. Imagine you want to get across the idea of the sandy waves, but you don't want to spray that texture all over the background (and parallax would make it look very odd while scrolling anyway.)

However, you've now had practice making your sandy wave shapes, so you could imagine that the occasional wave stands out a little. Maybe it catches the light just right, or it's a bit bigger than the others. How would it affect the scene?

 - The bases of the rocks might show build-ups of sand on one side, and wavy bottoms.
 - The rock shadows might be disrupted by the waves in the sand.
 - You might lightly define short segments of these occasional waves in the sand here and there.

Currently the rocks look a little like they're floating, perhaps because of the flat bottoms and the shadows that seem to be disconnected from the left side of the rocks. Having the sand interact with them and their shadows might help you create a more cohesive scene.

I may make an edit later if I have time.

[Chonky Pixel]

I made a quick edit to the rightmost four rocks on the bottom layer, to stop the rocks getting that floaty effect.

[Jmrhdb]

Thanks for the edit Chonkey!

The rock placement is off because I made them tillable so I could put them in any layout without them starting to look like there repeating and for the parallax effect.
In the future ill probably start this scene over again from scratch since I tend to do that when I feel like my art isn't coming out the way I want it. On second attempts I usually get it just right.