NES Mock Up

[Mush]

I made a mock up with the NES palette and tried to limit each entity to 3 colors + transparency (I didn't bother to restrict myself to 8x8 tiles, though). The forest background is very rough at this point, I just wanted to see how the colors looked. The GUI is far from final. Any suggestions / crits would be appreciated.

[JaJitsu]

yes! this is great.
I think the colors work nicely together.

what i dislike is the grass though. the blades of grass on the bottom of the grass tile are just a bit too repetitive. short short long short short long. The design of it could be better.

Also, the top of the grass tile, there is that straight dark green. It sticks out too much.

[talin]

Wow, this is beautiful.

Perhaps the nearest branch on the detailed tree should be a bit darker near the top?
I also noticed that the grass is a bit "uniform". Perhaps you could darken it a bit in the part that is underneath the tree?
Perhaps it would add  to the atmosphere if some rays of light would shine through the treetops and hit the ground
as well? What about blinking eyes in the treetrunks in the background?

[Argyle]

Don't have time to critique, since I'm incredibly swamped at work and shouldn't be partaking in the refuge of forum trolling, but I had to extend my love to this.  <3'd the secret santa.

[Mush]

Grass update.



Sprite progression.

[buddy90]

I know the background is very WIP, but there may be readability issues later with those colors. Maybe if the background were cooler colors (blue-violet) it would read more as background in the distance.

I love the sprites too.

[Mush]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Alternate colors:

[Kidfrommars]

I like the alternate colours more then the original. I like the grass and I can't think of much of a critique but the background is kinda hard to read. 

[Helm]

To make the background less hard to read make sure no strong lines converge on the same points. Make the elements in further back layers at the same time simpler and smaller and just make sure they don't line up. Therefore the hard blue bush layer should have the most meticulously contoured and biggest bushes, the one behind it should be smaller, lower and simpler, and the one on the far back should probably by stylized light coming through the holes in a busy forest. Right now you're going in reverse, closest tree is smallest and the ones in the back get exponentially bigger and light up in unattractive places.

[Mush]

Struggling with the farthest layer of trees :/

[talin]

I would love to see this in a game with a parallax effect, i.e. the nearest trees scrolling slower than the far ones.

[ndchristie]

The detailing on those bushes combined with the high sat color really is bringing them forwards and losing a lot of background depth, the same should be said for losing the periwinkle color.  Simpler forms and that one extra layer will help bring back a lot of that depth and abience that you had to start.

[Pawige]

Not sure if anyone else agrees with me, but the green background was a brazillion times better than the blue in my opinion. With the blue\purple background the closer tree really stands out uncomfortably, and it loses a lot of the verdant forest look. It's also way too saturated to look foggy, so it just kind of looks like a forest with blue trees. The blue really loses a lot of the depth and uniformity that the original had. I dislike giving conflicting critiques but I couldn't keep my mouth shut about this one, as I really liked where the first two were going.

[Mush]

I actually agree with you Pawige.

I lowered the height of the closest bushes and added the farthest trees.

[Pawige]

Mmmm, lovin' it! One thing I'd suggest is make the background trees a bit more slanty and randomly placed, like the main tree in the middle, at the moment they are all very much up and down and regularly spaced. Also, I just grabbed the pic and changed the brown bushes to black, but I'm not sure which I like better. It has an interested effect, I'd suggest you give it a shot and see what you think.

[Helm]

was thinking something more like

[Mush]

Thanks for the edit Helm. The colors do look a lot better, but they are not part of NES palette. And I see what you mean about the back layer of trees.

I'll post an update after the weekend.

[Mush]

Finally got some free time.



WIP animations:

[crab2selout.png]

Thanks for the edit Helm. The colors do look a lot better, but they are not part of NES palette ...

There was an interesting topic once on differences in the nes palette between NTSC/PAL versions of games. I think the example used was blaster master. Sadly I cna't find it. There's also a neat little page here about the differences in display from using different kinds of cables to connect the old consoles to your TV.
http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/gotRGB/screenshots.html

Just mentioning these two things, because you could be appealing to something that may just be arbitrarily chosen colours that seem to resemble what one person thinks is the NES palette.

Also, your aniamtion lacks weight. It doesn't feel like the walking cane is really being used to prop up the weight of your character. 

[Mush]

I started an attack animation. Not very happy with it though...

[Faceless]

Have you considered swapping the old man out for an old woman and giving her a handbag to swing at enemies. There's nothing to keep him standing if he lifts his cane and it's not going to work very well as an attack while moving either.

[StarRaven]

Also, your aniamtion lacks weight. It doesn't feel like the walking cane is really being used to prop up the weight of your character.  

There's nothing to keep him standing if he lifts his cane and it's not going to work very well as an attack while moving either.

It could be that he isn't really using the cane to walk with, but rather just taking it with him to use as a weapon?

For some reason, I don't really like the arm swinging beside him in the walking animation. Also, he looks a bit like he's wearing war paint, hehe.

Your background is beautiful.

[buddy90]

I agree, it looks like he's carrying the cane for show instead of for support. Also, when he attacks, it looks like he's stabbing. Maybe it would look better if you had him more like swinging the cane like a blunt weapon?

[Medevenx]

I feel like the actual playing part of the screen is too small.

[VDX]

The right leg when it's forward in the walking animation with arms looks like he misplaced his hip. =/

[Phlox]

I like this mockup. it's coming along well. However, there's one thing that bothers me which is that you have the same amount of empty, black, unused space as you do playing space up above.  It just seems like there is a lot of wasted space to me. Concerning the attack animation i think an up swinging animation would fit this character better since his weapon is starting at the ground.  This would also give it more power than just a poke and allow for combos possibly.

[sorex]

Great background!

Reminds me of Pitfall in some way.

BUT

When I zoomed into the picture I noticed that you didn't keep the limitations in mind that NES has.

Some parts use 5 or 6 colors in a 8x8 block/char/tile which is impossible.

Even 4 colors is hard to use as you always lose one for the general background in all 4 sub pallets.

I guess that the goodlooking  rocks at the buttom eat too much tiles aswell, keep in mind that there is a limit of 256 different tiles that can be displayed at once,
it doesn't have any "bitmap" modes like the C64 has so you're stuck with that limit.

[Mush]

@Medevenx & Phlox: I was planning on doing something like this:


I will probably change the default attack to a slash.


@sorex: Quote from my first post:

I made a mock up with the NES palette and tried to limit each entity to 3 colors + transparency (I didn't bother to restrict myself to 8x8 tiles, though).

[Mush]

Some 'animals'


(just noticed the badger is missing a leg)

[PypeBros]

I will probably change the default attack to a slash.

Or a swing.

You may want to give a look back at Duck Tales on the good'ole'gameboy for inspiration on slash & jump with the help of a cane while keeping an old-dude look.

[Mush]

Update on mountain level + Big Dodo

[McClaneGames]

I like the sandy tiles, but the mountains seem off.  The moon is behind the mountains, so the light should be most concentrated on the back, not the left side like it is now.

[Mush]

[buddy90]

Awesome! Although, if you want to conserve colors, you could make the motion blur the color of his skin.

[Mush]

A little cutscene / death animation.


New blur:

[Panz]

It looks like he's waving a flag, now.  It doesn't read.  Loved the previous version.  Couldn't NES sprites have 4 colors?

[buddy90]

No. You'd have to make use another sprite on top of it. So, if the old man was on an NES, the motion blur itself would have to be a different sprite altogether, with it's own palette.

If you really want to get technical and true to NES, all you can use is 4 sprite palettes, and each one has to have transparency as a color.
So...

Sprite palette #1 = Transparency + 3 colors
Sprite palette #2 = Transparency + 3 colors
Sprite palette #3 = Transparency + 3 colors
Sprite palette #4 = Transparency + 3 colors

So, the old man would use use Sprite palette #1, which is the skintone, red, black, and transparency. The motion blur would have to be the color, transparency, and 2 other colors. And then you only have 2 sprite palettes left for everything else. Ofcourse, you could re-use the old man palette and the motion blur palette on other things too.

It's a real pain, cause you can't just pick 16 colors and use em however you want like with old PC games.

[FRAWG]

The little dust on the death animation looks like it takes too long to disappear, it just stops in one place for too long.

[Panz]

The motion blur would have to be the color, transparency, and 2 other colors. And then you only have 2 sprite palettes left for everything else. Ofcourse, you could re-use the old man palette and the motion blur palette on other things too.

It's a real pain, cause you can't just pick 16 colors and use em however you want like with old PC games.

So each sprite has to be 3 colors?  You couldn't choose to do the blur as a single- or dual-colored sprite?

[Cure]

love the animals, especially that dodo. don't feel the old man is up to par with them though, think my biggest qualm is his oval head, could make the shape a bit more naturalistic imo.

[buddy90]

The motion blur would have to be the color, transparency, and 2 other colors. And then you only have 2 sprite palettes left for everything else. Ofcourse, you could re-use the old man palette and the motion blur palette on other things too.

It's a real pain, cause you can't just pick 16 colors and use em however you want like with old PC games.

So each sprite has to be 3 colors?  You couldn't choose to do the blur as a single- or dual-colored sprite?

No, you don't have to use all 3 colors. You have set what the palette would be in the programming, but you can use up to 4 colors, again, including transparency. So you can just use 1 color for the blur if you want.

[Keand64]

The motion blur would have to be the color, transparency, and 2 other colors. And then you only have 2 sprite palettes left for everything else. Ofcourse, you could re-use the old man palette and the motion blur palette on other things too.

It's a real pain, cause you can't just pick 16 colors and use em however you want like with old PC games.

So each sprite has to be 3 colors?  You couldn't choose to do the blur as a single- or dual-colored sprite?

No, you don't have to use all 3 colors. You have set what the palette would be in the programming, but you can use up to 4 colors, again, including transparency. So you can just use 1 color for the blur if you want.

But I'm guessing that would still take up one whole sprite palette?

[PypeBros]

how about red or skintone motion blur ?

[Keand64]

Skintone would probably make the best motion blur, imo.

[Panz]

I agree.  I think Mush might even be able to make the skin-tone on the old man lighter (if the palette allows for it) to give the color a better dual-use.

[Lizzrd]

That's not really needed is it?

[Panz]

Needed?  What are you referring to specifically?  Nothing is needed.  I'm just sharing my opinion in case it could be helpful.

[Lizzrd]

-_-

I meant, it's not really needed to change the skin tone, because the current one suits a blur.

[buddy90]

But I'm guessing that would still take up one whole sprite palette?

Yes, it would.

[Mush]

I said I'm restricting myself to 4 colors per "entity" only as a way to preserve the NES style. If using 5 colors looks better, then I'll use 5 colors.

Here's a boss:


-or-



In this case, I think I like the 4 color wasp better.

[thedaemon]

I said I'm restricting myself to 4 colors per "entity" only as a way to preserve the NES style. If using 5 colors looks better, then I'll use 5 colors.

Here's a boss:


-or-



In this case, I think I like the 4 color wasp better.

I agree. The extra color on the arms just distracts the eye.

[Mush]

Still working on this.

[Infinite Segment]

A Single line of criticism is a bit lame, but the water looks like ice to me. (I recognized it as water because of the air bubbles) I think it is partly because of the bright color choice and partly because of the lines of light. Also, is the lighting direction the same for the rocks and the water and trees? I'm having some trouble deciding.

[Helm]

Heh I had made the same mistake with over-bright water at some point.