Something like an adventure game sprite template

[Organ_House]

I'm working on a game that's somewhere between a Lucasarts adventure game and a Final Fantasy RPG, and I've been having a huge problem just designing and doing the sprites and stuff.



[EDIT]
Trying a different approach. Can anyone tell me if I'm following NES rules for the background sprites (I know the other stuff isn't right.)



I want them to be bigger than your normal JRPG sprite, but still retain the chibi style and the ability to emote. At the same time I want the characters to have a basic template I can work off of (makes it easier to design lots of different characters and poses with a concrete base.) This is the latest one (the fifth time I've restarted the template from scratch.) CC?  



Futzing Around

[Demon11777]

I love the style on this guy But I think it would look better if his legs were pushed one pixel to the left

[Organ_House]

Update for tonight:

[Ichigo Jam]

These are really cute - I like them a lot!

The only thing I'd suggest is to try a slightly less spherical head.
Here's a quick edit I tried:

[Ixis]

Found my old password, so I'm back to Ixis for now! Here's an update keeping the CC in mind.

[Ixis]

UPDATES

[Organ_House]

In-game mockup



I already know there's a million problems with the colors.

[Organ_House]

[Ichigo Jam]

The door and broken glass are monochrome grey which makes them look out of place in your highly saturated room. And the black outline also kind of disconnects them from the world.


I also tried to make the scratch-like markings on the walls a bit more interesting by varying their width, and removed a couple of colours.

[Organ_House]

Awesome! Though I kinda do need some things to have black outlines so you can tell that they can be interacted with. But I'll see if I can make that obvious without adding black outlines.

[PixelPiledriver]

If its a mouse based game you could just have the line color change when you mouse over objs that can be interacted with. From black to another color, or even keep the outlines black but go from 0 alpha (no outlines) to 255 alpha (outlines showing) on rollover. Or highlight the entire obj with a color. One more option could be changing (or highlighting) the mouse cursor like a hyperlink, then it wont matter what the asset looks like and you could just use hotspots.

All of those effects could be achieved with shaders, which would cost you less time than making frames or separate objs to achieve the same effect. Unless of course you really need frames.  Regardless of my ramblings I totally understand what you mean. Keeping a consistent "these objs can be interacted with" color format will help the player a lot.

Im really curious, what does the 4th icon do? Yellow with a dragon fly/key and says "clsh"? "clsm"? All of the others are clear but I cant seem to relate it to anything. Its not really a problem as you would tell the player what it is.

I've been coming back to this thread a couple times over but haven't had much to say as I tend to stick to technical advice rather than art critique. Cool stuff. The characters are appealing. Add more hot chicks and explosions! 

[zez]

I really dig the spritework, but somethin is buggin the hell out of me. The wall in the mockup with the door is in shadow, well the back wall is well lit. This gives the impression that the furthest wall is closest to the player, well the closest wall is further away and in its shadow. If you reverse the shading on the two, I think you will get a more convincing (and less perspective bending) look.
And yes, I realize the lightsource is likely coming from the broken window, but that back wall should still be in more shadow.

[Organ_House]

Trying a different approach. Can anyone tell me if I'm following NES rules for the background sprites (I know the other stuff isn't right.)

[ChadHachey]

I don't know anything about NES specs, but I just wanted to say I like this look more than the other. If you stick with this style you're going to have to revamp your sprites.

[Organ_House]

I don't know anything about NES specs, but I just wanted to say I like this look more than the other. If you stick with this style you're going to have to revamp your sprites.

Yeah I know, but with NES restrictions I find myself wasting less time on design and doing more on color selection and layout.

[Kasumi]

Trying a different approach. Can anyone tell me if I'm following NES rules for the background sprites (I know the other stuff isn't right.)

I'm not sure what you mean by the background sprites. You mean the icons on the top right? One too many colors on all of them. For instance on help, you have three shades of green, white, and black. You can only have one palette of four colors in a 16 x 16 area using just background tiles. Four palettes of four colors on screen at the same time but one same color must be in ALL the palettes.

You're good on the stones, and the wall, but not the window which also has one too many colors.

[Organ_House]

I didn't mean the icons, I know those are breaking the rules. I meant everything else.

Trying this again (character is just throwaway).

[PypeBros]

to be honest, you replace a moody scene with flat, repetitive tiles. The character is lost in the scene, it doesn't read at all. It also turned into a FF-III/oceansphere generic NPC clone. Although I find demakes funny and value retrogaming, you're overdoing it here, with artificial constraints that doesn't bring any artistic value.

I sincerely invite you to reconsider keeping the original version, and to work on a stylised cartoon effect for backgrounds that will make the character "fit the world (s)he's in". Bricks had interesting patterns on pic #1. and so had the door on pic #2. Throw in some AA. Pour some contrast and facial expression rework on your character, you're definitely on a better track with those, imho.

[Organ_House]

@Pype
It's easier without restrictions, but it also takes longer and I never actually get anything done. I have months of work I went through just to get to the bigger characters at the top!
I know the NES sprites are crappy and look like they're from FF, and that's because they are. I threw them together in 10 minutes just to see what the scene would look like with an NES sprite in there.

Anyway, working on a logo for the time being instead. I think it's fairly obvious I like Roger Dean.
It's still rough and could probably use some AA.

[Mathias]

Your logo isn't a logo. (hehe)

It's a design derived from a logo.

A logo is only outlines. If you can't screen-print it or embroider it or convey the logo's image in only 2 colors, you have a design derived from/based on a logo.

I know this is confusing to someone not familiar with branding/logo design. I don't know if you are or not.

I assume here you're working on a graphics asset for your main game/menu screen. I suggest you only worry about the outlines for "Pazette" at this time since that's the name/branding in question here, unless you're already deadset on your lettering design. Other than Pazette, the "and the DungeonZoning Board" bit is simply a tag-line tacked onto the menu-screen stylized logo you're doing. It's irrelevant until Pazette is done.

So I suggest you work only on Pazette. This means ignoring mediums and concentrating on the logotype Pazette purely, free of medium distractions. But not because the limitations of certain mediums is distracting, rather because they're irrelevant at this point in the logo's development. What happens when you want to implement this logo at larger resolutions, perhaps not even in a pixel art style?
A professionally done logo is created in black and white, in vector format. Those vector outlines can be applied in every way desirable, anything you want to do with it, once the vector version has final approval. This pixel art logo thus far is extremely limited. You can only do with it what it was created for.

Again, this is only a design derived from a logo. Or it should be anyway; that's what I'm trying to say here. Just trying to help you understand what's been done so many times before and help you avoid making the mistake of creating only a very specific version that's not adaptable for any other usage.

If you want to continue only developing this as a graphics asset with an implementation-specific skin painted over it, and not a true adaptable logo I recommend doing so in the context of your menu screen layout with dimensions correct and all other elements within those dimensions arranged as best as possible so you can fine-tune everything spatially.

I looked up Roger Dean. I had forgotten his name, or that he did what artwork popped up when I searched him. His typography seems to be to have more flair and "movement" than does your logo version so far; it's not obvious to me there's an outright style similarity, though I don't know his work that well. And I don't know enough about your project to know whether or not this is wise art direction for it's logo.

[Organ_House]

Yeah, I know it's not a "logo-logo" for mass brand kick-assery, I meant more along the lines of the title screen logoface like you said.

I did a few designs on paper, but the problem I have with Roger Dean style stuff in general is the readability of some of his logos.


You can't do a simple print with that.

(When I think official brand logos though I imagine if it'll work as a faxed letterhead or even a business card. Not that it'd be on any, but it should be readable at that size.)
For in-game menus and stuff I want it to have the color, texture and shape of a Roger Dean title illustration, but I might not even do that for an official logo.

But I think that's a good idea, to start outside of the pixel medium and work backwards. The BIG problem is the title is long as hell and hard to get readable and within a certain space.

Also, the illustration I was shamelessly borrowing from is:


And by "borrow" I mean practically copying. :<