Blossom Tales - Wizard Crocus attack animations / walk cycle spritesheet [page3]

[RetroRob]

Hi guys,
Below are some reboots of my main character / boss sprites.   Any feedback would be much appreciated!

http://www.robertmaherdesign.com/lily3.swf
http://www.robertmaherdesign.com/LilyDeath.swf


http://www.robertmaherdesign.com/crocus.html

[JonasO]

Hi!

I think this has been said before but many of your colors are too close together. As a very strong example take your rocks (used, eg, with the mermaid pictures).

The same thing applies to your light sources: It destroys the effect of the rest of the picture and makes it look flat.

A similar problem is within your levels, i.e. the lava levels, where everything is red, yellow, or black - it makes your level look pretty monochrome.

Another thing I noticed is that your effects (like fog, lightning, ...) seem to have a very high resolution because you're using a lot of anti-aliasing and round shapes with them, something you don't do with the rest of the graphics. Those things look out of place.

One more thing you could try to do is to give the brain more information about your sprites. As an example, take the tombstones in the graveyard scene. If you'd put some of them in a different angle to the viewer, you'd be able to convey the thickness of those tombstones much more easily. Also it'd add some variation and make the overall picture more interesting.

[Grimsane]

might be a bit outdated relative to your latest version  , I can  see what you are trying to do with a retro palette, but I think you've already deviated enough and to decent effect that you shouldn't stick too strictly to it, I think the cool grass isn't the best, zelda had a very warm palette, and with the autumn trees it is the most obvious and jarring in my opinion, took the liberty of doing some colour adjustments to show you what I'd suggest, and it doesn't change the mood just make it warmer which might even reinforce the mood you intend.



the light tones having low saturation looks a bit dull, suggestion, also attempted to make your Nes/Nes-like base palette more distinct and optimized (main reason I uploaded 2 versions was the colour count due to your lighting decreasing the subtlety and accuracy of the gif (limited to 256 colour)



here is a real quick adjustment and a png and the parapets/ramparts seem a bit too thin


looks quite decent overall, gameplay looks solid too, new character update is a definite improvement and has a more distinct style, the legs look too dark and hard to distinguish at glance,
some suggestions on possible ways of making the legs work better

how close to release is the game btw?

[RetroRob]

Hey thanks for the great feedback guys.  Most of the stuff you commented on, the trees and Mermaid scene (made by my girlfriend) aren't making it into the game.   We're hoping to get blossom tales out the door by the end of this year    

[RetroRob]

blackSmith

[RetroRob]

[RetroRob]

Some new stuff and some reworks.   Any feedback is always greatly appreciated. 

http://www.robertmaherdesign.com/lily3.swf

[Lachie Dazdarian]

I think you are overdoing it a bit with the lighting effects, which in general, don't merge well with your style of pixel art. I'm not saying you should abandon these effects. The fog seems nice and effective, for example. But those fireplaces feel quite weird. Just try to make is more subtle and where doable, do the lighting with pixeling directly.

[Vakinox]

Agreeing with Lachie Dazdarian here. There are some tones that are wayyy too bright and clash with the overall picture.
You can really see it in the second image that posted. The bright pink/yellow/blue all clash with the grey floor tiles, especially together and makes it a little painful to look at.
The darker parts of the pallet like the shades of black in the last image, or the tones in the second to last image around the fog work extremely well.
It's really only the normal/bright colors that are a bit troubling for the eyes.

Your style and ability to make large landscapes make you an awesome artist worth noting though.
Excellent job mate, and hope everything comes along really well.

[RetroRob]

Thanks for the great feedback guys.   All the lighting effects are just for mock purposes.  I do realize that some of them are overwhelming in these screens.   In game though I'll be able to fine tune the lighting, giving them effects like fading in/out between certain ranges of opactiy ect.   I've been putting a good amount of time in on the starting town.  I've done a number of big changes.   The wall has been upgraded with new bricks and windows.   The gate on the bottom I've changed a lot.   I've also added a new ground tile that i mocked up here -