AuthorTopic: Art for a iPhone game  (Read 12027 times)

Offline Greger

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Art for a iPhone game

on: April 13, 2011, 04:49:22 pm
Hello once again, I am currently working on art for a iPhone game, the gameplay is meant to be sort of like dungeon desktop, or pretty much any 2d dungeon crawler.


So far I've only done the basic tiles that are going to be used for a majority of the game, I have some problems with picking a good colour for the walls and I have a few to pick and choose between (or maybe even have to redo the colours all together).
I have also made what was supposed to be the player character, I have some problems with colouring on this one however, it sticks out just a bit too much and I fear that there just isn't enough contrast.

What I have planned is that every tile and character is going to be twice the original size later in the game, to make it easier to see and control. I haven't yet decided if everything is going to be static (as in, when the characters move you'll only see the front of them all the time) or if I'm going to draw them in every direction they can walk.

Would very much appreciate any help you can give!
Thanks in advance.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2011, 04:56:45 pm by Greger »

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #1 on: April 13, 2011, 10:53:20 pm
I've done some more progress, done some sort of cobblestone and worked some with the colours on the knight.


I tried to do something that looks like mountain but the perfect square shape isn't helping me, I have to experiment with shapes to get it to look more like mountans and less like something chiseled out.
I need to get the cobblestone to either look more natural as if it's outside or work on it to make it look more like something that could actually be inside. Anyone know how I could do that?

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #2 on: April 14, 2011, 10:01:47 am
I'm really struggling with getting the walls looking like it could be part of a cave, I've done some grass though!

I also added a black outline to the knight, personally I think it really looks a lot better and it gives it a nice contrast.

Offline Ultimaodin

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #3 on: April 14, 2011, 10:22:50 am
Nice to meet yah Gregor. Anyway thought I'd give you some opinions (I say opinions because I'm a noob myself)
Anyway first thing I notice about this is that your tiles have a larger saturation than your knight. Due to this the tiles pop a lot more than your character, causing the eye to fly straight past the knight.
Your new cave walls definitely look better however the rocks bland in with the roof part of the walls, add some more blue to the tops and slight yellow tint the rocks, aka move them slightly in opposite directions of the hue wheel thing.
As for your grass you need to try and break away from the grid, aka not perfectly square as you have it. See how your cave base turns, try something similar to that with your grass.
As for the original walls, I kind of see upside down picket fences. Unfortunately that distracts me from giving any real C&C on that.

ps see how you have that purple colour ramp, 3rd wall map, trying doing something along those lines for the knights armour to make him more notice-able.

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #4 on: April 14, 2011, 11:58:05 am
Nice to meet yah Gregor. Anyway thought I'd give you some opinions (I say opinions because I'm a noob myself)
Anyway first thing I notice about this is that your tiles have a larger saturation than your knight. Due to this the tiles pop a lot more than your character, causing the eye to fly straight past the knight.
Your new cave walls definitely look better however the rocks bland in with the roof part of the walls, add some more blue to the tops and slight yellow tint the rocks, aka move them slightly in opposite directions of the hue wheel thing.
As for your grass you need to try and break away from the grid, aka not perfectly square as you have it. See how your cave base turns, try something similar to that with your grass.
As for the original walls, I kind of see upside down picket fences. Unfortunately that distracts me from giving any real C&C on that.

ps see how you have that purple colour ramp, 3rd wall map, trying doing something along those lines for the knights armour to make him more notice-able.

Hey, well opinions still matter :)
Yeah the tiles do pop out a bit too much, I cut down on the saturation on the tiles now and make them blend in more.
You're right, they do blend in too much, I've fiddled with it a bit as you'll see below, I need to make it darker though (or make the knight brighter) because the knights blend in too much right now.
Redone the walls now, made it more brick-like and less like just long lines of rock.
I'll see what I can do about the grass, not entirely sure on how much (or if) I'll use it, if I plan on using it a lot I'm definietly going to do what you said and stay away from the grid. Thanks for the help!

Edit : Updated so that the knight is brighter, I have also started working on an alternative stance.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2011, 02:25:55 pm by Greger »

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #5 on: April 14, 2011, 05:58:00 pm
Posting again to show you guys the new colour on the rocks and cliffs.

Another problem now is to make the walls closest to the viewer to appear as if they are as tall as the other walls. Maybe transparent shadow (at 50%) that stretches for four-five pixels?

Offline trough

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #6 on: April 14, 2011, 06:19:16 pm
Posting again to show you guys the new colour on the rocks and cliffs.
That's looking way better!
Another problem now is to make the walls closest to the viewer to appear as if they are as tall as the other walls. Maybe transparent shadow (at 50%) that stretches for four-five pixels?
I think it's recognizable enough as it is. The character's shadow is directly beneath him, so a shadow of the wall would not be visible. In fact, I would remove that thick black outline on the top of the away-facing walls. To give the wall some depth, you could allow the character to walk behind them.

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #7 on: April 15, 2011, 09:41:38 am
Posting again to show you guys the new colour on the rocks and cliffs.
That's looking way better!
Another problem now is to make the walls closest to the viewer to appear as if they are as tall as the other walls. Maybe transparent shadow (at 50%) that stretches for four-five pixels?
I think it's recognizable enough as it is. The character's shadow is directly beneath him, so a shadow of the wall would not be visible. In fact, I would remove that thick black outline on the top of the away-facing walls. To give the wall some depth, you could allow the character to walk behind them.

Yeah that is true, I'll get it done so that you can walk behind them then :)
Edit : Done a complete tileset for the cave now.

Edit2 : I've made doors now:
« Last Edit: April 15, 2011, 12:51:15 pm by Greger »

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #8 on: April 15, 2011, 08:36:51 pm
Started working on a first enemy now, a skeleton.

The enemy is currently two pixels taller than the hero, not entirely sure on if it looks good enough and I would very much like opinions and preferably edits on how I can do it. :)

Colourwise they are pretty close, some bits of yellow and some bits of blueish tint on the skeleton. This is how it looks like in an 'in-game' environment:

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #9 on: April 16, 2011, 02:38:27 am
Well I've gotten a lot of work done in the past days, here are the current monsters (including player character)

Offline Ichigo Jam

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #10 on: April 16, 2011, 11:56:30 am
I think the troll is good - it feels cleaner than the others because it has larger areas (clusters in the local parlance) of colour, whereas the others feel a bit noisy.

I tried an edit of your player sprite to address a couple of things
1) Weak pose - with his feet together like that, he looks scared - or like he needs the toilet :) Also, his sword arm feels too far out.
2) Cleaned up messy pixels, and simplified things a bit to try and make it more readable.
3) Mostly removed the internal black outlines - at this size, they start taking a lot of space, and can make things kind of flat-looking.


I'm not sure what you should do with the face though - the light coloured eyes contribute to the impression that he's terrified (eyes open too wide so we see a lot of the whites).
I couldn't manage to do any better with so little space, so I tried just putting it into shadow. Not sure if that makes him look less like a player character though. Maybe you could try giving him a less full helmet?

Oh, and why does he have bare hands if he's wearing full armour  ???
« Last Edit: April 16, 2011, 12:00:22 pm by Ichigo Jam »

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #11 on: April 16, 2011, 12:06:41 pm
I think the troll is good - it feels cleaner than the others because it has larger areas (clusters in the local parlance) of colour, whereas the others feel a bit noisy.

I tried an edit of your player sprite to address two things
1) Weak pose - with his feet together like that, he looks scared - or like he needs the toilet :) Also, his sword arm feels too far out.
2) Cleaned up messy pixels, and simplified things a bit to try and make it more readable.


I'm not sure what you should do with the face though - the light coloured eyes contribute to the impression that he's terrified (eyes open too wide so we see a lot of the whites).
I couldn't manage to do any better with so little space, so I tried just putting it into shadow. Not sure if that makes him look less like a player character though. Maybe you could try giving him a less full helmet?

Oh, and why does he have bare hands if he's wearing full armour  ???

Making things noisy on a small level is definietly something I need to work on, I usually get too carried away and just dot in smaller nuances everywhere when I am colouring and I should try to make it simpler, less is sometimes more heh :)
You're right about the pose, he does look scared when he has his legs together like that. Thanks for adressing it, I've never thought of it before until you brought it up.
He really is a lot easier to read now, thanks for the edit! I'm going to see if I can work something out with how you've posed him, might have to redo to make it easier to read him.
That isn't actually his eyes, it's the edges of the helmet :D IT sort of looks like eyes though. I can see what I can do about his head, I'll work on a couple of helmets (and possibly even doing just a head for him).
I guess I wanted to break out of having a full plate I guess, should probably make that leather gloves at least.
I'll get working on it as soon as possible, thanks a lot for the edit and criticism, it helps a lot :)

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #12 on: April 16, 2011, 02:40:44 pm
I've cleaned up the goblins and the skeleton now, and I remade the player character completely.

He's not wearing full plate anymore, only plate leggings and chest, no helmet either. The bandana, hair and skin all share similar hues but I think it doesn't melt together too much. He's also three pixels taller than the skeleton, so now he looks slightly more 'heroic' since he's pretty big now.

Here's a picture of what they look like against dungeon background right now:

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #13 on: April 16, 2011, 10:59:19 pm
More updates you say?

I've fixed a new enemy:

Edit : Redone armour variations, it now looks like this:



You basically just cover the coloured areas with a corresponding item, really easy.
There are a few items you are going to be able to find in the game that all boost your stats, which are the following:

Plate leggings
Helmet
Steel shield
Shoulder pads
Plate arms
Better sword


« Last Edit: April 17, 2011, 01:34:41 am by Greger »

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #14 on: April 17, 2011, 03:28:39 pm
Edit : Added stairs up and stairs viewed from "the other side".
Edit2: Made it easier to decipher on whether it's going up or down.


« Last Edit: April 17, 2011, 04:04:30 pm by Greger »

Offline Gemini166

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #15 on: April 17, 2011, 05:37:30 pm
About "the other side" stairs... How will you know if they're going up or down?

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #16 on: April 17, 2011, 05:54:42 pm
About "the other side" stairs... How will you know if they're going up or down?
You know, that haven't crossed my mind! Adding an up/down arrow could probably do the trick, and place it 'on top' of if. Another way of dealing with it could probably be just have the stairs on that one side so that you can see if it goes up or down.
Is it visible on which one of those that goes up and which one that goes down?

Offline r1k

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #17 on: April 17, 2011, 07:05:54 pm
If youre going to use an arrow on the other side, I would put an arrow on the side facing us too, just for consistancy.
The stairs could be a little more clear.  I always liked how they did it in Link to the Past
http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/zeldalinkpast/lttp_castlebasement2.png

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #18 on: April 17, 2011, 07:35:52 pm
If youre going to use an arrow on the other side, I would put an arrow on the side facing us too, just for consistancy.
The stairs could be a little more clear.  I always liked how they did it in Link to the Past
http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/zeldalinkpast/lttp_castlebasement2.png
That's excellent, I've tried to find good pictures for how stairs can be made in games like these, thanks a lot :)
Made a few more items: barrel, bucket and a "regular" chest that only contains useable items such as health potions and stuff like that.


I have also started working on a level design, and I decided to put in a couple of monsters and items to see how it looks :
click here for map
It's pretty huge so I'll post a link instead.
The items sort of stick out, might have to rework colours on them. Not sure if I should stick black outlines on them too.

 

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #19 on: April 18, 2011, 01:06:44 pm
I've pretty much just copied the way the stairs look, mostly because I just love the way it looks and it's so easy to decode if it's going up or down too.


Also added black outline to the items.

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #20 on: April 18, 2011, 04:07:47 pm
Updated the beastiary, redid the skeleton too:

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #21 on: April 18, 2011, 09:08:43 pm
I just keep on churning out stuff, now I've drawn a scene and a couple of tables.

Offline davis123

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #22 on: April 29, 2011, 10:40:27 pm
Looks really great, you should continue to add more items to the game like the tables, make some more such as dead skeletons on the ground for decoration.

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #23 on: April 30, 2011, 12:44:22 am
Dead skeletons on the ground as decoration sounds like a great idea, thanks!
Haven't posted update in a while, been trying to get something to work (easter egg) but it's really hard to get it right.

Offline Mathias

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #24 on: April 30, 2011, 03:05:42 am
The distressed and mossy floor doesn't match the perfect shiny brick walls.

I like the LTTP stairwells.

Offline Greger

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #25 on: April 30, 2011, 11:37:55 pm
The distressed and mossy floor doesn't match the perfect shiny brick walls.

I like the LTTP stairwells.

I've never really thought about it, you're right. I need to fix that so that it matches. Thanks for pointing that one out!

Offline Dusty

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Re: Art for a iPhone game

Reply #26 on: May 01, 2011, 12:43:05 am
I was going to edit but I couldn't quite figure out your tiles...