Art for a iPhone game

[Greger]

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.

[Greger]

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?

[Greger]

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.

[Ultimaodin]

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.

[Greger]

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.

[Greger]

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?

[trough]

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.

[Greger]

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:

[Greger]

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:

[Greger]

Well I've gotten a lot of work done in the past days, here are the current monsters (including player character)