AuthorTopic: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest  (Read 57056 times)

Offline Darien

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Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

on: May 11, 2006, 09:36:09 pm
If the mods don't want a CCC or they had one planned and I only made one before them, I guess they can delete this.  But if not I hope that this will take off and people will find interest in it, and that it will spark more interest in the Commercial Critique thread. Also, if anyone has any suggestions on how I should do this differently, I am up to hear them.

THE SCENARIO:  Capcom recently decided to port Demon's Crest to the GBA, and with the port they are adding new content.  Unfortunately, all the old artists from the original game have mysteriously disappeared.  So, Capcom needs some new talent who can mimic the style of DC to work on the GBA version.  Will this new talent be you?

THE CHALLENGE:  We're going to start off with a sprite challenge, as that's generally friendlier and easier to get into.  Now, as you may know, Demon's Crest is a spin off of the Ghouls 'n' Ghosts series, where the character Firebrand is an enemy.  So, for this challenge, Capcom wants you to pixel the idle frame for the main character of GnG in Demon's Crest style as a boss sprite.  Here is the sprite of the main character, Arthur from Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, if you're not familiar with the game:



Use your knowledge of DC style that we are studying in the Commercial Critique thread to translate this character to DC style.  You can either pixel the armor version or the underpants version, or both.  Feel free to interpret the character creatively, and don't be held back by thinking you have to keep to this pose.  It'd probably be best if you didn't.  Size is up to you, but keep in mind the size of Firebrand and how it would work in the game.  Colors, however, are limited to 16 colors including transparency.

For now, Capcom needs your submission by May 18th, a week from this posting.

Good luck!

Offline setz

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #1 on: May 11, 2006, 10:35:22 pm
judging by the size of the bosses in DC, they would be large as the SNES' resolution, or would we be thinking that the DC sprites were shrink-scaled to fit the GBA resolution? I could argue the 16 colors including transparancy part by pointing out the PPU trickery that's possible with SNES/GBA, but for sake of 16 colors being enough for anything, I'll let that go.

Offline Darien

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #2 on: May 11, 2006, 11:22:27 pm
Assuming that the Arthur sprite is somewhere near the size of the Firebrand sprite, with is under 30x50 pixels idle, both sprites would fit comfortably in a GBA screen.  I was just doing that scenario as a type of fun thing.  The real importance here is if you can work out a sprite in the same style as Demon's Crest, not whether we account for every little problem Capcom would run into while porting the game.

Offline setz

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #3 on: May 11, 2006, 11:28:52 pm
THE CHALLENGE:  We're going to start off with a sprite challenge, as that's generally friendlier and easier to get into.  Now, as you may know, Demon's Crest is a spin off of the Ghouls 'n' Ghosts series, where the character Firebrand is an enemy.  So, for this challenge, Capcom wants you to pixel the idle frame for the main character of GnG in Demon's Crest style as a boss sprite.  Here is the sprite of the main character, Arthur from Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, if you're not familiar with the game:



Use your knowledge of DC style that we are studying in the Commercial Critique thread to translate this character to DC style.  You can either pixel the armor version or the underpants version, or both. Feel free to interpret the character creatively, and don't be held back by thinking you have to keep to this pose.  It'd probably be best if you didn't.  Size is up to you, but keep in mind the size of Firebrand and how it would work in the game. Colors, however, are limited to 16 colors including transparency.

For now, Capcom needs your submission by May 18th, a week from this posting.

Good luck!


I was thinking demon's crest style bosses as being pretty big and exadurated. as you can see from a wip I had going. but 30x50 works too.

Offline Darien

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #4 on: May 12, 2006, 12:01:20 am
Oh, by all means there are huge bosses in Demon's Crest, but there are also ones that are much closer to Firebrand's size.  Arthur, being only a human, I would imagine to be much smaller than the larger bosses.

Offline setz

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #5 on: May 12, 2006, 12:26:14 am
Point taken. I wasn't sure if I should post this in here or pixel art for C+C and all?

Offline Darien

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #6 on: May 12, 2006, 06:39:40 am
Well, post it here for sure, but I guess nothing's stopping you from posting it in the other section also.  It's not really my place to decide though. 

I think you should take a look at how armor is done in DC, setz:



Notice no dithering, and relatively clean.  I think you have a lot of segmenting in your sprite which clutters it a lot.  Also, the face seems very messy, you can't really make out any details of his face.  In all the DC sprites facial features are very apparent.  Proportions are also a little off, his legs should be longer.  It's a good start though, thanks for participating in this challenge.

Offline setz

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #7 on: May 12, 2006, 07:55:29 am
thanks for the crits. I started another topic so I don't clutter this up too much. and you're welcome for participating, trying to follow other styles is probably one of the things I"m worst at. and it's always nice to improve and learn new things.

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #8 on: May 12, 2006, 10:20:21 am


not 100% finished, but its getting there.  i think that ive been trying to maek the armor too bright (and therefor am loosing the volumetric aspects of the piece) but that mgiht jsut be me worrying :P.  hes also a bit thicker than the firebrand (because he has armor and the firebrand is like, starving) and hes 'taller' pixelwise because hes standing straighter

palette taken from the big zombie dragon (i dont know how the game works but i assumed they had a limited number of fixed palettes that they swapped around a lot)

edit = done, despite fact it could be tweeked
« Last Edit: May 13, 2006, 02:26:03 pm by Adarias »
A mistake is a mistake.
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The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline Godslayer

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Re: Commercial Critique Challenge: Demon's Crest

Reply #9 on: May 12, 2006, 11:18:02 am
I'm trying not to be immature here, but why is there a flesh colored object hanging from his crotch?
How long can the floor creak before it loses its voice?