Interesting. Reminds me of Rust Mesa. You know, that one piece that looks somewhat like yours.
Yup,
Larwick's Rust Mesa piece definitely was a huge inspiration for me
Not a fan of the stark contrast between foreground and background. I'd like to see the background piles of junk a bit more obvious, perhaps higher, just to create more of a transition. Doesn't have to cover every inch of the foreground junk though, but it wasn't that apparent to me. So either that or lighten it up. Or change the sky a bit. On that note...
The sky seems a bit saturated as well (considering the theme, unless it's a sunset), and kinda high, or maybe the cloud formations are just creating that effect somehow. The clouds are another thing that seems odd in a way.
Good job on what you have so far, though!
That's a good idea Pistachio, I'll push the junk piles in the back further up. I agree with the sky as well, my coder told me that it was even a little distracting when playing the game. I'll probably change the saturation and contrast a little, see what I come up with. The clouds are just blocked in at the moment. Thanks for the CC!
I love it! Very dark feel.
The ground does look quite uniform in color though, you might want to add some slight variations, like rust, more bluish metal, lighter gray.
Also, about the contrast, how does that work on a cellphone? Like playing the game outside.
High contrast might be an advantage.
Also, would be cool with more parallax layers, especially for a game focused on constant movement.
Thanks Seiseki! You're probably right about the ground, I was thinking of some grass maybe. I have a tendency to make elements of levels too uniform color-wise
Haven't tested this theme outside yet. I'll see what a parallax layer in front looks like.
There does seem to be a lot of contrast between the sky and the pile of junk - the colour contrast doesn't really bother me, but the clouds look rather basic with no visibile lightning direction, while the pile is incredibly detailed with strong reflections. It looks somehow out of place (there shouldn't be too many light reflections if the sky is so polluted).
It's visible that you reused a lot of elements for the pile, like the two TVs facing different directions (including a mirrored lightning direction).
The "rectangular" border between the visible junk at the top of the pile and the darkness below looks a bit weird upon closer inspection.
Why are the clouds generally smooth, except for the dithered section in the top/centre?
Apart from that (and despite that), it looks good. If it's for a game, the foreground/background contrast may actually be useful.
I'll refine the clouds more, I tried to just give the illusion that they're lit from the bottom. Keep in mind that the background will be scrolling throughout the level, just like all the rest. Should I make the clouds dithered like in the center or more smooth? I'm going to make a third slope tile to kill the grid and get rid of the squareness. Thanks
yeah, the contrast is really key because the junk is actually an obstacle.
You have a red sky giving out reddish light, and blue highlighted junk. I think that's what creates the dis-jointed feeling to the composition. Just changing that, and giving the junk and red/orange tinge would improve it alot. I also thought of Rust Mesa, it's very pretty and tiles well. The tv/barrel section mirrors very convincingly.
changing the lightest color in the junk (aside from the white) to the lightest orange in the sky actually works pretty well. Gives it a real sense of heat
Thanks, I think it looks much better with just that little change!
Thanks for all the replies guys - update coming soon!
Edit: Ugh, having a really hard time with the sky. Changed the color of highlights on the junk. There will eventually be a mushroom cloud from a nuke appearing halfway through the level, thus the lighting from the bottom. Made the tiles less squareish, tried the foreground parallax, didn't work! :/
I still don't really know what to do with the sky. Are the colors fine? I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to add loads of new colors and dither the hell out of the clouds to make the sky smoother. This is going to take ages! Opinions?
About the ship sprite, I know the highlights are blue once again
but this really makes the sprite pop out, which is good I assume. Also, most of the sprites in the game are highlighted with this cold blue.
Edit2:
