AuthorTopic: Shoot em up pixel art  (Read 6019 times)

Offline SirPrize

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Shoot em up pixel art

on: July 23, 2011, 04:36:54 am
Starting work on some sprites for a simple shmup.







Feedback?

Offline Decroded

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Re: Shoot em up pixel art

Reply #1 on: July 23, 2011, 07:21:39 am
Can u please edit ur post and show ur artwork at 100% instead of already zoomed in?

Offline pistachio

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Re: Shoot em up pixel art

Reply #2 on: July 23, 2011, 11:28:36 am
The designs seem too "organic" to be spaceships. This makes them look more like alien sea creatures with hulls on their faces, especially the larger, boss (?) ships. Try using more straight angles and make curves blend into eachother less. Also think about the mechanics of the ship and its purpose. Fighters like this are usually streamlined in some way or another.

In what I presume are world-intro screens, note it's not necessary to pronounce each detail with individual pixels even at this size (in fact on small sprites this usually destroys readability). This is especially true on the "ocean" screen. Seeing those stylized waves didn't exactly give me the impression it was an ocean; the same with the dithered blobs that are probably clouds. Even at this scale, using techniques that you would use in a bigger piece will pay off. For example you don't have to define everything using just outlines. Don't be afraid to break them, use them more subtly, or even scrap them and just use shading to describe form.

This is just an edit addressing that (the level intros), I'll move onto the mockup screens and sprites when I get a chance.



I couldn't resist using that white color you had lying around and didn't seem to use more than once (namely, on the "X - 1 SPACE" border) for some clouds in the "ocean" and... City entrance? levels. This meant ditching the dithered, darker blobs and going for solid, larger shapes, with the sky blue serving as some "shading" at the lower left on larger clouds, so they're more readable than what you have there already, hopefully. Also to note, you have a few stray pixels of a different color around these clouds, barely noticeable so I got rid of it.

Not a fan of the dithered arrow, so I opted for a different design, as well as AA'd (anti-aliased) the letters a bit. I don't think it looks as bad as you might think at such a large scale.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2011, 11:31:46 am by pistachio »

Offline Seiseki

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Re: Shoot em up pixel art

Reply #3 on: July 23, 2011, 12:01:43 pm
Can u please edit ur post and show ur artwork at 100% instead of already zoomed in?

If it's supposed to be for an actual game, then it makes more sense to show it at the resolution it will be played, right?

Offline michelcote

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Re: Shoot em up pixel art

Reply #4 on: July 23, 2011, 05:59:15 pm
Can u please edit ur post and show ur artwork at 100% instead of already zoomed in?

If it's supposed to be for an actual game, then it makes more sense to show it at the resolution it will be played, right?
For the sake of making edits easier, actual pixels are preferred. The forum also has a built-in script that lets us zoom by clicking the images, and shift-clicking to zoom back out.
SirPrize, I like the weapon choosing stuff you have going on in the HUD  ;D

Offline SirPrize

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Re: Shoot em up pixel art

Reply #5 on: July 25, 2011, 02:55:30 am






Offline SirPrize

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Re: Shoot em up pixel art

Reply #6 on: July 28, 2011, 10:10:15 am

Offline ptoing

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Re: Shoot em up pixel art

Reply #7 on: July 29, 2011, 10:37:07 am
If you are really working on making this into a game you might want to reconsider your approach.

In games one of the most important things is that things are readable. In a shmup this is even more important than in most other genres as to avoid frustration.

For example on the dark background, would we see the player shot? Do you think the little rockets are big enough to be seen quick enough?
Also I think the resolution you have going is a bit small, you are not making this for some 10 year old cellphone, are you?

Look at Guxt


It uses 6 or something colours (apart from some bonus items like that little red duck).
For the enemy shots he mainly used that single orange also used for the PAUSE text. To make them stand out, because this is a good thing to do when it comes to gameplay. If the player will get hit by something he did not see, repeatedly, he will get frustrated and stop playing your game.

Guxt also has a resolution of 120x160, which I would say is about as tiny as you should be going (or well 160x120 if you got horizontal) with a shmup, really, there needs to be some real estate to dodge around in. The res you are currently at would make things feel cramped.

As for the colours you also need to make sure everything always stays distinct, background and foreground. In your top screen it looks like those mountains would be obstacles which kill you if you crash into them. If that is the case, cool, if not you made them too dark. Google for Guxt and download it, it's freeware, and look at how Pixel did stuff, the graphics are fairly simple but the priorities work well and stuff never gets unreadable.

Hope this helps.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline The 7th Sin

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Re: Shoot em up pixel art

Reply #8 on: July 29, 2011, 02:31:41 pm
Hey man, interesting work so far, but a few things need polishing, so I did an edit to try and outline what need some help.



The first issue I saw was keeping the sprites readable against the background, I saw ptoing mention this a little in his post, but it's an important concept.
EyeCraft mentioned this to me in my low color project, it is important to utilize your colors help differentiate the active stuff from the background stuff. 
So, in my edit, I tried to utilize 3 light colors for the sun, sea, and clouds, using darker colors for the bodies of the aircrafts, missiles and "no fly zone" buildings.

Secondly, I noticed was that your ships need a more definite form.
You have to make them look sleek and speedy, so I would recommend using minimal outlining and Aerodynamic shapes.
Take a look at some reference photos of real fighter jets.

I like the way this project is coming along, I hope to see more in the future! ;D