AuthorTopic: "Dream Girl" NES CC  (Read 4799 times)

Offline Lazy Brain Games

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 78
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Lazy Brain Games

"Dream Girl" NES CC

on: August 15, 2011, 07:49:03 pm
I've just started a new project, so I've been working on the main player character. There are some influences from Little Nemo and Alice in Wonderland, I've been working on various facial expressions. Is everything reading okay? Any crits or recommendations before I move forward with this?



Thanks! :D
« Last Edit: August 19, 2011, 09:15:09 pm by Lazy Brain Games »

Offline Fickludd

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 70
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: "Dream Girl" NES character CC

Reply #1 on: August 15, 2011, 08:46:04 pm
Cute character, I like how the hair is asymmetrical to give a sense of depth.

I don't know what the NES color restrictions are or how the palette work, but I'm feeling that the white for the eyes is sort of wasted because it's way close to the skin color to be readable (at least on my screen). As said, I don't know what options you get, but maybe dropping the skin color value a bit would help.

To me her body language reads as surprised, dancing, anxious or maybe nailed to the wall. Perhaps you should switch it up to better fit some of the emotions.

What kind of setting is going on btw, would be awesome with something Alice in Wonderlandy =)

Offline Lazy Brain Games

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 78
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Lazy Brain Games

Re: "Dream Girl" NES character CC

Reply #2 on: August 15, 2011, 09:18:28 pm
Thanks for the reply Fickludd! You make a very good point about the eyes. As per usual with me, I'm sticking with the palette I got (mainly for continuity between games). Here's the "season 2" palette I'm working with...



To address the "eye white" issue, I gave her some makeup to accentuate her eyes, although I'm not sure a girl her age should be wearing eye makeup lol. Let me know if this looks better :)



I'm working on a walk cycle, I had to make her legs a bit longer for that, I'll post a gif of that soon :) I'll also work on her posture for some of the emotions ;)

This character will indeed be in a alice in wonderland kind of situation. Imagine Little Nemo with a light/dark world aspect to it (dream/nightmare) with inspirations from alice in wonderland, and happy tree friends. This character is has some crazy times ahead of her lol.

[EDIT]

First attempt at a walk animation, I just used little nemo as a reference, it looks... okay I think.

Regular walk


More girly walk



Big thanks!
« Last Edit: August 15, 2011, 09:50:25 pm by Lazy Brain Games »

Offline pistachio

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 639
  • Karma: +4/-0
  • Mostly lurking
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/125138.htm
    • View Profile

Re: "Dream Girl" NES character CC

Reply #3 on: August 16, 2011, 05:05:45 pm
I like it, pretty cute and charming, and somehow almost like an authentic 8-bit sprite not just because of the very limited palette, but the simplified design and regions of flat color. The expressions, at least to me, are very readable considering the scale of the sprite.

Have you considered adding a stylized reflection in the eyes? A bit like this perhaps:



It's not showing up all that well though, and the antialiasing was probably not what you were going for. But a few other things were tweaked, such as the foreshortening of the dress and hairstyle (which, frankly, I'm starting to regret changing).

My only other problem is the default eyebrow position, seems highly unnatural.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2011, 05:07:43 pm by pistachio »

Offline infinitegames

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 130
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: "Dream Girl" NES character CC

Reply #4 on: August 19, 2011, 05:49:12 am
I've just started a new project, so I've been working on the main player character. There are some influences from Little Nemo and Alice in Wonderland, I've been working on various facial expressions. Is everything reading okay? Any crits or recommendations before I move forward with this?



Thanks! :D

Oooh, sounds like a game I'd love to play. This character is quite old-school and cute. Great job so far! I can't wait to see some other stuff in this style

Offline Lazy Brain Games

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 78
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Lazy Brain Games

Re: "Dream Girl" NES character CC

Reply #5 on: August 19, 2011, 07:13:17 pm
Thanks for the replies! I'm still working on some of the basic gameplay, but I've also been playing around with a couple of characters...

Pig with a top hat..


I've been struggling with this "rabbit tower", but it's getting close...



Aside from that, I've just been doing some tests on background tilesets, nothing too committal yet, but it looks okay...




The rabbit tower is kind of giving me headaches, partly because I need the sprites to be split up so I can adjust the height with the middle sprite...


Any tips on the rabbit tower are greatly appreciated, does it need another frame? Is there any kind of reference for this kind of thing?

[EDIT]
Working on a crow friend, still pretty messed up but I got at least some sort of start on it :P


Thanks for looking ;)

-JB

« Last Edit: August 19, 2011, 11:10:35 pm by Lazy Brain Games »

Offline infinitegames

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 130
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: "Dream Girl" NES CC

Reply #6 on: August 24, 2011, 05:23:50 am
I don't really like the pig much, it's shading is harsh and I don't care for black outlines. Stick with the awesome style you have for the girl and don't use black outlines.

I enjoy the cave area thing. The way you created atmosphere and "glow" by using background tiles is really cool and the environment itself looks promising.

The bunny silo thing coul use some improvement. For one, its animation isn't as smooth as I'd like to see. Also, you could make better use of color I think, it's pretty low contrast (and has black outlines again X| )

Offline PypeBros

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1220
  • Karma: +2/-0
  • Pixel Padawan
    • PypeBros
    • View Profile
    • Bilou Homebrew's Blog.

Re: "Dream Girl" NES CC

Reply #7 on: August 24, 2011, 01:47:51 pm
how about having individual sprites for the lifts of the rabbit tower that you move up and down, rather than trying to make it a tiled object ?