[WIP] 16x16 Tilesets for OpenGameArt.org

[ptoing]

The problem with yours is that it does not look like rock. Looks like piled and dried dung more than anything.

Not an edit, but something I made a while ago.
Maybe it helps.

[jams0988]

Sorry, but that looks just plain horrible. I don't get what problem you are trying to solve.

The only problem I currently see with my version is that it looks really repetitive if tiled even though there are variations (There are two 32*16 tiles which can be combined arbitrarily.). But I think I can solve that by using less, bigger rocks so it's not recognized by the human eye just as a big complex mess.

Hahahahahah. ='D
His looks a good deal better than yours, you know? Both from a general aesthetics standpoint and by looking much more like a rock wall than yours. Like ptoing said, yours doesn't look much like rock at all; I wouldn't call yours dung, but it looks more like wrinkled up tissue paper than rock. I'd be pretty happy having Surt's in a game of mine, while I'd definitely send yours back to the shop for some retooling (or more likely, a complete redo).

If I were you, I'd take another good look at Surt's edit.

@Ptoing: I like yours a lot, but the gradient fade to darkness seems a little unusual. Do you have a screenshot of these tiles working with a background and such? It's an interesting style, and I'm curious about how it looks in a complete scene. Reminds me a bit of Contra or Metal Slug, which is a very good thing. =)

[ptoing]

I don't have a proper screenshot, but it was intended for a sidescrolling game, just like MS or Contra indeed.

[Phlakes]

Remember that rock gets shaped by erosion. The big, lumpy, sharp-angled mess you have now doesn't look like it was naturally shaped, but like ptoing said, it looks like it was piled up, and the highlight heavy shading makes it look a bit too much like dung.

[API-Beast]

Much deko.

Tileset: http://files.spell0r.de/ArtStuff/PixelDump/desertV5.png

I will redo the whole cliff tiles, though more because I didn't really thought through how I organize the tiles, the way they are now they make it pretty much impossible to compose some pretty cliffs with it.

jams0988:
If you don't have anything useful to say then please let it be, thank you. (Or "fuck off" if you prefer.)

[surt]

jams0988:
If you don't have anything useful to say then please let it be, thank you. (Or "fuck off" if you prefer.)

That is altogether uncalled for. He's not the one being uncivil. 

[jams0988]

That is altogether uncalled for. He's not the one being uncivil.  Roll Eyes

Right? Thanks, Surt.
Besides, I thought my post was pretty useful, anyway, Beast. I was letting you know that your tiles *do* look bad, no matter what you'd like to believe. Sadly, even with the advice of myself and others posted here, you're still using your dung-walls. Feel free to keep telling people like Surt that his edits are horrible, though. Continue telling honest people like me to fuck off. Keep right on ignoring any criticism of any kind. And stay a low-level artist forever!

Or just admit that you were wrong to shrug off so many critiques. It'll sting at first, but a few years from now, you'll thank yourself for it when your art is miles better than it is now. =)

And now that I've critiqued your attitude, onto your art:
The palm tree leaves are way too small - real palm leaves are pretty wide. Right now it looks like you have palm trunks that have had their tops removed and replaced with small shrubberies. The grass tufts you have right now are the same exact size as the palm leaves you have going on, which makes this error even more apparent. Your water is super desaturated, which makes it look like muddy swamp water, instead of the crystal clear "mirage" type water I'd usually expect in a desert setting. Speaking of the water, the way the grass tiles into it is a little strange looking to me. On top of all this, all of your items are strangely sized in relation to one another, which makes it hard to determine the scale of things. Are you making any character sprites for this, or not? I think it'd help you to have a "human" sprite to judge sizes on for everything else. You might be going for that old style of RPG graphics, where the sizes of everything make no sense in relation to each other, but that's usually on overworld maps, whereas this looks like it's supposed to be a playable area, especially since the cliff walls look so huge, and the dunes in the sand are so shallow. Something to think about.

All that said, I like the general color scheme you have going on, and the set on the whole is pretty easy on the eyes, even if it's nothing spectacular looking. It's also nice of you to be giving away art to free-art sites.

[Helm]

Please let's avoid a confrontation here. Mr.Beast, if you don't like some critique you're getting, feel free to ignore it at your own risk. You don't have to tell anyone that their edits or suggestions aren't helping you. Keep in mind however that if you ignore most of the critique you're getting here, there will not be many repeat helpers, nobody likes to see their effort go to waste.

Jams, please don't armchair moderate on pixelation. I know it's hard, but ignore rudeness where you can and if you can't, pass your grievance along to a moderator. Keep in mind that although you're in the right here, your tone is adversarial, almost flame-bait. Again, the best retort to someone being ungrateful is to stop helping them. You cannot teach people manners on the internet, you can only choose how much you allow them to interact with you.

[API-Beast]

Helm:
Don't worry, I just wanted to make clear that he has overstepped a certain border.

That is altogether uncalled for. He's not the one being uncivil.  

Not? Oh yeah, travestying a statement by laughing one's ass off on it and criticizing unfinished artwork without giving hints how to improve it is totally civil. It took me quite some time to digest that critique and what came out was almost 0 sustenance. The point of "constructive" critique is that it helps the artist to improve their art, if it doesn't it isn't constructive. There is a point for non-constructive critique, but that’s after a piece is finished, for example for judging reasons. While a artistic process it just does nothing but hampers...

If you took offensive what I said then I am sorry, it wasn't meant to be.  

Edit:

First sketch for the new layout for the cliffs.

[jams0988]

Jams, please don't armchair moderate on pixelation. I know it's hard, but ignore rudeness where you can and if you can't, pass your grievance along to a moderator. Keep in mind that although you're in the right here, your tone is adversarial, almost flame-bait. Again, the best retort to someone being ungrateful is to stop helping them. You cannot teach people manners on the internet, you can only choose how much you allow them to interact with you.

Sorry, Helm. Next time I'll tone it down a bit. Flagrant disrespect for critique has always been a shortcut to my temper, but I'll try to watch it for the sake of everyone else next time someone pisses me off, heheh.

Not? Oh yeah, travestying a statement by laughing one's ass off on it and criticizing unfinished artwork without giving hints how to improve it is totally civil. It took me quite some time to digest that critique and what came out was almost 0 sustenance. The point of "constructive" critique is that it helps the artist to improve their art, if it doesn't it isn't constructive. There is a point for non-constructive critique, but that’s after a piece is finished, for example for judging reasons. While a artistic process it just does nothing but hampers...

Are you talking about my latest critique? I thought it was straight-forward enough...just resize the palm leaves, and make sure all of your objects are proportionate to one-another.
As for your latest sketch, the texture still doesn't feel quite right. It looks even more like wrinkled up paper now, or maybe tree bark. Again, I'd study the edit Surt did for you, as well as the reference photos that were posted. The textures that were posted for you have all been sharp, angular, and large/flat shapes. Everything you're posting is much bumpier/noisier/organic looking than it should be. Work with big, flat shapes, at first, then add a little texture later.

Also, as a few people have already mentioned, your cliffs should be around the same color as your sand, since they're made of the same material. Just changing your cliff colors to the sand colors would probably help a *lot* with making them look more like cliffs instead of trees, if you want to try that first.

Also, one more thing to try: sketch out your cliffs with a pencil, first. And then try copying your pencil sketch when you do your sprites. I think you're focusing way too much on the texture/color of your sprite, so you're losing sight of what you actually want to draw - you said earlier that your problem was that your sprite "looks like a mess, and needs to use bigger rocks" so that it's less noisy looking, but your cliffs don't even have any rocks at *all* in them now - you've switched over to all noise instead!