[WIP] Partisan Tactics Battles : Animations, woah

[AlienQuark]

I think the gradient is fine, a game of this proportion doesn't need to be completely pixelled in my opinion. I think you just need a better colour for the gradient, and maybe make it non-circular. I think that menu would benefit from a more neutral colour in the gradient, maybe a rich chocolate brown gradient or something. Make it feel earthy and full-bodied (lol, like a good cup of coffee)

That's what I would suggest.

[big brother]

Except that our weapons do not have any elemental power and I don't think we'll add some.

Well, the weapons wouldn't necessarily have to 'posess' the power of the respective element, just be related to it. For instance: clubs, quarterstaffs,  obsidian spears, and the like would fall under the earth element, since they relate to a land-based resource like wood or stone. Weapons with forged blades would represent the fire element. The wind element would be comprised of ranged weapons or higher-tech stuff. The water element could represent weapons made from its resources like a swordfish sword, a reed blowgun, or a coral blade lance. All magic weapons fall under the spirit weapon category.

[ndchristie]

Well, the weapons wouldn't necessarily have to 'posess' the power of the respective element, just be related to it. For instance: clubs, quarterstaffs,  obsidian spears, and the like would fall under the earth element, since they relate to a land-based resource like wood or stone. Weapons with forged blades would represent the fire element. The wind element would be comprised of ranged weapons or higher-tech stuff. The water element could represent weapons made from its resources like a swordfish sword, a reed blowgun, or a coral blade lance. All magic weapons fall under the spirit weapon category.

it's a fine idea, but not for this game.

[Larwick]

For a moment last night i remember imaginging some sort of subtle (so as not to be distracting) repeated pattern of an axe icon (or sword, spear.. etc for diff types of weapons) in a particular colour in the background, sort of cloth-like. I don't know if that's any use to you, but i just thought i'd let you know about the idea.

I really like that latest mockup, kind of looks like some part in a storyline... with an antagonist listening in to a conversation or something.

Haha, my mind goes to weird places sometimes. Good luck with the next bit of the game, can't wait to see more updates.

[Dhaos]

Very nice work Adarias. You've done *quite* alot with your project; it's nice a 'pretty-pixel' game that's actually getting somewhere. I particularly love those sword sketches you did, brilliant designs. I'm glad you're using colored shadows in your game too, they much better than standard transparent black/gray. For your shop/weapon's background dilemma, perhaps you could go the baldur's gate route and use a paper/scroll like background (pixeled of course, with the weapons being just a pixeled sketch?) Anyways I can't wait to see more, good luck with Partisian Tactics.

[Kable]

I just wanted to add how impressed I am with the amount of improvement in this screenshot over what you had to begin with. The sprites really "pop" against the background. I think the transition to this point is the difference between good art and good game art. These edits take into consideration the overall functionality and feel of the art within the overall game. I really like it.

[ndchristie]

ok, well, the game has been progressing slowly, but ive come to a major problem - i really dont know how to do tiles effectively.  here are a few screens -




basically, the readability is lacking in all of them and the aesthetics, well, they are falling.  the issue is that i don't know how to improve this, im completely stuck in what im doing.  perhaps there are any suggestions people might have?

[Stwelin]

I think that you have been looking at it for so long, it's starting to bug you.  It looks very well-done and professional. After looking at it for a while, though, I think maybe the lush-ness of the environments almost detracts from the players.

The tiles almost seem like they would be found in a GBA-version of Super Mario RPG.  They are very rich and saturated, however the players have more of a realistic drive, rather than a brightly coloured, comical character.  If you take a look through some of the tiles in Final Fantasy Tactics, (example below) you'll see that while the envireonment is 3d-rendered, it is still less detailed than the characters (along with a much different palette), and in turn, it makes the players stand out.


(i realize that this is a poor-quality screencap, but it gets the point across.)

Trust me, this really pains me to say, because the environments are amazing.  But I think it's something you should consider.

[Akzidenz]

Personally, I don't think they look bad - I think that some palette changes might look nice, but I don't think they look nearly as bad as you make them out to be.

The question that immediately comes to mind when looking at it, though, is "how are your maps built?". Are you forced to build them in the way that you are now, by making "blocks" and then building your scene with those blocks? Is this a programming issue?

If you are forced to build your scene with "blocks", then how many are you limited to using per map? Are your colors limited?

I have some ideas but need to know what restrictions you have..

[AlexHW]

the problem with the tiles is that they all just look like patterns.
you have to make them LOOK like something, else everything just seems chaotic and crazy.