GR#129 - Labyrinth - RPG Projection Sprites and Tiles

[StarRaven]

tehwexxl0rz:
As awesome as that sounds, I can not think of any way that normal kids have handheld sonar devices that would make any sense. XD Even if they were in the house already or something. However, in a less literal sense, I wonder if I could go for a generic "there's a sound coming from this direction" sort of thing on the mini map. Infamous did an interesting thing with how the dead drops showed up -- the edge of the minimap would kind of glow in the general direction of the nearest dead drop -- a stronger glow for when it was nearer.

About breaks between rooms: Oh yeah, of course. I guess I'm just so used to RPGs that do it this way that it's kind of a no-brainer for me. I should probably look at other ways to do things in the future, but I think it does fit for this project.

Facet:
What's to stop me from using a bigger tile... um... uh... principle..? (In other words, nothing. 8D Good idea, haha. I will give it a shot.)

Man, the blue and green you've added on there make me think of something ancient, with green things growing on it, which is kind of awesome. It's not what I'm going for, but it gives me some ideas.

I'm hesitant to add so much shading and small details to those dark brown parts, since that's where some things like items and such will end up (in the oval bits, those will be 100% covered) and I don't want it to become too busy.

I've just kind of been eyeballing the AA; is there anywhere in particular that you thought it didn't look right? I pushed some pixels around while I was shading. I also like the thicker borders you used, so I tried that, too.

I may have actually saved over the original picture, so it might show up the same up top. Gah.

Experimenting with some more organic shapes with the other half. I love snakes. :3 Not sure I'll use him but he was fun to doodle anyhow.


The next animation I want to work on is a getting hit/taking damage sort of animation, but I'm not really sure how to do it. Hm.

[slym]

That UI is muuuccccchhhh better. Exposes more of the game screen

[StarRaven]

And...
->
Better?

[Facet]

Yeah, 75% more floorboardsy

I can see how my edit could be seen as old & mossy, the rough texture doesn't help, but really I was just trying to demonstrate a broader pallete for more 'life' and also to enable a beveled, rendered effect akin to a watchface in comparison with the flat design you have currently. You could try that sort of thing with the more metallic blues and purples too. 

It's worth bearing in mind how a larger UI might obstruct gameplay if you're going asymetrical (how things might be hidden from the player under it). The only place where I think it definitely needs more work is the bit I edited, specifically the kinda aimless looking cresents. Snakes are cool, no doubt but are they related to the game? Some in-game beastie might be a better fit.

[StarRaven]

I'll be perfectly honest; there's a reason I picked flat, cartoony graphics for everything else. Rendering is not my forte, and it's not really the look I want to go for. Actually, I think I'm going to go back and flatten it out a little. My attempts at shading are just making it look like a mess, I think.

It would be great if everyone could tell me more about UIs obscuring the player's vision, it's super helpful. I wouldn't think of it at all if people didn't mention it every other post to remind me. Sarcasm aside: yes, I do think about it. I test it out every once in a while by laying it over the mockup to see how much it will obscure in-game. I've moved it down to the bottom:

I'm thinking of moving the circular part down a little further, actually.

The asymmetry of it is really getting to me, though. I could do something like this:

...but I dunno. Bleh?

Yeah, I think I'll just do something like that.

I really wanted to go for an antique frame sort of look but every comment I get wants to move me away from that so I guess I'll give up.

Edit: Unfortunately, there isn't really a UI-appropriate beastie I can add, so unless I want to insert a snake motif into the game just so I can have one in my UI, I'm out of luck. ....I'm really, really tempted.

Edit Again: Here's what I'm working on now:

Any terrible mistakes that need to be rectified before I clean it up?

[Facet]

I didn't mean to labour the point, nor imply that an asymetrical UI would definitely be a problem . I think a full antique frame is a nice idea and there's no need to stick to some rigid template you aren't as fond of, some organic flair is great. Personally I would just reign back a bit is all.

With that said the latest version is looking lovely and I guess you'll have more oportunities to reuse or experiment with bits of it in menus and titles etc. To render or not is pretty subjective, as is the snake quota; if it looks great, roll with it.      

[Seiseki]

Wow, I really want to play this game! The art is extremely charming!
Please tell me it includes resident evil style puzzles!

[StarRaven]

So I experimented with a font.

When an item is selected or the character is facing something interesting, something like this will pop up:

There will be no full-screen pause menu things if I can help it.

It still needs some shading and tweaks but I am so done with this thing for now. Back to animation. Sprites are more fun to look at anyway, haha.

Facet:
To be honest, I can only stand so much deviation from symmetry anyway. One of the reasons I like big honking UIs in the first place is that a thick frame is less intrusive than a bunch of junk hanging all over the screen. (In my opinion.) I also don't like having to pause the game to view a menu or something (nothing like pausing the game to use an item to interrupt the flow) which is why I tend to... well, shove everything onto the main screen. For lack of a better way to put it. Ahaha~

Seiseki:
I have never played any of the Resident Evil games, to be honest.

[StarRaven]

Damage/death animation:


I tried doing it at an angle so I could use it for both the front and side views. (And also because I think it looks better.) I pondered changing to isometric at one point but I don't like using directional buttons for that, it always feels awkward.

[rikfuzz]

Looks great! I would try out a couple of variants (one of her sliding accross the floor 1 pixel, and one with her head bouncing for a frame) just to see if either improve it, it does seem a little bit fast at the moment.