16 Bit Characters

[Phlakes]

Been a while since I made my own thread, now that I think about it. I guess I haven't been doing much myself.

Until now. *dramatic percussion. I'm working with some people on a fan prequel for the cult "classic" Overblood (if you're familiar with Game Informer you might know of when they played through it and the community that came out of it, which is why this exists) and we've decided to go all meta and make it one generation back, which would be the 16 bit era.

I'm pretty out of practice, but I did some quick things to work out a base, referenced off FF6, trying to shake off a bit of rust before the real work kicks in. I figured it would be good to come here and take care of any issues early, so here's a few. And sorry it's more RPG style characters. At least it's not a tree.

Progression of the main character-

Another person-                               

And the other main character, a robot-

Now, the black outlines and exaggerated bits are there to keep SNES charm, and if there's anything else that looks like it might exist for the same reason, chances are it's not. So have at it, I guess.

Also, the grey I'm using as a background is close to what everything will be on in game. Just in case someone was wondering.

[jinza]

i think the only problem i would have is with the professor is that on the right side of his coat it looks like you put too much shadow on the right side of the coat not the sleeve but the torso area.(unless the light source is coming from the left then that would mean you have too many light sources

[Phlakes]

Also starting on a bit of animating (which I've never been good at in the first place), and I'm assuming that the lack of responses follows the whole "you're likely to get feedback if what you have is either really good or really bad" that someone said a while back.

But hey, at least that would mean it's not terrible.

...And I'm working on the legs. I know they're pretty strange right now. They're too small for me to change the outline but it's hard to animate the shading without making it look how it does and still keep the bouncing effect. Need to find that balance.

EDIT: Side view for anatomy, the front is a little hard to interpret without reference-

[ErekT]

and I'm assuming that the lack of responses follows the whole "you're likely to get feedback if what you have is either really good or really bad" that someone said a while back.

Mmm.. or the fact that there's not really much to critique. Posts can get sucked into the Bermuda Triangle around here if they don't contain constructive crits Your sprites look good, especially the robo thing I like But the people look a wee bit generic maybe? Same build, same height, same pose, same cross-eyed stare. Maybe try to make their individual personalities come out more somehow?

[BladeJunker]

I really had to take some time to think about this idea when you first posted it.

I'm familiar with Overblood as in reading about it in Gamefan but I haven't played it, I always admired the game engine most as I prefer my 3D in polygons as I thought the Twinsen's Odyssey engine would have been a better approach for Resident Evil than prerendered backdrops.

I only have stylistic suggestions for this prequel concept which is to make everything as smooth as the robot sprite, mostly this refers to eventual level graphics but to a lesser extent I think the characters should be similarly clean and smooth as well unless deliberately damaged.
My only other suggestion is to go with a more blank or anonymous style for the human characters along the lines of Rolling Thunder, Diablo, Flashback, Sanitarium, etc. to make the sprites taller, more realistic in proportion, and give them a more serious tone overall. They just seem a little cute for survival style horror ijs.

[rikfuzz]

The roboty thing's pretty good, I found the character a little messy tho, so I cleaned him up/simplified a bit before re-adding the dishevelled details, then relaxed his pose a bit. 

[Phlakes]

The roboty thing's pretty good, I found the character a little messy tho, so I cleaned him up/simplified a bit before re-adding the dishevelled details, then relaxed his pose a bit. 

That's actually really helpful, I've probably been sticking too close to the FF6 style which has a lot of noise and small details and sort of flat shading.

My only other suggestion is to go with a more blank or anonymous style for the human characters along the lines of Rolling Thunder, Diablo, Flashback, Sanitarium, etc. to make the sprites taller, more realistic in proportion, and give them a more serious tone overall. They just seem a little cute for survival style horror ijs.

Definitely noted, that's probably also because of the FF style.

[BladeJunker]

Funny playthrough by Game Informer staff that I'm quite enjoying but I have to ask is this a serious scary prequel or a parody project? Don't get me wrong I love Shenmue despite all its goofy short comings so I can relate to cult love, I guess this was the best video available despite all the jeers in the commentary? 

[Phlakes]

Funny playthrough by Game Informer staff that I'm quite enjoying but I have to ask is this a serious scary prequel or a parody project?

We're trying to make it an actual stand-alone game that could fit in the series (since if we get around to releasing it, there are very, very few people who would know what we would be parodying), but we're definitely not taking it too seriously.

[Phlakes]

I'm keeping the black outlines and pose for the sake of authenticity, but that edit really helped fix the shading and perspective. Eyes are darkened to make it a little less cartoony, broader shadows in a few places to give it volume, palette has a little bit of shift but nothing too far from SNES style, less noise (except for the blue lab coat, which is meant for texture, hope that comes across). This is exactly what I was hoping for.

Not animated down here-