GR#132 - Platform Game - Sideview

[BlackFang]

Hi everyone!
After about 5 years without any pratice in pixel art i'm back about a month now. Some friends and I are planing to make a castlevania like plataform game with some RPG elements. I made these mockup on the last couple of months and i want some critics, especially on the leaves placement and the colors im using.

Thanks for the attention and sorry for my terrible english

[Sohei]

This looks very decent. Good job! My favorite part is forrest tiles, I have a weakness for this sort of things.

[r1k]

looks very nice.  The colors set a good mood.  My only issues are that the tree seems to be treated slightly differently than the other elements.  Everything else seems to have a focus on small details, but the tree is more about large open shapes.  MAybe a bit of texturing would help.  The forest background also just feels like a bunch of stripes.  I would try to make it a little more organic.

The leaf tiles are really nice though.  Any change you can post the leaf tile set so we can see how its put together?

[Pizza Tom]

I agree about the level of detail on the trees, though you shouldn't need to refine them quite as much as the leaves and such. Maybe another 20%?

The BG trees also really bother me, I feel it would be better to vary up the shapes (as r1k suggested) or even reduce the detail on the edges, right now it's just too "fuzzy."

Overall it's very neutral, which can be great for setting the mood. Just make sure your characters/monsters/etc aren't similarly subdued in color and contrast and it should look great! Looking forward to updates on this.

[BlackFang]

Thanks for the input! I totally agree with your points.

The big tree problem is that i really suck at texturing, that tree is like my 5th shot and the only one that i was happy with. my idea was a forest with trees so big that you couldn't see the top, but in the end i didn't even achieved that because they are kinda thin. After  i failed at making the texture on the tree i made some tiles filled with mold to add some detail. I will try to start over and make a decent tree. Here my first mockup (which submitted to PJ) to demonstrate the difference on the normal tree (i didn't post it here because i wanna change some stuff like the tree pallete and the clouds):




The background idea was a parallax scrolling with multiple layers. I admit that it looks like a bunch of stripes and i was kinda lazy, but i thought it would still give a good effect while moving. I'm also willing to change, what do you guys suggest?

Edit: i was with this in mind, that is why they are so straight (http://kauilapele.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/tall_trees_encircle_sunlight_1000_billfrymire.jpg)



As the leaves tileset, at first i had only the first 2 sets of rows, but then some of the back leaves didn't have any good mach with the front ones, so i created the third row to act like a backup, where the front leaves were made specially for each back leaves (on the mockup with the blue sky, i only used the first 2 sets)

[Ymedron]

The tall trees in the picture are pines, not very appropriate for the dense forest you are looking for. (Because they only grow like that if the forest has been pruned)
They also tend to make the forest floor more acidic, making it less attractive for other types of trees to grow. However, I live in a region where it's too cold to have things like oaks or something, so I don't know how the acidicness effects those trees.

I like what you have done in these screens, the water-one actually makes me feel refreshed looking at it. It could be a good area to pace the game if you are having a lot of dark and gloomy areas.

Not much else to advise.

[BlackFang]

I really like the way this topic is going, my main focus is to mess with the mood of the player and you guys are really catching it. I'm a huge Donkey Kong Country 2 fan, and if i manage to make the player fell 50% of what i felt playing that game i'm satisfied.

Ymedron, this game will have a fantasy theme, with floating islands and magic, so those stuff doesn't really matter in the end, all i want is to make the most beautiful, rich and magical forest as i can. But thanks for the information, i really didn't know that. I`m not 100% done with any of those mock-ups, i wanna put a lof of different types of plants, flowes, etc, and make some broken furniture for the ruins


-Non pixel-art related off-topic-

I want the game's music with components of the surrounding like wind, leaves sound, birds and stuff, kinda like the DKC2 game again. There is a very talented artist that i found these days that i intend to contact once i have a playable demo, check out this music and imagine it with a wind sound on a mountain theme (i would take away some parts of the music though) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9cYZ05aoVg

[Ymedron]

(might be of course that I'm wrong and those are -not- pines, but they certainly look like them to me. )
pre-posting edit: Did some research and found to my relief that they are conifers. Yey!

Anyway, the main point being, you might want to tangle up the trees so they don't look like a striped carpet? Adding intertwining branches might help with it too.
In the foreground adding long grass at the base of the trees also helps them fit in, OR having large moss-covered roots spread around. Adding things like bushes, shrubs and other softer-stemmed plants may increase interest. *capt obvious mode*
In the photo I noticed there were some ferns, maybe add those?

[Seiseki]

This looks incredible!
I think the palette blends together too well though. For a game, it should have more contrast between foreground and background.

I played around with the palette a bit. Better contrast, but might look a bit boring with blue toned bricks.



edit: why are you calling it plataform and not platform?

[YellowLime]

The tilesets are amazing, love them! I think the gargoyle needs a little work, though

Seiseki, your edit does make the the castle more colorful and interesting. Especially the reddish sky

DarkFang, do you speak Spanish as well? That would explain the "plataform" slip, since in Spanish we say "plataforma"