Commercial Critique Challenge - Pokemon Red/Blue

[Pix3M]

The GB could do a lot more than what Pokemon does. I mean, they surely did not have all pokemon gfx in memory. There are games with much more complex art and crazy tile usage. Most likely is that Nintendo just did these as cheap as possible as far as assets go.

For those of us who are less technically inclined, what is a game that gives us a better idea of what the GB is capable of?

[ptoing]

Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS. If you go and play it on EMU play it in KiGB with the ghosting setting on.

[Azuyre]

Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS. If you go and play it on EMU play it in KiGB with the ghosting setting on.

I remember seeing that one mentioned a lot by a bunch of different pixel artists, I've never gotten around to trying it before but the graphics in it seem pretty awesome for a gameboy game.

[ptoing]

It uses the fact that the screen is shit and ghosts like mad to it's advantage and flickers the whole bg on some levels, which results in more colours.

[Ryumaru]

That game was kind of crazy. I think I counted at least 6-8 shades ( before I died.. again and again) and of course when a screenshot was taken it was just a mess.

I think with regards to these revamp mockups, we should operate under the idea that memory and such is not an issue, but that we should be as conservative as possible ( this means no tiles with only a couple of pixels in them, or adding second layers of sprites for more colors and things of that nature).

[Ambivorous]

Am I doing this right?

[Ryumaru]

As long as you are following the restrictions there isn't really a wrong way to tackle this activity :]

That's a very interesting take on the battle screen; How would you show the attack window? Would it replace the options you have now?

Also, and this goes for everybody: feel free to use different pokemon in your battles! Charmander vs. Squirtle is super classic but as we all know, pokemon get bigger too and that can create some interesting challenges for these mockups. What may look good compositionally with the starter pokemon might not look as good with their final forms and vice versa.

[Ambivorous]

Well then! here are some screens I would have tried:



The biggest problems I'm having here are where to put the player's pokemon name when selecting your options. I just can't seem to place it somewhere convenient and aesthetically pleasing. Could make the window smaller if you wanted more space, and I replaced PKMN with SWITCH, because that's what you're really doing.
Your moves selection screen is easy, since you don't need to know your pokemon's name while selecting a move to use. Health and level you do need to consider though. You also don't need to see the entire of your opponent's pokemon sprite. Having all your moves' types and PP is also nice.
This one I could't get around. Writing works best horizontally, so what can I do.

I like having full backsprites though, and didn't realise until now Black & White have them. This one is obviously rushed; I made the flower fairly pretty and then got over it for his body. You get the idea.
Mine is a 32x32px image scaled x2 and shifted 4px horizontally. No idea if that's allowed, but it seems easy enough to code. Another 4px could be squeezed out on the Y axis if you wanted taller backsprites (doubled to 8px then). I could have easily just made it a 64x64px backsprite though, or indeed 72x64px.

[Seiseki]

I think those hp bars lack contrast, but the clean look is really nice.

Also, the original TYPE/GRASS what much more clearer, only writing GRA makes the game harder to understand for new players.
Which would have been really bad for the first game in the series

Without the arrows, it might be confusing which pokemon is which, of course when you play it you know, but someone looking at a glance, like a friend or a new player might not be as certain.

There's also a scrolling effect for the text, where it goes up a tile, without a larger dialogue box that effect is lost.

Attempted an edit:



I also feel that the clean/strict look only impress designers and people interested in design.
The target audience would most likely not appreciate it as much.
The corners of the dialogue box could be rounded to make it look more friendly.

[Ambivorous]

Well, following all that there really isn't much left for me to do other than change the GUI slightly.

I like your fat health bars. Health really is quite important to fights, so it deserves more real estate on the screen!
As for the contrast problem I think I've managed to solve that without the need for dithering.
Players probably won't be seeing grass for the first time under their attack listing, so I figure it'd be enough. As an alternative I could use an icon? 8x8px is enough to make a little leaf icon. It's all for naught though, since I can't use that layout given the other issues.
I've put each pokemon's information right up against them, so now you should easily be able to tell which is which without the need for arrows.
Cursed scrolling effects ruining my full bodied backsprites. Though I'm sure one could come up with an alternative means of scrolling that would allow for a shorter text box? In any case, added a fatter text box.

Yeah well clean/strictness impresses me! T_T Silly target audience. Gave it rounded corners for them.



That's it. In my defence, my mindset is that of if it were released today (well 2013) and its target audience was me - just on the limited hardware of the GBC.
Speech bubbles from the left indicate it's our action, from the right our opponent's. We read from left to right, so I moved the fight options accordingly.