EGA micro-platformer: techno-zone.

[PypeBros]

Hello. A friend of mine is preparing a rush-platformer with 8x8 tiles (yikes! that's micro-small!) using only the EGA palette.

I'm trying to give him a hand with the techno zone, but I have issues with the lack of a darker tone (e.g. the grey thing on the rightmost part of the screen could use some extra shade.



Is there anything else you could suggest to improve the piece ?

[Ai]

I suggest looking into Jet Set Willy screenshots for 8x8 techniques. Things that stand out to me about your image:

* Characters are pretty clear and readable
* Some tiles are not -- eg the red/blue wiring needs tightening up, the grey pipe could use some stronger clustering to add interest, and the white/blue needs some shaping or patterning to add interest.
* Your EGA palette appears to be missing dark red (#aa0000)
* Warning, corrugated-pipe, and canister tiles are pretty tight
* Consider adding a secondary light source (to be ignored on some tiles at your discretion). It makes shading and sculpting cleanly with a limited palette easier.

Here's an edit:


In general, you could do with more tiles (for example, tiles don't have to be only directly facing the camera; and also just for variety) and more obvious clustering/sculpting of shapes.

[PypeBros]

Thanks for your edit, Ai. I'll try to improve along those lines. I especially like your horizontal glass-made pipe (top left) and the corrugated bar (right. there's a chromed bolt at the top). The purple secondary light produced nice results on the wires. I'm not sure I managed to mimmic that. It didn't worked that well on the blue, background pipes, I'm afraid. I'll have to try light-blue here.

Warning, corrugated-pipe, and canister tiles are pretty tight

sorry, I can't get the meaning of that one. Character are not supposed to enter pipes here.

In general, you could do with more tiles (and also just for variety) and more obvious clustering/sculpting of shapes.

I try to stick within a 40 8x8 chars limit (coming from the level editor).

for example, tiles don't have to be only directly facing the camera;

I still need training on that one. I get somehow the feeling that the angled perspective I read on the glass pipe supporting the platform is off compared to the rest of the piece in your edit. Or maybe you were just suggesting an alternative -- more twisted -- structure ? Don't get me wrong: I find it visually very interesting and superior to what I had before, but curiously slanted compared to the rest.

[Ai]

"tight" as in tightly rendered: clear and well tuned. Not a criticism at all -- 'Warning' was one of the tiles I was complimenting

My perspective choice on the vertical pipe probably -was- off (partly because I tried to extend the suggestion of creases that you had already partly defined, rather than working out what perspective would work best). But you could show structures that have a range of planes ( in both visible axes, not only one like the old pipes)

Anyway, the perspective issue may be unimportant if you are constrained to such a small number of tiles.
I was really thinking about things like showing some of the top surfaces of platforms and having the player walk along the middle of those; to me this would already make it feel much more solid.

BTW that is a -very- stringent limitation, it makes me wonder why.

Hah, I didn't realize it was supposed to be corrugated, I just thought "how can I disguise the dark/light transition? ... Rust."

Crits of updated image:
* Stray yellow pixel in BR of warning-striped pillar.
* Much prefer the new acid/whatever-it-is, far easier to look at
* Cute droplet. Is it supposed to fit in an 8x8 tile or not??
* The warning-stripes variation/shadow really help with the 3dness
* Perhaps you're being a bit too realist with the secondary light. Within reason it's just there to help you make nicer clusters. If it doesn't (eg. wires) you can change the basic 3d shape you're applying it to, stylistically distort clusters, or just leave it out altogether.
* Consider being more sparing with the purple in the BG, swap it out for some gray maybe? too much saturated color makes it read more foregroundily than you probably intend.

Have you done any research on EGA graphics? for example you can see a broadly similar style to what you are using here, in Secret Agent. There are a few things to note there, for example the heavy -- perhaps a little too heavy -- use of patterns and high structural detail to break up monotony, both on background and foreground elements.