AuthorTopic: Swashbuckler mock-up  (Read 6475 times)

Offline junkboy

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Swashbuckler mock-up

on: August 08, 2006, 12:16:59 am
D'Arrr! This sure took me a while. My idea was to create a mock-up screen of a long forgotten pirate-themed beat em up from the early 90's ("Look what I just found in mame!"). I know that it looks kinda busy. I basically just made a bunch of sprites at first, wich I then jammed into a single-screen BG.

Anyway, I'm not here to make excuses, so please feel free to tear it apart!  :D


http://i2.tinypic.com/23wnuj6.png  BG
http://i1.tinypic.com/23wnupf.png  Sprites

Also, while I know this isn't General Discussion I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask a question: What type of pixel art do you think my portfolio needs to increase my chances of actually landing a job?

Offline Schu

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #1 on: August 08, 2006, 01:05:21 am
You're hired!  ;D
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Schu

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #2 on: August 08, 2006, 01:45:10 am
as far as i am concerned, these would fall under the category of fan-freaking-tastic, especially love the limited color schemes of the costumes.

As a portfolio piece, i only have one concern and that is that this looks appropriately dated.  i know this is what you are going for, but games that succeed in the market typically dont benefit from looking old, so a person looking to make a new game might shy away from a portfolio full of fantastic-but-oldschool pixelwork.

my suggestion to you is to include as broad a selection you can provided they are all as good as this.  this clearly shows that you can make quality.  show that you can adapt to different situations while keeping the same awesome finish and you wont have any problems.
A mistake is a mistake.
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Offline Sereth

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #3 on: August 08, 2006, 01:47:27 am
Wow very nice.
Only crit I have is I don't really like the huge scimitar in the fat pirates hand. There are so many sprites where it is that I didn't know it was there.
When I see big pirates like that I think for either huge punches or rum bottles as weapons.

Offline dtek

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #4 on: August 08, 2006, 01:56:57 am
As a portfolio piece, i only have one concern and that is that this looks appropriately dated. i know this is what you are going for, but games that succeed in the market typically dont benefit from looking old, so a person looking to make a new game might shy away from a portfolio full of fantastic-but-oldschool pixelwork.


well said, I like to think that an employer also doesn't normally want to re-invent the wheel, so just show 'em you can do recent game art good....
mind you, you're swashbucklin' game looks really fun like Sunset Riders or something, try to find an artist run studio...

Offline The Cold Mage

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #5 on: August 08, 2006, 02:22:02 am
cool mock up.

as far as portfolio pieces go and despite the feelings of what some of the other people here may think, I've found that my employers and clients appreciate seeing things from games that they enjoyed playing themselves. like to see sprites that look they are from another game. the first thing i always hear is "have you played such and such game?" or "can you do such and such style?" as it turns out, developers don't have a lot of original ideas. if you work on fighting games, they want to know if you can do capcom style or snk style. if you do space ship games, they've literally sent me screen shots from other games, and told me "make it look like that." for pretty much every game genre out there, expect to be asked to reproduce some other style. make sure your portfolio can reflect that.

you always want to show you have skills that exceed what they will ever need though just to leave a good impression. usually because of limitations set by what platform the game will be for, or who's actually in charge of developing/publishing the game, you will never need to use the full extent of your skills.

developers more often than not are looking for people who can do animations. static sprites with fancy shading and dithering all over the place are great and all, but game sprites require movement. you want to demonstrate that you can animate both fighting game sized characters and low res characters. the majority of the work that is out there will be for GBA or mobile phone so the screen size puts a limit on how big you'll need to make stuff.

another thing I've noticed that people are hiring for lately are little mini game type things. you know, games that involve various puzzles and stuff. for that you want to demonstrate you can make random objects. stuff like orbs, boxes, arrows, clouds, wires, tubes, or whatever other organic and geometric things you can think of.

as far as backgrounds go... that's no really my area, i specialize in characters. but i would imagine though for that you just want to demonstrate you can make versatile tile sets, and create various environments (snow levels, caves, deserts, cities, jungles, forests, grassy fields, mountainous areas, outer space, castles, etc). you want to show you can do layered side scrolling backgrounds, as well as isometric backgrounds.

Offline 2dgamers

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #6 on: August 08, 2006, 04:26:44 am
Where's Captain Jack Sparrow?! (Just kidding! LOL)  ;D

This is some truly nice work you have done. Reminds me of the classic Street Fighter games. Loved them, and I love this!

Offline fil_razorback

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #7 on: August 08, 2006, 10:08:23 am
Wooow, this is pure awesomeness  :D
It reminds even more the D&D arcade games =)

Offline Larwick

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #8 on: August 08, 2006, 12:59:31 pm
It's very nice. However I can't help noticing that the large pirate's shading is a bit off, and quite rushed looking. I don't think his 'moobs' should have that dark a shadow underneath them, and his arms look like rubber balls stuck together, or bags of flour. His belly shadows are also quite jaggedy. With the limited pallette and the large canvas of his body, it looks like it would be hard to get perfect, but i think you could definetely improve it.

~ Nothing to say about portfolios i'm afraid, lol.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2006, 02:04:33 pm by Larwick »

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Re: Swashbuckler mock-up

Reply #9 on: August 08, 2006, 02:02:26 pm
That just looks awesome. Gotta love pirates!
And I love the detailed job you did on the ship aswell.
I don't have any crits to add to what the posters before me have already mentioned.
As for it being too busy, I disagree. It's a pirate fight, it's supposed to be a bit chaotic :)