[WIP][C&C] Sidescrolling strategy - game art

[Maki]

Hey guys!

As I've stated in a previous topic, rather than creating tons of new ones I'll have this one regulary updated.The game takes place in the medieval era, with a bit of darky feel, but graphics wise in a simple way, with some style. All the graphics will be viewed at 2x, the map will be tiled, there will be mining included so take a note that anything I'm doing must be tiled if it's not a whole object. I'd like to ask you for your critique and help on whatever game asset I'll paste. If there will be anything specific that will be stated under each house. Thank you and I appreciate your feedback.

Farm and Warehouse (There's some scenery missing which I'll post together in a sheet)

at 1X http://shrani.si/f/23/H7/1RFOnLgM/farmwarehouse1xv1-buildi.png

City Hall lvl 2 (Really basic City Hall, you start with a tent that is upgraded to a cozy house)

at 1X http://shrani.si/f/46/Z8/YRvQJiR/cityhall21xv2building.png

The Lift (For going deep into the mine, eventually it is going to be pulled by an ox, when upgraded it might be switched onto some primitive machine to run it)

at 1X http://shrani.si/f/17/ph/3vm1k7BU/lift1xv1-building.png

[ErekT]

Looks very nice

You have some staircasing issues on the lift you might want to get rid of.

Apologies for the lazy reply, I'm about to hit the bed

[Maki]

Ty ErekT,

It's been bothering me how to get those ''cart''s trams feel a bit more straight. 
I'm not sure if I should use any AA since it's all at 2x. But I'll take a note and try up with some solutions. If you've got any tuts or anything similiar that could help me out forward them to me please.

Anyone got any ideas how I could improve this?

The wheat field

at 1X http://shrani.si/f/29/12Y/3y4dskzz/wheat1xv7nature.png

[NowvaB]

Maybe you should put in the background to test you contrast.
Also I couldn't see the difference of the two lightest colors on the gate, I would just use some of the more saturated colors you have already have.

[Gil]

Working on a pure white background is very bad for your color perception. Are you creating these on a white background or just showing them? You might get some new insights into the graphics by working on a more neutral background. Personally, I like to switch the background around from dark to light, gray to colored while working to make sure I don't lock my color perception in a bad way (compare it to when you mirror a sketch and everything looks wrong, the brain gets used to the mistakes).

Not saying I see any evidence of bad color use mind you, I think this stuff is just stunning

[Decroded]

I usually work against mid-brightness grey or a desaturated hue.
But yeah, avoid strong colours, black or white backgrounds imo.

[Manupix]

These look good already, mostly clean pixeling =)

Agree about white bg.
Relatedly or not, these pieces lack highlights.

Not sure why the roofs are the same color as the wooden walls; nor why the City Hall has different window colors.

The different roof angles on the backsides (except City Hall) bugs me, esp. as it looks jaggy (if you really have to, make it clean 2x1 but I don't see what could justify it).

I have several issues with the lift:
- the beams should be clean 1x1 and 2x1, that would additionally increase their separation and make their persp. consistent with the wheel.
- the mechanics are bad: the rope should unwind from a smaller drum on the wheel axis for gearing down (increasing torque / reducing speed); then it should pass in the pulley, down to the cage and pass in another pulley on the cage and up again, but not back into the pulley, rather visibly attached to the pulley axis.
Or better, just have a single rope from the pulley down to the cage. I don't think they used the double rope winch system in mine shafts because of the increased length of rope; all the down gearing would be applied by / to the drum.
- the cage is too wide (unless necessary for the game of course), it would require a uselessly wide shaft. A bucket-like thing was used as a cage in early mines.

[Maki]

Thanks again for your replies everyone.

To make it clear, I do not work with white backgrounds, the issue with these comes from some weird course I'm doing, but it does not however affect the actual ingame graphics. I work on ''transparent background'', but actually got some light grey set behind it. Eventually I'll have to make some background scenery, background is going to be tiled as well. At least the closer one. So colours behind the builings will be quite different. But surely, things behind will have a bit ''washed out'' colours. Although I'm not sure whether I'd need to update colours, here's how it looks without the white. But I guess colours can wait a little bit, until the background is all sorted out.

Farmhouse with some scenery - improvements?


Not to talk about the second issue, the wood and the highlights. I'm not that skilled yet Manupix so when it came up to having the same window on the same wall with just 4 different wood colours it kinda went all complex. Although the wood colour is that different now due to 3 types of wood I'll have ingame. Light, normal and dark (Compare oak tree and willow tree and a pine tree I guess). I'd be glad if you had any time to show me the possible solution for that specific window part.

And last the lift. I tried to make as much sense as it was possible, but still make it fit to what we need ingame. Deeper in mines I will use bucket-like cage. Mines consist of quite a few levels and lifts will be a bit different. I'd be glad if someone knows a bit more about these specific problem tho. Let's take a look at the lift before explaining it.



Typical lift, invented in Roman times, used through all the medieval times, for going downwards only. These were built on top of the hills - quarries or whenver something needed to be lifted just up and down. There are several types which I'll include in the game, the one at the docks for example, the lift placed at top floor of warehouse...

What these lifts have is most likely, small cages that are incappable of carrying people, unless they put themselves into some uncomfortable position, what I need is a lift that can carry few workers at once. Was it like that in the medieval ages, was it even invented? That does not matter to me at this point. The game won't be highly realistic, but I'd still love to see my lifts make some sense. So imagine if there was a giant cage like mine, it would spin around if attached to one rope only. I'm searching for better alternatives. Any suggestions? I could think of having 2 lifts one on each side and then even some wooden construction that wouldn't allow the platform to spin around or move left or right when going downwards. While I'd still love to see this one used ingame somehow. I'd be glad if anyone could sketch a thing.

Thanks again. 

[Gil]

Concerning the lack of highlights: Most of the stuff you posted is wood, which is mostly diffuse in texture. On top of that, I like the idea of having the background lack highlights, so the sprites pop more. So I'm not sure if that's a vital thing to change.

Also, I assume you were inspired by Chasm (the comparison is obvious), which also doesn't have highlights on the buildings. It works for me in that game, so I assume it'd work for me in this game too. Do note that Chasm goes a lot darker than you in the shadows.

[Maki]

Concerning the lack of highlights: Most of the stuff you posted is wood, which is mostly diffuse in texture. On top of that, I like the idea of having the background lack highlights, so the sprites pop more. So I'm not sure if that's a vital thing to change.

Also, I assume you were inspired by Chasm (the comparison is obvious), which also doesn't have highlights on the buildings. It works for me in that game, so I assume it'd work for me in this game too. Do note that Chasm goes a lot darker than you in the shadows.

I'll see what I can do here. I might do slight wood texture, but so far it didn't seem to fit well.

Nice guess tho yes The owner of the project likes that style and I do as well. Although mine is different colour wise and I guess I'm involving much less details and texture,  that's somewhat where I'm aiming. Should I go darker with shadows? The thing is, there'll be some weather involved and night/day cycle and that's most likely going to be done codewise with some half transparent grey colour, I'm not sure whether super dark shadows would turn black at that point, or actually lighter? Well soon to be known, there's few more samples I have to make so that we can start working on the engine of the game.