[WIP] [C+C] Pixel Pirate in Bits of Eight

[hawken]

I'm just getting started on this, following this as a guide http://noelberry.ca/nes on hardware limitations, and going for some extended features with MMC5 chip (making 16,384 different tiles available per screen rather than only 256, and allowing each individual 8x8-pixel background tile to have its own color assignment instead of being restricted to one color set per 2x2 tile group)

The waves infront of the posts here are sprites.

The only unfaithful constraint is that I can't pull tiles from rom and colour them on the fly, so tilesheets will probably be larger with duplicates to emulate palette shifting.

Here's a shot of the game running, some videos here: http://hawkenking.tumblr.com/




(the green waves in this sheet is just for reference in the editor, those are swapped out)

The pirate sprite uses 2 palettes which probably isn't going to leave much variation for other sprites.

Any feedback or complains about me not being pure enough are gladly received!

[ptoing]

OK, the lots of tiles and the 8x8 colour thing is ok, if you assume known hardware addage. You can only have 4 tile palettes though, 3 colours each + 1 shared bg colour.

You used a funky palette. http://bisqwit.iki.fi/utils/nespalette.php will give you the most physically accurate NES palettes to date. And they are way less subtle than what you have.

Please do not post upscaled stuff with blur, since that will make crits harder.

I made an edit, where I reconstructed it from your tilesheet and adjusted the palette:

This is your tiles without any sprites. You can see I added the 4 palettes into the image, just to make them clear.


And here is what you could do without any sprites, but it would need a lot more tiles, for the animation.


Or you could do it with a raster split where from the top of the water surface you set the palette so that white is the bg and you can use just white in all the palettes as a wave overlay.


For this to work without changing the palette back at the bottom of the wave overlay youwould also have to edit some stuff to not look weird. Such as the reflections on the lighter beams, the barnacles and the single pixel corners on the crates.

[hawken]

Hey ptoing thanks for the input! Some really great ideas here, especially about the raster split, I'll have to look in to the limitations of using these, still need to think about the hud and how to handle 8 way scrolling. I'm basing a lot of the planning on what I see possible in Kirby and other later titles.

For the palette, I tried to use that tool but the .pal file won't open in pixen. Asesprite, PyxelEdit and photoshop can't read .pal files. If anyone has a photoshop readable .aco that would be fabulous. Also noticing this is NTSC ppu output - I think PAL was brighter? (I'm from the UK  )


Sorry for the crappy screengrab before. Output from Tiled.

I think for now I'll give your raster split idea a shot, theres no real limit on tiles but I'll try to stick to palette hardware limitations.

[Angelonias]

Use PrtSc(Print Screen) when you find a pallet you desire then paste it on any of the programms you use. You don't have to download .pal files.

[hawken]

bit more progress on the base tiles for the tileset, I screengrabbed the .pal maker website. Went for something with a tiny bit more saturation than the base settings.



The background is split from the waves down, using 13 colours per split.

Please let me know if you can see any tiles that break the colour rules! Any comments welcome.

[ptoing]

The tiles where the planks of the pier are broken and the bit where the ship hits the water surface (tile with the dither on it) are too many colours.

Not sure if I like the dither on the bg, I liked the simpler older version better. The ship looks great though, reminds me of Gimmick!

[Gil]

The ship is a winner in any case. I assume you did it last? If so, you're just starting to explore this design and the best is yet to come . Keep trucking!

[hawken]

Thanks Gil!

After doing a bit of digging, and asking around on the NESDEV forums, they think splitscreen palette swapping is going to be too hard. So I have resumed ptoing's original suggestion of just using lighter shades as waves and hoping for the best.

here's some current progress (always seems like I need more tiles!!)




Would you guys say this is too much detail or not enough (or just enough?) I want this to look "late NES" but not SNES or any other platform.
(shown here without crates as they are a destructible item, not yet decided how to implement so taken out of tiles.)

[surt]

Ship is pretty awesome.

Had a goat an edit of the rest:

Mainly removed dither, also aligned palettes to attribute grid, drop water edge so don't need a separate water edge tile for every material, tried to give a bit more depth.
It is my understanding that dither on NTSC can get rather ugly plus less dither is generally better.

[hawken]

Thank you surt! I came across your NES tile dump recently and it's a really fascinating body of work.

A lot of food for thought here, I like how you have made it so there are less wave tiles to deal with, this is actually a point of contention with the engine I am using, as each 8x8 tile needs to be replaced by a special setup if it is animated.

I'm not really sure what you mean by attribute grid, care to elaborate?
Black in the green palette really does help but not sure if I can afford it. Current palette limit below:


I like the depth aspect (wasn't this called 2.5D back in the day?). In the early stages still, so it's something I'm going to try and implement. It does create a lot of work though and I had cut it out of another project before.

As for dithering... On PAL CRT's 1px horizontal lines flicker like crazy, you can't win them all. The chances are slim that this will find it's way to a CRT so it really does come down to preference of style.

Towards the end of the life cycle of the NES, games used a lot of black and dithering (batman anyone?). I'm not really going for the black look, although I do like and appreciate your "tile-tennis"!

I'm totally going to steal the hanging vegetation technique you did!! 

[ptoing]

With attribute grid he means the 2x2 tile colour grid.

Dither is tricky. I know that on the C64 certain colours when dithered result in "pixel crawl" which looks pretty ugly. This is worst with colours that are far apart on the colourwheel. So magenta and green right next to each other cause the most fringing and crawl since they are diametrically opposite of each other.

That is for PAL anyway. I am not sure how it is with NTSC.

[hawken]

latest update, decided to work with an easier tile set so need to replace all the tiles.

Trying to cut down on dither, implement 2.5d, black waterline and vegetation. Surt I tried to drawn my own version of your tile but yours is perfect, can I steal it?

[Gil]

Just a minor comment: I wouldn't call this 2.5D. 2.5D is a very confusing term that means a lot of things, but none of them mean what you mean with it.

Just call it perspective.

[hawken]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D Gil according to wikipedia it's any game that has depth but is 2d. I do remember back in the nes / snes days we used that term. It may have changed since then.

A bit more progress, trying to find/lock down a style...

[ptoing]

I think using the black like surt did gives things more togetherness.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Dang man, this looks sexy. I love all the details you're adding.

I'm not sure about the brown around the torches underwater, it doesnt go with the blue well. Maybe you could use some of the green palette.



that maybe? and the blue isnt a bad color for some bright lights down there.

I'd also agree with ptoing

[hawken]

Thats a really good suggestion about using the green. Stolen. 

I'll have darker levels with more black, going to have to call this done and move on. Thanks for all the input on this set.

[surt]

can I steal it?

I'm cool with that.

I still think you should respect the typical NES attribute grid. I consider that to be one of the key defining traits of the NES look.

The area with the torches is meant to be dry isn't it? It doesn't look it.

[hawken]

cheers surt.

here's some giffage of the wave tile cycling effect ingame. Skipped the ladders and posts for today, takes ages to implement.



Next tileset is inside the ship.

[Ryumaru]

That is stupid simple, but actually looks really damn nice. 

[hawken]

That is stupid simple, but actually looks really damn nice. 

Cheers! It's 10 tiles that are cycled, the only pain is actually implementing. A lot of grunt work there.

Implemented some basic controls, however it's like opening a can of worms so I'll focus on arts for a bit and get some more levels down.

can I steal it?

I'm cool with that.

I still think you should respect the typical NES attribute grid. I consider that to be one of the key defining traits of the NES look.

The area with the torches is meant to be dry isn't it? It doesn't look it.

Very nice! Once again I find this very inspirational, shall revisit the tiles and see if I can't make it look a bit drier.

[hawken]

Well I've been a bit quiet hard at work on the game. Pixel dailies had the theme cactus and it is now a level in the game

Desert set:



18th Century London WIP:

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Damn, the london one looks amazing!

The leftmost cactus looks a little funky ...

Are you sticking to the tile limit for this?

[hawken]

Damn, the london one looks amazing!

The leftmost cactus looks a little funky ...

Are you sticking to the tile limit for this?

Thanks! Still need to add a thing that goes into the black space on the right.

Regarding tiles; I'm "using" the MMC5 chip in this game, which gives single tile palette assignments and has a tile limit of 16,384 per screen (rather than 256). In real terms this means you can use a tileset of 1024x1024px instead of 128x128px - not that I'm using that many, the scene above is using half a tileset of 256x256px.

I'm flipping and rotating all over the place, which the NES couldn't do, but also I have to fake palette assignments so it's a trade off.




thinking of some ways to do a multicoloured title screen using tiles and the same NES restrictions...

1.


2.


3.

[rikfuzz]

Looks super beautiful! 

My one comment:  "Bits O' Eight" sounds more pirate.  Right? 

[wzl]

Personally, I'm never a big fan of things like pixel, bits or similar buzzwords in a game title. Bits of eight though sounds original and descriptive enough. I'd go for that as main title, as pixel pirate seems very generic, while bits of eight seem like an actual title a game could carry.

Maybe give your main char a less generic name like capn ditherbeard 

[Kazuya Mochu]

^^ Ditherbeard is awesome!

[hawken]

First name Floyd? 

[Decroded]

dat london tileset 
great tone and variation :-)

[hawken]

dat london tileset 
great tone and variation :-)

Cheers! Hope to finish it soon.

Heres an update on the title screen (@2x) with the crossbones, running in the game engine.

[Cyangmou]

Logo is really nice.

Depending on how strict you go on restrictions it might be an idea to use the blue you have in your ramp for some additional AA.
Also try to use cleaner lines in a lot of spots. The jaggyness and roughness is especially clear at the upper bone.
I also would suggest to add a little shadow at the lower end of each letter.

Quick edit of the left side. White line at the top of each letter would need more AA, but you should get the overall idea what I mean.

[hawken]

Quick edit of the left side. White line at the top of each letter would need more AA, but you should get the overall idea what I mean.

Like what you've done on the skull there! May have to steal. AA on the letters may be nice, will have to think on it.

Finally got the London pub roughed out. The "Alias Arms".

[ptoing]

Pub looks very nice so far.

About the AA on the letters, I am not sure if it does a lot, since the AA colour and the bg-colour are very close. So the effect is pretty minimal.

[hawken]

So I'm thinking to have the interiors a little different to the exteriors, 4 options as follows:

• Side view (metroidvania)
• Oblique 45 (rivercity rampage)
• Oblique 90 (final fantasy)
• Isometric (solstice)

Any opinions? I'm not really drawn to isometric

[Kazuya Mochu]

what you call "oblique 90" I usually call "top-down"

I think considering the outside view had this slight depth with the houses, you could do the oblique 45. It would fall closer in terms of style

[AlcopopStar]

You'll want your assets to be transferable so Horizontal or Oblique 45 would be best for that. As for those two I guess it depends how much you want break the flow of gameplay between exterior and interior spaces.

This is to say a horizontal interior will have more constancy in a gameplay sense with the outside world, but oblique 45 could work really well as a visual indicator for a mechanically different space, such as a place to interact with NCP's and buy things.

Beyond that just wanted to pop in and say this project is looking fantastic.

[rikfuzz]

I've always had a fondness for 'oblique 45', but there's no real pros or cons to any of the projections, except keeping it at horizontal where it's a lot less work obviously. 

Congo Bongo has used all kinds of projections, depending on the port, so I was looking at screenshots to see if any were better for depth vs height, but I couldn't really notice anything significant. These kind of projections are definitely more interesting to look at when there's lots of height levels though. 

Control is a bit annoying for me if the joypad axis is rotated (ie. up goes map-north vs away-from-the-camera) and perhaps the inverse is true for other players, but that's up to you, and not hugely problematic if the indoors parts aren't action orientated anyway.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Yeah I was thinking oblique 45 would look cool too.

[hawken]

Control is a bit annoying for me if the joypad axis is rotated (ie. up goes map-north vs away-from-the-camera) and perhaps the inverse is true for other players, but that's up to you, and not hugely problematic if the indoors parts aren't action orientated anyway.

This is a very valid point, it has been mentioned that I shouldn't change the input too much when changing from outside to inside so maybe oblique45 is the way to go.

[hawken]

Well it turned out Oblique looked like too much work in the long run. So I'm going with "top down" (Oblique90)

Here's a little mockup of the ground floor of Alias Arms.

[Kazuya Mochu]

really nice!
is there a roof over the bar? feels a bit odd.

[Cyangmou]

what you call "oblique 90" I usually call "top-down"

Top down means something completely different than what you imagine:

top-down:
viewing angle 90°
third vanishing point can't be seen because it's like a map seen from above.

Super Swiv


Hotline Miami:


"RPG"-view
viewing angle 45°
third vanishing point is infinite, means straight z-axis



and inbetween are the

"Zelda" projection (more topdown, 3rd vanishing point implied - strognly breaks a projection, most symbolic approach of all these here)


and Golden sun: (more RPG view, third vanishing point implied, only breaks the perpective/projection slightly (houses), but their cliffs are still drawn with an infinite third vanishing point.)

[Kazuya Mochu]

I always though RPGs were drawing in a top down view, and that what you show as topdown was called birds-view. That's why I started that thread. cause there's no one place where that information is laid down in an unmistakable way. "RPG-view" sounds vague to me. Sounds like "Oh its a sort of like this kind of thing".
Anyway, don0t want to derail this any further. if you have a link to some of that info, I'm be more than appreciated!

[Cheetah]

The bar interior looks pretty good, but I really feel like you should just stick with one perspective for the majority of the game. Here are some quick thoughts on what having two perspectives would do to your game:

Cons:
-Way more pixeling
-No reuse of tiles
-Jarring for the player
-More coding
-Multiple control schemes (not good)
-You might be able to reuse characters sprites, but part of the successful illusion of pixel art is maintaining a consistent perspective. The same character sprite might look good in both perspectives in isolation, but the player will notice with constantly switching between the two and then it will start breaking the logic behind the illusion.

Pros
-Varied gameplay (but not really if it is just a different way of walking around and talking to people)
-More distinction between outdoor and indoor environments (for what purpose?)
-Better visuals with the new perspective (if it looks better than why wouldn't you use it everywhere?)

Food for thought, I would like to hear your rational. I'm digging the art style and the esthetic. Love your perspective post Cyangmou. There should be a thread devoted to getting a consensus on terminology for various types of perspectives/projection with examples and then make it into a tutorial/guide/lexicon.

[hawken]

The bar interior looks pretty good, but I really feel like you should just stick with one perspective for the majority of the game. Here are some quick thoughts on what having two perspectives would do to your game:

Cons:
-Way more pixeling
-No reuse of tiles
-Jarring for the player
-More coding
-Multiple control schemes (not good)
-You might be able to reuse characters sprites, but part of the successful illusion of pixel art is maintaining a consistent perspective. The same character sprite might look good in both perspectives in isolation, but the player will notice with constantly switching between the two and then it will start breaking the logic behind the illusion.

Pros
-Varied gameplay (but not really if it is just a different way of walking around and talking to people)
-More distinction between outdoor and indoor environments (for what purpose?)
-Better visuals with the new perspective (if it looks better than why wouldn't you use it everywhere?)

Food for thought, I would like to hear your rational. I'm digging the art style and the esthetic. Love your perspective post Cyangmou. There should be a thread devoted to getting a consensus on terminology for various types of perspectives/projection with examples and then make it into a tutorial/guide/lexicon.

Some good points! Jury is not out yet, just seeing if it works before deciding.

Worked for Zelda2 & TMNT on the NES so lets see.

[Cheetah]

Some good points! Jury is not out yet, just seeing if it works before deciding.

Worked for Zelda2 & TMNT on the NES so lets see.

I was going to use those as examples of the multiple perspective not working... Nothing wrong with experimenting, I'm just so digging your horizontal tiles.

I will let the Angry Video Game nerd make my points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjUz8IT0CYg

[hawken]

based on new concept art


Just out of interest, do you guys like the left or right versions? (generous palette vs limited palette)

[Ambivorous]

I can't say I outright prefer either, so I'd suggest going with the ones on the right.
Having fewer colours to deal with will make your life easier, give it more of a NESsy effect, and still keep all the charm; so from that perspective I see no reason to go for more colours.

By the by, this all looks amazeballs, so please do keep it up.

[rikfuzz]

Prefer the limited palette too - only real loss is the stubble-grey, for me.

[Cheetah]

I'm liking the new character design. In terms of colors, I prefer the higher color count. However, I think the more important thing is how the character looks in the environment he is in and having him at last closely match the palette restrictions. So that would likely mean the more restricted character palette is better.

[BatElite]

I think the limited palette ones would look better if you used the darkest blue rather than the mid-tone, since the character lacks depth otherwise.

I don't really prefer either, by the way.

[hawken]

Thanks for the feedback folks, most interesting.

I'm liking the new character design. In terms of colors, I prefer the higher color count. However, I think the more important thing is how the character looks in the environment he is in and having him at last closely match the palette restrictions. So that would likely mean the more restricted character palette is better.

This is probably very true, I'll need to see how well he fits in the environment.

[hawken]

Finalised on a 6 colour palette, he is probably all good for animation now. Lot's of layers al-la Arthur style health.

[Cheetah]

New designs are an excellent improvement and balance of the previous iterations. Just from a design point, you might think of giving him a white shirt and maybe a bandana. More pirate themed instead a random shirtless guy. Plus having the bandana be blue would make the color scheme more consistent across his evolution. I like the ghost and goblins armor mechanic used in this way.

[hawken]

Bit more walkcycle:



Weapons:



Booty:



Booty system confirmed:

[||||]

That looks so good; all the pixels are great. The walk and run cycle look perfect.
All the treasure and booty look enticing, but maybe when they vanish the smoke's 1st frame could burst more and the smoke could wave or something as as it disperses; right now it looks too bubbly I think.

[rikfuzz]

Wow - really nice animation!

May need a skid/slide/stumble for stopping from running. Mario has a special animation for skidding while switching directions which I always thought looked cool.

(Not sure I'm too keen on the dithered sky gradient as an aside).

[Kazuya Mochu]

I mean, yeah whatever... the real question is: WHEN CAN I PLAY IT? it looks so freaking juicy and cool!
you did an excellent job in the animation. Looks really cool!

[Seiseki]

Awesome job!
Love the animations, this has come really far since page 1

[Skaz]

I really like your style. The walk/run cycle is really cool ! Weapons are awesome too, but no Molotov cocktail made out of a rum bottle with a treasure map instead of a piece of cloth ? :p A wooden leg could do a really cool weapon too. Especially if the leg owner is still attached to it.

[hawken]

Thanks for the comments guys! Feedback like this gets the pixels flowing!

I really like your style. The walk/run cycle is really cool ! Weapons are awesome too, but no Molotov cocktail made out of a rum bottle with a treasure map instead of a piece of cloth ? :p A wooden leg could do a really cool weapon too. Especially if the leg owner is still attached to it.

I think you just won a free mention in the credits! I think shark was mentioned somewhere too...

[Seiseki]

Don't forget the parrot   

[hawken]

Don't forget the parrot   

Parrot is in https://twitter.com/hawkun/status/586460321356718080/photo/1

Molotov cocktail is in...

[Skaz]

Ahahah. Awesome. 

Keep up!

[Seiseki]

Nice!

I think you could give the shark more personality though, it doesn't look very menacing..

I gave it a try..

[Kazuya Mochu]

you could have an electric eel attack!

[hawken]

Nice!

I think you could give the shark more personality though, it doesn't look very menacing..

I gave it a try..

Thanks! I'm thinking of showing his full "smile" during the attack animation. When Sharks open their mouths the whole shape of their heads change, it was more Shark-like to show this solemn, grumpy, disinterested look they usually have about them when idle.

[Decroded]

for a second I thought he had a piranha launcher and lold coz that would be cool.
might not br ocean/piratey enough though

[hawken]

Here is a video I showed at an Indie game night here in Tokyo the other day, and serves as the official preview of the levels and music I guess. Enjoy!



HD here

[Daimoth]

...Excellent.

[hawken]

needed some frames from all angles so put into a handy diagram showing how Pete changes as he loses health.

[Cheetah]

I'm always impressed by smooth pixel 3D rotations for some reason. I think the difference between 1 and 2 hearts is too subtle, it wont be clear from all angles and if there is action going on. I would recommend he loose the jacket at 1 heart as well. Otherwise loving this, though I guess I'm still not a huge fan of the gray outfit.

Do you have a TIG devlog going too?

You are developing in Unity correct? It looks like they just released an alpha build of their new 2D tools, including a tile map editor.

Last. For the anchor swing, perhaps have him carry it around on his shoulder and then swing it down from there. I think that would look a lot better and would provide a more unique animation too, so he kind of bends down to slam it down.

[yrizoud]

The hat feather changes sides during the rotation

[Decroded]

+1 lose the jacket or something on 1 heart.

the project is great and I love the music but I thought it didn't seem very piratey. perhaps needs at least one straight-up swashbuckling tune played at the start.

[hawken]

Thanks all for the feedback, the game is built using Unity + 2dtoolkit for all the tilemaps etc.

Running a TIG devlog here: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=46419.0

Will think about how to do 1 heart status, originally had him shirtless like Arthur from G&G but looked a bit odd...

[Decroded]

i'm curious how well unity 2d handles the pixel upscaling these days?
r u having trouble with it or is it pretty good now at upscale with no blur/artifacts?


u could just give him a pirate shirt if shirtless is too much - http://www.asia.ru/upload_images/143/142448/1587105.jpg
does he ever use a sword?
also can we sail/explore around the ocean?

[hawken]

i'm curious how well unity 2d handles the pixel upscaling these days?
r u having trouble with it or is it pretty good now at upscale with no blur/artifacts?

Unity has been able to do sprites since 4.3 and point filtering since forever, so it's been handling 2d quite well for about 1.5 years now. You should check it out

The tech demo won't feature swords but will feature ships. The early access may feature swords 

[kriss]

If i understand well.. you're using unity and make some objects with illustrator / cinema 4d to make animation for complex objects ?
I'm just lost about how you make all  sprites for the complete animation : do you print the screen for each frame as guide to draws each frame ?

i'm using unity too and photoshop for animation, and this method could save me lot of time ^^ like make coin spin around

Graphism are really good, it's just a shame you only use few colors.. inn for exemple could really smash our head with more than 4 colours (just my opinion  )

btw i'm a fan of this project 

[Decroded]

from what I've seen only some objects like logo and anchor r done using those tools where as most of the items and sprites r raw pixel art.
I could be wrong though.

[hawken]

from what I've seen only some objects like logo and anchor r done using those tools where as most of the items and sprites r raw pixel art.
I could be wrong though.

Ah actually the logo is all freehand... well, with the help of illustrator, did a write up of how on the TIG thread if interested.

If i understand well.. you're using unity and make some objects with illustrator / cinema 4d to make animation for complex objects ?
I'm just lost about how you make all  sprites for the complete animation : do you print the screen for each frame as guide to draws each frame ?

i'm using unity too and photoshop for animation, and this method could save me lot of time ^^ like make coin spin around

Graphism are really good, it's just a shame you only use few colors.. inn for exemple could really smash our head with more than 4 colours (just my opinion  )

btw i'm a fan of this project 

Thanks!

For the frames, it depends on the 3D software (photoshop can also do it!) but in my case, I just selected the frame and made Cinema4D render that to a PNG without transparency. Then I put each frame into photoshop, cropped an area for the character and animated.

[kriss]

Ok so you can save an animation frame by frame with cinema4D ?
I'll make a try, thanks for the advice

[hawken]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

Let's go with sleevelessness 

[jams0988]

I like the look of this project. Your shark and barracuda weapons made me smile. I disagree that the shark's face needs changing. I love the look of bored contempt you gave him. Looks like he's thinking "wtf is this shit? = \" Much more fitting for a shark that's been plucked out of the water and carried around than a generic "evil" face, I think.

[hawken]

Thanks, I agree the shark should have his own deal.

some humble townsfolk

[Cheetah]

New sleeveless main pirate is a great thought for the base health state. Making the jacket a bit more ragged would be an extra touch, but might not read well at such a low resolution and would add a lot of extra animation.

Generally I'm loving the new characters. I'm digging the colors in general and appreciate the ethnic variation. There are a few things that could improve with another pass:
1) The hands and lower arms of #2 & #3. I guess they are supposed to be resting their fists on their hips, but their hands look a bit twisted and dumpy. Perhaps open hands around their hips would read better.
2) There are a few odd blocks of color, particularly on #5's hat rim and body, and #6's apron.
3) Your white shades may be too similar, with your shader needing to be darker. On bright monitors (like mine) I think the contrast is almost nonexistent.

Keep up the great work, I'm loving this project.

[hawken]

It's been a busy time for Pixel Pirate. Did a trade show, with a playable demo! Full write up about that here.

Working on lots of new things, and finally getting the pixel art 3D look done.



Heres an early video of the gameplay, from early May.

[Cheetah]

Good to see more of this. Art style wise, everything is getting a bit too dark and muddy, not sure when this happened. Definitely feel that palette needs to be brightened or more contrast. The ladders are nearly invisible, since they can be interacted with they should stand out more from the background. I like how you used the 3D to help with the anchor animations, but I'm not a fan of it with the eggs and the octopus. But it is a style choice so as long as you make it looks good and consistent hopefully it will work. Oh and the best part about having the cool visual change as you take damage is that you can get ride of the cliche heart health system and just having the player himself be the indicator of how much health the player has.

[Gil]

Haha, I love the reference to the mission impossible theme song when the kraken appears

[hawken]

Art style wise, everything is getting a bit too dark and muddy, not sure when this happened.

That might just be the compression on the video, it's kinda low quality for now. I'll put a 1080p one up soon. The palette is strict PAL NES.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

I think that 3d art doesn't belong with the rest of the art here. It ruins the atmosphere that game have until that boss moment. I think that you can do something like this even without 3d or with drawing over it. It will require additional effort but I think it will look 10x better. 

Also birds look a bit stiff maybe you should add falling animation.

Overall great character design and nice progress so far.

[kullenberg]

Dude that looks fucking sweet. I was surprised how good the music and audio were, I'm sitting here with goosebumps

[kullenberg]

Btw, I had a laugh about the "kill the menacing monsters for free drinks on fridays" bit. It's like the pirate version of "you'll get great exposure"...

[Motrox]

I thought the addition of the 3d model was quite unique 

[Decroded]

i love the way you've made the 3D render with limited palette.
personally i dont think the 3d should be in there but i think it would appeal to a wider/common audience.

either way if ur going to have it i think u should remodel and be careful of those polygons.
IMO they ruin the aesthetic when u have all these random and arbitrary angles on the kraken's head. If anything I would say add MORE polygons to smooth it out and keep the same cool rendering you have (even though im not that into NES art).

[hawken]

Thanks again for all the great comments, really helps fuel the passion for this project. I'll be showing the game again publicly on July 11th, lots of new things.

We have an NPC system, here they are

[hawken]

Currently in crunch on the game for showing at BitSummit2015, but thought I'd share this. Comments welcome as always 

(Plants, backgrounds & some spot effects get added in game. This is a tilemap)



(A map from the game)

[Gil]

The contrast on the city game seems a bit high. The characters seem to get lost in it. Seems like the orange in the floors is the main culprit, it's a bit too high contrast with the pure white.

The assets look pretty good though, so you can just tweak the palette. You're using NES palette IIRC, right? If you post your palette, I'll have a go at an edit.

[hawken]

The contrast on the city game seems a bit high. The characters seem to get lost in it. Seems like the orange in the floors is the main culprit, it's a bit too high contrast with the pure white.

The assets look pretty good though, so you can just tweak the palette. You're using NES palette IIRC, right? If you post your palette, I'll have a go at an edit.

We've scrapped the town view point for now. Everything is now side-on, much easier on the eye.



(palette is NES PAL - as opposed to NTSC btw)

[hawken]

So we did another trade show! The game has come along quite a bit, video here:



More info on the game and an interview of me playing it can be found on the http://dadako.com/about page