AuthorTopic: Escape Ape [Game WIP]  (Read 5298 times)

Offline Seiseki

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 915
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Starmancer
    • OminuxGames
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/35207.htm
    • StarmancerGame
    • View Profile
    • Starmancer Patreon

Escape Ape [Game WIP]

on: February 19, 2015, 07:31:27 pm
Escape Ape (unofficial title)

I've been working on assets for a runner game intended for the mobile market. You might have seen some of the old sprites that I've posted here.
The previous themes never really worked in favor of our game mechanics or what we wanted to do, so we've ended up changing it every other month or so..

It started as a military themed game where you fought some kind of nazi-esque evil army.
Then it changed to a game where you play as a janitor being chased by some kind of bond villain.
After that we thought about making it into a super hero with a huge drill theme..

And now, we ended up with a monkey.. We're just thinking how to spin the story, either you're a space monkey crashing his ship on earth.
Or you're a monkey being experimented on by an evil scientist. Maybe even just a regular monkey escaping from zoo..

Visually this is the character that I've been the most satisfied with, it looks interesting and has more style than the previous ones.
There isn't really any rush to settle for a theme, but there is a lot of stuff that requires the theme to be set before I can work on it.
I have been making a lot of generic tiles and graphics so I'm sure that most of it will go into the game one way or another.

I'm posting here for feedback, since it feels like this could be the theme that sticks.



There are two version, the new one is slightly smaller.
The tail is a bit wonky, but it might look more natural in motion.

And I couldn't resist putting hats on him.. ::)
« Last Edit: April 10, 2015, 03:30:45 pm by Seiseki »

Offline yaomon17

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 660
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • YaomonKS
    • taiya.sun
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28472.htm
    • yaomon17
    • valedev
    • playvale
    • View Profile
    • portfolio

Re: Escape Ape [Game]

Reply #1 on: February 19, 2015, 11:25:28 pm
Watch the title a bit, wouldn't want to get a copyright claim from Sony  :P
The sprites all seem fine. The black on the scientists head does stand out a tad since the hue of the skin is naturally brighter (as opposed to the black on the purple and blue of the hats of the other two guys).

Offline Seiseki

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 915
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Starmancer
    • OminuxGames
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/35207.htm
    • StarmancerGame
    • View Profile
    • Starmancer Patreon

Re: Escape Ape [Game]

Reply #2 on: February 20, 2015, 12:31:53 am
Yeah, it's just an unofficial title until we come up with the real deal.

Offline Seiseki

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 915
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Starmancer
    • OminuxGames
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/35207.htm
    • StarmancerGame
    • View Profile
    • Starmancer Patreon

Re: Escape Ape [Game]

Reply #3 on: February 20, 2015, 04:57:25 pm
Progress..



Running on all fours or standing up?

Offline ||||

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 341
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • The brand with four stripes
    • llll_lijj
    • http://pixeljoint.com/pixels/new_icons.asp?owner=30996&ob=search&dosearch=1
    • Lijj
    • View Profile
    • rawbetty.com

Re: Escape Ape [Game]

Reply #4 on: February 20, 2015, 09:10:28 pm
Those are cool sprites!

Make the monkey use both running sets.. He could run on all fours when he lands from any jump for like two cycles then stand up as he runs along. He could also run on all fours over select surfaces ie vines, rope.. etc.

Offline Decroded

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1285
  • Karma: +3/-0
  • Oh hai
    • View Profile

Re: Escape Ape [Game]

Reply #5 on: February 21, 2015, 03:18:58 am
Great sprites I love this style :-)

Offline Seiseki

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 915
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Starmancer
    • OminuxGames
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/35207.htm
    • StarmancerGame
    • View Profile
    • Starmancer Patreon

Re: Escape Ape [Game]

Reply #6 on: April 10, 2015, 03:30:31 pm
Thanks! I've yet to try the all four landing/running animation, but I like the idea of it.

A lot of progress has been made on this.
I've delved deep into the animations, the small resolution makes it kinda hard. Especially the way I decided to draw the legs. I'll probably start a thread in the animation board next week, since I'll be polishing up a lot of the player animations as well as animating enemies.

Here is a huge (5mb) gif that shows the current, very simplistic gameplay. Last week we got a system for making parallax backgrounds done, so I've been going crazy with that.
This level is really dark, I might end up making everything brighter. But it looks much darker because the forum background is so bright.



(main menu animations look super choppy, oh and I forgot I made the player green when he's jumping, to see when it switches to the falling animation)

Offline Parkerbaby

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 90
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Escape Ape [Game WIP]

Reply #7 on: April 10, 2015, 04:46:47 pm
Looks awesome, and I like that idea of running on all fours sometimes. To me the ears seem much too big in the forward-facing view, compared to how they look in the side view. I'd cut them back a pixel or two.

Offline Seiseki

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 915
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Starmancer
    • OminuxGames
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/35207.htm
    • StarmancerGame
    • View Profile
    • Starmancer Patreon

Re: Escape Ape [Game WIP]

Reply #8 on: April 10, 2015, 06:02:33 pm
The problem is the ears only grow by one pixels..
I also think they look too big, but I'm not really sure what to do.

I ended up trying to rationalize it, by thinking that naturally a monkeys ears would look quite thin in side view and a lot wider from a front perspective.
I definitely don't want to go the mickey mouse route where the ears somehow always face the viewer.



Maybe it's also because I think his face doesn't get as proportionally wide as the ears, because I didn't want to make his head crazy wide.
So yeah, I'm not sure how to proceed here.

Maybe I won't completely turn his head so that the left ear can remain smaller.
Because the biggest problem I see with the ears is that the left one pops out of nowhere.
Or I add an inbetween frame so the transition looks more natural. At this resolutions it's so hard to get clean pixel frames when doing tweens.

That gif also has some weird squashed pixels. I blame Unity for messing that up, the sprites are 4 times larger, so I set the resolution to be 4 times smaller. But I think Unity likes adding decimals to transformations, seemingly randomly..  >:(
« Last Edit: April 10, 2015, 06:08:05 pm by Seiseki »

Offline Parkerbaby

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 90
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Escape Ape [Game WIP]

Reply #9 on: April 10, 2015, 09:09:24 pm


I shrunk the ears two pixels each to see how it would look (maybe something like this, but edited?). In a straight on view I think the full extent of the ear will not be visible because it lies relatively flat against the head. Also, I don't know exactly what goes on in that gif; it seems his hair also gets bigger when he faces the camera.