AuthorTopic: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff  (Read 20612 times)

Offline Skaz

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[C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

on: April 10, 2015, 04:44:46 pm
Hi!

So, I'm starting to think of a new project and tried a few things. Currently looking for a strong direction in style. For those how remember my other project (a platformer, which collapsed on itself, due to my lack of experience with game maker, coding, and making game in general) it's quite close. Few colours, small sprites. I prefer small additions here and there over complex and heavy textures. Which leads me to question those trees, maybe to complex in shape. Anyway, I post it to get feedback, ideally constructive one ;) Edits welcome.


It's mostly researches. No, Link won't be in my game. Neither will be Gordon Freeman. It was a test to see if I can make recognizable stuff at such a small scale. also, lots of beard styles :p


A runcycle, I made it to see how long it will take, to make realistic time estimations. FYI, it took me 20min/frame, it's 8 frames long. So 2h40. What's your average speed?

That's all for now! :)

Offline Fizzick

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #1 on: April 10, 2015, 05:14:01 pm
Cool stuff! -snip- Also remember that you can use saturation contrast to pop certain things a bit. Keep it up.

EDIT:
disregard the shading comment.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2015, 05:37:35 pm by Fizzick »

Offline jordyadan

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #2 on: April 10, 2015, 08:06:54 pm
I like your style! I'm a newbie in pixel arting and drawing in general, but I think the hair/bear color have to contrast with the skin tone, I changed the color to look more dwarvish and looked better



again, I'm a beginner in pixel art

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #3 on: April 10, 2015, 11:28:02 pm
Thanks for the replies !

Yeah, I might need a little bit more contrast, specially when I restrict myself to only tow shades for most of the colours.
For the blond hair / beards, I just didn't bother making other colours, I restricted myself with this to compare the different characters shapes more efficiently. Not everybody is going to be blond :p
I'm also thinking of a way to adjust the hue of the sprites within the engine, to save time and space. No multiple sprites, just multiple colour code.
Note that the "engine" I speak of is actually zero line of code long, so far. I'm that deep in that project. :crazy:

Tweaked the running animation, legs adjusted to depth and lateral shift. Also added shadow, because why not?



Working on some snowy landscape, makes me realize that character with good looking colours on a green background looks really really dark on a light background...
« Last Edit: April 15, 2015, 08:25:47 am by Skaz »

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #4 on: April 15, 2015, 01:54:38 pm
Some more researches, this time a snowy place. The main problem is communicating volume with a low colour count, and a sort off top down view. It's really rough, but it's mainly a quick experiment.
I consider making every zone of the game this way: hand painted, then add collision on top of it. Might work! Or might not...





Offline Daimoth

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #5 on: April 15, 2015, 02:10:13 pm
Did it take much tweakin to get those branches looking convincing? Single pixel details are, like, the hardest thing about this medium, in my opinion.

I'd like to see you play with more dramatic contrast. Might be interesting given the style, as I'm not sure how it would look.

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #6 on: April 15, 2015, 02:23:22 pm
Much tweaking? Nooooo :p I made the trunk and the branches separately, then added the "leaves" (yeah its a pine tree, you get the idea) and then made a tree combining those elements. Then came the tweaking to make it look good. But if you really want to know, I'm going to show you how shamefully awful was the first iteration. Not that the second one was great either.



Yeah, I know. I really had no clue... Photos are your friend in this situation.

The third one isn't the final one, I then removed a LOT of lonely pixels, as it mismatches the style of the character, and simplified the colours as well. Those trees looks too noisy. So yeah, it's surely a really hard aspect of pixel art.

I might try to play with contrast, the scene could look more vivid this way. Problem is I'm always scared when it comes to snow, I mean you want to use white, right? But in the end you don't.

Offline Daimoth

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #7 on: April 15, 2015, 02:56:55 pm
Oh dude, you're telling me. Guess how long the hands of the guy on the right took me. They still lack contrast.

With snow yeah, it will still be mostly white. The idea is to deepen cracks and crevasses.

Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #8 on: April 15, 2015, 05:36:18 pm
Quote
my other project (a platformer, which collapsed on itself, due to my lack of experience with game maker, coding, and making game in general)
GM seems to be quite prone to skull crushing piles of code.
Try making most of your stuff as Scripts that are external from the objects.
Then call the scripts like functions and pass objects and data into them to be processed. --> and returned if needed
Rather than having objects carry a lot of their own code around.
This way you can build code that can be re used for new and old objects in the game.
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #9 on: April 15, 2015, 06:27:47 pm
Quote
Try making most of your stuff as Scripts that are external from the objects.
Then call the scripts like functions and pass objects and data into them to be processed. --> and returned if needed
Rather than having objects carry a lot of their own code around.
This way you can build code that can be re used for new and old objects in the game.

This advice is so good I wish I had it earlier... That's exactly what I've done for my current project, scripts and arguments. Not like I really had the choice, NOT doing it would make the whole thing impossible. Fire a bullet, 15 lines. Copy and past it in every enemy? NOPE NOPE NOPE.

I don't think GM is prone to make project collapse. Incompetent coders are :P

Offline japie81

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #10 on: April 15, 2015, 07:25:21 pm
Scripts and parent objects are very useful for that kind of thing, and also clever use of folders in the resource trees in GM helps a lot to keep overview, as well as good names for resources and variables and such, so you instantly know what something is or does by its name.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2015, 07:28:34 pm by japie81 »

Offline thewizard

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #11 on: April 19, 2015, 03:16:57 am
will this be a mouse driven game

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #12 on: April 19, 2015, 08:12:43 pm
First, I'll be overly enthusiast to say it's going to be anything. Might very well remain a bunch of sprites... But if it's going to be a game, it's not going to be mouse driven, if by that you mean click and move ala baldur's gate. It would be more like a twin stick shooter, move with keyboard, aim with mouse. Character facing the cursor. Click to whack.

Offline Decroded

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #13 on: April 26, 2015, 07:57:37 am
When I saw this I instantly wanted to play so obviously you're doing something right  :y:

I don't think GM is prone to make project collapse. Incompetent coders are :P
GM is fragile software prone to all sorts of crashes and loss of data and its worse since Studio.
Unfortunately there is only so much you can do to protect yourself.
File - Save As a new iteration more often than you should need to is probably best.
Don't create iterations by copying folders though it will shit itself eventually and can corrupt resource trees, backups and all sorts of nastiness.

First, I'll be overly enthusiast to say it's going to be anything. Might very well remain a bunch of sprites... But if it's going to be a game, it's not going to be mouse driven, if by that you mean click and move ala baldur's gate. It would be more like a twin stick shooter, move with keyboard, aim with mouse. Character facing the cursor. Click to whack.
For inspiration maybe check out an old DOS/Amiga game called Cannon Fodder.
It was an awesome mix of light strategy and reflexes and there aren't many similar games.
There might be a sketchy Windows version somewhere but I emulate it under Dosbox (I found runs better after some tweaking if ur real keen) or perhaps Amiga emulator.

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #14 on: April 27, 2015, 07:03:43 pm
Well, I'm happy to know there will be at least one beta tester ;) But I won't start this project as long as my current project isn't finished... Speaking of wich, I might show some of the pixel stuff here. Nothing I'm really proud of, but it's not terrible.

I mark your word on GM, I'm already making backups every day. I put the whole archive in a .7z and archive it. I already had problems, especially objects I think I hadn't deleted that disappeared, object appearing in double, really weird stuff. So weird I'm not even sure it happened :p But I had to use the backup, so I'm happy to do it.

I played canon fodder on... game boy! It was a long time ago. Not really what I aim for, it should be focused on the control of your character, don't know how or even if you'll be able to handle several characters.

Offline Decroded

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #15 on: April 28, 2015, 09:24:15 am
yep thats GM for ya.
even things like accidentally pressing save then compile (stupidly tiny buttons right next to each other in a toolbar u cant even customise) too fast has caused GM to hang for 15mins at which point I killed it and recoded the last 30mins of work.
and watch out for them updates, every once in a while there's a major f-up...

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #16 on: April 11, 2016, 01:03:26 pm
We approach a year anniversary of inactivity in this topic, and I haven't been much active here since. What happened?

I made some stuff, games to be precise, and released a prototype of top down action-adventure-space-thingy game. Here is what the first version looked like:



Astonishingly, it wasn't good a giving people the desire to try it. So I added some art to the mix, "you don't catch flies with vinegar" or something on those lines. It looked like this:



The art is not brilliant, it was made as a requirement more than anything. There are no sprites animations. To anyone interested, here is the link to the devlog at tigsource: Click me!

After that, I started working on a top down adventure engine in game maker, which is under great progress. I remade a dwarf sprite (because of course there are dwarves) to test the engine. So here is another dwarf low resolution turnaround, with more "realistic" proportion than my old one I made for a long dead platformer project.



The old one for reference purpose:


The next project, when the engine is ready, is a short game, mainly to test the engine and see what I can do with it, and it will feature dwarves, monsters and a deep dungeon. So a lot of art will have to be done, I'll keep you in touch!

As usual, any constructive criticism is highly welcome.


Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #17 on: April 28, 2016, 05:44:47 pm
Made some dwarf women for a change.



What do you think? And don't tell me they're fat. They're DWARVES! :p

Offline lachrymose

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #18 on: April 28, 2016, 05:55:43 pm
I like them! Sexy dwarf women Whoooooo!

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #19 on: April 28, 2016, 06:20:49 pm
I like them! Sexy dwarf women Whoooooo!

You tell me! Some people fantasise on Elvish women... What a lack of taste! Dwarves women are the sexiest. Period.

Offline wzl

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #20 on: April 29, 2016, 08:25:44 am
i sense a disturbing lack of beard  :wah:

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #21 on: April 29, 2016, 11:57:16 am
Maybe they don't grow beards? Or maybe the modern society beauty standards leads them to shave. Who knows?

Offline Skaz

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Re: [C+C] Top down RPG: sprites and stuff

Reply #22 on: April 30, 2016, 11:51:04 pm
I can't help myself. I made a turnaround with the Dwarf women:



Next to a repost the man if you want to see them side by side.

C+C welcome :)