[C+C] Title Screen Conundrums

[Parkerbaby]

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In my opinion no real progress has been made from the first iteration. Still too busy and no visual priority.

[Zizka]

@ParkerBaby:

You see no difference between this:


and this?


Yikes, that's depressing  .

[PixelPiledriver]

I'd suggest exploring many more varied color comps at a much smaller size.
Here's a few variations on an idea.
You could come up with a bunch of others.



Here's a couple more.

[Zizka]

Hahaha! I really like those. Man, you're something special I swear!



Especially this one.


This being said, is there no way I could somehow salvage something I've already got with the one I have right now? I don't know, I'd feel bad to scrap the whole thing considering the amount of time I've spend on it. 

[PixelPiledriver]

This being said, is there no way I could somehow salvage something I've already got with the one I have right now?(

How much time?

That's really up to you.
You might find a better idea.
Or this might be your best.
But I'm not suggesting you scrap every pixel you've put down.

Your canvas is somewhat big to make composition exploration fast and simple.
Even with the same array of props and characters, it would be good to sketch out thumbnails of different arrangements.
Or tear into it a this size with the select tool.

Do you have this in layers?
Upload a file to mess with and I'll show you what I mean.

[StarRaven]

Don't fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy! Every moment you've spent working on this has been spent learning, so it's not time wasted even if you decide not to use what you have so far. Save it and maybe you can use something from it later, but don't hold on if letting go will get you a better end product.

[Decroded]

good point starraven though I would suggest learning next time not to put in so much pixel-level work until the composition has been organised.
This helps avoid that horrible feeling most of us have had.
and +1 for starting on smaller canvas as PPD mentioned.

[Zizka]

@PPD: Forty hoursish I'd say.

*crowd laughter*

Yeah but it's true!

@Starraven:
Yah, I did learn, that's true.

I'd like to implement the "X" like PPD did but what I have right now. Maybe get rid of a lot of stuff to pull it off. It's not like it *has to* be complicated:



I like the whole punching idea. I think it looks good. I just need to "optimize" it somehow and get rid of all the fluff around it.

[Zizka]

Alright so back to the drawing board:



It's based on PPD's mock-up:


I'm taking things slowly this time so that I don't end up doing details for something I'm going to end up scrapping.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Zizka I think you are missing the point here. PPD perfectly showed you how even small canvases can look great. It's not strange at all that you've spent 40 hours on previous version cause it takes time to fill up canvas that's 640x480px. Cut it down 2x or 4x and try to draw on it and when you are finished just increase the size back to original size and this way you won't have any distortions. It will save a lot time and it will still look nice. You need to be very skilled artist to properly fill big canvas without much problems. And considering that resolution of your game graphics is not big, smaller title screen will be very appropriate.

If you are really into making big image, you can draw whole design in small canvas with same aspect ratio, and when you are satisfied increase the size and clean everything in final resolution. You will have much more control over design and spend less amount of time.