R.P.G Mockup

[I Am Uh]

Original Post:
Do any of you know of a way to improve this? 4 Colors.


Current:

[Scotteh]

looks fine to me, nothing to critique except it looks very bright, which means you would have to make everything else light

[Keops]

I can't really figure what is wrong with this particular grass, but it looks nice when you look at it 2x, but at 1x (real size) it looks too bright and blurry. My guess is that you tried to put too much detail on it, and since the colors are quite soft, the lack of contrast blends the details too much at 1x. I'm not to sure on how to improve that one in particular, you can try improving contrast, tweaking the palette or maybe trimming some detail.

~K

[I Am Uh]

Thanks Ill try to fix what you said but for now heres an update.

Edit: And a mockup.

[I Am Uh]

Small new update.

[Godslayer]

Darken the colors and see how it looks.

[Keops]

A small palette edit:



I opened that image in Photoshop and made a quick palette change. I mainly increased contrast between the shades and added some variations in hue to make the grass look more interesting, the darkest shade is now more like turquoise and the lighter ones tend to yellow-green. I still thing that there are too many details and the way the blades of grass are laid out make the image a bit blurry at standard size, although I still think it looks great at 2x+

You should try making a full mock-up with more tiles to see how it ends. This grass has potential heh

~K

[Godslayer]

This grass has potential heh

~K

As opposed to potential ho?

[I Am Uh]

Wow thanks keops that looks much better, like the grass is more noticable now. Ill start making some more tiles.

[I Am Uh]

Starting to work on water now.

[Godslayer]

Its not often that water goes directly into grass. Make dirt and sand tiles. Make deep water tiles as well, with darker colors and daplings of dark around them. And lighter waters, whith daplings of light, just as decoration tiles. And sandbars you can walk on underwater.

[I Am Uh]

heres one with another depth of water but im wondering if it looks better without it?

[Sherman Gill]

The lower depth has too much saturation in contrast to the rest of the map.
Make it more grey.

[JonathanOfDrain]

I think the water should have something going on in it. The Grass looks like a grass quilt kind of.
Oh mayber have some dirt between the water and grass.

*Reads you said you're starting to work on the water*
So.. keep that in mind.

[Larwick]

I quite like the water going directly by the grass, gives a fantasy-styled look to it. Also, it could be a bog.

Now you've added the deeper water, you need more colours to smoothen the transition. Also, i wouldn't make the deep water that dark, but as Sherman said, lower the saturation slightly. Perhaps add a greenish tinge to it aswel.

The grasses look very nice. I'd try not to overuse the long grass though..

[dreamisle]

I really like the way you made the transition from grass to flat green in the tiles there. Could you do something similar with the water? Not only is the transition really abrupt but it's also really plain and flat and smooth. I also wanted to point out that the small island in the river looks too much like a plain grass tile. Maybe you could try to curve the corners of it and make it a few pixels smaller? I'd love to see where you go with this - especially if you make rock or dirt or sand tiles.

[Joseph]

I dont like the dithering you've used in the water...the rest is good yeah, but dithering on the water is a no-no, unless you find another way around it (randomly used and with a more "watery" effect)

[Snippa]

I dont like the dithering you've used in the water...the rest is good yeah, but dithering on the water is a no-no, unless you find another way around it (randomly used and with a more "watery" effect)

I gotta agree with this, it just looks weird... Also I think you could ad a little more detail to the water so it doesn't look so flat.
I like your style on the land tiles though, they look nice.

[I Am Uh]

I liked it better with just the lighter water, the dithering on the other water was disguisting.

And you can see the ripples in the water next to the land.

[I Am Uh]

Update: Rivering now. To come... Waterfalls

[I Am Uh]

Major Update. Added cliffs, made a larger variety of water tiles, made some what of a waterfall, might leave it like that I kind of like it.

[robalan]

Your cliffs look like walls to me.  It might help the perspective to have the grass overhang the cliff edge more.  Also, either the cliff rocks should show more on the side (I couldn't see the brown of the cliff until I zoomed in) or you should have some cast shadows to show the difference in levels.  Good work so far.

[I Am Uh]

Small Update: Made some minor touch ups for the water, and made the cliffs blend more with the ground.

[pixelsforhire]

Would it be totally out of line for someone as new as me to comment? Oh well, here I go. I think the cliff needs less contrast. Its the only dark tone there and it stands out a bit much. I'd post an edit, but color selection is still a pretty weak area for me. Awesome work, by the way.

[I Am Uh]

Dont edit it yet cause I gotta' nother' update.

Update to cliffs and waterfall.

[Sherman Gill]

That waterfall makes no sense.
I didn't really follow tile restrictions, nor is it the best edit, mainly just to show you...


The 'waves' in the waterfall give it a sense of motion, and it's got a form. A two feet deep river doesn't have 'blobs' of water coming down.

Please tell me if I made no sense.

[I Am Uh]

Thanks but the waterfalls were supposed to look like they were kind of dried up, But I might make it like that. Thanks.

[Terley]

well gravity can't just stop working beacause you want the waterfall to look dried up, there's quite a bit of water looming over the end of the cliff, it's bound to fall, thats how waterfalls work I Am Uh.



I suggest adding some rocks blocking off the bulk of the water if you want..

edit - sorry no excuse for saying wrong name 

[Cow]

The leftmost edge of the elevated area really bugs me. I'd assume there wouldn't be grass down there, it'd just be a wall of rock that goes down into the water.

Sherman's edit looks nice, I suggest you take it into account.

[Xion]

well gravity can't just stop working beacause you want the waterfall to look dried up, there's quite a bit of water looming over the end of the cliff, it's bound to fall, thats how waterfalls work Rerg 

Rerg?

Something between your waterfall and Gills would be cool.

[I Am Uh]

Well I completely redid the mountains, although they still need some touching up, Ill start on the new waterfall. Some help with the main character would be great too.

[robalan]

You say you redid the mountains.  All I see is a set of path tiles.  If those are supposed to be cliffs, I don't see it.  Also, if those are supposed to be cliffs, why can we see all four sides of it?  If the tiles that look like a stone path are supposed to be cliffs, the old cliffs were considerably better.

[I Am Uh]

Does it look better with the back less visible?

[I Am Uh]

Update: Better Mockup, More Water tiles, Waterfalls, And thats about it. Oh yeah and new Npc Template.


Edit: Didnt wanna triplepost so I just put another edit in here. I got some house thing goin' on in the mountains.

[I Am Uh]

Finnaly got everything in order.

I hope..... B.T.Way the view is about a 60 degree angle in the sky if you were wondering.

[pixelsforhire]

This has kind of been bugging me but I didn't want to say anything. Does anyone else think that the waterfall looks a bit thick? I mean, its thicker than where the water meets the cliff and stuff.

[I Am Uh]

Hmmm.... I dont know, maybe. here's what I've been working on.

[Wes]

I really don't think you should be able to see the back of the cliffs like that, or even the sides. It throws of the perspective. If you look at your cave, you'll notive that huge difference.

I liked the original cliffs a lot better.

[I Am Uh]

You cant see em' from the inside, because there poping outwards.

[Aleiav]

I can't entirely tell if the cliffs are cliffs, or pits. The waterfall helps on the cliffs to the right, but the one with the doorway is a little perspectively confusing.

Maybe making one side of the cliffs lighter in accordance with the light source? That might help create more perspective.

[Adrian]

The cliffs need some shading to give them the look of elevation.. and you need to break the grid.

[I Am Uh]

Could I get a little help on how to do this, maybe some one could edit because i reallly dont know what your trying to say here.

[Ian]

I really don't think you should be able to see the back of the cliffs like that, or even the sides. It throws of the perspective. If you look at your cave, you'll notive that huge difference.

I liked the original cliffs a lot better.

Total agreement.  I disagree with Adrian and Aleiav- no amount of shading can make an impossible perspective make sense...
Other then that amazing development and it's looking great.  Seems like you are learning a lot- keep it up.
Edit: Oh and when Aleiav says to "break the grid" he means making the tiles not square shaped so that they look a lot more realistic.  So the cliffs would be a lot more curved and natural.  Unfortunately, this would mean practically entirely rehauling your tiles...

[I Am Uh]

Long time since I last worked on this. I thought I would give it another go, since I like it a lot for some reason. I tried working on like depth perception so its more viewable as a cliff now. Also added some other touch ups. There's still some things I would like to change on this, any tips or critics would help.

Current Tiles


Current Mock-Up


Character:

[Terley]

I really like the changes on this I Am Uh, you can really see a ton of improvement. 

I do think though that you could do with some contrast in this, I've tried to do this by altering each colour individually, trying to not keep the saturation too high but it's very tricky as you want forms to read well yet your character to not get lost by high contrasing tiles. Hopefully I've hit between what im trying to suggest with this edit.



First I worked on the rocks, sharing the darker brown from the enterance and introducing a black I'd think you'd be best making sure some you have a more shadowed side and a lighter side so we can determain some shape, otherwise we could suggest it's just a flat road or something, as the grass doesn't change at various levels.

Tried to increase the colour of the grass and water so everything is more or less consistant, keeping in mind whether a character would get lost or not against the backdrop.

That thing attached to the rocks along side the entrance, not too sure what it is, but I think some colours are wasted here, made a slight suggestion. take it or leave it, don't know what I was pixelling. 

Oh I'd always check your character on your mockups whilst working on backdrops to see if they work together, because personally I think he seems too seperated on your version. You need to have a sense of solid objects, and clear paths. Otherwise things can just seem confusing, plus if everything just 'fits' together with great consistancy it can help make a game just nicer to play.



well judge for yourself, hope any of that helped. 

-EDIT!-

where does grass ever just grow up to and then into the sea? I'd understand if theres like a drop (where grass grows to the end of a small cliff or something) but this appears on the same level as the water and even seems to be growing into it. I'd expect some sand or dirt somewhere. 

But ah well it could work. 

Here's my effort to collect some examples of stuff here on pixelation and pixeljoint to possibly help.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/Frog32/terranigma1.png - Josiah Tobin
http://www.imageuploads.net/ims/pic.php?u=12254DDjsy&i=92899 - eghost
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/Timpac/Rewerk.png - Doppleganger's edit to Tsugumo's work with some excellent critique http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=3557.msg44832#msg44832
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6687/zmockwr8.png - Stranger
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b340/baybaybom/sab-liftr3.png - within conceit's list of pixel art he likes
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6015/difftree5lv.png http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/1696/mock6ex.png - .TakaM his threads also a good read http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=1470.msg18568#msg18568
(In fact also a good read from .TakaM http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=1668.msg20694#msg20694)
http://www.crystaltechstudios.com/projects/Legacy/Legacy_Mockup_2.gif - Dhaos

http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/27489.htm - Doppleganger
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/11203.htm - vedsten
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/15423.htm - Scruffs
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/26729.htm - born

hope it helps. 

[Sohei]

Small new update.

I like this one the most. It reminds me of Sid Meier's Civilization.

[Terley]

In my self-consious atempts to avoid getting my essay done im back again with a small little crit.

Oh and something that seems to be bugging me is your characters size, he wouldn't even be able to fit into the doorway of the cave. is your character that size for any specific reason? If not I would go for something a bit more like this. 

[I Am Uh]

Actually Terley, I was going for sort of a fakeish look, sort of out of perspective on purpose. If that makes any sense...

As for contrast and hue issues, I'm playing around with it right now.

[Terley]

I got ya, like you get on the gameboy or something. 

[I Am Uh]

Yeah, I really like the style of the Poke'mon games but I don't really like the game as a whole, just the graphics.

Anyways... Here's where I stand as far as the mountains go.