R.P.G Mockup

[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.