AuthorTopic: Squaretale's Pixel Game  (Read 32830 times)

Offline Bacrylic

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Squaretale's Pixel Game

on: August 03, 2017, 11:01:20 pm
Hi I'm Bacrylic and aslo the acting art director for Squaretale.

Founded by myself and my programming friend Brandon, Squaretale attempts to make its first game. An guess what, its a pixel game!!!

As this is our first step, we want to leave a good impression. So I'm here to ask for some advice. I haven't been doing pixel art long, and yet I find myself making an entire game in the style. We have pretty much rushed production, and environmentally I'm not sure if I found a good blend with how I want to portray the story to the player.

Any words or suggestions would sure be appreciated.

Also, if you're curious to what this game is about, I'll share a little info. The game will be a sidescroller pixel game, done with an expanded take on the metroidvania style. One of my goals for the game is to have very dynamic combat. I want the enemy npc's to feel like actual players are trying to kill you, and it is a struggle just to run into one.

As far as I know I'm not allowed to say anything about the story yet, but believe you me I like some dark stuff at times and I can get behind this story. I can tell you what we've based this game off of and what has inspired us. Art wise, I've looked at more recent games for inspiration. We don't really have a goal of nostalgia planned to make it like other metroidvania games in the past. Nope. Our nostalgic inspiration ties more into the story and wasn't from a game at all. We came up with the story of this game while talking about the movie The Pagemaster.

Haven't seen it? Thats ok. If you went back and watched it, you might not like it. I know I tried. It wasn't that great, but something internally makes me like it. Maybe because its from my childhood, but conceptually we liked the idea and for some reason, both thought it was an iconic movie. Now we've completely made our own lore for this story that was based off of this movie, but as a game I wanted to expand on it. So now comes the actual game inspiration and second thing that I like to sum up the idea behind ours as. Kingdom Hearts 

Yup, nothing does world diving and has a vast diversity of enemy characters quite like Kingdom Hearts. So yes, Kingdom Hearts meets The Pagemaster movie, to inspire this pixel game.

That sounds like a tall order, I know. But we've spent a lot of thought and we both feel like we can get on board for the long haul.

I would sure appreciate any help you guys can offer, while I'm deciding on the style. So here is a small clip from a scene I'm working on.





We will eventually have our website up and running, and when we do, if you like the work we're doing you can stop by to see any updates at squaretale.com.

So bring on the critiques, so I can spoil you guys with the first updates.

Offline Bacrylic

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #1 on: August 05, 2017, 04:29:20 am
Man it takes a while to get a response, huh?   :watev:

Offline Bacrylic

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #2 on: August 05, 2017, 09:37:21 pm
Here is my go at our main character's run cycle. I was going for a very exaggerated/animated run that would fit the type of character  I wanted to show. I imagine there will be a toggle for this kind of sprint.




And here are a few enemy characters we will be seeing. Essentially, these will be our game's heartless. We're not calling them that, but they will come in many different shapes and sizes.















« Last Edit: August 05, 2017, 09:46:43 pm by Bacrylic »

Offline Krizpp

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #3 on: August 06, 2017, 01:03:12 am
This looks promising. Sorry for no tips/critique. Keep us updated! I'd love to be on the loop of the progress of this game.

Thanks,
Krizpp

Offline Bacrylic

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #4 on: August 06, 2017, 07:08:00 am
Thanks Krizpp, and sure thing.

Spread that interest like Nutella.

I've got a lot of work inbetween this stuff, but I'll post updates when I can.

 

Offline Bacrylic

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #5 on: August 17, 2017, 07:38:24 am
Here are some rough attack combos I'm working on.

I had a friend record me doing these moves for reference. I had intended to try a rotoscoping technique I'd seen on youtube, but because our character's animation is supposed to be stylized and exaggerated I just followed the recordings.

They're not supposed to be clean yet. I'm picking my favorites from the bunch, roughing them and discussing them with my partner before cleanup. The character's weapon is a book sword that has a blade that folds out like origami.

 









Like the running animation I want to exaggerate his moves during cleanup, but still have it make sense logically. Don't mind the smears, I was testing some stuff out for now.

The reason I like the recorded moves is on account of our character being someone who has had no prior combat experience. So having no exp myself, I grab a stick and hack away. This gave me the sense that this was something he would be capable of doing.

I'm not sure what the combo hit count is gonna be, or if we are gonna have variations to perform, but for now I'm gonna go with a single slash for a single click and 2-3 hit moves that follow multiple clicks. 

Offline Bacrylic

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #6 on: August 17, 2017, 07:47:10 am
Oh I forgot to mention!

I wanted to show you guys the promotional posters I had made. They were last minute, but since it kind of started everything, I'm getting attached to them.





 :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay:

Offline eishiya

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #7 on: August 17, 2017, 12:50:22 pm
In the last animation, the character is quite a bit smaller than the rest.
I like the second animation. The rest don't read very clearly to me, they look like flailing rather than attacks. It might just be the presentation though - try holding on the first and last frames, so that it's easier to see the animation as a unit. Without holds, the entire loop just blurs together.

In the first poster, the character doesn't stand out well from the background, the values on them are very similar to the background. When working (especially when thumbnailing) on things like this, I recommend previewing in greyscale regularly to help you notice problems like this.

Both posters feel rather dull, colour-wise. I don't mean that they have to be colourful or saturated, but that they're rather grey and have no sense of focus created by their colours. Nothing stands out, everything looks equally unimportant. You have wonderful light sources (a sunny sky, candles, magical books), but you're not using them at all to create visual interest. For example, consider how much more interesting the second poster could be if the books were the dominant light sources, casting their coloured lights everywhere? Or, even if you want the candles to b the only light source, consider how orange and weak candle light really is! That poster looks like by a bright ceiling lamp, not a trio of candles. Don't be afraid of coloured light, and of shadows so dark that they obscure detail! Candlelight in particular has a long history in art, so there's plenty of inspiration.

Offline Bacrylic

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #8 on: August 19, 2017, 04:03:31 am
As rough as rough gets, its pretty rough. As stated previously.
Other than the first two, the rest were optimized to just have the main keyframes with no inbetweens. The flailing comment must be a 'you' thing. My partner and others I've shown didn't have a problem following the sequences, but I will admit they are 'rough'.

I didn't really elaborate on what I meant with the posters. They were just for show. I made them last minute for a convention we were invited to, and otherwise we wouldn't have had anything. I do intend to give a another go later on, so thanks for the tips. The second poster got the short end of the stick for time reasons, but I did want to have this sweet color scheme and light sources witht he books. You're on the money with that one.

Offline Bacrylic

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Re: Squaretale's Pixel Game

Reply #9 on: August 22, 2017, 12:36:26 am
I'm working on setting our character's color palette. I must admit that I'm pretty bad a setting up a color scheme, but I went with the colors I used in our character's concept design. There is currently 23 different colors. We're not working with any constraints, color wise but I don't know if this would cause a problem or not. If there is one, please let me know.

Below is a weapon test for our character's booksword. I know the animation for the handle coming down and the paper flipping up needs some work.



And a still of what the final sword was gonna look like.