AuthorTopic: Quazatron remake pixel art, looking for critique  (Read 2396 times)

Offline RichJ

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Quazatron remake pixel art, looking for critique

on: November 27, 2017, 08:49:40 am
Hi, I've started working on a remake of the old Speccy game Quazatron. I don't have an artist to help out so I've taken the plunge myself. This is my first attempt at pixel art with a limited palette. I didn't create the palette myself, it was a sample found elsewhere on this forum. The starry background isn't mine, it's a placeholder, and the robots are old rasterized vectors that will eventually be replaced. So I'm looking for general feedback on the tiled background. Does the palette work for the style of graphics? Are the highlights and shadows ok? Thanks ;)

Offline eishiya

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Re: Quazatron remake pixel art, looking for critique

Reply #1 on: November 27, 2017, 05:15:27 pm
The lights and shadows look alright. Would it be too much work to add shaded tiles, so that there can be cast shadows? The right-facing sides are so dark compared to the other surfaces that it looks like there should be a strong directional light, which means cast shadows.

I don't like the shadows underneath the robots, they don't fit the isometry and their softness looks out of place with how sharp everything else is.

What are the little triangular bits on the bottom? They look alright on the dark side, but look detached on the light side. Perhaps get rid of the bright highlight? It looks a bit out of place and it gives the triangles more contrast than they warrant.

The colours are fine, though I can't say that looking at a screen full of grey is particularly fun. The greys in this palette are nice, but I think they're best used sparingly. This is more of a design consideration than a colour one though - try to theme the levels to require fewer flat, boring grey surfaces. You can convey "industrial, metal-filled" without making everything grey. Think about the light sources, and other textures that would be found in this sort of setting. Give it some mood.

Offline RichJ

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Re: Quazatron remake pixel art, looking for critique

Reply #2 on: November 27, 2017, 08:51:29 pm
Thanks for the feedback. Tiles casting shadows is on the todo list, I take your point about how the dark side of the tiles suggests they should be there. The soft shadow under the robot is a bit of a cheat thing to actually get shadows to work and change shape as the robot moves up & down slopes, and across different height tiles. Might have to rethink that :)

I see what you mean about the triangle things on the bottom, they're a bit too bright on the lighter side.

The grey shades are nice, in fact the whole palette is, and yes grey is overused. I'll get more colour in to each level as the game progresses and more tiles are drawn. I feel these bright palettes work better when more colour is splashed about, it really brings to the graphics to life, even though such liberal use of bright colours puts me well outside my comfort zone.

Overall I do want to end up with an industrial feel, I wonder if the palette will allow for that?

Offline RichJ

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Re: Quazatron remake pixel art, looking for critique

Reply #4 on: November 28, 2017, 03:02:27 pm
Thanks for the links, some good inspiration there ;)