A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

[Jad]

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Added some random light rays because YES, rays own the shit out of everything ; 3; They're extremely crude ATM, will tweak into niceness. EDITS ARE WELCOME :]

Some more depth in the woods also, which automatically makes it cry for some more depth in the bottom on the lake as well. But I'll get to that :]

Also blocked out the other rock wall. A bit of copy pasta there since I want to make it tileable later.

Speaking of copy pasta, the grass has been tweaked and another layer of grass has been placed in front of our hero (who is a guy, Xion, sorry ; 3; Girl heroes are TEH BEST but as it happens, this is a boy) but I'll need to tweak the looks, because it's too harsh right now. Almost only copy pasta from behind.

About the hat, I won't lose it, I'll go with the idea of hats as the only interchangable clothing piece. Except for special suits which are nothing but recolors (I'm thinking of adding craploads of animation for this boy and since I'm naively serious about this project/concept, it'd be too much of a hassle to make new animations for the suits)

So a little bonus dump:

Armless steambot, will add arms when I come up with the way he's going to move and attack so I can have appropriate arms. I know that one attack is going to be a completely ownagefilled tranformation where he points the boiler towards the hero and spouts out a cloud of ZOMGHOT steam that hurts. But that one doesn't require arms :] (transparency got fucked up in the gif, will fix later, must sleep now)



An example of how a hat and recolor makes a character into winyarr

[Xion]

  <seriously neglected smiley. I demand more people use it.

Okay then. Where was I...? Oh yeah:

Now then, I love this.

(who is a guy, Xion, sorry ; 3; Girl heroes are TEH BEST but as it happens, this is a boy)

The lightrays in the wawa look way bright, methinks...unless you make some sort of thing where the water gets lighter near the bottom...! (I mean you've already got the walls & floor lighting up down there...)

And yes, the grass looks much much too messy. Might I suggest losing entirely the darkest green except on the edges (as you had it before) but just maybe adding some patches of grass and plants and flowers in the layer above the hero instead?

This would look sooo awesome with mad parallax scrolling among the trees...

Oh, who said something bad about the HUD, because I meant to state earlier that I completely and utterly disagree. It is wonderful.

The robot is t3h pwnage. Steampunk for the WIN, baby! Though I find the boiler tube[?] very dark and hard to spot. Might look otherwise on a different bg, but on this dark blue one...nyeh.

The face on the dude looks like this: ^_^...You see it? Like that "Oooh, so cute" or "I'm happy" face used in animes. I just find it odd that a hero would run through a big adventure with that look plastered on his face.

...naively serious about this project/concept...

Woohoo, that makes two of us!

Good call on the hue-shifting armors. I think I'll take that route with my "game" too.


edit: (By "woohoo, that makes two of us" I mean I'm naively serious about my own project, not yours.

[Draco9898]

Love the details dood, it's very easy on the eyes. It's kinda eerie, as I'm working on something very very similar....

[Jad]

GAH about the "^^"-eyes, that's NOT what I've been making, it's his hair combining with his eyes, eugh!

His eyes are simple two-pixel high ' ' eyes like a ' _ '-smiley, not a n _ n one. But it connects with the hair which strangely enough creates perfectly symmetrical n _ n eyes.

Gyah, I'll fix that > _>. I'd like a neutral face in which the player can project her/his own feelings. Not a kirbytastic psycho grin.


About other things..

Hard-to-make light ray is hard to make D; The reason to why the colors are as they are is because I made them in 10 minutes before going to sleep. So when I have got time, I'll cook up something better. I'll have to think a bit before I can decide how I want the lake bottom to look 0:

Again, regarding steambot, the (what the heck is it called boiler tubic thingie?) is hard to spot because graphics gale seriously messed up with transparency. That program's got real issues with that. So it has replaced the bg color with the dark blue. For some reason.

I'll re-upload it when I get home :3

edit: (By "woohoo, that makes two of us" I mean I'm naively serious about my own project, not yours.

Hey, I'll be naively serious about your project and you can be about mine :]

Speaking of YOUR project, you'd better start posting some mock-ups *hint hint*

[mangust]

I very pleased to see this.    (yes, it's nice smile)
Few thinks:
Lightrays, when i see progress i think light from top right and in lake you did it in right side a shadow - "it's nice idea" - I thinking. But now rightlays in left and you have too spotlit side in lake - it's not very interesting. If you do light from top right and right side of lake do more shadow, almost like a on sketch - there have a play light and shadow, they talk with each other , now you lose this.
And do it more brightness on grass (Xion talk about this, like in old version), he evidently say for we - THERE IS SPOTLIT SURFACE, nevertheless.
Depth in forest a great! ))

[Jad]

Regarding playing with light and shadow, I think I will first make an uniform tileset and then make versions with varied brightness to be able to achieve the effects you are talking about.

You are right, though. The piece needs defined light and shadow :3

[Faceless]

This is beginning to look really weird now:
The nearest trees look like 2d cutouts, and are in need of more contrast.
The ones immediately behind them are much too dark, and need much less saturation.
Finally, the grass has become really messy.

[Gil]

I TOTALLY disagree with Faceless, keep it like it is, cause it rocks for me. I really like that grass, and the dark background trees create a lot of depth. Paralaxed I presume?

[Sharm]

I'm with Gil.  More contrast with those trees would mess with the readability.  Maybe a bit more coloring on the midrange trees.  The grass has become a bit messy, but it's probably just too much contrast.

With the light in that direction, wouldn't the left side of the pool be darker and the right the light one?

[vellan]

still think the biggest issue with the piece is still the lack of seperation between foreground and background. there needs to be both a clear seperation to create a sense of depth, and to allow the character to stand out from his/her world.

A major part of this will be achieved through giving the mid and backgrounds an actual light source - presently it is almost completely lacking one, although the light-rays are there.