Hm! This is very nice. :'D Though you're probably working on it, I would definitely put some more minimal detail in the middle ground trees. The big detailed one looks a lil outta place, but I have a feeling you were gonna do that anyway. The tree looks great, but I don't particularly like the way you have rendered the leaves with that mock dithering type of thing. I think it just looks too uniform at the moment.
Yup. The reason to why just one tree had any detail is that it's the only one I had managed to do. More trees are planned, and an infinitely detailed BG (but with smooth colors that won't distract you) I'm inspired by the battle background in the forest areas of Tales of Phantasia, where a flock of birds occasionally will take off in one of the background layers, stirred up by the battle, it's really atmospheric and immersing and I'm a sucker for details like that. I want the viewer to go 'Oooh, a forest', not 'Oh, nice tiling' or so. Okay, so I'm not using any tiling right now but it'll probably come as I hook up with a programmer in about a hundred years from now. :]
The 'mock dithering type of thing' is a brush in graphics gale that I used because I grew tired of dotting out leaves by hand. As such, it's merely a placeholder, but I've played around with it with my latest update, and maybe that'll stay. I dunno. Your input partially decides it.
I wont comment on the water plants because those are totally WIP. But, I will say that the health bars look really out of place. It's good for them to be noticeable, but perhaps you should try to give them a look that goes better with the theme of the game. It just looks too pristine for the nature orientation this seems to have.
The water plants are just a big questionmark for me right now, so yup. The healthbars, ARGH, it's a darling that I don't really want to kill, I want it to have that cuddly cute-game look and ... well, the pristine look is to make the player eventually forget about them. It's like the hearts in zelda, they're so stylized you don't take much notice about them. I want the health bar to give the feeling that 'it's the representation of my health' and nothing more.
Adding nature-ish things to it would somehow take away from the feeling I'm going for, plus, I want a health bar that could fit in in a town, a forest, a dungeon, a tower, sewer, mountain, steam punk fortress, tropical island, pirate ship, floating island, swamp, anywhere. I just want them to be simple and .. pristine :\ But I WILL tweak them to make them more discreet, the palette colors, even though I love them, since I want the player not to take too much notice about them.
Note that health will be gained partially by gathering health blobs from fallen enemies that will have the same color as the bar, thus connecting the GUI with gameplay and making it fit in better with the environment. .. I think. > _>
And for the figure... I would definitely first change the dithering on the hat. When you dither with just the two colors, most people wont get the sense of it being made of straw, but that you just shaded it (that's what I thought at first, but then discovered it must be made of straw.) Try adding some dithering with the darker shade you used under the brim to the extreme shadow of the hat. I also think the brown you used for his hair blends to much with the hat. Perhaps try tweaking it a bit?
I did it in another way, I just dithered the hell out of the whole hat. I think it gives a better 'straw'-feeling now, especially with the strands poking out. Aw, your opinion is welcome again~ :]
IMO it is crying for a midground layer with a fair amount of detail to buffer the character from the distant background.
Indeed it is.
the grass. 1st, it looks too plain, compared with the depth of the rocks under it and the background's more detailed sections. I'm guessing unfinished? I'd recommend some texture to show strands (as you've done at the top of the grass layer, but spread all around, fading according to lighting).
The grass was the first thing I did in this mock-up and thus clashes in style with the rest of the environment. Since I'm kind of lost regarding it, I'm redoing it.
2nd, the grass' double shading planes suggest some depth, some perspective to the ground plane, as if the observer is placed slightly above the character. However, the water plane and the placement of the character's feet on the brighter grass suggests a "straight on" 2d view. I'd either place the character halfway between the planes of grass (up a few pixels), and redo the water surface to keep that new perspective , or redo the grass, maybe adding some in front of the character, and lowering the height of the grass on the background.
Going with alternative two~
This is really nice jad!
I'm loving the colours and the unique semi-dither thing going on with the leaves on the tree. My only personal style choice would be to add a stronger outline- maybe even a black one- around your cute little character because
he needs to pop out somemore, before we lose him! I'm not really loving the health and mp bars, perhaps a darker outline around them would rectify my issues with them. Other than that, i'm loving the bubbles, trees, and pretty much everything else. Nice start ^^.
You're loving my GG brush debacle? Gahahah, aw well :]
About the character, I really do want to go with the simple 'HALO IM RIPPING OFF CAVE STORY' non-outlined type of sprites, but I'll probably saturate and brighten him up some more.. I guess :\ Anyways, he's going to be moving around a lot so as long as he pops out enough, it's going to be alright.
I'll tone down the bars, gah D; I have a hard time killing this darling, seriously!
Anyhow, a little update, still very WIP. :] Some stuff is fixed, some is not. Do you have any comments or even edits for my rock walls? 'cause they're so damn hard to get right ;<
Anyhow, dithering makes the hat more straw-like but also butt-ugly :\
He now has his own head floating above him because that's my artistic vision 0:
The fishes look like crap :\ Placeholders I guess.
Vegetation would probably look rad and life-like with a little parrallax :3
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