[WIP][Feedback] Submarine interior - Base

[Jedemy]

Hi!

I've been working on this since 3 days , it is going to be new base for my game. It isn't even close to be done yet but i thought it would be great to get some feedback/advice to improve my work along the way while working on it.

I will highly appreciated if you tell me the things you like, don't like and why.

Thank you for taking your time!



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[pistachio]

If I'm getting the style right it's pretty good so far. Keeping it flat or adding some wear on the corners, small stains/details etc?
Some parts can have some more contrast, I'm thinking the view out the window, the glass tubes.
I can nitpick some things that are hard to read like the clipboard thing on the desk, but the player can probably figure this out and it's very minor stuff there.
Might make a small edit.

[Vinik]

On instinct I would aggressively metal-highlight the edges of orange parts and the metal fence, although it might be a bit hard on the fence given how thin it is. Then probably na pass on smudges and wear like pistachio mentioned. I like the geometry, the hues and the values  maybe pull the shadows/indirect light globally towards the blue of the background behind the glass, it would make darker areas bluer I think .

[Jedemy]

I still didn't get into details much because if i do, i know i won't be able to get out of it for a long time. I am currently just trying to get the concept down.

There will be 5 places in the base: deck, laboratory(research center etc.), workshop, hangar(gate middle bottom) and storage(chest). I am still quite not happy with what i got so far but trying to get there.

[Jedemy]

Did add some more lighting and details

[Jedemy]

Changed bottom gate and added some pipes. This scene is very important to my game, please feel free to critic and tell me my mistakes, so i can just get better at it.



Thanks for your time!

[Jedemy]

Tweaked some colours and added some more elements to the scene

[Jedemy]

Did add some lighting and some more elements/details.

[eishiya]

This latest update loses a lot of the readability of the earlier versions because everything is so dark and there's very little contrast between different surfaces. I like the rimlights and dark mood of it, but you lost both some value contrast and a lot of the hue contrast by darkening everything. I think bringing some value contrast back would help a lot.

I noticed even in the very first post, the wood panels on the centre "stage" are more textured than any other surface in the scene, to the point of looking out of place.

This is probably too big of a thing, but have you considered having the window curve, either horizontally or vertically? Being so flat, it makes this place look like an underwater section of a building (typically blocky) rather than a vehicle (typically rounded).
The huge size of the window also doesn't help with the "submarine" look, I think having some reinforcing beams running across it would help it look more like something built to withstand the water pressure.

[Jedemy]

Thanks for the feedback Eishiya! I did add some reinforcing beams and tweaked the lighting a bit.

I am not sure how should i be approaching to wood texture though.

What do you think this as scene though, is it boring or interesting?

It is the base menu for the players to visit after every mission and they will be looking at this very often, i just try to get as perfect as possible with my limited pixeling skill.

[eishiya]

You're using solid colours for wood elsewhere, does that not look good enough for the wooden panelling?

The scene feels very open/spacious, which isn't what I tend to associate with submarines. The details are well-done and interesting to look at, but the overall layout of the place feels a little boring and drags the scene down. It's also all very regular and tidy, there's no sense of organic use or messiness/convenience. Will the player be walking around here, or is it more of a menu? If there's no collision to worry about, or if you can have collision that doesn't follow a grid, consider not having all the tables being parallel, have them at odd angles, perhaps curving around the exterior shape.

[Jedemy]

There won't be any collision, it will be just a menu. When a player select the area, it will be animated such as computers goes on lights appear in laboratory tubes or chest is opening etc.

I just did add another tube to make use of the empty place little bit and changed wood texture to make it more acceptable for the scene.

As you can see there will be a menu on the left down corner(Font is just a place holder for now).



So all this work is to replace this scene:

[eishiya]

Here's a very messy edit to show what I mean about the scene not having to align to the grid:

I shifted things around to look like they were placed for convenience, rather than everything being parallel. This also makes it easier to give the scene a pleasant composition, since different parts can frame the scene and otherwise lead the eye around.

Since this screen not constrained by navigational needs and all that, you could treat it as an illustration of a place. You could even go further than my basic tweaks and have a perspective illustration where the player can feel more like they're in the space, rather than looking down at a model of it.

[Jedemy]

Thanks for taking your time and doing this! It will actually look way better if i put stuff that way. However it will be also lot of work to change the angle of almost everything.

[eishiya]

Yes, it would be a lot of work. For that reason, I recommend roughly blocking in the composition and colours (and maybe lighting) and getting that to a point where you're happy with it before you put in any pixel-level work.

Even for a more grid-like layout, that would be beneficial. It's easy to get bogged down in details and accidentally ignore the composition of the scene and end up with something dull.

[Jedemy]

Probably i couldn't have this experience in a better punishing way after spending more than a week on this scene. Exactly like you said, i just lost myself in details. I will still try to make best out of the scene and update the post but also will make sure to remember for my next attempts on anything else to keep this in my mind.

Thank you Eishiya, exactly your last post did teach me something very important.

[Jedemy]

Thanks to your mock up , i tried to put things in a little bit more compact and use the middle area for menu, which i think kind of takes away the feeling of empty useless space. Still i will be adding little bit more details to the scene.

[Jedemy]

Here is the latest update with animation

[eishiya]

It's very dark currently, which makes a lot of it harder to read, and makes the few bright parts stand out perhaps more than they should.

The animations are a little hard to notice when navigating the menu, especially when navigating it fast like that. Consider having the colours change a little too, e.g. consider having the bright blue parts be dark when idle, and light up as part of the animation and having other illumination (or light-coloured objects) turn on or be revealed for the other locations.

[Jedemy]

I've added a saturation shader, not sure if i should be playing with contrast to make idle more darker though. What do you think?

[eishiya]

Now you've just got a screen that's mostly rather dull xP I think keeping things saturated before was fine, I think it's the animations themselves that could use some tweaking (mostly values). The idle stuff was perfectly fine before. If anything, the active stuff needs to stand out more, rather than inactive stuff standing out less.

But, as I said before, the whole scene is currently somewhat dark and hard to read, with the bright parts feeling random and not contributing well to guiding the eye. I think you should work out the colours for the base scene before focusing on the animations and making the highlighted parts stand out.

I want to say though, the animations themselves look nice and are a great touch! I was expecting something much less substantial when you said that the selected part would be highlighted.

[Jedemy]

Thanks for the feedback Eishiya! I've adjusted the darkness a bit, added another animation cycle when things are being selected and did add tiny light source on selected objects.

[eishiya]

I think that works a lot better!

The light in the Storage container looks very flat, maybe some indication of the interior of the box could help it look nicer.
I'd also eliminate the glow of the Workshop mini-sub, and have it light up only when selected. Perhaps it could be transparent until then.

[appo]

quick mokup, worked on the contrast a bit and changed some colors. made it  more blueish since you are underwater and highlighted the specific areas which you pick

mission area highlighted


workshop highlighted


overall mood/contrast comparison

[Jedemy]

That is a very nice mockup! Especially the background color. I will definitely be making some changes. Thanks appo!

[Jedemy]

Alright, here is the latest update. I didn't want to get things too dark but anyway did add a blue filter to give things a bit more underwater feeling. Also did change the light of the storage box to give some depth.

[appo]

i think its a improvement even tho i wouldnt be so shy on highlighting the active areas.
whats supposed to happen afterwards? do new windows pop up which overlay the graphics?
another way to highlight the area would be to use the ui as a visual guide i made again a quick thing to show what i mean.each line would be active only when you activate the area. you could let it fade in or build up like its "walking" the path pixel by pixel to the station.

[Jedemy]

That menu setup is kind of a placeholder for now, i might be changing somethings about that later on. So it wouldn't be very wise to work on such thing but it is a nice idea!

I am planning to add more tiny animations with light effects, it might bring more attention to the selected area.