AuthorTopic: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG  (Read 18477 times)

Offline Lien

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #20 on: August 09, 2019, 12:04:17 pm
Your character moving animation towards and backwards from player`s perspective looks weird... I think? Or maybe this is ok and just adds uniqueness to the game (this comes to mind after argue about similarity between this game and Stardew Valley). Correct me, then, but my thought that this man`s legs moving too far to the left and right (cant explain this more precisely, sorry for my english).

Offline Keops

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #21 on: August 09, 2019, 12:34:45 pm
Your character moving animation towards and backwards from player`s perspective looks weird... I think? Or maybe this is ok and just adds uniqueness to the game (this comes to mind after argue about similarity between this game and Stardew Valley). Correct me, then, but my thought that this man`s legs moving too far to the left and right (cant explain this more precisely, sorry for my english).

Nah, it definitely has some weirdness, some people have told me and even I think it looks rather strange. I was aiming for a bit over-the-top or cartoony walkcycle but it still needs a lot of work. I envision it having at least double the frames for fluidity, the shape needs tweaking and also requires 4 diagonals.

Animation is my weakest skill as far as pixel art goes so if you have any tips or edits, I'd much appreciate that :)

Thanks!
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Offline eishiya

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #22 on: August 09, 2019, 02:51:08 pm
The dynamic lighting is looking very flat right now, like you're just lighting up sticker rather than a 3D object. I'm not actually sure that convincing whole-sprite lighting can be done with normal maps alone.

Offline Keops

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #23 on: August 09, 2019, 05:01:01 pm
The dynamic lighting is looking very flat right now, like you're just lighting up sticker rather than a 3D object. I'm not actually sure that convincing whole-sprite lighting can be done with normal maps alone.

Yeah for sure. It looks weird and it's going to require a ton of work, but that was just a quick experiment, first time trying it. Going to keep testing, as I'm sure I can make tweaks to the maps, there's an option called palette map that guarantees some colors so you don't get strange lighting artifacts, I'm sure it can be polished to a very decent state. However, even in the test I loved the result, so I'm 100% on board with it, it can always be an option in the graphic settings, so that people that dislike it can just turn it off and have flat colored pixels :)
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Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #24 on: August 10, 2019, 03:09:55 pm
Part of the issue could be that you've been pretty extreme with the lighting in your examples. This is understandable as you're trying out a new effect and you want to see how far it can go.

Here's a random video on Hollow Knight. Not pixel art, but flat 2D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWM4J_FR7gM

I like how dynamic lighting is handled here. The background is quite dark except around the main character, but the main character stays well lit throughout. Of course, when your game isn't set in a world of bugs underground, this effect would probably be better used at night...

Offline Keops

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #25 on: August 10, 2019, 03:34:34 pm
Part of the issue could be that you've been pretty extreme with the lighting in your examples. This is understandable as you're trying out a new effect and you want to see how far it can go.

Here's a random video on Hollow Knight. Not pixel art, but flat 2D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWM4J_FR7gM

I like how dynamic lighting is handled here. The background is quite dark except around the main character, but the main character stays well lit throughout. Of course, when your game isn't set in a world of bugs underground, this effect would probably be better used at night...

Interesting!

It's an option, use this effect only at night and maybe a subtle version at dawn/dusk. Still thing it is a good idea to include the option for those who like it and a way to toggle it off for those who don't like how it looks. Same for stuff like CRT filters and whatnot.

Thanks for your input! I still have to check out Hollow Knight btw :P
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Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #26 on: August 10, 2019, 03:57:59 pm
Depending on the effect you're going for, a subtle vignette towards white around the edges at daytime could also be very pleasant. You could do this with a simple shader on the camera maybe...

Offline Keops

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #27 on: August 13, 2019, 12:59:26 am
Quick question: What's the minimum viable tileset? I mean, transitions, corner tiles, dif. widths, etc. To make levels look varied enough and less grid-like.

I'm working on this and v0.1 at the same time and I've found it is way trickier than I expected. I've been tried searching for this as I'm sure someone has already cracked this problem but I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for, like a checklist or template of tiles for these kinds of semi-top down games.

This is what has been done today:

Spring tileset for v0.1



Testing it on Tiled


Transitions for scenes implemented in Unity (WIP date and time system implemented too) with persistence


WIP inventory (still used old grass tiles)


Any and all help regarding optimal tileset configurations and templates/examples will be GREATLY appreciated :)

Ribs out!
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Offline Keops

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #28 on: August 13, 2019, 12:59:57 am
Depending on the effect you're going for, a subtle vignette towards white around the edges at daytime could also be very pleasant. You could do this with a simple shader on the camera maybe...

Oh indeed! I will park this for the time being, but I will revisit it down the line for sure!
Hearthstead: Art thread - Website - Twitter

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Offline eishiya

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Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG

Reply #29 on: August 13, 2019, 03:29:09 am
For tilesets of natural features like grass and water, I prefer to do tilesets focusing on diagonals instead of verticals and horizontals, i.e. every tile is basically a corner tile. This allows for a smaller tileset, and more importantly, its structure encourages organic shapes by making straight lines harder to create. The drawback to this style of tileset is most existing automappers don't work well with it, though it could be managed with one based on Wang tiles.

I also think those single-column tiles are kind of useless in most scenarios, as IMHO they create distracting shapes in the environment. They're useful for small-scale games to depict smaller features, but for a large-scale game where a tile is the size of a person or smaller, they're not needed. They're also nearly straight lines by necessity in smaller tiles, which doesn't look natural for things like grass.