gamemaker project

[Kennethfejer]

playing around with some environments for a game im currently working on.
thought i would post them here, to get some feedback and to make sure i dont give up half way, because im too lazy.

desert :


village(wip) :

needs a lot of work still.

oh and before i get the "oh my god! a gradient sky!!! " replies, let me just say that its not the final one

[Rosse]

Because you say it's "wip" there isn't much to say imho, the viking-like heads are just great as well as the color choices. Exect the purple flower on top of the cacti are too saturated maybe? Just looking forward to the final scenes (and game).

On other thing maybe: Your main character is a girl, but it's not absolutely clear in 100% (for me atleast, in 200% it is). Maybe in the idle animation the boobs should bounce a bit?

[Xion]

Actually I very much like the girl as she is. Who says game chicks need to reek of a femininity that most real females don't even have.

I find the depth of the desert difficult to determine, since the cacti in the foreground are the same size as those in the background, and the flower atop the giant cactus is the same size as both the flowers atop the foreground and background cacti. If the foreground-sized cacti in the background are as giant as the big cactus in the foreground, shouldn't those flowers be relatively smaller?

I like the house.

I think the distant background in both images (the layer right before the cloud-gradient) seems a bit too pale, but that, I suppose, is IMHO.

[Kren]

In the desert one you could add more variety of cactus, not just change the size, the same goes for the trees in the village one. Apart from that this looks really good, you should explain use what are those orange boxes in the village.

[Faceless]

You always come up with such simple designs that work so well. I really hate you for it, because it's something I can never manage.
The sand dunes in the midground look very flat, and as such don't give a good sense of depth. I agree with the comment about desaturating the flowers.

The village is looking very nice so far. Some of those heads have to shoot fireballs out of their mouths.

Will you be using the wings be purely aesthetic, or will you use them to allow for short periods of flying or maybe to perform a double jump?

[Jad]

Please do not include boob bounce in the final idle stance. If you think about what distance one pixel would be if you sized it up, her boobs would have to bouce around a lot. Subpixel animation could manage that, but I dunno.

:\ I agree with xion, why slam femininity (and sexual, at that) in her face that most normal girl don't even have? Plus, maybe she's a tomboy.

And I like tomboys <3


..

Regarding the desert picture, one more parallax layer with the same one-color style in front of the one that already is there would bring everything together nicely. Or so I think.

Regarding the wings, a series of double-jumps in decreasing strength would rock. Each extra-jump being a wing-flap. And then a power-up or special move that gives all flaps equal strength (with the result that she becomes able to fly :])

... Would be cool. > _>

[smiker]

what is subpixel animation?

[Zero]

what is subpixel animation?

In a few words, moving things a smaller distance than one pixel.

[rabidbaboy]

On the dragon heads, the shading on the neck makes it look flat, and I agree with Xion, the distant background needs to be a bit darker so it won't mix with the background.

Love the colors, and it's looking like a rad style.

[Feron]

awesome stuff as per usual.

heres a quick very crude edit on that cactus :

[Helm]

I thought of a similar edit on the cactus, but it's really better flat, visually.

[Feron]

I thought of a similar edit on the cactus, but it's really better flat, visually.

 i concur, just putting it out there though.

[Ryumaru]

yeah it seems just the contour lines of the ridges or whatever do enough to show its form, and the flatness keeps it from getting too much attention.

[Helm]

Besides, Feron, you have interpreted how the light would hit these volumes in reverse than they should.



(I'm not suggesting this edit be used by Kenneth, this is just for Feron)

[snake]

Vikings out of context ftw.

Your houses look like they need some help with perspective, or generally showing their angle. Right now thay look a little flat. Quick test:

Of course that adds another colour, but using the current palette looked a little odd:


Tested making the trees darker as well. Also noticed that the gap on the top of the house is not dead centre. This could be because of tiling, but shouldn't be hard to fix, unless you ment it to be that way. I would also suggest experimenting with some sort of outline on the wings. I feel they don't match the rest of the character too well, but more importantly, they could get hard to see with shifting backgrounds.

That said, I like they way this is turning out. I'm getting some serious deijavou from those cactuses. Looks exactly like the ones I designed for a commertial a short while ago.

[Kennethfejer]

thanks for all the comments

sorry for replying back soo late.
no update yet, but im working on a third environment, which should be done soon (hopefully)

about the main character, i haven't decided yet what to do, i will be making some adjustments though, i want to make sure people can tell its a girl.


Xion:
yeah i think you're right, i need to fix the cacti a bit.

Kren:
the boxes are crates, im just using placeholder graphics for now.

Faceless:
thanks
its a friendly village, it will be full of npc's and stuff,  so no fire breathing dragon heads they are just ornaments.
yeah the wings will be using for double jumps, triple jump and stuff like that.


snake:
yeah will have to add some shading on the roof of the buildings, they look a bit flat atm.
the wings does blend in quite a lot, especially with the sky, so i will be adding some outline to it later.

Feron :
i want everything to have a flat look,  so im probably going to stick to my version, even though helms edit looks quite cool.

rabidbaboy
yeah the neck is a flat piece of wood, the only reason why i shaded the top, is because you can stand on it.

[Sherman Gill]

Now, to paraphrase our dear Jad:
If you want to clarify what a small sprite is, include some big artwork of what it is an' show it prior, cuz' it will stick in the persons head.

Ooh, I know, pack some porn involving the main character in there .
Actually, I have a theory that porn drawn by you would likely be, like, the best thing ever...

[vellan]

lovely stuff kenneth

couple quick comments:

- with the cacti bulbs looking identical in the fore and midground, it decreases the sense of depth and seperation. maybe consider coloring/shading the midground ones differently?

- the windows and doors would be a prime place to add some different colors to the scene (shutters, drapes, doorknockers, flowerboxes, etc). This is pure polish and since it is WIP you may have already thought of this for down the line.

- I can see the dips in the roof platforms causing issues (wither the character will have to float, or the character will dip down for a very short period of time)

- the village scene lacks the midground objects of the cacti scene. maybe something as simple as bushes, trees or other faded buildings could proide the same depth.

all-in-all, i can't wait to see more.

ps. get Glu to work with us so you and I can collaborate

0

[Kennethfejer]

thanks for the comments

here's another mockup.

[EyeCraft]

Hey, I'm totally digging this thread! In regards to the newest shot, the big wooden dragon looks a little washed out, like its lacking some strong shadow. I mean, compare it to the sprite and you can notice it pretty readily. I say add stronger shadows and brighten and desaturate a tiny bit the highlight.

Along the bottom, that 2:1 line that points roughly towards the main character, it bothers me a little. Doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the piece. Compare it with other similar lines you have in the piece and how you treated them, I think it needs a treatment similar.

The shields could maybe be a little shinier and perhaps a different colour to the wood, to differentiate them a little bit and just to add a tiny bit more interest to the piece.

The dark doorwar on the side really needs something happening with it, even if its just a subtly lit interior, or strengthened in darkness.

The HUD is bland in comparison to the wonderful vibrance of the rest of the graphics. I don't really know what to suggest, but perhaps something a little more thematic and eye-candyish.

Keep up the awesome work!

EDIT: Oh, cut back the AA on the dragon's 'fins' running along the top, they appear blurry.

[fawel]

Hey, I'm totally digging this thread! In regards to the newest shot, the big wooden dragon looks a little washed out, like its lacking some strong shadow. I mean, compare it to the sprite and you can notice it pretty readily. I say add stronger shadows and brighten and desaturate a tiny bit the highlight.

That is what you do to seperate the character from the background <_<
Looks good Kenneth, I hope it's going to come together.  Are you programming, or do you have a team of some sort...?

[Luzeke]

I like the details of the wooden dragon.

I'm curious about those small shiny... things to the right. Are they supposed to move about a little, or are they static?

I noticed this mockup is slightly smaller than the others.

Awesome as always! 

[philipptr]

the new screen looks really great. only thing that seems a bit strange is that it seems more hazy than the other one due to less contrast. so if this effect wasn't intentional you could add some more depth by using one darker shade:

pretty much a stylistic choice though. looking forward to see more from this game (especially character animations)

[EyeCraft]

Hey, I'm totally digging this thread! In regards to the newest shot, the big wooden dragon looks a little washed out, like its lacking some strong shadow. I mean, compare it to the sprite and you can notice it pretty readily. I say add stronger shadows and brighten and desaturate a tiny bit the highlight.

That is what you do to seperate the character from the background <_<

True, but compare the third mockup to the previous two. The first 2 have higher contrast backgrounds, similar in contrast to the sprite, and I think the sprite stands out just fine in those shots.

[Jad]

Yes, I agree about there being a need for a little more contrast.

There are other ways, see, of creating focal points in an image.

There is value differences (parts being lighter/darker than other parts stand out), which has been used in these screens to good effect

Sharpness differences (god, I feel like I'm ripping off Arne's tutorial here), where something sharp stands out among blurry things, quite natural, actually, it's what the human eye does when focusing.

Color differences, of course, something that's also used here, since the girl in the pictures is the only thing in the image which has a pure red. That makes her stand out.

But there are also geometry differences. If you notice, the backgrounds are, and I don't know if that's intentional or not, mostly composed out of shapes that are either circular or square. The cacti are all circular and nice, while the viking-like environments have a lot of rectangles in them.

That makes the heroine stand out a great deal, since she is far more advanced in shape than those simple geometrical shapes, and thus, she attracts the eye in a good way.

And because of that, I think that even if she and the background had identical values, the design of the environment would still have a beneficial effect on her readability.

Just saying why darkening the dark tones on the lates screens wouldn't do a lot of harm. Heh.

[Kennethfejer]

haven't had much time for this project lately, but i managed to do a bit of work on it today, so i though i would post a small update.
thanks to everyone who has commented so far

viking village:



quick note, theres a few stray pixel here and there, don't worry about those, i'm still optimizing the tiles.

[infinitegames]

I've really liked what you've done with this for a long time, but those trees really stand out to me (the new ones). They're SO cool, and really unique too.

[8bitty]

yes, it's looking fantastic.. hope we get to play it soon... 

[ndchristie]

hmm......


those trees manage to be complementary, but not complimenting.  The detail is very cool but it completely dominates the foreground objects, and even the character gets difficult to read against them.  cool them down and reduce the value contrast and detail level i think, or else increase the detail level of the foreground, there's just too much competition and the background is WINNING IT!!! (which should never happen).

[Kennethfejer]

Adarias:
totally agree, will be changing the color scheme of the trees.

[Blackbeltdude]

I really like the simple clean look everything has. It's pretty cool. Aside from what everyone else has pointed out though, I'd wonder how the houses would be if they looked a little older... like maybe a crack here or there, or some brick could be showing or something. Just something to give it more character.

[Kennethfejer]

Blackbeltdude:
yeah i might add some more details on the houses, but I'm afraid of adding too much detail, because that means i need to have the same amount everywhere else and i kind of like the flat look some of the elements has.
i already think the shield on the first house look out of place.



heres a slightly altered version:

(don't worry about the background not tiling and the turquoise)

and a new environment I've just started on.

[philjones]

The background trees are still fighting pretty hard against the sprite.

The large striped columns in the new environment, should they not fade to a colder colour?  That brown is duller than the red, but still fairly warm.

And... jpgs?

[big brother]

Love the direction this is heading. I prefer the yellow-green trees to the newest ones. The cool colored ones tend to fade into the background more (clearer priority), but the warmer ones fit more with the entire scene. The sprite is hard to distinguish against both versions, but this has less to do with color and more to do with the contrast of the shades. In the mid-ground trees, the difference between the lightest shade and darkest is much higher (and in close proximity) than most of the dark/light shades in the player sprite (with the exception of the black around the leg armor). I hope this makes sense and is helpful. Keep up the good work!

[ndchristie]

alright, it's getting better, but here's the plain and simple dealleo:  The eye simplifies things into regions by color, value, and saturation (and detail level too, though i dont know how to filter that easily).



Do any of those clearly show the regions you'ld like them to?

also, the white clouds and white houses are speaking to each other, which places the trees on top of the houses.  it's very confusing visually.

[Kennethfejer]

philjones
And... jpgs?

jpgs are perfectly fine for what they are meant to be used for here, which is looking at them.

big brother:
i agree, the previous trees has a nicer color.
the problem is the contrast, i might just need to slightly adjust that.

Adarias:
value looks fine to me, obviously i need to tweak it a bit, but dont forget that this is a static image and that the trees in the bg will move at a different speed, then the foreground and also that the character will be animated.
but yeah, like i mentioned, i need to look at the contrast on the trees.

[bengo]

In Phil's defense:
First off, thats all pixel art is(is looking at it) and second off, it's better to save it as gif/png not just because it's better to save with pixel art, it also tends to be a smaller size. Er, my bad.

Kenneth:
God I love your work, it's simple and clean, the only thing thats bothering me is there's not much of a transition from those two areas in the second pic(The new environment you're starting on).

[ptoing]

In Ken's defense:
Uh no, gif/png is NOT smaller than jpg, and those images are pretty big plus saved at 100% quality so the compression is minimal. In general I am not a fan of jpg for pixelart but I think for big mockups like this it's fine.

Looking good, tho I hope you really get to make this game

[Kennethfejer]

bengoshia:
if i had made a character and you wanted to check how many colors i had used, then yes png or gif would be the formats to save it in.
but this is a huge image that doesn't need to be inspected that closely. if you really want to though, then check the previous images i've posted, they are all png or gif.
the images weren't meant to be posted here, i just though "whatever.. i might as well" thats why they are jpgs, i didn't mention that when i posted, because i really think its a non issue.
i totally agree, you shouldn't save you images as jpg's, but it was either posting the images, which were 100% quality, so you cant tell they really are jpgs, unless you zoom in 10x or right click the image, or not posting the images at all.

[ndchristie]

i still feel that there is major conflict with visual planes and that the character can never be quickly identified, even when the screen is cut down to 320x240, but if you think you can see what you need to, i suppose that it's no longer my business.

the righthand portion of the new screen is very successful, the cool colors and simple shapes will pop out the character nicely. 

the left hand side has major issues because it has real contrast so the character cannot really be detected from the pattern, and the railing covers up the defining red tunic - your best locater - only to replace it with a color that the hair can blend in with!  also, it doesn't look like you're doing anything to separate the backdrop from the platform, which is confusing as anything.

to be honest i just don't get it - your other mockups do everything so well.  Here, the pieces are great when pulled apart, but together it's a visual catastrophe.  I'm not just trying to rag on you here either - these pieces are REALLY HURTING.

[Jad]

I just think that the trees are to lined-up, too tiled and not sexy at all.

:| Boring opinion, but it's mine and it is what it is.

A /\-cone form would seriously enhance these pines.

[MoD]

One thing I'd like to ask is: What kind of trees had bare stretches of trunk between large leafy areas? I've never seen any like that and from an evolutionary standpoint it doesn't make too much sense. I guess it's possible though, if not logical; are you basing them off of a particular type of tree?

This is a nitpick and should be regarded as such.

[Blackbeltdude]

I think you could probably fix it up if you just toned down the contrast in the trees... make them blend into the background more.

It's also possible a third layer of trees could help too. (One more that's far back) Then I think it'll make it look a lot more like a small forest back there. Like Jad said, they're pretty tile-y, and possibly because of that, I can see the sky behind them. Which doesn't really make sense.

I really think less overall contrast in the trees, and another layer to represent further trees would make this look cooler.

[.TakaM]

I knew I recognized those trunks in the jungle part of your tiles

I really love the jungle tiles so far, looking forward to the waterfall.
One thing I'm having a little trouble with is working out how the tiles work, as in, it's obvious which tiles are the ground, but can the main character say.. jump on top of the roofs of the houses etc?
and excuse me if I sound like a groupie, but gamemaker? I think you could find a very competent C++ coder or something, maybe even NDS homebrew ?

[baccaman21]

One thing I'd like to ask is: What kind of trees had bare stretches of trunk between large leafy areas? I've never seen any like that and from an evolutionary standpoint it doesn't make too much sense. I guess it's possible though, if not logical; are you basing them off of a particular type of tree?

This is a nitpick and should be regarded as such.

The word STYLE springs to mind... 

[Stwelin]

I would _love_ to see this turn into an NDS Homebrew! But gamemaker can get the job done. There are games that shine with gamemaker, you just have to be knowledgeable.

[Jad]

One thing I'd like to ask is: What kind of trees had bare stretches of trunk between large leafy areas? I've never seen any like that and from an evolutionary standpoint it doesn't make too much sense. I guess it's possible though, if not logical; are you basing them off of a particular type of tree?

This is a nitpick and should be regarded as such.

The word STYLE springs to mind... 

The words 'repeating the same two tiles on top of each other with a stick as only gridbreaker is not at all as sexy as, well, _everything else_' also spring to mind.

[baccaman21]

touche

[.TakaM]

I don't think the trees are too bad, I remember seeing lots of trees like that when I used to help chop down xmas trees, they were probably diseased or something.. but whatever
bonsai trees also have exposed segments of the trunks, that is of course due to the pruning.. but it may be the same for the viking's village?

[Kennethfejer]

thanks for the comments.


hehe its a game, so i dont think its a problem, if you wont be able to find the same type of trees anywhere in real life. Valkyries aren't real either, but that didn't stop me from including them

jad:
sure a real cone shaped tree would be better, but since im doing the whole game by myself, i need to make sure i can actually finish the game, so if i have to simplify some of the elements, so be it. i would love for everything to look perfect, but that would mean i would only have a couple of environments and even though that would look great at first, you'll soon grow tired of seeing the same stuff over and over again.

TakaM :
yeah im lazy, so im reusing old graphics

yeah you can run around on the roof of the houses and on the dragon heads

if i could find someone who is really good and interested in programming it, sure, but you can still do some pretty cool stuff in gamemaker

Adarias:
i totally disagree with that, left side is pretty much 1 single color, except for the railing(which will not always be there) that covers up a little bit of the character, i have no problem seeing the character.
i appreciate your comments, but i don't agree

its a work in progress though, so everything could change.

[madPXL]

hi kenneth, your wip game remind me a sort of wonderboy , isn't it? 

for critics on you last wip with the fir trees, I think you could draw it with just one color or 2, like your last environment with bushes and maybe with a line art for the contour.
so, I realy love the cartoonish style and the choice of colors ! very good job ! and of course remind me the kenneth touch

last, I know a software to create fast and easy game, maybe you could try it
it's named Game Editor and you can export easily (just with one clic button) your game on various platforms as windows, mac, linux, pocket pc,smartphone and gp2x.
there are many tutorials on it to show how to create a map with collision and all the moves of characters and of course how to create a demo 

the link : http://game-editor.com/

so good luck for the next !

[Crow]

if i could find someone who is really good and interested in programming it, sure, but you can still do some pretty cool stuff in gamemaker

You can actually do alot of damn awesome stuff in Game Maker, you just need to know how to use it

The graphics so far are great, I really love them. I hope you will finish the game ;P

[Jad]

I am totally respecting that, and you wanting to finish this and balance quantity with quality is awesome so yeah.

I'd still suggest just another break-up tile to make stuff interesting, or at least that you fill in those gaps between the trees, because it makes it look like that whole world is cut out of paper, and I'll only tolerate that if you name the game 'Super Paper Valkyrie' :<

No really, I am loving it though. I want to play this so badly :3