AuthorTopic: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress  (Read 9330 times)

Offline Overkill

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[WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

on: July 16, 2007, 01:44:21 am
I'm working on a sidescrolling game that utilizes beacons that broadcast abilities to the player.

These beacons are spread out across various locations in the world, and player's signal reception affects how well the player can perform its skill. Eventually, the player will be able to swap the broadcasted abilities at these beacons. Reception is affected by proximity to the beacons, or environmental signal strengthening/interference, and is measured in levels. The further away, the weaker the signal. The lower levels of skill broadcasts have larger ranges than the upper levels. The player will find upgrades to be able to extend reception range and cancel signal interference factors. The player can collect batteries that temporarily extend reception in the early points of the game.



I'm a programmer by trade, so artwork is sort of a weakness. That said, C+C away.

Also, if you're interested, I'm looking for willing artists since I'm fairly busy and doing this by myself is somewhat of a challenge. The project will be for-free, but if at some point I change my mind and think it's marketable, I'd give a fair fraction of any of profits. Not to say I don't like improving my pixel art skills! I'd still like crits, but foremost, I want to maek gamz.

Offline bengo

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #1 on: July 16, 2007, 02:00:51 am
That stance of his is very dull, try to make him more... ready to fight, give him a gun and put him into a gun stance of some type. Colors are good, keep up with that, work on the selout.

Offline Overkill

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #2 on: July 16, 2007, 03:00:06 am
Hm, I tried making the pose more fighty, but I think I failed hard. It's quite challenging for me to draw poses at such a small scale :/. I made the sprite bigger in the process, though!


Edits or useful resources to point me in the right direction would be appreciated. Rad.

Offline Darien

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #3 on: July 21, 2007, 04:09:46 am


Maybe not what you were going for, but my main point here is to pay more attention to form and anatomy.  Do figure studies and drawings from life and such.

Offline Overkill

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #4 on: August 03, 2007, 05:00:01 pm
Darien, that edit is awesome. I'm going to study your edit and various games to see if I can come up something coherent. But for now I've decided I'll leave the hero guy alone for now, and have started doodling some grass tiles. The tiles are each 16x16, with pretty much no limit on how many are in the tileset.



Comments, criticism, or similar?

Offline Stwelin

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #5 on: August 04, 2007, 12:16:07 am
If the tiles are meant to be aesthetic/background shrubberies, then right on, but if the character is meant to be walking on that surface, than might i suggest dirt under that grassy shag? I guess you could pass it off as an alien planet's overly-foliaged environment, but i think some browns, or at least some sort of dither pattern, would help solidify the tiles.

Also, what does it say next to the cloud? all i can gather is: "Hay cloud hows the ____ up thar? Laff" </offtopic>

Anyway, lookin' pretty swell, hope to see some more of that interesting character.

Offline Overkill

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #6 on: August 05, 2007, 10:06:20 pm
Next to the cloud, it says "Hay cloud how's the Aeris up thar? Laff."

Anyway, screwed around with it a bit more, taking your suggestion to have dirt under the grass.


Drew some water tiles and some bricks, too!


Now, the ultimate test is to actually import them into the map editor and start plotting them. I'll probably do that soon. Also, need little decor-like things, scattered throughout, so I'll work on those eventually. Maybe make some trees, or some background plants?

I'll update the mockup eventually, since I'm not quite satisfied with that much clutter for the HUD (and I want to plot those tiles in a more pretty manner!). Needs to be more simplistic, but still detailed and attention-grabbing enough.

Offline Zero

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #7 on: August 06, 2007, 01:11:32 am
The dirt seems to work better...but it really doesn't look like dirt. Fix the dirt and it'll look pretty nice.

Offline Overkill

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #8 on: August 06, 2007, 02:14:28 am
Uhm, okay. Anything specific about the dirt that makes it not look like dirt? How should I go about fixing this? You've been awfully vague as to any possible solution to this problem.

Offline Stefano

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Re: [WIP] Sidescroller mockup, very work-in-progress

Reply #9 on: August 06, 2007, 02:32:46 am
First I must say I like where this is going. The water has personality with all the floating particles and pointy waves. The colors are pretty good too. Well done.

A few pointers:
1. I think there's too much grass on the most steep slope (the land tile closer to the water). Check out this image.. Show us some dirt and It'll be fixed! Another thing: I can't really picture grass growing in fringes like that. I realize they're there to create a transition between dirt and plant, but still I think it would look nicer if you'd show some halms (is that the word?) on the area closer to the ground and blades pointing up.
2. Theres a vertical line running along your dirt tiles. That's a common problem that I've managed to fix for good on my work by downloading ProMotion trial. It has an auto tile completion feature, that really helps getting things done properly. Also, the round highlights and the mid tone speckles look like individual pebbles. Maybe if you create larger areas for each "stone" (dirt blobs in this case) and shade using all 3 tones you'd achieve more dirt-looking tiles.

I hope it helps!
-Stefano