[WIP] 1-bit space mockup with peanuts

[Arachne]

I was just doodling, and came to think of robotacon's space man thread. I liked the simple style, and thought a space setting could be fun to try since I've wanted to make little sprites out of my line art monsters. This is what I have so far. About 20 rock tiles, I think.



The main character is a humanoid alien of sorts. He's out gathering space peanuts. Space peanut oil is a valuable resource, you see.



I've finished the walk cycle. Now I'm working on the shooting animation and animating the monsters. Not sure about the background yet. I think it could use something like an asteroid belt to give it some kind of a horizon, so I'll give that a go and see if I can pull it off without making everything too cluttered.

Edit:

[Ryumaru]

you could make the characters and other important things stand out much more by making the rock formations closer to the darker side of the value scale. right now they give off about a 70% brightness level.
love it though, extremely simple and sexy.

[mattness]

Two ideas about background..


(color reduced photos)

Not really sure about the galaxy bg.. maybe the second one is what are you lookin' for, just you can try it.

And don't forget.. 1-BIT ROCKS!!!

[am_pm]

IMO the first BG you suggested would cause mass readability issues. Looks nice for1 bit though!

[Arachne]

Yeah, the galaxy is much too bright. The asteroids are pretty close to what I had in mind, but darker.



Right. Well, I made a few different versions. The characters are more visible, but there's less distinction between the foreground and the background in the darkest ones, so I'd go with the brightest of the three. What do you think?

[Xion]

Lookin' awesome, and first one most definitely.
Q: What is that very last animation?

And I think I'll have to try my hand at onebitness soon.

[robotacon]

Interesting stuff.

I actually think the first version is the best. The others get increasingly busy so it's harder to see what is what in a still frame like that.
Perhaps it's clearer when things move around.

If you look at Adam Atomics Sabotage mock-up it would work in B/W too simply because the silhouette is so distinct.

In other words, I think this one looks best when it's high contrast.

Come to think of it, perhaps use high contrast for game objects and dithering for background objects?

[Arachne]

The last one there is the fly monster death animation. I guess I need to work on that a bit.



Edit:

[Jad]

Is the choppyness of the animation some kind of esthetical choice?

Otherwise I vote for INBETWEENFRAMESOHMYGODILOVESMOOTHNESS

Yes.

[Arachne]

Is the choppyness of the animation some kind of esthetical choice?

Otherwise I vote for INBETWEENFRAMESOHMYGODILOVESMOOTHNESS

Yes.

I guess you could say that. It would just seem odd to me to limit the amount of colors and not keep the frame count somewhat limited as well. I'm also more likely to finish something when it's less work, so I might add more frames once I have all the animations figured out.


Hope this version reads a bit better.

[Cow]

Honestly, I think the first version of the mockup was best, wasn't cluttered and the platforms looked the best. I may be alone in that thinking, however. In a game context, I'd save all the sexy nebulae/asteroid belts for the less busy areas.

[Arachne]

OK, how about...

[MoD]

I actually liked the third version of the post with three, not because of lightness/darkness, but mostly because the other two (and subsequent updates) have had some dither that bothers me. The lighter areas of the platforms have a scattering of pixels that looks sort of like diffusion dither more than the orderly stuff in the darker areas and it just looks a bit messy with the two different approaches, IMHO. But I love the overall look of this. The main character is totally relaxed in the idle pose and that expression (or lack thereof) is priceless. <3

[Cow]

I'd say that's a lot nicer. But I still prefer the original platforms, the dithering being more subtle and all. Speaking of which, you can probably even solidify the asteroid belt in the background now without fear of it merging with the foreground (I made an edit, but it's rather redundant and looks a lot like mattness's asteroids). Good work, keep us updated.

[Arachne]

I think I'd lose what little sense of depth it has by making the asteroids more solid.

It occurred to me that keeping everything the same frame rate would be a good idea, so I have to add more frames to the walk cycles anyway.

 

[robotacon]

I think you need to tilt the head when he/she is climbing the block.
I'm having the same problem with my space man.

[Arachne]

Heh, I didn't think of that. I'll see if I can tilt his head inside his helmet somehow.

[Arachne]

New walk cycles. He's sort of dragging his feet now, though. Too slow?



I also thought moving the stars towards the middle might work better than having them so scattered.

[MoD]

I think for theoretical playability that walk animation would be horrible. With a bit of speeding up it would probably be much better though; it's just that playing a game where you move at that speed would be quite boring.

[Arachne]

Good point! Hope this looks better.


Edit: Of course, now I definitely need to add more frames to the other animations.

[Blick]

I would've never thought to throw in place holder blocks to get the animations down. Kind of clever, but mostly just because I'm apparently retarded.

You've almost inspired me to make half an animation, decide it's not very good, then trash it.

Surprisingly easy to read what's happening in the mockups given it's 1 bit. I wonder if it'd get confusing in motion though.

[baccaman21]

I think for theoretical playability that walk animation would be horrible. With a bit of speeding up it would probably be much better though; it's just that playing a game where you move at that speed would be quite boring.

You never played tir na nog/ Dun darach or the Heavy on the magic then? For example

[Arachne]

Made some kind of alien ruins. The pillars weren't originally meant to be used as background elements, so I think I'll have to remove some of the dithering so that they're more similar to the dark rocks for that to work.

Edit:

[Arachne]

Mushrooms and explosions!