Cirque de la Machine

[Sherman Gill]

English, that would be Circus of the Machine.
Overly AA'd sidescrolling boss run thing!
All of these are better viewed at 2x

The quintuple cannon. Side cannons (they fire the same bullets, even though they look different) shoot little orbs that break into sideway shots when they hit the ground.
Mid-cannons fire lasers.
Center cannon... dunno. Something evil, I reckon
Von Bad is the antagonist, Vick Victor is one of the two main characters (it will have co-op).
Here are some character animations (Pees view at larger than 1x):
Jump! Somethings wrong with it, but I don't know what.
Run! pretty simple.

[Arachne]

Ooh, you're off to a great start. You're right about the overly AA'd bits. Actually, what you're really doing is just adding fuzziness since you're just darkening nearby pixels without also brightening the outline. You don't need AA at that size, in my opinion, so just get rid of it altogether.

Also, the details on the dark machine parts could be more visible. The bright background is drowning them out at the moment, so brighten them.

[Sherman Gill]

Quick jab at increasing the machine contrast. Not sure how I feel about it... Hrm...
As for the AA: I might have fuzzied up the character a little too much, but you can really notice the absence of it when zoomed in on the machine.

[tocky]

Reading the title, I was hoping for more cirque, and less machine. The idea of a robot/mechanical circus is awesome, and so too are these designs, but I can't reconcile this environment with the sort of stuff you had me hoping for. Basically, it looks cool, but it's standard futurism, like you'd see from metroid or halo or everything else, not original as I hoped. Please blend circusey themes into it.

[Arachne]

I just noticed there's no entrance to the room. Are you going to teleport between rooms?

I played around with it a little and probably came up with something very different from what you had in mind. It doesn't seem that threatening for such a big machine. I'm sure it'll be different when you see it in motion and what the biggest cannon can do.

I thought maybe having the machine move towards you and adding destructible platforms could make it a bit more claustrophobic.

[Xion]

Why the devil is the bg so light? It makes the Xion cry.

Otherwise awesome.

[Sherman Gill]

Is it actually hurting your eyes Xion? It isn't that bright on this monitor...


Still need to add some finishing touches to the first level, but I got tired of it so I started on the second (or so) level. Having a spot trouble with the environment . Also shown: Player 2, Vicky
The little buttony machines on the central conveyor belt switch the the direction when shot, allowing you to reach the seperate sides (though the right doesn't have the stair-case portion needed)

Also: these are made with gameplay in mind. First level was made to be simple, form as a way of easing people into the game, so no overly complex stuff .

[eck]

i think he is referring to the fact that the background is a light color, and that it might blend better with the darker characters and tiles if it was a tad darker.

... hey guys.  im back.

[Souly]

You have so many un-need colors on the character.
The AA is way too much, in fact I don't think you need it at all.

[im9today]

Reinterating Xion's point: The background is much too light. Up it to about halfway between the darkest tone and where it is now methinks.
And I don't understand why you are AA the outside edges of mobile sprites. It's baffling to me. I don't think you need it.
Arachne's idea sounds awesome by the way.

Edit: Oops, Souly posted while I was typing. Good edit. <3