[WIP] 32x32 Tileset for top down action/adventure, need cc

[Mystery]

After my first attempt on a tileset for a game (which is on hold right now) I'm currently working on another game.
The setting is supposed to be pretty dark (we're going for a slightly survival-horror themed game) and I hope to achieve a more "serious" look.
I've included the first tiles and progress I made. It's not much, but I'll add more tiles regularly, as the game needs to get done.


I'm not that happy with the door and I don't know if the wood looks alright.


Everything is done in Gimp...and I'm getting more and more used to my Wacom tablet for pixeling *g*



first version, not much, just getting the basic colors right


added more details and tiles to make a test room


removed the thick "frame" around the room, added more details

As soon as I've got more tiles and a character sprite, I'll work on the GUI and create a quick mockup. Till then, I'm just posting the tileset.
Anyone have a better solution for horizontal exits? I'm somewhat struggling to find a solution...
The exits don't need to connect to anything, as each room will be a seperate map and the game will run at 320x240 with 224x240 available for the actual game.
The playersprite will be a 32x32 sprite, possibly using up about 16x32 to fit through the doors and to give it a less cartoony look.

If I'm missing any basics, please point them out, too, as I'm still new to pixeling

[ndchristie]

SLIGHTLY OT:

First let me say use of pattern - great
use of shading and local values - great
attention to detail with minimal tiles - great

use of lighting - nonexistant!!
think of all the great horror films that used lighting to create mood.  You've got drab colors, but there's no crazy interplay of light and shadow.

Here's a sketch of a great way you can mess with lighting to create mood done in photoshop because the pixelling will take a while, can do an example if you like the idea, but do not look at this as a way to make the pixel art better:


this is just monochromatic too, you can use full color.  Basically I added in bright light from the doorway and a candle, an intermediate zone (where details show up), and then deep shadows.  Like I said, lighting like this is not as hard as it sounds (chrono trigger and other games do it well, though it's subtle).  You can define simple regions on the floor where characters are visible, black, or nearly white (outside).  If this is really survival action/adventure-horror in the "i have 5 bullets and one key surrounded by zillions of zombies" kind of way, the use of light and shadow can make the game so much more intense:

(not specific to zombie horror, but this is what im thinking from):

- keep character in shadows to avoid attention (zombies have bad eyes)
- hide enemies in shadows for HOLY FUCK ZOMBIE DIE DIE DIE action
- use light to blind zombies by opening windows or lighting candles
- hide objects in shadows so that if you move to fast you might accidently make noise and all the zombies are like, oh, there you are, i didn't see you"

and just in general, this lets you make room after room of the same tiles without making the character feel nearly as bored as they normally might so long as the lighting and key objects change!

anyway, you don't have to listen to any of this, i just think it might make for something a little more fun.

[Mystery]

Thanks a lot for the reply!

The survival horror part won't be a major aspect of the game, but I want to catch the dark atmosphere and use some elements of the gameplay.
There will be quite a lot of puzzles and an interesting storyline, too. The survival-horror gameplay will feature really hard combat. There won't be swarms of zombies, but there will be single enemies, that will be quite powerful, so the rusty kitchen knife-wielding character will thing twice before attacking one.


Yeah, I didn't really think of lightning yet (besides adding a few windows), so your input is greatly appreciated. Hiding in the shadows (won't work with all enemies *g*) is a great idea...I hope we can implement it.

I thought of adding color not through the basic tiles, but through decoration. Carpet, framed pictures, a vase etc. and the more the player progresses in the game, things like blood on the wall/floor (splatters, symbols, writing), damaged basic tiles...

I'll try creating a light/dark version and adding some light sources today and report back

[Mystery]

Ok I tried some different approaches for the light/darkness aspect and added a small window to the tileset.

The current solution is a transparent layer that'll be put on top of the whole scenery.




Some light sources (candle light) could be animated.
What I don't like in this solution is the lack of different light levels. I don't really know how to implement a zone with medium lighting while keeping the tile based approach. The only solution I see right now is a custom lightmap for each room/level, which would eat up a lot of time. Any suggestions?

I just recognized that I messed up tapestry-print on the upper middle parts...just ignore it
And don't mind the current lack of details and objects...they're next!


Edit:
This is part of the tileset I made for the light sources:

[ndchristie]

I would say that your best bet is to go with pure tiles, no transparency, and heavily generalize the lighting - this i think will actually end up looking better in the long run because you can add a bit of variation with the tiles

also, do not be afraid that this will require a huge number of tiles, particularly if you have an object layer and a non-object layer to play with for adding light sources.  it will get heavy in that you will need a good number of floor and wall tiles just to get by, but many objects like a desk with a candle will only need to be drawn once - in medium light - the light on the top can be a part of the candle's sprite.  Doing things this way will also allow you to place the candle on a table instead, while again only drawing the table once in medium light.  All the objects in darkness can use the same general shapes since that's all the eyes should be able to see anyway - a table and a desk will both just be a big dark blob against the slightly lighter dark wall.

etc etc

[Mystery]

Hm yeah, I was afraid that tiles would be the best solution.
So I'd need a lot of variations of each wall and floor tile...full/medium/no-lighting and partially lit from different angles etc.
I'll give it a try tomorrow.

The only downside to this approach is, that the main character isn't affected by the shadows...how to solve that?


In the meantime I've been working on some basic elements, so here's an update:

Don't mind the boring room layout, it's just to test placement of the elements. Plus I've not begun working on decoration or furniture...will do that tomorrow, too (in addition to the new lighting method).

[ndchristie]

what program are you using?  i would try to define it so that the sprite sets change based on tile type (and, ideally, with a very simple method for doing this to avoid lag).  Because it is not even a shape change you can just tell it to swap palettes.

also, try not to get hung  up on the amount of tiles you think you will need.  Wall tiles and many floor/objects that have large, simple details in shadows and bright light can be split between flat regions of black and a flat regions of dark gray (for your white paper).  In fact, i would suggest using a maximum of four values in your dark and bright regions, with maybe 7 values (four distinct values like the others with 3 supporting values) in you "easily visible" range to make it a nice, even 16c palette.  the human eye was not built to see more than one light range at a time so reducing detail in shadows and bright lights i think is more realistic  and stylish than trying to conserve those details.  Try to work chunky too, with very square regions of light and shadow, so that you can cut down transitions.

- sample palette divided by regions

[Mystery]

Thanks for your time

I'm using GameMaker for prototyping, testing and mockups.

The actual game engine is a custom engine using DirectDraw, written in BorlandDelphi. I'm not the programmer, I'll have to ask him about it, but it shouldn't be a problem...might be a reason for him to finally get some stuff on the engine done *g*



So, if I got your last paragraph right, you suggest to slightly reduce the amount of detail and colors when objects/tiles are in bright light or dark shadow (which would also reduce the amount of work a little bit ^^)
Do you have any games/screenshots I could use for reference?

I'll create a few objects to fill the room and start experimenting with the lighting.

[Mystery]

Ok, I've been trying to create some lighting-tiles, but I'm really having a hard time getting the desired results.




First tile: regular brightness
2nd + 3rd tile: won't be used in game, I just made&used them to create the last two tiles
4th tile: darkness
5th tile: transition from light to darkness
6th tile: same as 5th but dithered

I'm somewhat pleased with the current results...at least it looks much better than the transparent tiles, shown above. But maybe it can look better


The main problem is the amount of time it takes to create such a tile...I don't know if there's a way to speed things up. It took me a while to find an appropriate solution, so now I can do it at a somewhat bearable speed. It took me more than half an hour to create these two test-tiles and if I imagine that I'll have to do multiple versions of each tile, that'll increase the time I need to create one basic tile immensly...but maybe I'll be able to do it faster with more practice in the near future. After all, I've just started pixeling *g*

[ndchristie]

you clearly have a mind for detail, which I admire.


HOWEVER i think you are overthinking this whole lighting thing

if you want it to succeed, you'll need to super-simplify.

here is a very quick sample that uses 6 colors and about 20 tiles (i didn't actually count).  You have dozens of colors that you can use to smooth things down of course, but this is just a speeder:



there are all sorts of things you can do with this simple style too, primarily by altering the way certain materials go into shadow.  to give the idea that the wood is shiny (or the carpet very matte), you can make them roughly the same color in light but the carpet lighter when in shadow, and if a bright light crossed wood and then carpet and then wood again, you can put a brighter tile for the wood but leave the carpet in it's regular lighting.  the cool thing about all of these tricks that seem a little complex is that they actually REDUCE the number of tiles needed - a very good thing.