sidescroller mockup [WIP]

[brianskywalker]

This is my first game mockup ever. for practice, but if it turns out nice then I'll consider making a homebrew game. I'm really not sure about the background, I might do some AA on it since it's not very easy to get something like that to look smooth enough without it. really not enough contrast between the character and the bg either. I might outline the character or change the bg to fix it.

meh the character isn't that great either.

Anyways critiques would be awesome. (Imma add more stuff and enemies soon, but I really need to sleep now. X.x)

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Latest version + WIP:



Also another mockup:

new: old:

[Zenobia]

Well I don't have much critique yet since it's so wip, but I just wanted to say it's a really, really awesome style and I can't wait to see the progress.

[I Am Uh]

I love the style you've chosen. Not to often do you see cartoon mock-ups like this. My one and only crit would be the ground. Maybe try something with more depth rather than just squares. Seems a bit messy too, but it's still a wip so it's hard to crit. Good luck.

[brianskywalker]

Thanks guys.



Well I haven't really added anything yet. I messed with the palette a bit here and I tried to make the guy's position look a bit more natural. I'm trying something different with the shading on the sand. I tested some dithering in the bottom left corner, not sure if I like it or not. Thoughts?

[Shrike]

Okay, so i've broken the style a little, but you may want to consider some of this stuff.



changes:

1 i AAed the background a little.

2 i thought the characters leg position was a little extreme, so i changed it and made the legs shorter and thicker.

3 Changed the text and heart on the top a little.

4 Added a shadow below the character. I know it's horribly inaccurate, but you get the point.
Besides though, i LOVE the idea. an actual game like this would be awesome.

Keep up the good work. 

EDIT:

the dithering works. Go with it.

[Terley]

I prefered the orange, but there'd be a problem making the character out from the background.

[#36005A]

I also prefer the original version. I loved the comical and whimsical nature of his running style and the crazy extension of his arms - now it just looks awkward in my opinion.

[Turbo]

I love the look of the first version, both the color sheme and the character, looks very cartoony and full of movement. No a big fan about the dirt effect, but it's interesting to see some zany effects for floor

The shadow on the second looks pretty interesting, would be nice to have it match the character's animation (if this were to be done, hipothetically).

[brianskywalker]

I also liked the original version better. I had been trying to find an orange bg color that would also make the character readable, but I couldn't get one that wasn't really gross and unsaturated.

@coran Thanks for the ideas. The AA in your edit made the bg look worse I think. My AA probably isn't that great either though.

Anyways heres my new version:



I changed the palette quite a bit here. I'm using a redder ground color and went back to the pink I had originally. The bg is now AAed as well. It's still not as smooth as it could be, but it's better! I changed the HUD quite a bit. In general it's just smaller, and opens up the top a bit making the sky seem a little bigger. I wanted to add a shadow but I'm actually not sure how it should go, because the sand isn't exactly flat, and if this does actually get made into a game, I will probably have to figure out a shadow that will look good everywhere. (At least in this sandy area, anyways.)

I didn't finish the shading on the ground since I wasn't completely sure it would look alright. Looking at it now I think it will work out good. I'm going to add some plants or foliage next I think. Probably some birds in the sky would look good too. I dunno.

[Sherman Gill]

Coming along! New dirt is much improved I think on the higher point you should try to keep some of chunky texture, but still add some texture and dithering . Kinda hard to explain.
Judging from a quick glance, it looks like your curves on the sky aren't maximum efficiency (I just made that up, take note), that is, they aren't ordered correctly. Like instead of 1-1-1-2-2-2-3-3-3
they're like 1-1-2-1-2-3-2-3-3
So either you need to work on that, or your AA bits vary too much in size.