There are always more ninjas!

[MadToaster]

Here's a mockup I did today of a game I've had in my head for a long time. Studied a lot of video game screenshots to figure out how to make sprites stand out against the environment. The whole premise of the game is that youre the samurai guy and you keep beating up an endless mob of ninjas until you get stabbed into submission. 

[Alex]

i will always love your work

[tetsuya_shino]

Very impressive. It's really interesting how you can make it look so good with such a small amount of colors.

tetsuya_shino

[Ryumaru]

those ninja's remind me of some of tsugumo's sprites for some reason. anyways very nice,the samurai's right arm looks a bit odd tho dont know how youd fix it.

[David]

You know I'm a big fan of your stuff, Mad Toaster; however, I think you need to step up the detail level just a smidge. Details make things interesting and memorable. While your art just oozes with style, I'm hard-preseed to really differentiate between your characters. Don't get me wrong, simplicity has it's place, but in a game situation where I'm fighting hordes of ninjas I really want those ninjas to be something out of the ordinary since they're about all I'll be seeing for the next 30 or so minutes. A small edit:



Not perfect but a step in the right direction if you ask me.

[Zach]

my warriors versus your knights

[madafacka]

You know I'm a big fan of your stuff, Mad Toaster; however, I think you need to step up the detail level just a smidge. Details make things interesting and memorable. While your art just oozes with style, I'm hard-preseed to really differentiate between your characters. Don't get me wrong, simplicity has it's place, but in a game situation where I'm fighting hordes of ninjas I really want those ninjas to be something out of the ordinary since they're about all I'll be seeing for the next 30 or so minutes. A small edit:



Not perfect but a step in the right direction if you ask me.

I disagree.

My suggestion is to keep your style, thats why people will contract you, dont go and lose your style just for getting a few more bucks. Seriouslly, think about it, games with wicked styles always stay on people's mind, look at games like katamary damacy, rez, jet set radio, these games have unique styles and make them different.

I love your style man, unique and fresh, the simplicity of your sprites will open you the gates to probably the best animations. If anything, just learn all about the pixel technique (AA, Selout, working with reduced palettes, etc.. etc..) and that will open you the gates of the game industry. (speaking of 2d game art)

Just my 2 cents... Some might disagree

[Tomi]

love the mockup, really nice colors on the samurai but i agree with madafacka on the ninja tho.
your current ninja lacks depth (especially on the shoulder) and detail (headclothes). you should see pics of real ninjas how their clothes were assembled, they're wicked cool too =) now the head looks like it's more of a robot ninja than a human ninja.
the samurais front arm could benefit from being less bulgy, maybe use more dark shades on the bottom pixels and on the hand to stand out since it will be in mobiles i presume?
also add roundish shadow on the samurai to make it look less like flat plane (straight line on the bottom).

the basic rule to make foreground stand from background is use darker more contrasted shades on the foreground. and that you have achieved

-tomi

[MadToaster]

Alex: Thanks for the motivation. :]

Tetsuya: Thanks, I tried really hard to pick good colors for this.

Ryumaru: Your right about it having a Tsugumo flavor. Just noticed. I wonder what he's up too right now.

David: Texture is a weak spot of mine especially at this scale. Your ninja looks pretty good, gives me a better idea of how to express cloth. Was too occupied thinking about other art related problems while making this.

Zach: Bring IT! Maybe we should have a battlefield collaboration.

Madafacka: I agree with the whole not copying other peoples style thing. I had a recent period of time where I was trying to mimic a bunch of professional work but I gave up on the idea, it was only good for making me upset. The only real references I use now are photos from google image search and the occasional game screenshot to improve on broad things like color theory and composition.

Tomi:  I agree the sprites are a bit rough. I was focusing one the environment so much because that's something I'm weak at.

[Silver]

cool scene , i really like the Background.
The only cirtis i Got is about the lower part of the trees looks flat .
good screen overall