my little world, monsters! ... [please C&C]

[Tarenken]

I don't know what angle you want the game itself at, but the trees seem to disagree with the angle the rest of it is. Like, you shouldn't be able to see the 'tops' of the trees (if that's what the blank green stuff is) if the space is flat.

[PypeBros]

I'm not sure it's such a good idea for Bilou to be smiling the whole time he's beating up bad guys and facing epic perils....

lol. He won't, don't worry. It just happens that it's the only sprite that is completed with hands and feet atm. He'll have a more neutral expression for the rest of the game, smiling at the player is for the "idle" animation, after he blinked a couple of time.

Trees are looking better! I'll give some more real critique, but I'm too tired atm...

np. /me staying tuned.

I don't know what angle you want the game itself at, but the trees seem to disagree with the angle the rest of it is.

well, the angle is roughly similar to what you can see in Rayman 1 : you won't see walls, but you're slightly above the ground, so a circular whole on the ground would look like an 4:1 ellipsoïd or so.
The flat, green area is more supposed to be the side of the tree than rather the "top" of the tree. I call them treetops due to my lack of a more appropriated word

[HughSpectrum]

Trees need to be closer to the background.  Your character is not standing in front of the tree, he's standing against it.  If those trees are meant to be background detail, then they need to be drawn towards the background just like your desaturated tree.  Trees that are on the same z axis as the player indicate to me that the tree is an impassable wall.

I would recommend recycling the kinds of trees you have now just so you can use them as platform elements, but add to the background you have.

[PypeBros]

Trees that are on the same z axis as the player indicate to me that the tree is an impassable wall.
I would recommend recycling the kinds of trees you have now just so you can use them as platform elements, but add to the background you have.

OOps. You're right. These trees are supposed to be impassable walls, indeed. Fixed the mockup so that Bilou is no longer in a wall (though he's trapped, now). Added bonuses, too.

[PypeBros]

--->
tried to break the "straightness" of the trunk, and worked a bit more on trunks. any better ?
(well, i'll have to beam up a palette for the mushroom and try to work on that, now...)

[garland]

Trunks look good, although I wouldn't have pointed out anything wrong with the way they were earlier. I would like to see the rocky base of that platform spread out a bit more. As it is, it looks like it's going to fall over on the right side.

The graphics you have right now appear rather blocky. All of the individual pieces are very clean cut. Although this is difficult to avoid because of engine constraints and such, (Tiles...oh darn your square-ness.) nature appears very uneven at times, and I would like to see more of that represented in your graphics. Unless the blockyness is an aesthetic choice, which it doesn't appear to be from what I've seen illustrated on your blog.

Perhaps you could add some bleeding over of the grass into the bottoms of the tree-trunks or a few piles of rock around the base of that platform.

Overall, though, I believe it's coming along nicely. Keep it up.

[wah_wah_69]

Your character reminds me of lolo from Adventures of lolo/eggerland but with snorkels eyes.

[Helm]

Yes, it's often been said that this is a character that's been done before!

[PypeBros]

Your character reminds me of lolo from Adventures of lolo/eggerland but with snorkels eyes.

If i'm to admit influence in the character design, it will be Pacman (i mean, in the cartoon, not in the game) rather than Lolo(lo) of eggerland (which i only discovered through his cameoh in Kirby's Avalanche game, after years of Bilou drawing), honnestly. But again, it's so damn far away in time, that it's cultural background more than real "reference material" ... As Helm pointed out, it seems that a ball with hands and feet is just a stereotype of "i need a character for my game" just like "a red hammer" is the stereotype for "think of a tool of some color" (at least for french-speaking guys).

--> --> ,
By the way, it seems that as the time goes, they modified his appearance so that he quits being just a ball and has some more "recognizable" (?) combination of colours (though my own mind identifies that as "omg, poor Sonic, what did Dr. Eggman do to you ?" -- don't ask why).

Anyway, i plan to stick on Bilou's appearance because he is immediately recognized by the people around me that are waiting for a Bilou's game for years. I acknowledge that if i were to pick a new character or targetting large audience (or if i was to write a game with Helm in my team ), i would avoid blue balls, but none of this are true. I'm just trying to come with some decent graphics and writing the game is long-term hobby rather than market-driven job.

Perhaps you could add some bleeding over of the grass into the bottoms of the tree-trunks or a few piles of rock around the base of that platform.

You mean something like (1) ? (please, excuse the very ugly-edit-in-a-rush-at-work)

Unless the blockyness is an aesthetic choice, which it doesn't appear to be from what I've seen illustrated on your blog.

blockyness is only partly a choice. It's over-blocky here due to WIP, and (2) shows more how it's meant to be. I say "partly a choice", because leaves and treetops are meant to be platforms you can climb on, so i decided to stick to "rounded rectangles" look for the trees.


I plan to have more "natural" trees in the parallax background plane (which are über-wip atm but let's just add them) and are based on background for DK:King of Swing. They'll be 16-colour so that i can afford more tiles there.

[madPXL]

for your background, take a look at World of illusion on genesis :



make more contrast on shadows for example, your character is in a forest, so try to create a light/dark ambient