New game project mockup!

[coffee]

Hi!

This is a new game project im working on and this is the first mockup:



(First I thought that a backpack not was very interesting but i see now that it makes sense with the old gun and stuff)

It's a pirate game(I'm obliged to say more)

I need some help with a cupple of things..
First, I can't come up with an nice "Item" icon for the boarder and a good lifespan.(The board is temporarily)
Second, to do a background for a 640 x 480 screen without too many details but still a powerful and sharp one(The one i use now is temporarily too).
Third, do you think I need to make a actual ground tile or will it make it messy?
I have been accused for drawing broken outlines and I hope you can see that I'm making progress 


I hope you can help me
Other crits are also welcome but not necessarily changed cos' of time pressure, I will do my best!

Thank you

[infinity+1]

you can never go wrong with a backpack icon for items.

[Rosse]

I like your mockup. First thing I'd change would be the sprites. I really like the concept, but your shading is too flat, not enough contrasty, too much colors and not good lightsource (and outline-handling). I tried a edit.



I used the same colors as in your sprite, so there is a lot of optimization (tinting wise), but I hope it's enough for a quick edit. I lowered the colorcount (no idea high the original was ->photoshop) by just using more contrasted colors.
You used a lightsource from the left, which is not a good decision for gamesprites. Mostly sprites get flipped ingame (timesaver) so when you have a left/right lightsource, the lightsource flips with the sprite. You can prevent this effect by using a lightsource from the top. In my edit I tried to shade it this way and treated the outline the same way. Your outline is getting much better compared with the old broken black selout, but it's not enough consistent. On the head you have the a darker outline on the left side and a lighter on the right, but a lightsource from the left, same thing on the stick. Just outline according to the lightsource.

I think the background works this way, but it needs antialiasing. Made a example:



I don't have much experience in AA and I think I over did it.. but maybe you can give the illusion of depth when you make the background slightly blured. And I suggest to use round shapes instead of geometrical (or you have the same style on the foreground too).

All in all a great a great start. Keep pushing!

[Dusty]

I think the palm trees of the background should be lighter.

[Doppleganger]

I think that you should keep the simplistic style of shading. There's a lot of character in your sprites, they remind me of Aesop's Fables type of art for some reason. But Rosse is right that you need to find a consistent lightsource. It is usually straight ahead from the viewpoint of the player, but I feel that it can be reserved mostly for the tiles. Shading a sprite head-on usually results in a pillow shaded look, because character sprites are usually too small for them not to be pillowy looking.

Anyways, I went ahead and edited your old man character and then did some minor editing and color editing on the bg itself. While I appreciate the story book look to the character, I decided to go wtih vibrant instead. My initial reasoning was to get him to stand out from the bg, but the end reasoning was because I wanted to make the scene more bold and vibrant in general. I did this becase your mockup gave me the impression of a very temperate tropical island, and tropical islands are anything but temperate.

I wouldn't AA the trees to the bg (ruins options for parallax), but I would rethink how you're going about the background. Right now it is really boring and stands out as being less professional than the rest of the piece. If I were you I'd try to make the bg look like a dense forest of simplified versions of the trees on the playing level. I would also make it so that the player is not constantly in front of a white background. While I realize that those are the clouds and it's kind of neat, I think that having the player believe that he's not wandering around in front of a blank piece of paper is more important.

[coffee]

Doppleganger

Your edit is great, thank you! It gives you the feeling of a tropical heat.
And you are right about the lightsource it will probably get very complicated when I
turn the sprites in other directions.

I will upload my edit as soon as possible, cos' right now i'm in school. 

[PypeBros]

something is still looking weird in the palmtrees' tops, imho.
as if shading and general shape of the leaves had no relationshipˇ

[coffee]

something is still looking weird in the palmtrees' tops, imho.
as if shading and general shape of the leaves had no relationshipˇ

hm, if you have to make a critic..maby you should have something important to say about it and explain why and come with a conclusion?

This is the edit:



I changed the groundtile, palm and backgroundcolour

[Dusty]

I think an important thing Dopplegangers edit does is fit the mood of the setting. It looks like this is set in a sort of tropics... which most people would associate with bright, vibrant colors. Yours are so desaturated it just doesn't fit.

[AdamAtomic]

Just wanted to weigh in and say overall I definitely like the desaturation, but as this is for a game there is an issue you need to address that most of the edits dramatically worsen.  Generally speaking in a platformer you want to have the most saturation and contrast on the playable layer - the layer with the ground you walk on and the characters you control and talk to, etc.  Anything not on that layer should be rather obviously NOT on that layer.  Right now the palm trees and the house have a LOT more visual priority than the ground plane or even the characters.  If you correct this you will be in fantastic shape!