Shooter Mockup [WIP] [NAUSERTIAN game]

[smiker]

this game is going pretty well, so i'm gonna update this dirty post.
i think i'm not causing pain to anybody with my game, so i apologize for not having adverted that i referenced on metal slug, but this game is far away the metalslug concept. anyway, do yo everybody said in all of your human body pixelations you all were referencing in davinci's human proportions? i don't know if you know that, but all good human pixelations are too closelike that drawing. there would be unfair to tell everybody that they are rippers, huh?
just joking
i'll update soon, just let me convert some files....

i forgot to remind the most parts are placeholders. there are two huds, one using text and one with graphs showing all player vars (higher level ones,course) but i havent done ammo meters yet.

[PypeBros]

I find the lightsource a bit hard to identify. Rocks for instance are very close to pillow-shading when shown as if the main light was together with the camera.

You might want to work more on what-is-made-of-what-material, which isn't always very clear atm (imho, and i fear i'd have hard time at doing better than this myself). Metal for instance, might be more shiny compared to bricks (and this certainly apply to golden coins), and bricks could feel more "bricks" if they were less blurred.

Also, i have the general feeling that you're using dithering just to introduce intermediate tones while it also has an impact on how we perceive the material (more dithered -> granular/imperfect shape). So it fits well (parts of) rocks, but i'd discourage it in lava and golden coins.

And finally, the ladder could benefit from more spaced steps (imho)

[garland]

You could perhaps try to separate your foreground and background elements more in the cave areas. As it is, the ceiling blends in with the back wall of the cave, and those stalactite spikes on the ceiling are barely visible. (I had to zoom in to actually see the little ones) I would argue this would be very bad if the spikes damage your character if he touches them.

I assume that you're trying to separate the back wall of the cave by making it darker than the foreground, which is not a bad idea. But the problem is that all the colors you have right now are all 100% saturated brown shades.

[edit:]


By simply de-saturating the background layer to almost grey, I've already brought some definition to the ceiling of the cave and the other foreground elements. However, the darkness still makes the tones of the stalactites blend in with their surrounding area. So it might be better to lighten the entire background up some.

[edit:]


Now the stalactites are easily visible and hopefully easily avoided.

Of course, you may want to keep the background of the cave a dark brown color for aesthetic reasons, but you can still hopefully use my tips to add definition to the playing field.

[smiker]

thanks a lot! although the spikes arent finished yet (i dont know how i forgotten to do them) the tips you gave me opened my eyes i will do it, and i'll post some updates. by the moment, i've added a soft-fx that 'reflects' the background to make a water-reflection effect. do you think it works?



edit:

i've edited a bit the background tiles. is it better? i think so, but...

[robotacon]

Your screens could need some of the same hue shifts Helm has suggested in the past.
Simply make the backgrounds in a complementary color to that of the foreground.
Perhaps Helm can fill me in and explain better?

edit:
Regarding the metal slug animations I'm going to have to turn to heracy and say that the metal slug running cycles aren't that good really.
Nothing beats metal slug when it comes to idle animations and all those sub pixel stuff and all the slow movements like walks and stuff are awesome (the zombie walks are pure eye gravy) but the running animations for some reason are just strange.

[smiker]

sorry about this question robotacon, but what layer of background are you talking about? the one inside the caves, the one showing the landscape or both bgs?
tnx a lot 4 the comments

[robotacon]

sorry about this question robotacon, but what layer of background are you talking about? the one inside the caves, the one showing the landscape or both bgs?
tnx a lot 4 the comments

Both. To avoid having a background that blends into the foreground you can play with either contrast or hue or texture or any other parameter that makes a visual difference.
My suggestion, that I've got from Helm when I was making a cave scene for Arcade Academy, is to use a complementary color for the backgrounds.
Check out the link in my sig and look at Helms suggestion.

[smiker]

original
blue bg palette
green bg palette (i like this)
red bg palette

what do you think?

[garland]

In terms of hue, the green is definitely the way to go, but I still think you'll need to change either the contrast or brightness of the background to separate it more. Additionally, you could re-do the graphic to have larger rocks and less small details. The foreground is abundant in small details, so to be lacking those smaller parts in the background could separate it easily.

Although not a pixel art game, Braid uses this same technique of lower detail backgrounds to bring out the foreground and make it clear what the player can and cannot interact with.

[TeamQuiggan]

I like the blue background for dank cave-ey ness, but in each you seem to have one, or two errant pixels that are just eye magnets, are the little stalactites important? because I think they still need brightening to show their potential damage.