AuthorTopic: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]  (Read 30901 times)

Offline SeDiceBisonte

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #70 on: May 31, 2021, 08:46:39 am
Um... Yeah, the font has some problems. I have to fit each character into a 8x8 square so the M and the W end up looking too compressed horizontally. I'm thinking of a way to make it look like a lowercase "m" but having it just be the last "leg" of the m, and combining it with the "n". So 2 characters for the letter m.
Some other game has done that and I thought it was so clever I may end up stealing that for me. :P (maybe, I don't know yet.)

Interesting! Would that also apply to the "w", except with it starting with the "v"? I actually like the shape of the "w" a lot at the moment, but I imagine having both it and the "m" as double-width characters would look consistent.

Offline fskn

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #71 on: May 31, 2021, 09:47:55 am
Interesting! Would that also apply to the "w", except with it starting with the "v"? I actually like the shape of the "w" a lot at the moment, but I imagine having both it and the "m" as double-width characters would look consistent.
Yeah, I think so. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that because that last part of both M and W would have to be pretty wide otherwise the space between letters would be really bothersome to look at, like the uppercase "I" and lowercase "l" and "i" usually are... And both N and V would have to touch the boundaries of an 8x8 tile.

The W, for instance, would have to look something like this:

I guess it works better for squarish letters. Or 8x16 characters, as the gap between "N" and "\", and "V" and the other "V" could be small enough to sort of disappear.

But I'm undecided right now for what kind of a typeface would look more inline with this game. It could be something more 70s looking, more whimsical, or just heavier and more solid looking...

I did this other font face one these days which I could use instead:




Playing around a little bit with the 4-palette, 16x16px area per palette limit of the NES... Still got 1 palette to "spare"...



I don't think I'm going to use this anywhere, I'm using it more for practice.
I wasn't thinking about doing that when I started, so that's why there's too much color clash... Some optimization would be required (moving things around, changing some shapes to conform, etc.)

This is how those areas are divided:




Could use something like this if I were to use all 4 palettes (not counting those for sprites, just using bg tiles):

« Last Edit: May 31, 2021, 03:28:44 pm by fskn »

Offline fskn

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #72 on: June 08, 2021, 06:56:19 pm


I'll start roughing out enemies now. About time I gave this guy someone to fight against.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2021, 11:03:25 am by fskn »

Offline fskn

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #73 on: June 12, 2021, 11:07:33 pm
Working on our "love interest" (possibly?)



---


(not sure about that decorative thingie.)
« Last Edit: June 12, 2021, 11:54:39 pm by fskn »

Offline cels

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #74 on: June 13, 2021, 06:44:49 am
The enemies all look great, very characterful. I can't be of much help here, unfortunately:

- Do you plan to have different light sources for different characters? It's reversed on the enemies, who will usually be facing the opposite way, right? I guess you can't afford to have different light sources depending on which way they're facing.

- The anatomy of the guys with swords and maces on the bottom is a bit strange to me. I guess they're not human? One of them has that Cyberdemon goat leg thing going on. But even if they're non-human, I wonder about the anatomy of that goat leg.

- I guess you don't want any characters to be totally side-facing, but more like a three quarter portrait. But for the wolf, I wonder if that will be difficult to pull off. I do feel like your version has a bit of a problem with readability but maybe it's not an issue. Maybe it's better for the viewer to get a sense of a snarling wolf and then interpret the pixels on their own. I'm undecided.

- Liking the ghostly types with robes and helmets. Quite jacksonesque!

- The shields are super challenging. On the one hand, I feel like yours look like they're facing the viewer too much, rather than their attacker. It feels like we're almost seeing them full on. On the other hand, I really struggled to show their shape if they're angled more away from the viewer. And on top of that, there's the issue of shadow, since they'd probably be casting strong shadows on the body behind them. Tricky stuff.

- The love interest is well pixelled but I would try to de-khaleesify her a bit unless you're adding dragons to her shoulders.  :)

« Last Edit: June 13, 2021, 06:46:33 am by cels »

Offline fskn

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #75 on: June 13, 2021, 02:54:25 pm
Hey, man! Thanks for the feedback!

The characters so far are meant to fill a certain role, gameplay wise. Though I was mainly putting ideas down (so stuff likely will change), but I'm thinking I need characters that do ranged attacks, characters that do up close attacks, it has to have your light melee characters, your heavy melee, as well as light ranged and heavy ranged. Faster characters, slower characters, that sort of thing. Also projectiles that come in a straight horizontal line, others that come in an arc... Things you can defend against, things you can't and need to dodge...

I still have to go look for actual references of the type of setting/look/style that I want, that would be like those comic books from the 70s, maybe early 80s, which is important not just for the characters, but the environments as well... (and that's gonna be a headache, I'm not used to drawing environments).
But I hope I'll pick something up from that, and that it'll help me come up with more types of characters, which I feel I need. Although there's still a few that I need to draw. Maybe groups of characters... Hmm. I may need to sketch up some environments, and think about the areas our protagonist will go through to see what kinds of characters there could be in those places.
(the good thing about coming here is that while I talk about the game, ideas pop up in my head, and that does not happen when I'm not trying to explain it to someone else! xD)

Alright, enough of that, let's get to the crits.

The thing with a main light source is that the enemies will not be always facing left or right. So lighting will not look consistent if I don't do either like it's right above every character, or go for the cartoon look and just don't do any shading (at least I think those are the only options). I think I could light them from the top, although I like having them lit from the front... If the environment seems to be lit in such a way so that the center of the screen is brighter and edges are darker, then it would make more sense.
But yeah, good point.
If I keep the lighting as it is now, then I might need to change the shading on that wolf.

The big guard types look a bit stocky, don't they? I wanted to make them wider and had those construction worker guys from Megaman in my mind the whole time while I was drawing them (although now another character comes to mind, those big burly shield guys from Shinobi *takes note of that reference*).
Oh, right, his leg looks like it's broken! :lol:
I drew that pose thinking he would be bracing for an attack (while also preparing to deliver one of his), so one foot needed to go back... But I guess I didn't fix (or didn't think of fixing) his hip... armor... plate... thing.

I'm unsure about the wolf too. I'm thinking I'm going to just make him shake his back and head a bit (?!), maybe lower his head some more to indicate that he's going to attack, rather than trying to make him snarl (also because I tried to do that and failed! :lol:), but he may have to be in profile for the actual attack animation. I don't know.
(the dog from the other Shinobi game, Shadow Dancer, came to mind now, I'll have to check that out too.)

The bright blue guys are some characters I had in mind for a while now. I wanted something that would look magical, so having at least one of them have a helmet with a hole in it and no eyes seemed to fit that bill. I'm not sure if they'll make the cut, though, because they may be too weird (?!) for that type of setting. Or maybe that's a good thing, I don't know. Things are in movement, still, changing all the time.

The 3/4 angle comes a bit from Street Fighter, where your characters are not in profile the whole time (or ever!) and I think it helps in describing the character better, whichever it may be. You're right about the shield, and I was conscious about the lack of shadow behind it in one of those, which is why I introduced a fourth color... yet I didn't remove the blue highlight, which I should. Probably. If I don't have any palettes and sprites to spare.
Drawing with just three colors is much tougher than I thought it would be.
I like the way you did the shield in the middle there, a bit more rotated towards the attacker, and the shadow in the third guy too... I think I'm going to incorporate at least one of those two things.

And yeah, the girl does look like that girl from Game of Thrones! :lol:
That absolutely wasn't intentional. But like with the barbarian, I think that that portrait will have different areas of color, so I could change her hair color, at least. Or maybe I could make her skin paler and have the hair be darker... I'll experiment a bit with that.

Again, thanks for the feedback, help, opinions, pixel-overs, all that stuff! And helping me make the gears on my head turn some more!

Offline fskn

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #76 on: June 16, 2021, 11:52:13 pm
So I started changing things on our "princess" character and ended up changing her so much... Now I think I'm gonna keep both. :P


(still WIP...)


Didn't do much progress on the enemies, only changed a few things here and there.

« Last Edit: June 18, 2021, 03:07:24 am by fskn »

Offline cels

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #77 on: June 19, 2021, 05:36:02 pm
Cool! I consider all the changes to be improvements. The princess went from Khaleesi to Ripley 8 (kidding) and I like what you did with the shield and the shadows.This is nitpicking but I would probably try to make sure that the distance from the ground to the crotch is similar for the shield guy as for other characters. Otherwise, it seems like his hips are too low and the proportions are off, at least to my eye. Take with pinch of salt.

Offline fskn

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #78 on: June 19, 2021, 07:10:45 pm
This is nitpicking but I would probably try to make sure that the distance from the ground to the crotch is similar for the shield guy as for other characters. Otherwise, it seems like his hips are too low and the proportions are off, at least to my eye. Take with pinch of salt.
Gawsh darn it, I knew something was bothering me but for some reason I could not tell what it was, yet the thing was right fuggin' there! I lifted the hips/waist 1 pixel and they look much better now.
Thank you!

Now, did I compare it to the other characters? No, because I'm a bastard. But I like them better now, so there's that.


(that animation looks a bit sexual now, though...)

I still have to do another pass, and make some more enemy types... Including bosses. Some of which could (will?) be bigger.

---

Sketching a few more, seeing what sticks:





A few more tests, all still very rough.



That dragon would probably need to be twice that size... And now that I've sketched it I'm thinking I should make a snake instead. Dragons are for knights what giant snakes are for shirtless barbarians.





Yeah, that would be better, I think.



...and an ape, because there's always an ape.

« Last Edit: June 23, 2021, 02:25:07 pm by fskn »

Offline fskn

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Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]

Reply #79 on: May 10, 2022, 10:52:16 am
As a tiny little update... I did a horse.



And I guess our ape friends got a new animation frame:



Haven't done anything in a while for a multitude of reasons.