AuthorTopic: gothic steampunk platform mockup (Read 16858 times)

politopo · **on:** December 28, 2008, 02:05:25 pm

New: Agent Y portrait

-->>>

NEW: clocwork owl!

--->>> NEWEST:

and current version of tileset:

with the holidays I found some time to pixel and I'm making this sort of mockup for a castlevania-like platformer
wher cool oldfashioned special agents (with different abilities) fight zombies and other gothic horror monsters.
this is what I have so far:

C&C are welcome.
The rat and the bacground behind the palace are still heavy wip, so do not stick much on them.
current

Jim16 · **Reply #1 on:** December 28, 2008, 02:32:58 pm

Is the black on the building finished? As is doesn't seem to define much. Your lighting goes towards the right but(shown on the wall with the candle chandler, which I might add is a light source its self ) Also the shading on the characters don't follow your backing?

-Your light source is messed up, and you need to decide what to do with it
-the black give's depth, but not the kind you want, as darkness on light gives the impression that its moving away from your eye.
-Your transition between colours aren't as good as they should be and give the gradient kind of look.

Now you don't have to take my advice at all, as I'm not particularly good, but for the last few months I have been doing allot of theory on this art, and so I do feel that my knowledge is accurate enough.

I would like to know if the palace is finished, as you said the rat and backing behind were not.
I could help by giving an example unless you know of how to go about it yourself.

Edit:
Damn I can't spell for shit!

TrevoriuS · **Reply #2 on:** December 28, 2008, 03:15:31 pm

As you are not using a round shape in the center tower, but more of an octagonal or hexagonal shape in the walls, the dome on top should not really be a round dome either. Think of rib-vaults and apply that in here, it'd support the feel as well. I also suspect 2 of your characters would get sucked up by the background if they were standing in front of stones. Easy solution: Make them darker. Alternative: Increase contrast and give them a hint of colour to make them stand out more about everywhere.

My compliments on the style you're maintaining here, as well as the characters

politopo · **Reply #3 on:** January 07, 2009, 08:39:40 am

update

added ribs on the dome, added four more characters, 2 of them are still just volumes, and the rat is still ugly,
do you have any suggestion on how to render the wet fur of a rat?
Thanks for your comments,
@TrevoriuS: with ribs the dome is really better, thanks for your advice
@Jim16: it's true that light is not so consistent, being material for a platforrmer game, I think i will leave light on characters like it is now (from above) so that i do not need to draw them twice (facing right and facing left), maybe i will try to change lighting on the walls to comply, and see what happens.
About the usage of black for platforms your suggestion is interesting, but i would like to keep dark platforms, maybe I will try to use more light colors for the top of them, so it gets clear it is a section view.

TrevoriuS · **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2009, 11:07:10 am

Adding light purely from the top on the scene would be weird, you could try a slightly from the front approach, making flat walls lighter, and the diagonal ones both a bit darker, though I do think you'd lose some of the depth that you have now. I don't think many people would be bothered by inconsistent lighting in a platform game.

philipptr · **Reply #5 on:** January 07, 2009, 12:28:44 pm

Nice start, in my opinion you could get a lot more out of this by tweaking the colours of the castle.
Depending on the wanted daytime you could try something like this:

(evening)

(night)

TrevoriuS · **Reply #6 on:** January 07, 2009, 12:50:04 pm

The current colour scheme would probably fit perfectly in the time of dusk. I don't get where you want to go in that aspect, we all know that colours can be changed, but why? Please give some more explanation as to express your opinion here

philipptr · **Reply #7 on:** January 07, 2009, 12:56:31 pm

I would disagree with the dusk thing (at least I havent been to places where dusk was so purple) and I posted the two edits to give ideas, in case politopo hadn't taken the time to play around with the colours yet, and because I thought that changing the colours a little to something that at least I seem to think of as more realistic would give a nicer impression for the viewer.

TrevoriuS · **Reply #8 on:** January 07, 2009, 01:25:47 pm

Thank you for elaborating more on your thoughts here. Now the evening colours are warm and welcome, though I feel more attracted to your night version because of it's dark atmosphere, which I so far find suiting to scene. Although the original colours do somehow fit in as well, making it feel more... everyday and default, as well as a bit playful perhaps. Making the initial colours more grey/blue pushing it towarsd the night scene a bit, but still keeping the current bright feeling could bring something good methinks.

spaceturtle · **Reply #9 on:** January 07, 2009, 02:41:10 pm

LOOKing nice keep up the good work!

ndchristie · **Reply #10 on:** January 07, 2009, 08:13:59 pm

to me this looks like a victorian gothic horror with an anachronistic plot, but not steampunk? where does that part come in?

pixelly wise it's pretty good; i think that since the invention of plaster you don't really need to be concerned with things like whether to display ribs on the vault/dome - as it is these are too thin to look nice in they style you're going for. Some other thin things, such as the little girls face and the zombie-things, also don't read nicely, and would do well from some help in that regard.

TrevoriuS · **Reply #11 on:** January 08, 2009, 12:57:14 am

The ribs doo add imho, but they could be drawn more clean. The steampunk comes in at the lightbulbs and wires/tesla's on the zombie & rat backs if I'm right

politopo · **Reply #12 on:** January 08, 2009, 08:57:03 am

little update

I fixed a bit the baby's face and the rat, and started to render the succubus.
about the colors of the castle, I agree that they are maybe too purple, but dusk-like is the atmosfear i want to get, the problem is with the background that i vahe to change, it should have been a misty valley at sunset, but the colors do not match, and i think i will go for something like a victorian city line, maybe with rain too.
@TrevoriuS, you read in my mind, anyway I don't care much if it is not "steampunk enough"... I wanted it to be also gothic victorian and horror, so it's proceeding good... obviously there will be secret labs full of valves and gears more deeply in the game...
many thanks to all for your comments, there are still many things to do (and my time is scarse), so if I don't address issues you mentioned it is just because that, and not because I don't listen

Fuzzyleaves · **Reply #13 on:** January 08, 2009, 04:59:45 pm

I'm loving your Agent Y, but On your main tower, the pillars in the windows don't seem to connect with the top of the window, also the very top the dome at top, the dithering doesn't match because it looks like the dome doesn't curve smoothly... Is that just me? $:-\$

Tobe · **Reply #14 on:** January 08, 2009, 05:31:20 pm

My concern is that everything looks as eye catching as the character. Since you mentioned this to be a game mock, I guess there's a few thing you should take note of, like the BG being darker and stuff. Check out some of arne stuff for some of the best example.

TrevoriuS · **Reply #15 on:** January 11, 2009, 01:32:09 am

Characters and tileset comply well with eachother, though you may wish to add some saturation to some of the characters, as well as other foreground objects to make them stand out. what worries me more is the very background. You may get away with the green as is now, but it also constrains you from using greens in the foregrounds. It therefore may be better to have the background look very pale and gray. If it's not too dark as well you might be able to actually keep the current purplish dusk colours on the rest, to set the time of day with that rather than the very background.

c0n · **Reply #16 on:** January 11, 2009, 09:36:49 pm

Very nice art but doesn't steampunk include steam?

You know huge pistons and stuff

Kazuya Mochu · **Reply #17 on:** January 11, 2009, 10:08:41 pm

Steam and Punks

thats more of a victorian styled fantasy theme

TrevoriuS · **Reply #18 on:** January 11, 2009, 10:26:44 pm

Both of these things were already mentioned. Use your time reading the whole topic before replying hastily and stay on topic please

- although the title may be a bad description of the topic then - but it's better than to calll it Victorian Steamhorror

Jad abducts post: Yup, any post that just mentions the steamy and punky bit and the lack thereof and no other critique will be deleeet'd. So read the topic folks.

politopo · **Reply #19 on:** January 12, 2009, 08:19:48 am

I added gothic to the topic to account for the horror-victorian part of the whole thing..
I didn't do it in the first place because the stile of that palace is romanesque, but i hope people will close an eye on that

anyway, here is a new version

i changed the palettes a little to encounter your critiques, and it is much better, thanks.
Furthermore I redid the succubus to make it more steam-punk, and it came out really robot-like, maybe it doesnt fit anymore with this setting, but i think i will still keep it for advanced stages of the game (when you come to know that technology comes from hell.. or maybe the converse, still don't know).
thank you all for comments, I will start with some animation soon...

TrevoriuS · **Reply #20 on:** January 12, 2009, 09:27:15 pm

The hair of the by you previously named Agent Y completely gets lost in the background here. If darkness is to follow, you may wish to add a grey to it and slightly define some edges.

PS: Are you just doing this as a mockup and for fun, or actually using it in something interactive?

politopo · **Reply #21 on:** January 13, 2009, 08:03:43 am

I hope to make the platform as well, but my programmers still need some motivation, mainly some moving guy
thanks for the comment on the hair of agent y, I'll try to fix this.

UncleZeiv · **Reply #22 on:** January 13, 2009, 01:30:59 pm

First of all congrats, I really like your characters there even though I'm a bit concerned about their size - maybe they are a bit too small?

My only other critique about the characters concerns Agent Y's hair, which is not only lost in the background as someone said, but completely flat, and it gets noticed as everything else is shaded with care. You could try a cloud-like effect, maybe?

The background overall is a bit dull, but I know it's a work in progress and anyway more detail would probably be lost in a videogame.

Can't wait to see Incubus finished

Keep up your good work... even though animating all those characters is going to be a (gothic) nightmare!

ps - ...and let's hope you manage to convince your programmers friends!

politopo · **Reply #23 on:** April 19, 2009, 06:17:26 pm

I hope is not a problem to bump an old thread like this...
here is the current versione of the tileset with some modification to make the walls stand a little more

and here is a small clocwork owl

c&c?

Koyot1222 · **Reply #24 on:** April 19, 2009, 07:03:51 pm

its piece of my project of new classic amiga simple game, but probably could help you solve the problem of your flying thing

TrevoriuS · **Reply #25 on:** April 19, 2009, 07:50:01 pm

Yes the wings really rotate and create a much more visible wave, having the (anatomically seen) fingers rotate so that the main surface of the wings cuts through the air with the upwards motion, with the arm at the top the rest of the wing and the fingers and flaps following along; to then turn in the right direction to push the air in the right direction when moving the wing down again. In your current state your extreme of the wings at their highest position would work and the rest should be built from there.