Quantum Core

[Souly]

Okay, so I have some sad news.
The programmer of the River City Ransom game and I have decided that it's quite a complex game for 2 people, let alone it being the first game we work on together.
Let alone that a combo system in an MMO is hella difficult. @.@
He gave me a test run of a megaman MMO he had made.
It was pretty cool, lacking any real aiming but it was fun it had a jetpack system and weapon switching all coded.

I've always loved Cavestory I'm not gonna lie, so I pitched the idea of doing an MMO Cavestory type game.
I decided to kind of re-make Lectro. :]
Anyways, this time I'm hoping to go further then just that copy cave story look.
Enough talk...

[Tobe]

Wait... so MMO cave story is small?
Gee... I really need to start working

anyway, I'm not a big fan of the style, but the bat looks sweet

[Souly]

Wait... so MMO cave story is small?
Gee... I really need to start working

anyway, I'm not a big fan of the style, but the bat looks sweet

It's smaller then 22 attack animations in the style of RCR and not even being close to done. @.@;
Simpler style, smaller sprites, seems easier.
Though this will not be a full 2D game it will be transfered into a 3D world kind of like paper mario but without the camera rotation.

[Souly]

Update on the main base.


And now he's sleeping happily.


Monkey

[Jim16]

Mr soul this looks really awesome, but haven't you got enough of a work load on your hands already, I think this is your third topic this week that involves games sprites.

Well keep up the awesome work.

[Souly]

If you read the first post you'd know what's been going on.
As for my Destructoid game that's just something I'm doing on my own, it's a slow process.


Big thanks to snader for helping me out with the monkey.
I had done the ape before he had given me his edit, it looked similar to the gorilla.

ape ref

[JonathanOfDrain]

This shows your style very well. I'm really liking it. Better keep us updated with any open betas or releases.

Is he using the fireball as his gun?
I like those fiendish bats you've got going on. I don't like the blue and green red eyed monsters much. They seem uninspired.

[ndchristie]

latest hero is best, you made me nervous with the noisy overshaded one.

i can't help but feel that the Thwomp character is breaking the visual style with all his detail, and the monkeys with their choppiness.  you've got a range here from smooth to noisy/choppy and from simple to cluttered, with my tastes opting for smooth and uncluttered as exemplified by the current hero.

[Souly]

Really? The brick is my favorite of them all. 


Anyways, this dragon is way too cute I wanna DRAGON.
I should have started with an S for dragon, then drawn a beefy arm.

[ndchristie]

i'm defining the style by the handling of the main character, so if you like the brick most, you might want to bring the others towards it instead

[Souly]

Well the thing that makes the thwomp brick look different me thinks is that it's straight on.
And so it looks more detailed.


Starting to try to do the flap, though the wings look weak. 4 frames.

[ndchristie]

Well the thing that makes the thwomp brick look different me thinks is that it's straight on.

And I think it's because it's color involves twice as many shades occupying half the area of other examples ^^.

to get them unified to the standard set by the brick : the little monkey and the brick are good buddies.  the big monkey would only need refinement.  the main character would benefit from an extra shade. the robots (?) would need more detail.

not too much of any of these things, they're only just enough off to bother, not enough to need total redrawing.

[Souly]

I think I may end up re-doing the wings and even the body.
I didn't really bother using a skeletal frame to animate, bad mistake on my part.

[CaKsTeR]

The wings aren't flapping downwards, which is the problem. They're only rotating at the same angle, if that made sense. Think of how birds flap.

[mozzy]

This is pretty cool so far, I like the idea too (:
The running animation looks a little odd, I think you should extend his legs out a little further and add a hop too.
I especially love the dragon and the thwomp like thing, good luck and hopefully this gets finished.

[Souly]

I'm going to take a brake from the dragon, work on some of the other guys.


Monkey tail action.



Grass test



Trying to figure out the a good way to utilize the 3D world.
Either 2D tiles similar to the grass which would be the angled one, mind you it's a bit hard to read.
Or 3D tiles which the straight ones would be textures for.
2D objects in a 3D world seems kind of silly though, Like then why bother with the 3D if everything but the ground is 2D.
Unless we can use the angled ones in 3D space somehow that could work.

[Dr D]

You could tilt the ground plane down a little bit to face the viewer more, and it would allow you to place those 3D-ish objects and characters on it, without the perspective looking off.

[Souly]

Well see the world is actually going to be actually 3D so the camera will give the ground that slight tilt.
May just be less of a hassle if I just do textures and apply them to 3D objects.
Rather then making 2D objects seem 3D when they aren't.

[PypeBros]

altogether, i'd say that you will need working on them a bit more to unify their style. It was really a power of cave-story of having a coherent style for everything (compared to earlier DOS sharewares i've been playing lately such as Xargon and Dr RipTide, for instance). Red eyes in the "square-and-tentacle" monsters and the stomper indeed look "too sophisticated" in their shading, and the bats looks too simple -- maybe too close from Cave Story bats. A remake of the stomper with more stylised teeth might be worth the try.

btw, keep up the good job.

[NaCl]

With the wing flapping, I would make it flap more from the base of the wing. That's where the power is. Right now only the outside parts are moving. Check out this video of a bat in slow motion for inspiration:

http://pterodactyls.tumblr.com/post/49392498/way-overdue-for-another-slow-motion-bat-video

[Souly]

Oh wow great video there NaCl. :]


Just an update with angles. :]

[PypeBros]

Why would grass angle with the slope of the ground ?

[Souly]

Gravity? It's not like all of it would stick straight up.
Sure some (or a lot) of the blades should be straight but uh, I'm lazy and just did a rotation.


Finally got a tilable pattern just for kicks.

[PypeBros]

i'd have suggested that individual grass would still point upwards, not perpendicularily to the ground they're growing on... even if the neighbouring "thread of grass" starts lower or higher than "your own grass", just like trees would grow upward regardless of the slope they're on.

Having the grass growing at 45° somehow gives the feeling that you picked a chunk of ground that was initially horizontal and tilted it to 45° without leaving time for the grass to adapt to its new condition. And even in that case, it would rather "bend towards the ground" (as you would draw it at the border of a cliff) because its roots wasn't ready to make it stick straight in those conditions.

[Helm]

Grass should generally grow upwards. That sort of inattention to the specifics that make up your art here hurt the coherency of this gameworld. You need to think more about every artistic choice you make and how it contributes to a singular aesthetic, not just draw things and let them all fall together however they may.

[Souly]

I'll work on the grass in time, right now it's just make shift.
Once I have the patience to pixel a bunch of random lines onto a slant.

I understand that I have to put the same laws that apply in real life into this game world.



I always fail at a most scenery art.. I can never seem to do decent leaves.

[Kazuya Mochu]

I have to agree with the grass issue. it does sort of break it up.

but what Im really loving is that oldschool feeling you have going on. the well light night scene of a chopped of bit of ground with mysterious floating rocks
it reminds me of toki

[Reo]

I really like what you have so far. 

now here's some crits ;

I think that the twop brick probably should have the same colors as the other bricks.
All the bright and contrasty dirt and grass tiles makes it pretty hard to read the characters.
other then that 

[Souly]

Holy crap I should get some sleep or something.


Nothing too fancy just the basic cameos.

[Batzy]

Holy crap I should get some sleep or something.


Nothing too fancy just the basic cameos.

I like em' all but shouldn't mario be more fat 

[Souly]

I'll probably take this time to come up with some weapon designs.

[Fuzzyleaves]

I don't think that the ground doesn't have the same style or colours with the objects, so they don't really match... My opinion?

[Tobe]

wao~ I'm amaze by your constant upload, lol.

Is the baldy the main character? He looks like a default at the moment... or is he the default guy for the MMO where you build on upon?

[slym]

It sorta looks like an isometric platform. Your shading is wrong though. Its sorta hard to explain where, since you could have it going either way.

[infinitegames]

I really like the thwomp guy and I hope you bring the style toward his style. In any case, the sprites all look very good.. you just have to unify like everyone is saying.

[Souly]

It sorta looks like an isometric platform. Your shading is wrong though. Its sorta hard to explain where, since you could have it going either way.

Uhh, that's impossible?
Two different perspectives all together.

wao~ I'm amaze by your constant upload, lol.

Is the baldy the main character? He looks like a default at the moment... or is he the default guy for the MMO where you build on upon?

Yeah I have an addiction that once I start going I don't stop. @.@

The main character is indeed a default, not an original design.

[Jim16]

I agree with the grassy comments and I will like to say....YOUR MY HERO! I've never seen someone do as much work as you do in one week!

[Souly]

Akira assisted me with a suggestion and an edit on the tree. <3

Which one do you like more

[Pizza Tom]

I like the darker variety better. It matches the rest of the background, and it lets the other characters stand out more.

[Souly]

Oops, the trees weren't updated.
The original question was about the rocks, flat or none flat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gBEXMLTPt4
Anyways here's a video of how the levels of the game transfer from pixels to 3D.
To explain the lines in the video, I think I'm changing the sprite from the very edge to the back of the line.

Ontop of level are like lanes

____________________________Foreground
____________________________Sprite path
____________________________Background 1
---------------------------------------Background 2

[                SKY BOX                  ]


Maybe this thread should be moved to Low Spec Art

[PypeBros]

If you're really willing to use 2.5D that way, i thing you will have to pay extra attention to the "perpendicular" textures such as walls. Currently, you're using the same dirt tiles for both front-view and side-view of the ground, which may be a poor idea for readability (tests needed).

I'd also suggest to dispatch grass on multiple intermediate depth between front and bg1 layers: having a flat green area and then a line of grass makes a weird effect when you increase the perspective of the platform.

I'm also tempted to point you to the "Inner Worlds" game (http://sleepless.com/iw/) which was mimmic'ing 2.5D with pure parallax. Sometimes, it could give more realistic rendering (esp. on roofs) than textured cubes (imvho).

[Souly]

I'd also suggest to dispatch grass on multiple intermediate depth between front and bg1 layers: having a flat green area and then a line of grass makes a weird effect when you increase the perspective of the platform.

Well first off, I repeat this not an in game screenshot.
And not how the game will actually look, it's just the best that I can do.

But as for the grass that was already planned on as well as the trees.
I've gotta work on some more stuff for the background it's all so bear.


I didn't get an answer is this version of the ground too flat?
I mean it's less distracting.

[PypeBros]

@ your ground modification :
  two colours only seems a bit crude to me, esp. since ground is also walls here and there. I'm not 100% convinced with that "ground should not disctract the eye" approach. I've been playing Sonic II where ground looks like a tetris game ... i've been playing Rayman where ground is a boom of cheery colours, and it never distracted me from the actual gameplay.
And i've been playing those sharewares and freewares where ground was made either of two colours or a single, repeated, tile and been distracted by this "unnatural" look. Imho, a good ground tileset should provide low contrast, but sufficient details so that it doesn't attract the glaze by being "a different area".

Maybe keeping the three-colours approach but with a little-darker light shade will do the trick.

@ "not how the game will actually look" : i got that we're not going to see the ground with such high angles as you're using for modeling. I don't know how much of the "flat floor" will appear at maximum perspective (i.e. when the ground is in the bottom of the screen), but this will be your "critical case", and i guess you will make sure that we don't have the feeling that we suddenly see something all flat by then.

[Souly]

Well the 3D engine hit a bunch of snags mainly with cyclinders.
It's shame I thought it was really starting to look great.

Anyways back to the old drawing board.

[AlienQuark]

That tree looks like it has a massive tumor. I realize it's kind of a stylistic thing, but I think you went a little overboard on it there, since the rest of the roots don't really match up with the really big one. The new ground is looking good.

[Souly]

Yea it's supposed to have a big huge root but that root poke out from the fround but it is currently misplaced and pretty bad atm.
I'll see if I can make any better alterations to it.

[PypeBros]

wow. that promises terrific improvement.
Your tree will be interesting to see around, just don't overdo it ^_^

[Elrinth]

will you have one tileset which sets collision? because clearly the characters will be standing in the air if it's like it's now.

[Souly]

Uh, I placed the characters in there as to try to see how they looked in comparison.
We'll probably be using alpha images to sort out collision behind the graphics though.
The characters will stand behind the rocks slightly.
If you zoom into the circle of tiles you'll see black lines showing the collision.

[QuaziGNRLnose]

nice job on this so far, everything itsleft is nice, but you should focus more on making everything work toghether.
the terrain your making is nice, but seems to detailed in comparison to the characters IMO.

very nice work overall tho keep it up !!!

[Souly]

Realized I missed a tile all together and messed up the ground tiles. 

I'll update the mockup asap.

[Dokozai]

I absolutely love all of this!

Except the inner cave/ground tiles look a bit repeated...

[Souly]

Seems I failed when I made the tiles, I made just 1/2 of the 25 degree angle, I forgot have the size double the length...
Anyways threw most of them together so you could see it.


Trying out more colors.
These ones seem so washed out.

[PypeBros]

A sort of "afterthought" when seeing that "rock erection" in the middle of the crater you've depicted ...
It might feel weird to see such piles of rock standing that way and defying gravity ... It might be worth having artefacts or large, eroded rocks rather than piles of stones in such cases.
Okay, that'd make additional work, but i think it would make the difference.

Similarly, you might want to have a couple of "really large rocks" (somewhat between your roots and foliage of your tree) that you'd burry deep in the ground, for those areas where you have large background that can be seen (a thing i remember of my Worms games ... At least if you keep the current resolution ... At this stage, i'm having hard time figuring out how much we will see at once on the screen and i'm somehow assuming rather small characters to increase chances of team-fighting.

* PypeBros wish i had the time for edits ... i really love your tree and rocks

[ndchristie]

don't worry, a lot of people (like me) goof the 25 and other "broad change" tiles the first time....or the second time....or the third time.... .  it's what mockups are for.

My opinion of this is that you're meeting success inherent in a good eye held to a pixel-by-pixel process, without anything that I might consider negative - also known as doing things well.  this is shaping up to be something I'd call your best work I've seen yet if you stick to it.

one thing about your color choices, there's some disunity that might like addressing.  that green you've got is a very strong and very unique color that demands to either be more prominent or fall back.  the very simple answer to this is more trees in the foreground and the background - you don't have to change anything.  however, if you want the general land and the background to be barren (as sketched), then it would benefit from either a browner or a bluer green, depending on the priorities you want to set.

[Souly]

Thank you for the kind words of encouragement nd. :]
I hope to keep it up, and continuing to push on.

I'll probably be playing with the colors for a while till I find a decent palette and then stick with it.


In the meantime enjoy the missing link and new dragon snout.

Overbite, or Underbite?






Tree still sticks out.

[Souly]

Okay so I tried to change the block so he was closer to the style, but I'm not sure if I ended up just making a new style instead.
It does however show the coherancy of the old original block.

[Souly]

Wow, no comments in 4 days
Alright may as well post new stuff, it's not much I'm still waiting for gameplay. 

Put the new head on with new rotation
As well as an edited run animation.
run, run, run aiming up, jump aiming up, jump aiming normal, jump aiming down.


Pixeled newdies and guns

They're nood so I can do costumes to match the gun hopefully.
Still have no idea what they're going to shoot but I have them organized from Energy based and Ammo Based.

Enjoy my crappy story.
Planet Ziabauk 3010
Humans on this planet have built a self sustaining underground quantum energy core, powering they're entire planet.
The AI is made to ensure that nothing malfunctions and more units are built every day to increase productivity in every area.
They named this AI "Quantum" it's very existence is to protect the core from whatever dangers may halt core productivity including their very creators, there were many attempts by separate countries to break into the core.
Until one day the power shut off, the original crew that designed the core died 1000's of years ago.
There was always a designated team of scientists assigned to monitoring the core, but no one has been down there since it turned on.

Also came up with a sloppy concept for the level flow.

[PypeBros]

AI getting overprotective up to the point that they become a threat ...
A good plot, imho. I'd just keep "power suddenly switched off" by "all communications have been terminated for unexplained reason ... we dispatch an away team for investigation (from a nearing planet, maybe)".

The AI has access to unlimited power sources,
maybe some of the robotic maintenance devices it could retarget for ... other uses.
I like it. lots of stuff could happen.

I'm not 100% certain how you'll introduce your monkeys and stuff in the play, but anyway ...

(sorry for having a word to say about everything ... i'm in brainstorming mood these last days)

Wow, no comments in 4 days

the new block seems more interesting, imho.
And just watching at dragon and bats ... how about making them from the same species, but at different age of their lifetime (yeah, been reading Dune books too ... sandworm inspiration somehow).

[Souly]

The monkeys bats, and turtle were planned for the surface so far.
The rest would be found in the cave in a more suitable environment.

Yea it's rotation, I'll re-draw the arm in due time.

[Shrike]

I love that character, but he seems to levitate off the ground. O:  Tell me how to do that!  (The second one is better, but to make it look more betterer (  ) I would make the feet point down whilst they're in the air, and, um, make one of the legs delayed.  Having them go up at the same time is unnatural, or if it isnt its boring.)
Good work so far, the new block is great, though the red eyes are kind of strange.  I think having them be made out of stone would be better, but I don't know.

Keep it up!

Shrike