AuthorTopic: Feature 07 - Savage World (artistic nudity)  (Read 124074 times)

Offline philipptr

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #10 on: January 16, 2009, 04:12:03 pm
These mockups contain an epic amount of awesomeness.
Still I think there are some things you could optimize.
Imho, this version looked the best:


and while I see what you mean with the planes, I don't think it is a problem here.
actually I think the blocky platforms in the current version are kind of problematic.
Have you tried a more natural formed way like this:

It's just a very quick edit but I think it looks less out of place and would work just as well with the gameplay.

Offline big brother

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #11 on: January 16, 2009, 06:47:41 pm
Oh, lots of great feedback! This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I'll try to address the points I can.

Evileye: Did you see the sketches I posted for the floating HUD? What do you think of them?

Helm: I looked at a bunch of Lionheart stuff, and while it has minimal HUD space, it definitely uses depth to the platforms. The character himself is rendered in flat profile, though.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/lionheart/screenshots/gameShotId,231762/
I would consider dropping his left foot down a pixel to give the illusion of depth. I don't think this minor change would look too horrible when flipped. Your take on the sprite rendering style is interesting -- the purple outlines for where the light hits the sprite and the extra shades within the colored regions (while the shadows remain black). It makes the sprite look less flat, but I'm not immediately sure that's the direction I want to go.

As for the HUD, I have no problem axing the cheesecake. Faulkner said, "Kill your darlings", and it's as applicable with pixel art as it is with writing.

Those Alisia Dragoon shots are interesting food for thought, since they use flat profile tiles as well as tiles with varying depth in different parts of the game. I would want to keep mine consistent to make it easier to build levels.

Vierbit: You have a good point about making organic tiles. The trick for me would be building those shapes into a tileset without too many excess tiles. I'll look into it.

Buloght: Do you think if the bird matched the detail level of the character sprite it would still look out of place?

Ben2theEdge: Good call on the asymmetry. If I go with a big HUD, I'd have to mask off a section of the field of play -- a rectangle that is only used for the HUD, and has no transparency (so it wouldn't interfere with playability like it does currently). It would provide a level of awesome, and that's more of my focus. I am concerned with the complaints of style clashing. I'm not interested in making a huge HUD that matches the comic-like style of the sprites. If it's gonna be big, I want it ornate and fiddly like the HUDs I did before. Otherwise, I could make a free-floating HUD like the top one in my sketch and render it in the same style as the sprite.

Philipptr: You're right, adding tiles to make the edges of the platforms less rectangular is an easy fix. As the mockup is right now, I think there are bigger problems I need to address first.

Offline HughSpectrum

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #12 on: January 16, 2009, 07:05:44 pm
Your art is amazing, and this game looks beautiful.

My suggestion about the statues is that if they're going to be used as lives indicators, maybe have them be displayed only when you:

- Start the game or a level to show how many lives you currently have.
- Every time you die, which one breaks.
- If you collect an extra life, which then one reforms.

That way they'll still exist as a noticeable part of the game, but only during times where the information is relevant.

Offline buloght

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #13 on: January 16, 2009, 10:41:39 pm
Do you think if the bird matched the detail level of the character sprite it would still look out of place?

Yes. I understand the idea is to separate it from the background, but the bird feels very big and clumsy, maybe too "cartoony" almost, when you see the amazing painted sky and marble girls. I would like to see with a more rendered realistic approach, longer stronger legs, smaller head. The wings too don't read well to me. I like this example googled. Edit: or this one is like yours, so better.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2009, 10:45:37 pm by buloght »

Offline TomF

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #14 on: January 16, 2009, 11:35:47 pm
Haha, I found your post entertaining, and I really enjoy the first swamp scene. What didn't Andrew like about it?

Something to consider is to have the top surface of the rocks a different colour around the outside of the platform. It's a bit hard to explain so let me use a sloppy example:



It's probably a bit too subtle actually. I used the same technique in the cave tiles I did, which I actually stole from Contra 4 (this goes a step further and changes the colour and texture):



Actually come to think of it, it's been around for ages, including in the last shot Helm posted. Anyway it's up to personal taste really, I just think it looks cool.

Offline big brother

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #15 on: January 17, 2009, 07:15:54 pm
I like the border of raised stones approach -- very cool.

Well, it's back to the drawing board... I'll post the next version when I have a WIP indicative of the final.

Offline EvilEye

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #16 on: January 18, 2009, 05:53:14 pm
Evileye: Did you see the sketches I posted for the floating HUD? What do you think of them?

I like the skull / spine idea, but not the bubble.

I wouldn't put it at the bottom of the screen I would put it at the top, along with the score, and keep it small. As mentioned by another poster if you have the HUD at the bottom in a platformer it hides important parts of the map from the player.

Offline big brother

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #17 on: January 22, 2009, 07:04:16 pm
Remember how I said the sprite style wasn't changing? Well grown-ups lie, too. Just like in that Jim Carrey movie how he can't get through his life without fibbing. I guess they cast him because he's gone through a few divorces in real life and that movie was all about the kid falling through the rift between the parents. The ex-wife's new fiance even tried to mimic the "claw" game that Jim used to play, if only to solidify his character as a dick.



I took Helm's suggestion with adding shading to the character a la Frazetta. I still don't want to lose the heavy blacks. Overall, I think the new sprite meshes better with the background. I also added a new HUD. The green signifies a hit point, the blank space is a wound, and the armored one is a locked health capacity.



This is a sketch of an inventory screen that could be accessed by hitting TAB. I can clutter this screen with some of the ornate statuary.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2009, 07:17:09 pm by big brother »

Offline tehwexxl0rz

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #18 on: January 22, 2009, 08:25:42 pm
I love the new shading on the character! And it still retains the comic-booky feel. Well done!

The new HUD I'm not so enthusiastic about.... The compactness is great and the layout is generally good, but the structure of the health bar I don't like so much. The way each hit point is individually framed makes them each look like an item or power-up or something in storage. Also, is there a gameplay reason for locked-out spaces to even exist on screen? Why not simply add to the health bar as needed?

I have a suggestion for the health bar in the same vein as your shattering statues concept: why not have a spine extending from skull (like before) with each vertebra representing a hit point? The vertebra could shatter one by one until all that remains is the skull which would shatter at the next hit, dramatically ending the life of the player. Rather than having locked spaces, the spine could simply grow from its base.

Another quick note: the little zeroes look a bit too much like Ps, I think. If they were actually written by hand, the trail-off point would be at the top, wouldn't it?

Offline big brother

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Re: Savage World (artistic nudity)

Reply #19 on: January 22, 2009, 09:03:07 pm
I just realized the new HUD looks like male genitalia in profile. Dammit!