AuthorTopic: Partisan - take two  (Read 15606 times)

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Warm-ups

Reply #20 on: May 08, 2009, 03:52:11 am
alright, I think I got what I could from that sketch...fil and I already have 3 long-term projects (spherrets, vikings, partisan) and there's no use in starting a 4th.

here's another doodle....there's an idea behind it but I haven't run this past Fil, so don't put too much stake in this:



I think I've become more commercial in style over a year without any major pixel art, but at the same time this makes work faster and more attractive.  Long story short, where I left partisan there were a lot of confused points, I was halfway to revamping large swaths of tiles, but hadn't really done that yet...animations were strange, colors...etc.
What I want to do, if i have the time, is rebuild from the ground up in this fast-paced bright style on the theory that I could get to where I was and past pretty fast.  I thought about doing 3d for a bit but I don't have the skills to do that quickly yet and partisan began as a pixel-project and I know Fil wants to keep it that way too.

One thing you'll notice is hey, aren't these tiles not 48 pixels across?  Damned straight - they've been cut by a third!  Characters though will remain the same size. 
The reason behind this is mainly that the animations required the player to step very far forward for every attack, and most melee weapons fought similarly no matter how we tweaked them.  Now there can be distinct advantages and disadvantages to more weapon types, with more weapons being able to hit farther than the simple adjacent square.  This should even the playing field for more acrobatic characters, such as fencers, and characters who rely on intercepting a more mobile enemy, such as a heavily armored guard with a halberd.  Pikes will now threaten more ground, covering a wicked 3 square distance.  This will also make side-arms more important, with each character carrying smaller weapons in case of close-combat emergencies, where their primary weapon is too long or big to properly hit the squares immediately in front of them.  The focus would be less on battering and more on out-thinking the opponent.  We'll also be able to make guns less predictable in terms of what square they hit, without losing additional plausibility.  A lot more of the heavy-hitting weapons, such as great swords, dutch axes, etc will now require hitting multiple squares, friend or foe, to reduce gangbanging.  If you want to hit a guy from all sides, you'll need to do it like Brutus and Cassius.  Animations will also be simplified and reduced to the bare-bone frames to reduce my chances at poor decisions as well as make things run faster and look a little more punchy.
A mistake is a mistake.
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The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline Helm

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Re: Warm-ups

Reply #21 on: May 08, 2009, 07:15:23 am
That whole revamp sounds like development hell to me, but from the start I was more interested in helping along and witnessing your artistic growth as a pixeller than getting a final game out of your efforts, so good luck with remaking everything. Keep posting here for critique and help and so we can see the pretty art.

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Warm-ups

Reply #22 on: May 08, 2009, 11:00:14 am
That whole revamp sounds like development hell to me, but from the start I was more interested in helping along and witnessing your artistic growth as a pixeller than getting a final game out of your efforts, so good luck with remaking everything. Keep posting here for critique and help and so we can see the pretty art.
Think of it not as a revamp but as a second attempt starting from 0, which is actually far, far simpler, using what we learned from the first try.  Most importantly we just be adding more ingredients to a bad soup the way I was in the last topic, we're stating a whole new dish.

Only a couple weapons are left in each category, differentiated not by an abstract sense of having a better attack value, but by physical properties and attack patterns (essentially, force, weight, effected gridspace, damage type, accuracy, and nothing else).  There are no more branching character classes, no more traveling, no more shops - everything arises through actions of the players, which Fil can handle very easily as variables.  Battles will be faster, consisting of initial plans, a chance to react, and then decisive action - no grinding down for ages like we were experiencing.  The pieces will be more chess-like in their relationships to each other, and most smart attacks will get a wound or better.  Riflemen can expect to fire 2-3 shots per battle if they fight well and they survive the battle, more often only 1 (on their first or second turn).  This is a game that's going to have to be made 15-20 minutes at a time, so we want it to be a game that can be played 15-20 minutes at a time.

Either way I appreciate the support and the critique that I know is going to hit once I get my act enough together to post more than 6(9) tiles :).
« Last Edit: May 08, 2009, 11:10:02 am by ndchristie »
A mistake is a mistake.
The same mistake twice is a bad habit.
The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline Helm

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Re: Warm-ups

Reply #23 on: May 08, 2009, 12:23:58 pm
Actually that preliminary design-doc sounds much more focused and compact than in the past so I'm looking forward to a game as well, a couple of years down the line!

Offline Caergrim

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Re: Warm-ups

Reply #24 on: May 08, 2009, 02:32:15 pm
Awesome work! :)

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Partisan - take two

Reply #25 on: May 09, 2009, 03:03:12 pm
Fil and I have been discussing more...



although this mostly shows what was done in the other tiles, it shows it over a wider range.  the border is because the battles will take place on an actual stage.

although this shows characters directly beside each other, this won't happen often as, like was mentioned, most weapons suffer penalties for getting so close.  Not to mention IRL both the masked man and the purple-caped guy would be like hey man, some personal space?

i'm aware that there's a little hiccup where the rock ledge block hits the other tiles, i'm going to fix that soon.  The little blue spikey things on the far left need help as well...and the leafy bush is about 2/3rds done.

Next on the agenda after those: sand :) edit - sand actually came first.  And maybe think of a better way to integrate with the ledges...
« Last Edit: May 09, 2009, 07:33:30 pm by ndchristie »
A mistake is a mistake.
The same mistake twice is a bad habit.
The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline BlackTerror

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Re: Partisan - take two

Reply #26 on: May 10, 2009, 02:47:19 am
Hmm, the rock-on-rock outlines don't really work... Maybe you need variations with only outlines on the right, and only outlines on the left, so rocks don't have those thick outlines against each other.

Also, the sand doesn't blend into the other tiles to fit in this tileset yet, but I assume you're going to make grassy send and other transition tiles.

Chess piece sort of character design for a tactical rpg does sound interesting -- does that mean all characters' looks and weapon/armor will be essentially fixed?

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Partisan - take two

Reply #27 on: May 22, 2009, 08:56:41 pm


still heavy wip and not much progress on the tiles themselves but i'm working out block heights...
still missing a lot of transitions of course and haven't addressed yet the outline style of the rocks.

by chesslike I was thinking more in terms of each piece playing a role and following a distinct pattern of attack.  I would hope that that unit lists remain largely customizable, at least by the later game.  In this case the player would be allowed to take several knights and no rooks, as it were, albeit at his own choosing and risk.
A mistake is a mistake.
The same mistake twice is a bad habit.
The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline EvilEye

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Re: Partisan - take two

Reply #28 on: May 23, 2009, 04:57:06 am
Looks damn nice, especially the terrain. I think you'd give the pro's at squaresoft a run for there money.

Is this all just a mockup or is there some playable demo in the works?

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Partisan - take two

Reply #29 on: May 24, 2009, 03:47:21 am
Any reason that particular platform on the right doesn't have an outline?
Good stuff as always, I love the tighter rendering. Pixel art may not be something where you always want to " go loose" like all the painting teachers say :]