GR#119 - Project Deadbird - Gameart, Sprites, Icons, Conceptart

[Ryumaru]

So for almost an hour I was trying to perfect the animation based on Pawige's great edit. Working in promotion, it seemed whatever I did, it still had this crazy snap that made him look like he was on speed. Come to find out some of the frames were on 40 miliseconds and some on 150 or something

Also, some old and new weapons, still looking for comments on those as well : D

[robotriot]

Robotroit: Yes those are my thoughts as well, but my ideas for the game include day progression which would of course change the direction and placement of the shadows. Of the two tents, which one do you prefer however? Would it be improved if I kept the light source top down and instead just individually shaded both sides? thankyou for your comment :]

Alright, I see ... in that case, I'd take the second version but change the folds on one side to make it look less mirrored.

I like the new animation btw, it improved a lot!

[Chris2balls]

Just made minute changes to his pecs:
Mine:
Yours:
His ribcage should move to a certain extent, but not as much as the pecs. The pecs should change shape according to the movement, not reduce in width. I don't know if I conveyed that in my edit but I hope it helps.

I love the sprites and idea!

[ndchristie]

you can't just think about shape, you have to think about materials, construction, and forces.  fragility and complicated designs are visually obvious in the same way that simplicity and sturdiness are aswell.  pm for clarification.

[Ryumaru]

Chris2balls: Thankyou very much for your critique, I believe I understand what you're saying and I'll fix it soonly.

ndchristie: Your post is definitely clear, im just not versed with weapon design. I have some concept art in my moleskine for this game that I will update with soon, and maybe you could help me out more once you see the bigger ideas that are harder to express in such a small pixel box.
Speaking of weopons heres a select few new ones- comments on readability are greatly appreciated. The one with the red outline and star is supposed to be a weapon gained from defeating the first boss.

[Arachne]

His shoulders should move because he's moving his arms, not the other way around. I think his feet need to be closer to the center. They also bend oddly when he lifts them, which makes it look like they're moving in an arc. His biceps are too bright and don't really look like they're a natural part of the arm.

Edit!



Otherwise, I really like this. The bright gray you're separating your icons with drowns them out a bit, though.

Edit: Experimented with the frame delays.

[robotacon]

His feet are almost in the same two positions in all frames.

The feet should travel on the ground.
Make an animation where the sprite moves downwards for two or three cycles and you'll see that the feet don't align.

At what speed is this character supposed to move?

[TrevoriuS]

if I look at it like this he'll walk about 6 or 7 pixels per cycle, i don't know if that indeed matches the intended speed, but that his feet are not traveling across the ground is in my eyes absolutely not true

[Ryumaru]

Arachne: Thank you for the wonderful edit! I will look at the changes you made and see what I come up with :]

Robatacon and TrevoriuS: I have to agree with TrevoriuS, can personally see the feet as traveling across the ground. I don't know the exact speed such as pixels over time that he will travel but the animation's pace seems fine to me.

No pixels, but I have some sketches as well as a design document im working on for the game, tell me what you think. I probably won't be submitting this to someone like a publisher- but I might so it should be nice and pretty and perfect:

-OVERVIEW OF GAME CONCEPT-
Play the role of a criminal convicted of horrible crimes, who's punishment is eternal isolation from the world he knows; left for dead you must use the resources of this forsaken land to fend off Hordes of demons that come by the night wishing nothing other than your end.

-GAME PLAY-
Game play is highly centered around day progression of day. Time between morning and evening is used to collect resources such as lumber and stone as well as explore an intricate game map that is full of remnants from past inhabiters. Night time will hold all the battles between the main character and demons- generally named the " Diavolo"- who, upon their death may leave behind remains that can be used to create weapons and other items.

- THE DIAVOLO-
The Diavolo are very mysterious creatures. It is believed that they are a physical embodiment of the evil in this world. Their bodies are at once both real and ethereal, their spirit compositions licking in the air like flames; each one sees it's prey with only one eye.
The Diavolo have 3 main stats:

Vita: commonly known as " health points" or HP, this stat determines how much damage is taken before it is destroyed.

Attack: This stat determines how much damage is done to the main character each time the Diavolo lands a hit. Boss Diavolo may have different attacks that cause different amount of damage.

Defense: This stat determines how much attack from the main characters weapon is negated before damage is calculated. For example, if a Diavolo had a defense of 2, and the main character was attacking with a weapon that has 3 attack, each strike to the Diavolo would subtract 1 from the Diavolo's Vita. If a Diavolo's defense is higher than the attack of the weapon, that weapon is rendered useless and every landed hit will not do any damage whatsoever. Some weapons may be designed to disregard Diavolo's defense at the cost of a very low attack.

[Helm]

If you're gonna actually make this you need to be more considering as to what gameplay aspects you want to put in there, not just write down and include any thought that comes to you. Like weapon durability, is that fun? To have your weapons break down on you while you play. It might support the theme of stone-ageish exploration game, but is it fun? Is it fun to swing a weapon ineffectively at enemies because you have too low attack and they too high defense? These sort of things need to be addressed with a firm design concept in mind. Weed out the brainstorm ideas and keep only the absolute essentials first and if you can code that stuff in your game will be playable even if it's not complete. Just add more things then, if you have time. But if your design doc is just a list of things you thought would be cool in the abstract and as belonging to 15 different games, then you're screwed when it comes to hierarchical implementation of them.

Also, perhaps that doesn't matter though, most of the weapon designs are impossible given the weapon-making tools a stone-age dude would have or even when they're not impossible, are not functional, one can tell just by looking at them. Though that might not be a problem for most players, a survival game rests its concept on that the things you make in it *make sense* and the combinations are intuitive. A club is a chiseled rock, a femur bone and some twine and I know that even before I play your game. But that knife on the right page, the first one on the left, it's made out of a bone, twine, a seemingly perfect factory-made sharp bone blade and a... rock?