Harvest Moon Mockup

[crab2selout.png]

I'm in the mood for a little Harvest Moon, and I started making a little Harvest moon sprite using my avatar's base. From there I ended up with this little beaut. I'm quite proud of it, but I'd like to see what you guys think. I think I may need to make up another grass tile because of repetition.

In case you're wondering, the x pattern dirt tiles are supposed to be dry earth that's cracking.

[Q.K.]

Not bad, but Jack looks sort of fat. Better get him working in the fields 

Asides from Jack, everything else looks pretty nice! The grass might be a bit repetitive, but it's neat.

[Darien]

I really like the quirky look the sprite has.  And the tile itself is very nice, too.  The rocks and tree trunks I like the most.

However, I don't think the sprite fits the tileset.  I mean, the farmer is uniquely styled, but the tileset is sort of generic.  I'd want to see him in a cartoonish game that's not so plain and more vibrantly colored. 

[.TakaM]

looks very nice, i wanted to get into the gba harvest moon.. but i couldnt play it coz of its graphics..
I could definetly play this

[hawken]

looking nice!

You might want to tone down the outlines on the gardener chap there, how about some softer tones?

Also I have a suggestion for your tree trunks, I think they could do with sharpening up around the areas where they were cut. Also, make a difference from the inner wood and the bark. Wood is often much lighter than the bark.

The cracked ground gets it's message across, however it looks kinda staged. Might want to throw in a "cross over" set from normal earth to cracked.

[crab2selout.png]

Sprite and mockup updates:
-branch
-tree stump
-new +updated grass tiles
-redid the cracked earth tiles



QK: Updated the outliens to match the mockup's sprites and played around with the shading and outlines around the stomach to lose the gut. I'm a little sad to see it go, lol. Getting him much skinner is going to be difficult without having to give him bird legs


Darien: I tried Hawken's suggestion of using lighter outlines on the sprite. Do you think that the black I was using was causing the sprite to clash stylistically with the tileset, or do they still not fit together?

Hawken:Went with some lighter outlines and it looks like he fits in alot better now. I updated the tree trunk to give it a cleaner cut, like you said, as well as giving the inside a lighter colour. How does it look, as I might've make the bark a little too thin so that it looks like AA. I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the crossover tiles. Do you mean I should extend the transition from cracked to normal earth a couple pixels more? I ended up trying the to redo them, this time with an 8x8 diamond instead of a 16x16 diamond. It still has an orderly look to it since it's basically a repeating pattern, but so far my attempts to make something a little more random or disorderly have been pretty big failures. I'll keep trying though.

[Ryumaru]

maybe adding smaller lighter cracks that branch out of the almost diamondish pattern would help.

btw, fuckin loving these tiles.

[Darien]

Hmm... yeah, I think it does fit better in the tileset now, but honestly I was hoping you'd change the tileset to match the sprite (I've got a soft spot for black outlines).  I also meant in terms of the character's proportion and structure.  I prefer the fatty version, too, by the way.

I was thinking about this and I couldn't pinpoint what was bothering me, so I messed around with the image's colors a bit.  I hope you don't mind.

(Oh yeah, everything you updated in the picture were great steps in the right direction)

My edit:   yours: 

I just increased the contrast and yellowed many of the lighter shades a bit.  I may have overdone it, but I think it gets my point across.

You had these lush tiles (especially grass) but the lack of contrast muddled them.  Also the sprite has a nice cartoony feel, and the extra contrast also conveys that feeling. 

Some other small things:  I don't like the hoed dirt tile at all, and the young tomatoes could be improved, too, I think.

Eh, I guess I could have just said "more contrast," but oh well...

[Xion]

Hey Darien, I agree with the contrast in the grass and the tomatoes needing work, but I very much dislike that yellow dirt. It gives the whole screen too cool of a hue. With the orangish dirt, the hues were evenly balanced - not too warm, not too cool, see?

As for Crab's edit, It's wonderful! The cracked earth looks much better, as do the tree stumps. I don't like the second Jack edit, though. It makes his lengthy arms much too obvious and his shoulders look too broad.
It would be cool if, in the game, you could get out of shape if you didn't work enough or ate too much. Then you'd move much slower and lose stamina more quickly. You could be either fat, skinny, or fit.

Anyhow, ya done one of my favorite series' much justice. It makes me smile.

[Darien]

Right.  As I said, I may have overdone it.