[wip] vine-invaded woods

[PypeBros]

huge thanks for your edit, EyeCraft. That really opens new perspectives.
I hope my little daughter will sleep enough to let me experiment all this. She keeps me busy singing Yoshi Island themes all the evening these last weeks

[PypeBros]

Seems that you need more than 1 sprite for those floating bushes. They get rather repetitive.

Is there a specific tree where you feel it's too repetitive (I guess that would be highest tree of the widest level), or do other trees also suffer from the problem ?

The answer could help me figuring out whether a new platform-bush is needed or a specific wall-bush is required to avoid using tons of platforms to "render" a wall in the tree.

[Reo]

The ''root tile'' have a twist to it while the trunk hasn't it looks pretty weird, either make the rest of the tree twisted or the roots straight.

Thats what i have for now, looking forward to updates!

[CrazyMLC]

Seems that you need more than 1 sprite for those floating bushes. They get rather repetitive.

Is there a specific tree where you feel it's too repetitive (I guess that would be highest tree of the widest level), or do other trees also suffer from the problem ?

The answer could help me figuring out whether a new platform-bush is needed or a specific wall-bush is required to avoid using tons of platforms to "render" a wall in the tree.

On the first image one of the trees has a big clump of platforms, Doesn't really look all that good IMO, having that many close together really makes it obvious that they're all the same tile.

[PypeBros]

I have still troubles drawing a vine one could use as a ladder/rope, but at least I'm getting more use to draw such things. Here comes my latest attempts.

The first "@-shaped" vine is supposed to get spikes on it and serves as obstacle. The "~-shaped" one will have spikes as well and be found in pits where it will "welcome" the fallen hero.

The "?-shaped" one is my proudest achievement, inspired by some artwork in Super Princess Peach, but it serves no useful purpose but decorating the level. Any hint to progress further ?

(Btw, I'll try and address other comments too, later on)

[PypeBros]

I pushed the process a bit more and came up with those work-in-progress vines, where berrybats await you. Friends of mine noted that they're pretty dark compared to e.g. the grass, which is fine to me as they serve a different purpose (climbing). What's your feeling about it ? How can I further improve them ?

(obviously I need junction tiles for vines "sticking out of ground" ... oh, and the vine on the right is still WIp : I want them to tile so I am not done with BG-to-FG shading)

[Dr D]

I think your friend has a point, currently, I probably wouldn't be able to determine if the vine was an interactive object. If you were to brighten it up some, put it more on par with the grass/ground, and give it more contrast, players will have a much easier time seeing that it's interactive.

You're doing good work so far, keep it up.

[PypeBros]

+ =

Just a new colour set for the background tiles. Thanks for the tip, EyeCraft: it really rocks. Now I'm set up to follow the other pieces of advice you pointed out.
Sorry to dig such an old thread to tell that, but I thought that'd only be justice to do so ...

Btw, these might not be the bestest colors possible, but remember: the NDS only allows RGB values that ends up with F or 7 (5bits/color channel)
I had a few missed attempts while trying to blindly copy colours ... what made it work was to build up a mockup first (the small image nearby) with BG, FG and character tiles alltogether in such a way that contrast issues became obvious. Once in that setup, with a 32x32 area to focus on where all the important things were there, I could bring the BG colours down, almost to grey, although keeping the blues with a higher value (blues and purple = dark, cold shadows. That's how our bluesky world and cone-rod eyes work ^_^)

Hope it'll help others as well.

[Sigil]

I don't have much to say about the rest, but I really like the detailing on your tree trunks and the statue boy you just posted. That swirly vine is great too, it's more visually interesting than the more "blobby" ones, if that makes sense.

[PypeBros]

I don't have much to say about the rest, but I really like the detailing on your tree trunks and the statue boy you just posted. That swirly vine is great too, it's more visually interesting than the more "blobby" ones, if that makes sense.

Ohhoh. waitwaitwait
The "statue Boy" is EyeCraft's avatar. It's just meant to point out the edit he provided.

Glad to hear the latest vine is the most preferred one.