WIP (Work In Progress) | |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Author | Message |
SLiV
Seaman ![]() ![]() Joined: 08 December 2017 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
![]() ![]() ![]() Posted: 08 December 2017 at 9:19am |
Hi guys!
A friend and I are working on a strategy game, and I've taken it on myself to do the spriting. I was hoping to get some feedback on the way things look in-game. Note that the sprites were made to be shown at scale 2. ![]() I'm various degrees of happy with it so far; something that is obviously lacking is more variation (multiple tree sprites of each type, different grass textures etc) but I want to get the base sprites looking decent first. Any suggestions on what I should focus on improving? One concern I have now is about the readability of the different units. I've had multiple players say they can't tell the difference between the rifleman units (on the grass in this shot) and the gunner units (in the trenches and on the farmland), I suppose because the most striking feature is their helmet, which is the same for both. I've tried giving them different silhouettes and using making their rifles more distinct, but because I use so few pixels per sprite I'm having a hard time. I feel like separating the rifle from the body using an outline could help make the rifle more recognizable, but since nothing else in the game is outline wouldn't it look out of place? Any thoughts on how to differentiate them more? |
|
![]() |
|
eishiya
Commander ![]() ![]() Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Since you have so few pixels to work with and the units' personalities aren't important, perhaps it might work well to emphasise the weapons instead of the characters? Make them really big and stylised, with the people being more like colour-coded attachments (the weapons can have a slight colour tint to identify them).
Would making the units larger be an option? It doesn't look like you're making much use of all the space you have on each time. I'd like to see the tiles have smoother transitions. The blocky look feels more appropriate to a prototype than a finished game. It's more work but it adds a lot of polish. Consider making the ground simpler and focusing instead on making the terrain feel more varied with implied height and large-scale features such as hills and dunes You might not need all that sand and grass and snow texture - you can still have them, just know that that's not the only way to make the terrain interesting, and it's not required. |
|
![]() |
|
SLiV
Seaman ![]() ![]() Joined: 08 December 2017 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Yeah, the soldiers are supposed to be depersonalized, so making their rifles even larger might very well work. I'll give that a try.
Making them much larger seems problematic, because a lot of units can occupy the same space: the city in the screenshot below contains 5 buildings, 5 riflemen and a zeppelin, and it could even contain 5 more riflemen as a unit moves through it. So larger units would cause more clipping and cluttering, I think. ![]() Making the transitions between terrain types smoother is definitely a good idea, but would require some trickery to make it versatile enough; the terrain changes during gameplay and each of the different terrain types has different gameplay effects. Maybe we can segment each tile into multiple parts that layer over each other to generate the transitions? Hmm... |
|
![]() |
|
eishiya
Commander ![]() ![]() Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
You could have a single layer of just transitions, layered over the sharp tile boundaries. You'd only need two transitions for each type of tile - a vertical and a horizontal one, transitioning to transparency. Then, just cycle through the tiles starting from the top left, look at the tile's type, and draw the transitions on the right and bottom of it. Then draw buildings, units, etc above that.
You could in theory make transitions that are more fine-tuned to each kind of transition, but it's probably not worth the effort. |
|
![]() |
|
SLiV
Seaman ![]() ![]() Joined: 08 December 2017 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Here's my first attempt at smooth transitions:
![]() I've made it so I can add different transition textures/dithers for different tiletypes; for now only the coastlines use a different set. Is this a step in the right direction? |
|
![]() |
|
eishiya
Commander ![]() ![]() Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
I think it is, yes! Looks a lot nicer than lines.
The main thing I don't like about is the single-pixel noise, especially where it has high contrast (e.g. grass-snow). I think something more stylised might look better. Plus, more stylisation and neater clusters would benefit the visuals overall, I think. You're not trying to pixel a photo, you don't need to try to depict all the tiny details/textures that aren't visible at this scale. The scale and combat of this game is stylised, why not make the art match that? Consider using more flat colours and large-scale details, making the world more cartoony. Check out screenshots of Sproggiwood for an example of how you can create a rich-looking world with a lot of solid colours (pay extra attention to the isometric parts of the game, which have a much cleaner, readable look). It's not pixel art, but hopefully it'll give you some ideas. Another interesting example is Magical Starsign for the DS, which probably goes way cartoonier than you should, but is another good example to study for use of solid colours and implied textures. |
|
![]() |
|
Hapiel
Rear Admiral ![]() ![]() Joined: 30 June 2023 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3266 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
The soldiers on the dirt ground and especially in the trenches are harder to see. Perhaps go more extreme with the soldier colors, give them a brighter red cap and use colors for the weapons which do not appear in the tiles? Or experiment with dark/bright outlines for the little characters?
When I was young I played a bit of Advance Wars. the game had wonderful bright backgrounds and all the units had strong black outlines. Also they were as big as possible to make them stand out. |
|
![]() |
|
SLiV
Seaman ![]() ![]() Joined: 08 December 2017 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
As an experiment, I tried a more minimalist approach to the ground surfaces.
![]() ![]() Is this too far? |
|
![]() |
|
eishiya
Commander ![]() ![]() Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
I like it! It has a lot more character.
I also like the new transitions, except for the ones around city tiles. Those look just "very pixelated" rather than like anything thematic. Maybe something more like cracked pavement would work better there, or you could use the transitions you use elsewhere for it. I think both the leafy and sandy transitions are good, and maybe you could use both together? You could pick either randomly, or based on whatever material is in a certain direction, or maybe declare a "dominant" material (e.g. always have sandy transitions when snow and sand are involved). If you can only use either sandy or leafy, I vote for sandy. |
|
![]() |
|
SLiV
Seaman ![]() ![]() Joined: 08 December 2017 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Originally posted by Hapiel
The soldiers on the dirt ground and especially in the trenches are harder to see. Perhaps go more extreme with the soldier colors, give them a brighter red cap and use colors for the weapons which do not appear in the tiles? Or experiment with dark/bright outlines for the little characters? I did try adding an outline, but I think the outline prevents them from being physically behind a building even when they are partially occluded by it. ![]() When I was young I played a bit of Advance Wars. the game had wonderful bright backgrounds and all the units had strong black outlines. Also they were as big as possible to make them stand out.
Advance Wars was one of the main inspirations for the game mechanically, but graphically we're trying to do something different. In AW the more symbolic overworld switches with a relatively high definition battle screen; in our game the two are combined and the player can see the individual figures in a unit run around the level and fight. So I guess the problem is that we're trying to have the units 'blend in', but still be recognizable. Originally posted by eishiya
I like it! It has a lot more character. I also like the new transitions, except for the ones around city tiles. Those look just "very pixelated" rather than like anything thematic. Maybe something more like cracked pavement would work better there, or you could use the transitions you use elsewhere for it. I think both the leafy and sandy transitions are good, and maybe you could use both together? You could pick either randomly, or based on whatever material is in a certain direction, or maybe declare a "dominant" material (e.g. always have sandy transitions when snow and sand are involved).If you can only use either sandy or leafy, I vote for sandy. Thanks for the help so far! My partner in crime also thinks its an improvement. I'm eager to show these changes to the players. I ended up going with the sandy texture for now, and added more variations and more alternatives depending on the dominant surface type; e.g. dirt slightly pushes out into grass to give the trenches and crops a bit more breathing room. ![]() To increase the difference between rifleman and gunner, I made the gunner's gun even bigger and added a more noticable tripod, and conversely removed the bayonet from the rifleman's rifle. I also added some simple shadows and in particular made the zeppelin's shadow non-dithered to work better with the simpler textures. |
|
![]() |
|
SLiV
Seaman ![]() ![]() Joined: 08 December 2017 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Hi again! I'm working on the title screen logo for my game. I started out making a small icon:
![]() It's a planet that simultaneously burning and freezing. Not the most inspired concept perhaps but I think it conveys what the game is all about. This icon is then upscaled eight times and the title is placed in front of it. However this means the planet has 16x16 pixels, whereas everything else in the game has 2x2 pixels. So I decided to redraw the logo on a 256x256 canvas so that it's upscaled to 512x512. Here's the planet I drew before I added the effects: ![]() I'm fairly happy with it, given that it's the first time I've done pixel art of this size. At this scale it's obvious the continents don't make any geographical sense but I'm not too worried about that. But now I've started drawing in the fire and the ice: ![]() Any thoughts on how to improve this? Is the fire something that just needs a little more work, or should I scrap it and take a different approach? Now that I'm typing this I've realized that I really like the roundness of the planet itself, and that the fire and the icicles seem to subtract from that. Maybe I should replace the extravagant flames with a charred landscape highlighted with volcanoes and magma jets coming out of the cracks? |
|
![]() |
|
eishiya
Commander ![]() ![]() Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
I think it would look cooler (and/but less comedic) if you had a realistic scale on the fire and ice, i.e. a magma field as you said and just ice/snow cover on the bottom, no giant gravity-defying icicles.
With the shapes of the charred and icy regions, you can also make the planet look less flat. Or more flat, if you'd prefer that. The ice doesn't read as thick ice to me. Take a look at satellite photos of regions in winter, or at the ice caps. They're basically solid cool white. Ice is only translucent like that when there's only a little of it. |
|
![]() |
|
Hapiel
Rear Admiral ![]() ![]() Joined: 30 June 2023 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3266 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
There is gravity in what direction here? That ice is falling upwards, and the flame goes to the up direction independent of the center of the earth?
Also the shading of the planet seems a bit strange. Should the fire also have an influence on the shading? And perhaps burn more down on the continents and stay behind the "horizon" on the sea bit as you did? |
|
![]() |
|
SLiV
Seaman ![]() ![]() Joined: 08 December 2017 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Yeah the gravity is a bit nonsensical, which might make it look more comical than intended. It's supposed to be exaggerated, but not necessarily cartoony.
![]() I tried a lava-field approach, any thoughts? |
|
![]() |
|
Hapiel
Rear Admiral ![]() ![]() Joined: 30 June 2023 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3266 |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Yeah, more red, more heat, more glow! I'd make it look like the sun! Same for the ice actually, could be a brighter shade imo
|
|
![]() |
|
![]() ![]() |
||
Forum Jump |
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |