Pixel Joint Forum: RPG Iconset

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   I'm working on an Iconset for small 2D RPGs. What do you think about the style? Any suggestion? These are just examples:

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Faherya Midshipman Joined: 31 January 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13	Topic: RPG Iconset Posted: 21 August 2018 at 5:00am
	I'm working on an Iconset for small 2D RPGs. What do you think about the style? Any suggestion? These are just examples:
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eishiya Commander Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109	Posted: 21 August 2018 at 7:14am
	Many of the items are hard to identify, and almost all look rather plain, almost symbolic. Simplicity is fine, and often a good thing, but I think most of these need more definition to feel like actual items rather than just general symbols/icons of broad kinds of items. I think the brown pouch is the strongest one, it has a sense of volume and texture. The axe looks nice, although it also seems rather thick because of the shadows at the edges, looks more like a club than an axe (which would be thin and edge-shaped, to split things). The shields(?) look completely flat, and could really use some shadows to show their curved forms. Nitpick: The shadows on your reds are much darker than the shadows on everything else, so the teeth on the red key become lost. For some of these items, you'll have to put more work in than just palette-swapping them, since palette-swaps can cause these kinds of legibility problems.
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Faherya Midshipman Joined: 31 January 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13	Posted: 21 August 2018 at 7:26am
	Thank you very much for the tips. I was thinking that the context inside the game would be enough to identify the items, but you're right. The icons need to be readable without any extra information. I've been trying to use as few colors as possible on each icon, I'm paranoid that fewer colors means higher quality, this has gotten me pretty messed up. Yes, shields haha.
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eishiya Commander Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109	Posted: 21 August 2018 at 8:27am
	I think the colours you have should be fine, you don't need to add more if you don't want to. The problems here are in construction, lighting, and texturing, not the colours. That said, colour count isn't related to "quality". Small palettes can look good, but so can large ones. It's about how you use those colours, and the relationships of the colours within the palette. Use as many or as few colours as you need for the look you want.
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dyluck Commander Joined: 24 July 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 231	Posted: 22 August 2018 at 12:44am
	Hi. Nice set. The palette is too pastel to my personal taste, and the metal in the objects doesn't look like it: the greys are too neutral and there's no lighting. The the key handle looks too thick. The steel ring would be much nicer with another lighter color, and the shape of the white line to depict glass in the potions looks a little odd.
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Faherya Midshipman Joined: 31 January 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13	Posted: 22 August 2018 at 2:18pm
	Thank you for the tips. I'm already trying to improve on these points, I think I made some progress with the shields. They look a bit "aged", which was not intentional, but I liked it.The keys are not making much difference with or without lighting. I will change the format, but for now they have gotten better without.
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eishiya Commander Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109	Posted: 22 August 2018 at 3:07pm
	Try adding some shadows to the sides of the shields to show their curvature. For the potion bottles, rounder highlights would probably look better.
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Faherya Midshipman Joined: 31 January 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13	Posted: 10 September 2018 at 2:41pm
	Thanks for the tips, guys, the shields are great now! I have not had much time lately, I've only been able to make some progress - I expect - this morning. I had no advance with the weapons, but I enhanced the outline of the rings. The lighting still needs adjustments there.
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eishiya Commander Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109	Posted: 10 September 2018 at 3:02pm
	Even though the items don't have to be to scale with one another, I think the rings will look more like rings (as opposed to headbands, shields, etc) if they're smaller and don't take up the entire box. You could also orient them diagonally instead of making them vertical, them being vertical makes it look like they have to be that way, as if they're fixed to the floor.
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ihatemundays Seaman Joined: 05 August 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7	Posted: 27 September 2018 at 6:20am
	Agree with the neutral gray usage. Your emphasis on highlight and shadow goes a long way to achieving a more vivid icon (vivid = dimensional). Also did you just perform a palette swap to get the different icons? Great job, sir. Keep it up.
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Faherya Midshipman Joined: 31 January 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13	Posted: 27 September 2018 at 7:00am
	eishiya: I'm not very good at diagonal objects, I've done some testing but maybe I can still reduce the size. I tried to add some brighter colors to the items. Apparently it has improved a lot, I think. ihatemundays: Yes. Most of them are just color changes (two in the case of potions). The set is still very small because I want to set the most beautiful style possible before continuing. I kept the vertical rings just for comparison.
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WIP (Work In Progress)
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