Metroidvania RPG project - now with mre bkgrounds
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24732
Printed Date: 04 April 2026 at 9:48am
Topic: Metroidvania RPG project - now with mre bkgrounds
Posted By: JaumeAlcazo
Subject: Metroidvania RPG project - now with mre bkgrounds
Date Posted: 25 November 2015 at 2:09pm
Ok, I spent some hours on this: I used as a base this template: http://opengameart.org/content/mv-platformer-skeleton - http://opengameart.org/content/mv-platformer-skeleton I need some critique before moving on animating her.I'm trying to do some kind of Metroidvania, as I posted before ( http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24712 - http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24712 ) but now I changed the colors and the size of the sprite, and some other details. I will keep the wings though, maybe only when double jumping.I tried her against a few backgrounds to see if the colors match, and adjusted the tone, the brightness, contrast and other things and now it seems to fit in most backgrounds.PS: Oh my... I accidentally deleted the images on the other thread 
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Replies:
Posted By: JaumeAlcazo
Date Posted: 27 November 2015 at 6:05am
I need help with my rather pitiful walk cycle, please...   I think it's my first pixel art animation... PS: The half skirt that it's featured in the idle pose it's not in the walk cycle for the moment until I can get the cycle right. BTW my girlfriend, when asked about it, took it for a continuation of the hair. I may change the color. Also one concern of mine it's that with adding a flapping skirt animation then the sword would be obscured. PS2: I also need help with breathing in the idle pose, if you would like to comment or help it would be very welcomed. |
Posted By: CritiqueMyWork
Date Posted: 27 November 2015 at 8:20am
Right leg seems to be hurt, she should extend it before touching the ground, like last pic:
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Posted By: RebeaLeion
Date Posted: 28 November 2015 at 2:27pm
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Walking animation is pretty hard. I can't do it right. I examined your sprite closer and I would stick to less colours than you're using. Because
1) it makes your sprite a bit messy. 2) it makes it harder for you to animate it, and that is something you do not want to here. 3) quick edit, 140+ colours ? How do you draw this. There's 10 shades for every colour, which eye can't identify. I did some quick guide for you, but still 80+ colours. Your main focus should be on colour use now. 
4) 10 frames for walking can be a lot of trouble if you're still new to animations. Try to go with 4-6 and see how it goes. |
Posted By: JaumeAlcazo
Date Posted: 12 December 2015 at 10:05am
Hi people, what's cracking? Me doing pixelart and listening to the great power metal band ReinXeed. Well. With the help of opengameart I assembled this thingy
I moved this on to Unity, also the heroine with anim modified but still doesn't look all right. I would be happy if someone would want to collaborate, payed or not. Now the main concern is maybe unifying more the colors, what do you think? The assets I used and modified are all from opengameart and are called: "dagrons","lpc interior castle tiles", "castle platformer assets","misc dark fantasy scenery" and another which can't remember now. I'll post it. All with free license. Thank you very much RebeaLeion & Critique, I recolored all the anim but still must refine before uploading. |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 12 December 2015 at 11:10am
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It's hard to tell where the playable area is. At first I didn't even realise this was a level. The columns are the brightest and read as walls that the player can run into, but I doubt that's the case. You need to make the floor (and any other important elements) stand out, and to make unimportant elements recede. Focus on making the playable elements read well. Since Castlevania looks like a big inspiration, I recommend looking at maps from those games (not the in-game maps, but rips of the actual playable areas, you can find some on VGMaps), especially zoomed out a little. Even zoomed out, the different rooms and interactable areas are clearly visible, because they all have a lighter value than the ambient (non-playable) background. Because the rooms in Castelvania are often filled with shelves and other horizontal elements, they put extra effort into making the floors stand out, usually by making them fade to an especially light colour right at the top of the floor-tile. In some games, there is also subtle colour-coding that informs the player of the types of interactions possible. For example, horizontal platforms might be grey while vertical walls are red and chains and ladders are golden, even if then exact hues and values differ from area to area depending on the area's overall theme/ambience. |
Posted By: RebeaLeion
Date Posted: 13 December 2015 at 3:46am
| basically eishiya covered it all. Whole picture looks like background to me ( not-well readable). Pillars fading completely to background make it even worse. |
Posted By: dpixel
Date Posted: 15 December 2015 at 12:52pm
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I've been playing around with your animation. Once I got the palette tamed to 12 colors, I reduced the frames to 8. It's still a bit choppy and the hair needs work and was throwing me off. You had a some details that weren't added back in, such as the cape and the shoulder thing. Low color count is the key to animations. 
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Posted By: JaumeAlcazo
Date Posted: 16 December 2015 at 6:49am
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Wow they are real solid skills in there! Can I use it as a base for further modification or as it is now? (crediting you of course, I'm interested on progressing this thing so maybe we could talk about paying for assets if you are interested we could talk in private). Thank you all. Based on your comments on the background I did this revision of the level, looking for futher critique. In this revision I tried to separate more the background and foreground as you told me. I did it with a layer of blue tint, and an outline on the bricks, among other one thousand little things.  By the way, the free assets I forgot to credit were this ones, I used it mainly for modifying the columns, I think ( http://opengameart.org/content/castle-platformer - http://opengameart.org/content/castle-platformer ). PS: Something happened with the size of the pixels, I'm gonna fix it. |
Posted By: dpixel
Date Posted: 16 December 2015 at 7:37am
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Originally posted by JaumeAlcazo Wow they are real solid skills in there! Can I use it as a base for further modification or as it is now? (crediting you of course, I'm interested on progressing this thing so maybe we could talk about paying for assets if you are interested we could talk in private). Sure. You can use it however you like, I just like the practice and it was a slow day at work. I actually have my own game projects I'm working on, so I really don't have time for much other stuff. ------------- |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 16 December 2015 at 8:40am
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A definite improvement, but you still have some background elements being distracting (like the golden frames, swords, and god-rays). Turn those down a tad? You shouldn't need outlines so consistently on EVERYTHING. Floor, yes. Walls and ceilings should be readable without outlines, and the immediate read is not quite as important because one is rarely relying on the location of the floor while falling, etc. The thing with the outlines is that when done well, they don't feel artificial - for example, a light outline on the floor just seems like a reflection on the floor, perfectly natural. The same outline on any other surface will tend not to look like anything but an outline. The floor highlight is good, but make it a little less obvious for the walls (a darker colour, or just highlight occasional details like decorative ledges and plinths), and you might not need highlights for the ceiling at all. Your bookcases tangent with some of the platforms. If the bookcases are not navigable, avoid such tangents. If they are navigable, make them look like it. The bricks just being cut off wherever ruins the illusion of the level being a building and not just a collection of textures, in my opinion. The solid black avoided this issue by not calling attention to the internal structure at all. If you want bricks, I think you should think about how they relate to the different surfaces (walls, floor, slopes, etc). How is this building BUILT? Being made entirely of bricks is not only unlikely (the floors would all collapse very quickly), but also visually boring. On the subject of building-logic - if this is meant to be an 'actual' castle and not a nightmare-dimension made to look like a castle, you may want to think about how the various rooms connect. For example, the dining area is inaccessible except by jumping - how does the food get delivered? If what we're looking at is the result of some collapses, then add some indication of that. Piles of rubble make good small obstacles or platforms, and fallen-out-floor remnants make excellent wall-platforms too. It's probably too early to think about detail, but I'll toss this in anyway - ceiling and wall lights! Chandeliers, wall sconces, etc are a great way to make those surfaces read like what they are without relying on artificial things like an outline, because they tend to follow the surface (albeit inexactly - which is usually fine, unlike for playforms where you need to aim), and they provide lighting that can add a little reasonable/expected outline around them. Even if the lights are off, lighting fixtures can provide a visual identity to walls and ceilings, as well as give you something to put (expected, not-artificial-looking) highlights on. |