How it's going?

I'm currently working on a little platformer called Lumberjack's Day-Z. I'm new to pixel art and graphics for this game is my first try, so I really need some criticism and few pieces of advice.

I'll upload my early build soon, but for now to draw your attention:

Protagonist — the lumberjack.



In-game screenshot. The lumberjack is about to pick gas can =)


Stay tuned!

Edited by ggrin - 09 April 2013 at 8:50am

Anyone know nice swf hosting? This one scales my beta in a very bad way: http://megaswf.com/serve/2573855/
furthrmore I have a bug with fullscreen, terrain gonna dissapear if widnow's size too big. So u could fullscreen it and reduce browsers size till land shows up.

Ok, WASD, 1-8 to use complete weapons. This build has no zombies (they was disturbing) and u also cant die;

UPDATED: http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1365603215 — hosted without scaling

Edited by ggrin - 10 April 2013 at 8:00am

@psychotic_carp yes, it's look as it should

@jalonso thanks for such quick response! I can't say I get it completely, so I would appreciate if you could explain to me parts about dithering and sand. Darker sand color is for wet and cold that lies deep and close to water. Bg is temporary, not sure if pines gonna stay :)

Sorry for my English :) Feel free to point on my mistakes.

Dithering on a trees makes em more bark looking, not flat, I think. Big shapes looked boring to me, so I added dithering. Lumberjack has enough details for his size and looks clear, so I didn't dither him. Do u think I should refuse dithering at all or dither everything? =)

Edited by ggrin - 10 April 2013 at 7:20am

As mentioned, keeping an overall 'look and feel' will only help your project. There are many ways to get the bark to read as you wish using different techniques besides dithering. I just don't see a need for it here. You have a clean and sharp look that really works. Every asset made should keep that look. For example, the square trees and the player sprite and the ground dirt tiles and even the boat all fit well. The sand, pines and tree trunks do not. The avobe edit on the trees is a far better solution.

I thought about jim's adventure game mockup when looking at this
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=14625.msg135100#msg135100
he uses very minimal dithering.  Maybe it can serve as some inspiration.

heres a quick tree edit trying to show how you could imply bark texture without use of dithering



you could still acheive it using tiles but probably have a few different tiles that all tile into eachother so it doesnt look like tiles.

Thanks :D

Zombies are good.

Edited by jalonso - 12 April 2013 at 5:59am

I've already said I like this project and I just assumed you were technically being clean for the most part. I went to show an edit to help you along and I gotta tell you that technically and on the pixel level you have one big ole mess and what is here is not pixelart at all. You have gradients, artifacts and all sorts of things going on and while this may not affect you or your project its a disappointment to pixelart :'(

Just the same heres an edit that could help you out and includes my view/feedback on certain details.
• Birch sample
• Edited yellows used on sand with some mock AA
• BG trees that are curvy enough to soften things out but not so fluid that it takes away from the current look and feel.
• Edit on cut tree tops that gives you a hint of curves without calling attention to itself. Just cleaning the asset which seems unfinished as you have them.
• A better and cleaner water option.
• Some AA on the jaggiest parts of the boat planks.

Really great idea for a game.
I agree that the trees (in the background especially) need to be cleaned up :)

It might be too late, but it would be sweet and totally more Canadian to have a bunch of bigfoot/sasquatch attacking you instead of zombies. I'm probably in the minority, but I get a bit irked by zombies being a default enemy, I think it's cliche.

Keep up the good work though, this looks like a promising project!

I'm not 100% sure what you mean but I think the left is better.
Tree's don't fall on to their branches they fall on to their trunks.

Also in-game I don't really like the jumping animation its like he's running in mid air!
(I'm not sure if you're working on that yet or if you're just focusing on the art)

I like the style of you game, I would recommend one thing with the tree is that from a fair it looks fine, but close up it doesn't look right.. What I might recommend is doing multiple parts of a pine tree or even just stacks of logs showing were they were, or even make a saw showing a log being split..

looks good though.

Maybe you should shape the "square" trees more? I keep thinking the background "square" trees are billboards or something. The shape isn't natural. The branches are fine, its just the leaves that square it up.

Also, the sasquatch idea is great. Maybe he could be a mini boss or a rare appearance enemy. This enemy could function as a plot device or side quest. You could even have a rare weapon drop, who knows.

Edited by Etheric_Shock - 24 April 2013 at 7:15pm

Cool video and the game mechanics are really coming along. I have to ask, why do the trees have to smash him? They could be just fall behind or in front of him. Also, the large trees seem lethal. Who would ever cut one if they couldn't escape?

A lot of code work, but I started to look for a mid-air jump pose


Some cartoony references please =)

What do you think could I find someone here to help me with animating zombies? How much could it cost, for ex. 1 set of walk, attack, idle and death smooth (for ex. human walk animation in my project made with 12 frames) animation?

Aaaaand, stay tuned, I gonna post new build at the weekend.

hello there! Need an advice.

I'm making a crash site. The goal is that shore should look like a crash site without a boat beign seen. I added an anchor and a lifebuoy what else could I add?

Other problem: I dunno what to do with a water texture

P.S: Bg and clouds under construction

Looks great. Maybe have a few dead bodies floating in the water? Or all zombified and trying to swim!

Same XD! The growing beard is definitely a nice addition :).