I love the texture, but I think the orange might be a little too harsh on the eyes. Could be just me, though.

It could look like lava, but, since there's the grass, I don't think anyone will think so.

I like the grass!

I can't help you with tile structures, I'm sorry. D:

Nice improvement

I think classic dirt should be more brown (less saturated too), maybe a hint of yellowy brown as highlights? Try it and I'll be happy to see what progress you make with this game :D

I remade it a bit. I kept your colours on the first and made change on the second attempt.





Edited by RebeaLeion - 01 November 2014 at 10:07am

Well anyway here it its! its much the same really just with some color alterations,
I have made my own analysis but I'll only mention it after you reply, any thoughts?

Yes I was thinking that the rock might be a bit busy... but what's depth shadowing?

Is RebeaLeion's edit closer to the ideal?

Okay well I got rid of 4 unnecessary tiles and redid 2, I believe I may have added more form to the ground but I don't know about shadowing... Thoughts?

Do you think what I put out just now is a improvement of not really? also another thing is that the ground is actually supposed to be a cliff. I think I'm happier with what I go just now, but I'll see if I can do the shading part.


Edited by Turon - 04 November 2014 at 6:41am

well I have less tiles and less tiles are easier to regulate right? and I plan to slope tiles too. I'm going to make the rock look right first, but when you said it didn't look like rock were you pointing at a specific area or the whole thing?

Edited by Turon - 04 November 2014 at 12:14pm

Nah, I just tried to remake it. I am novice so it was more for a practice.... I tried to show a readability.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 05 November 2014 at 1:32am

Well I'm gonna redo some of the rock to be more like the two I just showed.

Does it look like rock?

maybe the irregular apearence of the tiles is a reflection of my own confusion. I really don't know what to do now... what does juxtaposing the rock forms mean?


Edited by Turon - 10 November 2014 at 8:31am

Your biggest problem with your rock tiles is the lack of contrast between the rocks supposedly jutting out from the earth and the earth itself.



This image from PJ user Doppleganger should show you what I mean. Look at the cliff walls at both the near-top of the image and in the water area. You can determine a clear light source from the shading, make out individual rocks, and get a sense of depth as a result.

For an example closer to what you're trying to build, take a look at this image from PJ user Cage_AK:



Again: clear light source, individual rocks, implied depth as a result.

The rocks in your tiles have both an ill-defined light source and little-to-no "individuality". Your tiles appear to be more mud than rock. Tighten up the shapes of the rocks and contrast them more with the earth/dirt from which they jut out.

If it gets tough, remember that you're going to get better by perservering and working through it. You can make this better, even if you don't think you can at first. And people here are willing to help if you really need it.

You didn't really think you could just get a quick answer and be done right away, did you? xP


The part you're tiling right now, it's meant to be a floating island, right? Is the island meant to have very different terrain from the mountains and rainforests below it, or is it meant to look like it broke off/flew up from the ground? In other words, how similar is the ground on it to that of the land below? You can actually suggest how the islands formed through how you texture their ground. For example, if you make the tiles convey a ripped and twisted pattern, it'll look like the islands were wrenched off the earth relatively recently (geologically - could still be millions of years!). If they look very smooth and have different colours from the land below, they'll look like they floated in from somewhere else and have been floating for eons... there are many possibilities. Thinking of it might help you come up with an appropriate visual to aim for.

Here are some images of similar terrain for reference and inspiration (these are all places where mountains and tropical rainforests are next to each other):
St. Lucia, Vietnam, more Vietnam.

Different mountains have different textures and colours. You don't have to know all about geology to draw them, but here are a few pointers:
- Rainforests don't grow on mountains. Instead, they'll grow in lower-lying areas where soil can accumulate. It looks like you already know this, but I wanted to point it out because of one thing: the soil where the forest grows will be much darker than the soil and rocks up in the mountains. This is because that fertile rainforest soil is made mostly of decomposed plant material, not parts of the surrounding rocks.
- Mountains are not piles of rocks. They are uplifted and partially eroded segments of what was once bedrock, or they are cooled lava flows, or a combination of the two. They are consolidated masses of soil or rock, not piles of loose rock. Mountains can have piles of rocks on and around them though, since they erode over time. What this means to you is that when you make your tile set, you shouldn't be aiming to make it look like your mountains are a bunch of rocks that are all cemented together. Instead, it should be a consolidated surface that possibly has some rocks in/on it, or it's a roughly textured rocky surface where parts of the mountains have eroded away. In pictorial terms, don't make your mountains look like this because that's a pile of rocks, instead aim for something that feels consolidated and structured, like the larger image StoneStephenT posted, or this. When in doubt, look up reference and simplify/tile-ify what you learn from it.

I realise that's not directly helpful to make your existing tiles look good, but I hope it'll give you something to think about, and a direction to go in. It's much easier to make things when you have a clear visual of what you want.

Giving them similar terrain is just as telling (to the player/viewer) as different terrain, since it implies the islands were created in a similar way, at around the same time - a natural part of this world's magic-fueled geology. It also makes your job easier, since you'll be able to use the same tiles for the mountains and the islands. And, the references I linked (and similar refs you find) will work for the islands too in that case!

I recommend starting by figuring out how the ground looks, and worry about tiling and the colours later. It's easy to reduce the colour count later. You could even start working in greyscale and colorise later. If your tiles work in greyscale, they'll work in colour, but when you're working in colour, it can be easy to not notice that your tiles lack contrast or form.

If you have time, get a pencil and do some studies from photo reference of different ways cliffs and such look, so that you can get a feel for the kinds of shapes and values you find in that sort of thing.

Check this tutorial out. It looks like it might be right up your alley!

http://www.wildbunny.co.uk/blog/2012/03/01/designing-a-retro-pixel-art-tile-set/

Right now I think it rock looks too much like dirt. You could change the color to a blue, gray, purple, etc but I think you need to do some repixeling.



Also, why don't you create some darker lower tiles similar to the tiles in that third image posted by PixelSnader?

Yes that's what I was gonna do and I'm aiming to make to ground more like in the "Sword of Mana". hehe some things about that game I just don't understand, but the pixel art in that game is awesome!
oh and eishiya thanks for the warning I was considering making my rock just like that !













Edited by Turon - 12 November 2014 at 11:31am

Since you're relatively new, I think you should just worry about getting things to look how you want instead of conforming to existing hardware. Work on getting good, then you can work on working with stricter limitations when you don't have to worry about more basic concepts anymore.

I've found a couple of sources that also say the WonderSwan had 8 greys, but you're not likely to find a palette for it since it's just greys (likely equally spaced), and since modern palettes for old devices aren't actually accurate, since even if their colour values are identical, they were seen in a different context and thus perceived differently from how we'd see them. For example, the Gameboy's "greys" were really green on the screen (and the shades varied depending on the light, since it was not backlit), and has empty space around each pixel.

Wait here I've got rock now! but its still not quite right, but what do you think? thoughts?

Well I actually wanted to do something similar to the Sword of Mana but it just turned into a pile of rocks, and when I tryed again it still turned into a pile of rocks...


Edited by Turon - 20 November 2014 at 12:23am

The Sword of Mana cliffs are largely nonsense (but those same tiles recoloured as cave walls work well), but they feel very structured and they're pretty. I think you chose a great source of inspiration. Definitely do study the SoM tiles. The way they and most other artists achieve structure is by not using their full range of values on every single detail. Instead, they use the full range to define the general form (such as the pillars of stone in SoM), and details (such as individual rocks) are created with minor variation in value.

I recommend giving the PSG Art Tutorial a read. The relevant part to what you're doing here is the second half of the "Focus points" section (with the important forms/texture/both links, and the scribbly chart), but I recommend giving the whole thing a read when you have time. There's a wealth of knowledge on that page, and a lot of it is relevant to pixel art too.

More likely, they were designed from the beginning to work as both, they just ended up being more appropriate to caves. The end result reads well enough and looks attractive, which is the main thing.
Sword of Mana has a lot of reused/recoloured tiles, they're just so well-made and placed so well that you don't really notice while playing.