Hi, I'm currently working on a desert tileset for a platformer game. I would love to hear some feedback on my work so far. Are the colours good, how should I improve the background, are there some kind of tiles I should add to the set, etc..? Any feedback is welcomed really. :))

Here's a mock-up of the tileset with a background.


Link for a 2x scale version, which will propably be used for the game:
http://files.1337upload.net/2xSCALEversion-d00229.png


Edited by Mattie - 11 November 2014 at 1:23pm

Thanks for the comment. Do you think there is any way I could make it better though? :)

Hey Mattie. I'm generally a newbie. I like almost everything in this picture. Yet there is one thing missing I guess. You are trying to get depth but it's not done yet.


Maybe adding some shadows to tiles will solve the problem.



As I said, I may be wrong, so please keep that in mind and I am sorry in advance for misleading you.

The sky is nice.
The sand dune is great.
The player platform is good (once those corners are fixed).

The big problem I see here is that these 3 layers do not belong with each other and fail to create a cohesive world.

I am having it in WIP, *with considering there're constantly changes. So its WIP.

I think it looks good, especially dunes, excellent. I am still not sure about first platform. Maybe it could use some pattern or highlights.

I darkened the background, I'm quite happy with the result. :)

Personally, I think having everything super bright would be excusable, even good in this case. Because it's in a motherf**king desert. If the screen's so bright you gotta squint your eyes, that kind of emulates how you would act in the environment.

I do think, however, that the color palette is somewhat monchromatic. Using color tints to give off a certain feeling is definitely one good tool of the trade, but I feel here you could do with a bit of contrast. Perhaps faking a blue sky by using greyish colors there and relying on simultaneous contrast from the bright oranges could work.

Mind you, it's not bad as it is, but it might be worth experimenting a bit in these early stages.

In terms of terrain, you have two different kinds of sand material. There's the silky soft dunes that are ever changing. And crumbly dry rock soil. The two don't generally appear in the same location, so this creates an internal conflict. Figure out a way to unite the two.

Obviously there's always going to be some discord because a platform game requires a certain type of illogical terrain to be interesting to play on. But we gotta try and minimize that feeling. For example try looking at something like Australia's Mungo Park Desert:



It has both rocks and sand, but in the opposite relation of how you have them. The sand isn't all that soft, yet still it's only ground cover instead of high piles. The real silhouettes and terrain formation are made by rocky soil. Not boulders, but earth layers of compressed sand etc; definitely not smooth sand dunes.

Similarly, the Arizona desert:


Which also has large rock formations, and dirt/sand piles up against those rocks rather than forming the terrain on its own.

You can also note the difference the color palette in the images makes, in particular the sky. The pale pink skyfall in the Mungo desert makes it feel a lot more warm and pressing than the Arizona desert. The less strong shadows/contrast also make the heat feel a bit more diffused.

Also something of note, the geometry of the landscape. Like mentioned before there's always going to be a discord between platforming terrain and realistic geomorphology, but we can try to minimize it. In this case you can clearly see the difference between dirt soil in the Mungo desert, which is eroded in a way that looks similar to a river or melted ice, and the rocks of the Arizona desert, which stand tall far after the dirt around it has been swept away. Then, you'll notice that the rocks are almost vertical, which would make for good platforming, with a (relatively) small pile of dirt around the base.

I made two (well, one and a half, really) mockups with a pinch of reference and some of the ideas above:



The striations are just added in to give a bit of detail, but I'm not 100% happy with how the playable surface seems to be just rocks and no sand. Anyway take these how you will. Both should be seen at full screen for maximum effect, of course.


More interesting deserts, Wadi Rum:


Ha-Minsara / Makhtesh Ramon:


Pinnacles Desert:


Sahara desert in Algeria:


So there's a lot of reference out there you can use to create an interesting desert landscape.

Your pixelwork itself isn't bad, technically. The ground tiles would work well for a savannah (due to it being rough and speckled), but that environment doesn't jive with the background and the terrain formations. The small plants and grass look fine too. The big tree I like a bit less, not entirely sure why, and the rock pillars could use some actual detail instead of embossed X-es

Of course you could just change the dune background to something like an African savannah, and then the background would tie in well with the foreground. But it seems like you're still in the early stages of artwork, so why not make it work even better?

ha similar style to what im currently working on

Try making the orcs look bigger in size. Maybe they will look more like brutes ;D

this may also be of use to you - http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=17394.0

Sorry for double. I made some highlights on the characters and this is how they look now:


I guess I'll start animating today. :)

On the level:

Because the torsos aren't turning at all, they look more like light jogging than running. That's not necessarily a bad thing since it keeps the characters' most recognizable features static readable (their design variety is all in their chests and heads), but if you want their running to feel fast, you'll need to get more motion into the torsos.

I also think that regardless of the running speed and style, it'd look better to get a little more motion in their head/chest area in the form of bouncing hair/headwear. In the case of the green-caped characters especially, the upper part of the cave should get pushed and pulled by the arm motion instead of being static.

Also - are the midriffs and high heels necessary? They ruin their otherwise practical-looking designs, in my opinion.

Looks better without the midriff, though the high heels still look silly (and if they're not usually visible anyway - why not just give them sensible footwear so there's less for whiners like me to complain about? xP).

Is it important that the female characters have "feminine" traits like that? If so, why? Will it make a difference to players? I'd imagine players care only about what a character can do, not their gender, and each character's abilities/class/affiliation/etc should be visible from non-gender traits, such as the weapons they're carrying and the armour they're wearing. You've done quite well in showing that already.