I'm working on a tileset for a little stalker inspired piece and i'm looking for advice how to improve it -



i'm not sure if the antialiassing is appropriate and i'm out of ideas how to spice up the ground without interfering with the visibility of the characters.

any suggestions?

Though my opinion isn't professional.
I would do a tab bit more texturing on the grass/ground.
Unless your going for a very simple look, in that case ignore this, lol.

Though on everything else, well done. Only issue is what jalonso said. The houses have nice detail but the outline needs to be edited so it doesn't look so boxy.

Possibly trying to add more variants of types of trees? I don't know though, cause the ones you currently have do seam to fit your theme very well.

In general I like this piece. :) Keep updating us on your work.

(P.S. I love the work that you did on the cars, they stand out the most)

Edited by devinaaron - 25 February 2015 at 7:43am

Since due to your restrictions you can't use texture on the ground ( I think it is just impossible )

I can't possibly imagine patterns of grass/texture that doesn't make it look messy like this one below or alikes-

In my opinion it depends on how badly you need in your overall design to avoid emptyness in space.
If you're putting grass anyway, I would place it in clusters to round the composition.

ps: By the way, it's incredible, I like it very much. So stylish.


Edited by dyluck - 25 February 2015 at 9:00am

At first glance I might be confused between Stalkers Bandits and Mercs as they all have a dark head with 2 eye dots. Conversely I don't have this problem with the Army people who have a distinctive white band at the eye level.

If this is a run and gun and you have to have instant readability I would suggest fewer 2 white dot eye on dark face people. You could have a white face black eyes or long downward streaks at face level or a distinctive upside down triangle shaped hat/helmet etc?

Also the backward facing Monolith people have a band of white on the back of their head that makes it look like they are facing front instead.

Edited by Iscalio - 25 February 2015 at 1:22pm

I'm not a fan of the single pixel pattern you have but if it suits your vision then I would go reverse so that roads are solid and all else uses the pattern which at least will help trees, houses and stuff be grounded a bit.

maybe some kind of road outline?

Beautiful. Cant find anything wrong. :)

The hellicopter and especially the armoured personell carrier really give it that eastern european feel.

I think the cliffs are a tricky thing.
I can't help much since in I'm currently having a hard time and the same trouble with them myself, but I can tell they may need a little work still, they look a little like clusters of bushes.
Maybe a darker outline at the upper side?


Edited by dyluck - 16 March 2015 at 4:34pm

Yes, having too much local contrast (detail) will work against global contrast (form). And with 4 colors and this small a resolution, getting the proper form across gets highest priority.


edit; also, you might find this pattern test I did a while ago useful for the road:

In particular the bottom bit, where I can get some decent variation without obvious clumping out just 5 tiles (empty,1,2,3,4 dots). The tiles I'm using are 8x8 instead of 16x16 which you seem to be using though.

Edited by PixelSnader - 17 March 2015 at 10:39am

Those cliffs are way better.

The interiors are fine but, to me, the tiles are too big and visually distorts the scale of the exterior and the sprites within.
In order to break things up a bit maybe make the square tiles at 45 degrees.

yup. 45 degree is not right.

I love the fading supports. Looks really cool to me.

if i make the floors smaller i risk that the player sprites are muddled - so i'll rework them eventually. as for isometric, i fear that if i go that way i would have to rework the perspective of everything i made so far, and i kinda dig the old final fantasy fake perspective thing.

here's the lab so far


and here's a beached boat i'm trying to nail down. making bigger stuff is kinda weird

i've scrapped the boat for now, i don't think ill be needing it.

here's a mockup for a level - i'm not sure if the train cars fit; should they be more detailed or less?

modern as in... not rusty and busted? or modern as in their general design; for both of those problems, i can just rust and bust them more :D

Ohhhh I can honestly say that this makes me miss my gameboy. ;-;
You are a vary capable artist with so few colors! WTG!

after a break, i'm now working on making a swamp. is it a good swamp? the reeds may be a bit agressive on the eye