While I continue to battle the Picasso SHMUP I thought DaVinci with his inventions could make a cool looking mockup. I figured that if the MonaLisa is not clear and right the whole thing won't work so I started with her dialog portrait. I don't think making her look just right was the way to go so I tooned her up a bit.

First bit of help is with the scale of the game sprites so I can develop the tiles.

Should sprites be more realistic in the Castlevania style?
or
More chibi and cute?



c+c by all welcome.


Edited by jalonso - 15 March 2010 at 11:39am

castlevania! chibi does not fit the rennaisance!

Chibi will make the faces more recognizable, but I have to agree castlevania all the way!

that would be awesome. apples and top hats everywhere. and pipes!

I have decided to go cute 3/4 view. Castlevania style seemed OK and was my first instinct but that style is better suited for fight/action. I think this mockup will read best and make more sense as a puzzler quest. The hero is old and inventions are crucial, me thinks.

Fixed chin as meagz pointed out.

Preliminary flying thing.

Interior 'Last Supper' room.

Preliminary buildings in a Florentine style... : /




Edited by jalonso - 25 February 2010 at 1:55pm

i liked your first ones better, the perspective seems weird but i think its because you've only shaded the roofs (rooves?) on them.
2nd ones remind me a lot of the legend of zelda: link to the past SNES graphics. i love the doors. for some reason i thought the buildings were inside a larger building though.

better ?

I think I prefer yesterday's cathedral, but both are great anyway.
Bell tower: maybe an in-between perspective for the rooftop?

Hey jal, looks really awesome! :))) +cuddle+

Looking great, nothing I can point out that looks bad.

Petricor, all type and GUI is very temporary. I haven't even started looking at font style yet.
This is my way of working things out and determining which colors are needed and which are not. I started these 3 screens so that I know what will go in the in-game screens and stuff.
I can now go back to the in-game screens with a sense of purpose and these screens will surely get reworked.

Vitruvian Man will be the title screen - Red lines are wood carvings on middle screen.






Edited by jalonso - 03 March 2010 at 4:43pm

Not much to say without ass-patting.

Somehow the word 'physics' associated with Leonardo doesn't seem right. I don't think he can be said to have worked in physics, at least the wikipedia page doesn't use the word.

Hey, sorry to post late, but I'm so bowled over by this project (with respect, probably the most impressive stuff you've done yet - no offence to earlier stuff!) and had nothing I could add. But I must step forward to halt a potential injustice! ;)

To wit: Seeing the book of physics in the mock-up really gave me a thrill (the suggested play opportunities - even for a mock-up - really started to connect for me) and I'd even go so far as to say that it would allow for an element of technology (even if anachronistic) that always spices up a fantasy. It's an aspect of Leonardo's life that isn't often touched upon. His paintings and notes and inventions, yes, but the science he so rigourously used to achieve these great things? Usually forgotten.

Here, though, is a Wikipedia page which does mention his obvious skills in physics (essential for any engineer).

So please don't change the title of your book item!

Ahem...now I guess I'll try a couple comments:

I miss the original cathedral design (and the yellow colour) and I'm not sure why that changed when you fixed the perspective. The new bell tower, however, is a striking improvement.

The 'Vitruvian Man' circle is wider than the square, not just taller (this part is very WIP though, so if ya knew dat already just ignore me - I'd deserve it).

Are the bright red outlines in your item menu a WIP element, there to suggest a future engraving detail for example? If not, I have to say it looks better without (again, a severe round of spurn for me if ya knew dis already).

And now to slip in a bit of patting before I leave: This resolution reminds me of the GBA (a system I favour greatly) and I am compelled to say - especially with images like your cathedral interior - that this project looks as good or better than even its best games. I stand truly in awe.

Definitely excited to see more.

You two sort it out and I'll comply.

The copy and asking for food is to justify the marketplace screen...
...I'm VERY open to ideas of what she should be saying.

Inside Leonardo's painting studio.



Just trying different colors and stuff, I like yellow too.


Yes, these will be carvings.


Edited by jalonso - 05 March 2010 at 5:35pm

Too small to read is not good.







Edited by jalonso - 05 March 2010 at 9:16pm

hmmmm. I can't make the type any bigger cuz the Map and Collection screens will be thrown out of whack. Maybe I'll try outlining and see if it helps.

ps: There is no transparency. That panel is hand pixelled using opaque colors.

E:



Edited by jalonso - 06 March 2010 at 10:49am

Hi J, just wanted to say that I personally didn't have a problem with the text readability, and maybe the white is just shocking because I'm not used to it, but is there some way to tone it down? (he says, offering no suggestions as to how. Except maybe to try grading the white so that it's more of a white drop shadow?)

Hi Manupix! You may be right about Leonardo da Verysmart, but if somebody really wanted to consider him the first physicist, they would have the following evidence to work with:
Galileo's section in the history of physics article shows the following areas of work and achievement:

• Mathematics
• Medicine
• Astronomy (including the true nature of our relationship to the sun's orbit)
• Mechanics (including experiments that foreshadowed 'Universal Gravitation')
• Invention of the Telescope
• Experimentation

I believe I only had to skip over the mention of 'law', 'philosophy', and 'theology' in the entire section.

Now rewind a century and check out this Leo guy:

      Mathematics
From a summary of da Vinci [Leonardo Da Vinci from Macmillan Science Library: Mathematics. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.]:
(emphasis mine) and also: (emphasis mine - these summaries can be found here.)

      Medicine
Leonardo is, of course, famous for his work with dissection, and although he couldn't overcome many of the limitations or misconceptions of the day, he helped to illuminate many of the mysteries of the human body. Here is a quote from Wikipedia: (the entire section of his work with anatomy can be found here.)

      Astronomy
From another summary of da Vinci [Leonardo da Vinci from World of Physics. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.]: (this summary can be found here.)
And from Wikipedia: (emphasis mine - this article section can be found here.)

      Mechanics
A full list of Leo's inventions and musings on unbuilt machines would be difficult here, but a few salient quotes may summarise: (emphasis mine - from here) (emphasis mine - from here) Grandfather of the computer o.O? (emphasis mine - from here) (from here)
And of course, foreshadowing Newton's Universal Gravitation: (emphasis mine - from here)

      Telescope
Here is a quote from the American Physical Society itself, publisher of several scientific journals of physics: (emphasis and notation mine - from here)

      Experimentation
Touched on already in the 'Thomson Gale (4)' quote from above, and also necessary for the practice of medical dissection, mentioned above, but here is another quote detailing his precise observations of many natural phenomena: (emphasis mine - found here)

      Summary
So we can see that in every significant way, Leonardo da Vinci was a forerunner (both spiritually and literally) of all the work which recognises Galileo Galilei as a father of modern physics (and I would add Leonardo's pioneering work in optics - foreshadowing Newton's work on the subject - which makes his own list at least one longer than Galileo's...).

The problem is that only Leonardo's artistic work was well known, and his scientific contributions had to be rediscovered, and only became widely recognised in the 20th century: And here is a beautiful quote from the BBC which sums it up nicely:
So my position is based on this evidence, and can therefore be modified in the face of better evidence, and thus I it put it forward as merely my current understanding, not a cherished belief to be dogmatically held, and would love to hear about anything you think would change this viewpoint (oh, and I might as well take this opportunity to mention that I have great respect for you as an artist, to help show that this long diatribe is a fun exploration of facts, and not meant to be anything personal against your ideas, honest!).
Thanks!

p.s. Eh, Jalonso, how do you best bake a potato? :)            

@: ninjacrow: Long posts F! T! W!
i'd award you with an internets for effort alone, but it's jalonso's topic so i'd feel out of place.



aren't you supposed to put tinfoil on there at one point? i'm usually a pretty good cook But i'm not sure about this because i hate taters unless cut into strips and deepfried.

anyway. your mockups for dali and jeroen bosch where awesome because they managed to capture the style of those artist very well while still adding your own style. i feel this mockup is more of your own style with some spinkles of davinci in it. i say you can play around with the style more.

@Dhr. Bosch, Realistic or cute was my original question and problem to solve. At this stage I have to ride the cute ride. Your point however, is excellent and something I'll always wonder once this is complete.

@Jeremy, The helicopter thing is preliminary and the angle is all wrong. That I will remake entirely once I get to that screen. That was made when I was testing different perspectives.

Your edit of Mona is just perfect. You totally nailed it. I will have to change mine to be like yours and may possible RIP you, if allowed. I knew she had problems and you've come through <3
E:

I reviewed your edit and found it to have far more colors than I wanted to ever use on Mona Lisa. I want her to have a more gaming cell-shaded portrait look. I did use the roundness of the face you made because I was just not getting it right. I do think it has improved so a huge thanks.

____________
Started the maze screen and its not very accurate in a true game layout but I wanted to get a lot of maze in there...artistic license.

I'm drawing a blank of what to use for items to be found. A treasure chest is so overdone and pots are too Zelda. Would barrels make sense?

Type outline toned down.




Edited by jalonso - 06 March 2010 at 8:21pm

I did notice that the blue was in there. Currently I have 92 colors overall and eventually I have to bring that down. Once I have a final polished palette I'll review everything again and touch up wherever needed.

This palette is some old thing that was in my Pixel Blackhole Folder.  I had forgotten how easy it is to use and how every color works well with others. Next update I'll post it so anyone may freely use it.

I love the brown & yellow background for your text box. and I noticed that the white outlines looked great on the map screen (they coincidentally have a near 50-50 mix of brown and yellow, which gives them an amazing look, even if they didn't reflect any underlying image) so the newest outline colour is a great solution, imo.

I love the engraving on the menu screen wood! This is a bit redundant, because I can't find any detail I don't love!

Except...the new face. Your second face, posted on Feb 25th, nailed it in both whimsical, Cheshire Cat expression, and endearing stylised lines - not too realistic, not too cartoony - I was going to mention that the first face was too rough, but then you touched it up and bowled me over - perfection.

The newest face looks like Christopher Walken. Seriously. Smelling something nasty.

It is not my intention to be negative - this merely reflects my attachment to the second iteration, when I first realised 'yes, this is going to be perfect' - so please don't mess with perfection!

Sorry.... Cool! And we can really do whatever we like with it?

Some touch-ups from suggestions given.
Whole new garden maze.
Current idea for items is that you can only get stuff if you have the right wand for it.
Wood wand = yellow, Crystal wand = blue, Cardinal wand = red... yes?



@Ninja Crow, yes free for all palette. Its not optimized yet but its such a pleasure to work with. Almost any color works with any color. Too many 'near white' shades tho. Notice no true black or white