Video Game WIP
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13777
Printed Date: 23 October 2025 at 12:43am
Topic: Video Game WIP
Posted By: Fobwashed
Subject: Video Game WIP
Date Posted: 31 January 2012 at 12:36am
Hi everyone, my name is Steve and I'm currently working on a video game and I think the art style would qualify as Pixel Art. I'm new to it all but I thought this would be a nice place to get ideas and constructive criticism as I develop it further. For now, here's a small screen that should sorta show roughly what the game will look like. I've got an old (few weeks) vid up on youtube of it running but I'm not sure what the rules here are in regards to linking outside so I'll tread lightly =) In any case, I'll post updates whenever I have more to show on the art side. I've been looking around and there are some real talented folks here I can glean off of =) |
Replies:
Posted By: cure
Date Posted: 31 January 2012 at 12:57am
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feel free to post links. there's http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=8110.msg92434#msg92434 - banding on the side of the house. tough to tell what's going on or where to focus in this image, feel free to post links so we get a better idea of what it will look like. would probably be easier to critique the artwork if you posted the image elements separately and at 1x resolution. |
Posted By: PixelSnader
Date Posted: 31 January 2012 at 3:32am
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Ehh, are you copying Project Zomboid? ------------- ▄▄█ ▄▄█ ▄█▄ ▄█▄ |
Posted By: Fobwashed
Date Posted: 31 January 2012 at 9:06am
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@cure This is my first time trying to make tiles rather than just singular art elements for a game. Also, it's the first time I'm attempting to use pixel art as a base for something like this rather than one off pieces for fun. I looked up what banding is and yes, there does seem to be quite a bit of that going on in the side panel of the house. I'll try to figure out a better way to get that sort of shading in there.
@snader I started working on this game roughly a month to a month and half ago. About a week ago while researching isometric perspective games, I found Project Zomboid. Initially, I was pretty sad that there was already an Isometric zombie game but once I read a bit more about it, I was relieved to find we are working on two very different titles, aside from the perspective and both games having to do with Zombies. I did figure once I started getting my game out there that the comparisons would be inevitable. All games to some extent copy other games because of the many shared mechanics but the areas in which my game and theirs is similar is hardly original. Zombie games have been done to death. Pixel art is also nothing new and in my case, is partly a stylistic choice but more so is a limitation imposed on myself (I feel some of my best work comes from working within limitations so I don't mean this in a negative way) due to the amount of work it'd take to build art assets going any other route. The various methods of surviving during a zombie apocalypse seem pretty common knowledge. The idea that people need to eat, sleep and fulfill other various human needs is also not entirely original. Aside from those types of areas, I feel that I'm going for more of an original Fallout style of gameplay (less focus on action, more focus on tactics) while Project Zomboid seems to be more along the lines of the newer Fallout games (still simmy and tactical but more focused on real time action). Pretty much, what I'm shooting for is a full on simulation. More The Walking Dead (comic/TV) or We're Alive (Podcast). The characters you play will be based on real people (so far friends but will be expanded to random people who want to be in a game) who all have their own set of skills and physical attributes. Project Zomboid looks like there is one main playable character and I'm not sure what their future plans are on expanding that. If anything, I feel like I'm heavily inspired from the Sims and X-Com more than anything else. I can understand the direct comparison due to the subject matter but I think the difference in gameplay will speak for itself once I'm further down the line. Time will tell =) |
Posted By: Fobwashed
Date Posted: 31 January 2012 at 9:12am
By the way, here are some of the character portraits that will be used for the game. Originally, I started making these of my friends to use as caller ID pictures on my phone but I'm throwing them into my game as the main ID picture for the various characters. I'm color blind so when I first made them, everyone asked me "Why is everyone green?". I've since tried to fix the colors so that they aren't but hell if I know since, again, I'm color blind. I've got a few more but I originally blew them up to a high resolution for use on my phone so I have to recreate them in a pixel by pixel format and haven't gotten around to the others just yet -_-;; |
Posted By: Manupix
Date Posted: 31 January 2012 at 1:27pm
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You could tell skin tones by the color values. According to the software you use, you should be able to pick them either in HSV (hue-saturation-value) or RGB (red-green-blue) format, or both. The girl is a healthy zombyish greenish-yellow; hue is around 53 (pure red is 0), RGB values are, for instance, 221-210-120, or 247-234-142 (picked from 2 random pixels). As you can see there is more red (1st n°) than anything else, but the difference with green (2nd) is small (the higher the number, the brighter the color, white is 255-255-255). That color would be called yellow in different circumstances, but for human skin it's definitely green. The guy on the left is a light brown, could pass for Asian. Hues are in the 37-41 range, RGB = 243-197-123, or 217-176-87: there is more difference between R and G. Middle guy is slightly orange, ok for Mediterranean. Hues 18-22, RGB = 225-157-118, 215-135-100. 2nd guy from right is a pale European: H = 17-30+ (and up to 40 in the mustache which looks gray, OK for shaved male skin). Guy on the right is in the same range, the shadow on his face is warm but ok: H = 13. |
Posted By: cure
Date Posted: 01 February 2012 at 2:57pm
| bump. forum ate the thread somehow. |
Posted By: PixelSnader
Date Posted: 01 February 2012 at 7:20pm
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Originally posted by Fobwashed
long story about some differences Good. Was just checking. And not to scare you off or anything, but making everything in high-quality pixel art might very well take longer than doing it with rendered 3D models or regular photoshop drawings. ------------- ▄▄█ ▄▄█ ▄█▄ ▄█▄ |
Posted By: Fobwashed
Date Posted: 01 February 2012 at 7:31pm
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I agree that high quality pixel art takes just as long as regular drawings, but the reason I swapped over from my previous project was because I felt the amount of work that goes into regular drawings, and then animating them properly was going to take way more time than I have. Especially as a one person project.
You can see what my regular art stuff looked like by looking up "fobwashedgame" on youtube. While pixel art is no joke, and takes a lot of time, I feel that tile based pixel levels will in the long run take less work than the alternative -_-;; Also. . . I'm not that great an artist but I think I should be able to be at least passable with pixels over regular art and I have no experience at all with 3D modeling so that's just out of the question right off the bat =P I've read up on the link cure posted and that's actually one of the first solid tutorials I found on the internet. Though I originally read it on a website and not these forums but I'm assuming it's the same gentleman that wrote it in both locations. Really good stuff, but it still doesn't really help me understand what I should do in cases where I have long lines that need different levels of shading. I tried my hand at a smaller one of those by adding a wood moulding to the bottom of a regular wall here. 
pretty much gave anti ailiasing a shot but I feel that doing so made the line and shape less definition. Is a blocky obviously pixelated style with banding just a terrible thing all around or only something that people who know what's going on are going to notice and take offense over? Sort of like how anyone who knows about fonts seem to think comic sans is the devil while the general public are whatevers about it. I also tried my hand at making some alternating basic black and white tiles and I sort of think it came out real messy. . . Here it is in the game engine. It's passable but I'd love some CC about how to make it better -_-;; 
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Posted By: Fobwashed
Date Posted: 01 February 2012 at 10:58pm
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So, seeing as how I've got tiles and I need to start working on the code for world objects, I'm gonna go ahead and start putting together a fridge -_-;;
I'm still new to all this so if anyone has any pointers/tips at all, please share. This is the base with a character standing next to it for a size reference. 
I made the thing a bit narrower as it looked too thick. Also, tried to add an ice cube thingy, base and handles. 
I was wondering, at this low a resolution, is it still possible to avoid banding? especially for areas like the handle, I can't seem to help but band due to the severe limits on pixel space. Though again, I'm new to this so. . . 
Tried coloring the body of the fridge a dark gray and attempted some AA. I think part of what makes this a bit more difficult is that everything needs to be able to stand alone regardless of what's in the BG. So I can't AA the outline of the objects. I suppose I could use transparency so that whatever is behind the object shows through, but since I'm going to allow some major zooming, that might break the pixel art look. |
Posted By: jeremy
Date Posted: 02 February 2012 at 12:59am
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First off, as a tip, don't post sprites with a magenta background. I know it's a stand in for transparency but it makes it real hard to actually look at the art. You're using an awful lot of colours in the fridge. I didn't cut them down in my edit, but you could make do with at least half. As well as that, there isn't much contrast, i.e between light and dark areas of the same coloured surface. In my edit I: made the door thinner, changed banding to AA when applicable, shaded around some corners to add contrast (kind of like a reverse-edge highlight), and added the aforementioned contrast-between-light-and-dark thing.  |
Posted By: Fobwashed
Date Posted: 02 February 2012 at 11:45am
Thanks for the tips. I'll have to use the reverse-edge highlighting extensively in the future. I'm trying to get a less new and shiny and more used and possibly old look so I'm going to try to tone down the highlights in most of the things I make. I think you've also got a solid point in that I'm using too many colors. The colors are a result of the way I'm working out my AA but I think the lower color count should make things look nicer when viewed at a higher zoom which is where my game will be played for the most part. Here's another go I took using some of the tips you provided.
I still see room for much improvement in addition to figuring out how to dirty it up a little bit to give it a used feel. Still very open to any CC on anything applicable =D |
Posted By: Fobwashed
Date Posted: 03 February 2012 at 1:02am
I tried to reduce the color count on the fridge a bit and went ahead and threw it into my game engine to see how it vibes with the rest of the game. The kitchen area was also really barren so I went ahead and whipped up a quick counter top. . . Which shows because it looks absolutely horrid. I'm still having some issues trying to reduce banding when it's the 2x1 step with another 2x1 step of a different color needed right below the first row. . . Whenever I try to apply AA to the banded area, it just ends up looking like a mess. Or maybe not a mess exactly, but it looks like it's a rounded edge rather than a hard edge.
Oh, by the way. The room is yellow because the flashlight has a yellow light. I suppose I should change it to a colorless light for testing -_-;; Also, the room has no windows and no other light sources so it's always pitch black in there =\ |
Posted By: Fobwashed
Date Posted: 08 February 2012 at 12:02am
I needed a carpet tile for some indoor areas and couldn't wrap my head around what sort of technique I could use to simulate a carpeted surface. What I ended up doing was just placing single darker pixels here and there in a pattern that wouldn't look like it was a pattern once tiled. Do any of you pros have any hints or ideas on how to simulate a very low pixel count carpet? I tried also using highlights but it ended up just looking like a whole lot of static single pixels =\ |