Thief Game Mockups
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=14317
Printed Date: 09 June 2026 at 11:04pm
Topic: Thief Game Mockups
Posted By: Cheetah
Subject: Thief Game Mockups
Date Posted: 05 May 2012 at 7:54am
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I'm working with http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/34473.htm - newGuy on a game project. The Thief sprite and basic run cycle is his work, I as the lesser spriter am just trying to refine his work. I'm just starting this thread as a place to get some C&C as I attempt to improve my very basic spriting skills through working on this game. For now I have two things I could use some advice on.
1. I added several frames to newGuy's original run cycle and made an attempt at adding a slide. How is it looking compared to the http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/67786.htm - original. 
2. We are starting to make the castle levels which the Thief runs through. The graphics right now are really just quick mockups to help establish dimensions and scale. Hopefully it is clear that we are going for the oblique perspective. Any thoughts on the basic design, and specific help with a brick texture and palette would be greatly appreciated. 
PS: Please excuse the hideous red color for the carpets. |
Replies:
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 08 May 2012 at 9:54pm
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I attempted some alternative brick patterns from various popular styles. I was having so much trouble finding a palette that I eventually just ended up using a standard 4 color palette that I found http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=13958.0 - http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=13958.0 Are any of these looking better than others? I still have no idea on what to do with the walls. I think the final palette look I'm going for is white marble, but I have no idea how to convey that.  |
Posted By: ||||
Date Posted: 08 May 2012 at 10:56pm
Well.. [I'm no good at this] but the jade green from the background and the green on the character might not contrast enough. I made an edit of 3, I like the depth on the bricks in that version: oops and I lost a color in the process; told you I was no good at this :p.. but just one idea. |
Posted By: Lucidius
Date Posted: 09 May 2012 at 6:35am
| I know I'm pretty new at this, and that this idea entails more work, but maybe have a few variations of the brick tile? Put cracks going through some of them to break up the monotony? Rather than pale green light brown? (like adobe bricks) |
Posted By: jeremy
Date Posted: 09 May 2012 at 7:12am
| 1 or 4 are the most readable. |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 09 May 2012 at 7:14am
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Lijj: Yo dude. The green is totally just a stand in. Your brown palette is looking pretty good, though I'm concerned it is a bit dark. It is good to hear you like the more defined brick version.
Lucidius: More variety would be good, I wonder if I can do cracks while still only having a 4-color palette. Jeremy: Readability is important and I am concerned that the shaded ones make things too busy. Any advice on how to make 4 more systematic/consistent to improve the overall look? I'm thinking of trying some experiments with lighting to "break up the monotony", but I'm concerned that a 4-color palette might not do the trick. |
Posted By: ||||
Date Posted: 09 May 2012 at 5:12pm
Hi Cheetah.. I am going out for a bit but when I get back I'll edit this post with some more color edits just to throw out more ideas and options.  |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 10 May 2012 at 7:46am
| Ah yes these are looking quite good. Your palette edits are even making some of them much more readable. I think I'm liking #2 the best right now and think I will start experimenting with that one for lighting first. Thanks Lijj! |
Posted By: ||||
Date Posted: 10 May 2012 at 4:07pm
| Glad you like them Cheetah.. and I remember that thief sprite when it was first submitted; it's super cool. I hope the game goes well. |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 14 May 2012 at 9:59pm
Using Lijj's palettes as a starting point and some more references I came up with a new brick palette.
I'm really liking how the shaded pillars are looking and it is really just making it clear to me how I need to start adding lighting/shading to give the castle more life and variety. I'm still looking for C&C on the running animation as well, especially against the original to see if I accidently made it worse. |
Posted By: greenmango
Date Posted: 16 May 2012 at 5:50pm
| I like the pattern but perhaps you should give the walls a bit more colour (like a very pale peach or sandstone) because the colour is really glary (especially on my super bright computer lol) Also, you might make the ladders darker or give them some shadow in order to define them from the bg and make them look more like the active objects which (I assume) they are |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 19 May 2012 at 6:28pm
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Greenmango: I'm working on the lighting so that perhaps having less areas of full bright white will make those bits more tolerable. I'm going for a white marble look, but I'm still really not sure if I'm even close yet.
So I'm experimenting with basic lighting and shading of the walls and pillars (just pretend there is a light source on those tables). The pillars are working pretty well, but I just have no idea what to do with the walls. I was hoping this would make the walls more dynamic, but now they just look bizarre. Any suggestions? 
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Posted By: ||||
Date Posted: 03 June 2012 at 11:22pm
| I like the latest experiments; the third one definitely works. |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 22 August 2012 at 5:27pm
This project has continued to make slow yet steady progress. I'm asking about motion blur today. One of the main actions of the game will be moving from the foreground to the background to hide or use objects. I made an attempt at hiding behind the pillars, but this animation will have some many different versions depending on the object and location that I want to have a good theory behind what I am actually doing. Does anyone have any references or advice? |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 24 August 2012 at 12:21pm
 The first hide animation between the pillars is the same and is more abstract. The hide animation for the ladder is pretty much the last frame just pasted on top of itself several times. Which is looking better? Once again the original design and many of the frames of animation of the Theif are by newGuy. |
Posted By: dante_flame
Date Posted: 25 August 2012 at 1:30am
| Hi Cheetah if you dont mind me asking, what engine are you using to build the game in? |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 25 August 2012 at 9:31am
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We actually have a four person team on this project and I am not the programmer, these mockups are all done in Photoshop.
However, everything is programmed in Javascript using the CraftyJS game engine as a base. We also have Tiled Map Editor integrated for much of the graphics, awesome free software that anyone doing tiled sprite work should use for mockups if nothing else. http://www.mapeditor.org/ - http://www.mapeditor.org/ |
Posted By: dante_flame
Date Posted: 26 August 2012 at 6:57am
| thank you so much for that, looks like a pretty decent program, I take it that means you are going to be making your game as a HTML5 game? |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 26 August 2012 at 6:13pm
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Yeah, for development it is currently HTML5 so we can easily share and view our progress. It might change platforms in the future if we ever decide to go further with it.
I am uploading yet another preview. If nothing else continuing to post updates is pushing me to improve my own technique. The motion blur for the pillars is new. In action it only looks a bit better but the technique behind it is more replicable. 
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Posted By: dante_flame
Date Posted: 29 August 2012 at 9:33pm
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Also I figured I would let you know that I found another really awesome program the helps you do tilesets and layout as well as edit the tiles from within the actual editor itself, it's what my team and I have started using, so far it's proving really powerful :) Its called Pyxel Edit, here is the website: http://pyxeledit.com/ - http://pyxeledit.com/ You should check out some of the videos they have that show off the features, some really impressive stuff ;) |
Posted By: BatTheMan
Date Posted: 30 August 2012 at 8:04am
I have made some planks as floor .
Lol , why I made them was becuse of that I think that there is no castle in the hole world that has brick floor inside. Making floor with planks gives it a little more feeling . Still , I made this in like 7 min so you can probaly make it better in no time . :) |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 30 August 2012 at 8:07am
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@Dante_flame: That is a nice piece of programming and is excellent for tile making. It doesn't look like it is as supportive of programming as Tiled though. I wish the two were combined.
@BatTheMan: You need to upload your image to a site like imageshack.us and then get the hyperlink to that picture. Then there is an icon of a tree in the Quick Reply box that you can put the hyperlink of the image in and it will show up in your message. I look forward to seeing the planks. |
Posted By: BatTheMan
Date Posted: 30 August 2012 at 8:09am
| Thanks man ! Though I did see the help button at the top right . From there I got the information that I needed . |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 31 August 2012 at 10:07am
| Thanks for the edit BatTheMan! That does certainly make a difference, it makes it clear that I need to differentiate the floor and walls more. I'm not sure I can go with wood though due to gameplay. Though there might be other areas where wood will come in handy. |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 29 December 2012 at 10:34am
Well work continues on this project. I remade the tiles at 15x15, instead of 15x18, and tried to improve stuff a bit. I'm still not that happy with the palette and finding a balance between clarity and detail with this small of graphics is difficult.
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Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 29 December 2012 at 12:30pm
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Consider less pixelling. Leavy shadow areas as they are and clean up the 'lit' areas to nothing or just the very lightest color. I like the blue palette :) ------------- |
Posted By: ultimaodin
Date Posted: 30 December 2012 at 7:16pm
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The issue I have with this is that the backgrounds feel busier than the sprite, which makes the character less noticeable. Try adding more contrast to the character itself. ------------- The world is but a shadow of emotion, cast in shades of grey. |
Posted By: imnumberfour
Date Posted: 31 December 2012 at 4:21am
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I would say take a leaf out of Slym's book and pixel your bricks like in his newest mockup: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/75029.htm?sec=showcase That way it looks detailed, but not too busy. |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 31 December 2012 at 7:17pm
Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm much happier with the sprite (which isn't mine) than the background, so I making the background cleaner was the way to go. I was actually using Slym's latest mockup as a reference imnumberfour. I'm still not happy with the "gradient" and palette, but this appears to be the right direction.
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Posted By: cure
Date Posted: 31 December 2012 at 10:28pm
I think the biggest issue for me is that the background is too bright. here is a quick color edit: Also, the lighting doesn't really make much sense. There isn't really a light source and the way you've shaded the wall makes it looks like it's bowed out in the middle (or arched inward) you could probably increase saturation/brightness in the sprite to make it pop a little more as well. |
Posted By: Cheetah
Date Posted: 05 January 2013 at 5:03pm
| All true Cure. I think I made the shading mistake particularly where the doorway meets the wall. I like your color edit looks great, but I continue to have the issue that I'm trying for a pristine white brick look for these walls. I'm having difficulty balancing it being to bright and still having it appear white. I think before I post another update I'm need to get some light sources in there to see if that helps. |