Tiny game sprites [Planetary lander]
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=22025
Printed Date: 06 September 2025 at 7:17am
Topic: Tiny game sprites [Planetary lander]
Posted By: Sorsy
Subject: Tiny game sprites [Planetary lander]
Date Posted: 25 March 2015 at 1:13pm
Hello guys, since my last post I've been thinking if I could keep the bar up for other sprites for a game I'm making. I posted the alien mech suit animation and I was pretty pleased how that came out but I don't think I really enjoyed making it. So I've been doing some research on the interwebz looking for some simple style I could emulate that would not take that much time to draw and I found work of http://superpietepiet.tumblr.com/ - Paul Veer which I must say I really like. So inspired by that I made this man right here:
9 colours including bcg, will be used in 2x zoom I'm also trying to restrict myself more by using DB16 pallete which is totally new to me. It would be nice if you could give me some feedback. Thanks a lot for your time! Edit: 
What about these cows? At first I did the one on the left, but it's too small I guess, so - udder + horns it could be a bull. What do you think? |
Replies:
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 25 March 2015 at 2:49pm
| It looks good. For this size you have just the right emphasis on structure and clusters and only a touch of shading and aa. |
Posted By: Finlal
Date Posted: 25 March 2015 at 4:00pm
I like it. Only one problem I see, those dark pixels on bright area do stick out in a bad way.
Also, in this case, you can upload them in 2x, since you'll be using them in that scale in game. And also because they are little. P.S. if you want to emulate Paul Veer (though your tiles are good without it), use continuous dark outlines. |
Posted By: Sorsy
Date Posted: 26 March 2015 at 12:01am
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I'm glad you like it. Thanks for pointing that pixel out. I'm aware of the outline Paul uses, but as you said my sprites don't need it. I will see when I make some sort of background if it will blend together too much, then I might add it. But still I don't think it will be necessary with such a nice palette.
Today I animated the cow, what do you think? 
Edit: Hey, I have a bull animated too. What do you think about the nose ring? Do you think I should use darker colour for it, like the one on the horns? Not sure if it reads well. 
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Posted By: DrTripwire
Date Posted: 27 March 2015 at 11:30am
| I'm not sure what's going on with the bull's head. I really love the cow, though, especially the little ear bob. Cx |
Posted By: Sorsy
Date Posted: 27 March 2015 at 12:49pm
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What do you mean, Doc? Maybe it looks a bit more static because of the horns? I'm not sure about it, to me the nose ring looks much worse than yesterday :D
Anyway a bit of progress. Yesterday at night I drew first space alien enemy that flies via jetpack. I animated it and tried it in-game. 
Today I did a variation on my http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/93269.htm - older mech and right after finishing it I see it's not really the same thing as the little alien dude. I feel as if I got a bit better with that whole restricted palette and using colours that goes with each other better. But it also lacks contrast... 
I will work more on the alien animation as it would benefit from some hand movement. I have to leave the mech alone for some time. It is too detailed for the style I'm going for. What do you think guys? Edit: I just could not stop pixeling after I edited the alien and I also noticed the lighting was wrong as it should go from the top.  
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Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 27 March 2015 at 2:30pm
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Every sprite is lovely.
Any world BG previews to show? ------------- |
Posted By: DrTripwire
Date Posted: 27 March 2015 at 6:11pm
| OH! Now I see the gold ring. I thought the muzzle was just randomly blinking in and out. Maybe I'm just blind. |
Posted By: Finlal
Date Posted: 28 March 2015 at 3:57am
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In jumping sprite try to add 1 frame of the guy ducking before the jump.
Edit: Also, if he flies with jetpack, not jumping, you may add some effect behind him, like fire or gravity-waves or something. |
Posted By: Sorsy
Date Posted: 28 March 2015 at 11:17am
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to Jalonso: Not yet, I'm focusing on the sprites right now but it might be a mistake. I will try something rough in near future to see how it goes together. Thanks!
to DrTripwire: No you're not. I thought it was blending in too much and you just confirmed my suspicion. Will try something with that. to Finlal: Yep, it looks better now: 
Effects will be added as separate sprites in-game and I don't have them yet but I will probably try to compose them together to add to my gallery. Here is the suit animated. I did it a bit simpler this time. So no vibrating of the jet-hands there. I tried it but it didn't look as good. 
The effects as I said above are not done yet and will be separate. Edit: Whenever I post something and see it here I spot something that could be done better. So I think there was something wrong about the leg movement after landing. I also added a small movement to the piece between his legs. 
Thanks a lot for the feedback guys! |
Posted By: Silenia
Date Posted: 29 March 2015 at 2:41am
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Originally posted by Sorsy [...] to DrTripwire: No you're not. I thought it was blending in too much and you just confirmed my suspicion. Will try something with that. [...] Did a very quick little edit for you on the nose ring. Slightly brighter/lighter yellow seems to mostly fix it.  |
Posted By: DrTripwire
Date Posted: 30 March 2015 at 8:19pm
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Yep, the ring pops right out now.
As for our hoppy little robot dude - it almost looks like his foot is melting when he's in the air. xD Perhaps not so pointy? |
Posted By: Sorsy
Date Posted: 31 March 2015 at 8:55am
To me it seems unnecessary to add a color to the palette if I will use it just once. For now I made it dark blue and it seems ok.
Don't know about feet, DrTripwire, will look into that ;) Today I tried my luck with a background but right of the bat I'm not sure what colours to use. For example in the mech suit I used pretty much all of the dark colours I had and now I'm afraid that he will blend in if I make the background dark. Logical thing to do seems to use different palette, any thoughts or advice on that? Edit: Also what about dithering in game background? Should or shouldn't I use it? |
Posted By: Iscalio
Date Posted: 31 March 2015 at 9:43am
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I didn't see that that was a ring in the bull's nose til I blew up the image. Until I see that it's a nose ring it kinda looks to me like there's some weird thing going on with his mouth when he animates.
The lighter ring color didn't look incorrect because it looked invisible when bouncing up through the face. With the light ring color I just thought he was opening his mouth in a cute way. |
Posted By: Sorsy
Date Posted: 01 April 2015 at 7:12am
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Well, I really don't know what to do with that nose ring, Iscalio. Any thoughts?
Today I finished first try at background. Very simple and I was trying to make it not too intrusive to help the enemies stand out. 
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Posted By: Iscalio
Date Posted: 02 April 2015 at 10:20am
| I dunno I think everything looks pretty cute. Just mentioning my initial confusion. |
Posted By: Sorsy
Date Posted: 03 April 2015 at 11:29am
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Ok, thanks Iscalio. I was confused what you were confused about :) Just a normal internet confusion I guess.
Today I finished a boss, maybe even final one. I want him to have some kind of flying device but when you shoot him down, he will walk. I though I could maybe show some more in-progress images so I saved some separately. First I drew a rough outline. I knew I wanted to make a four legged robot so that was where I started. First four legged entity I animated was the cow in this thread so I thought I would challenge myself a bit. 
It was not that easy to figure out how the legs would move but they just alternate the movement: when front-right goes forward then the back-left goes also forward. I guess it could have saved me some hassle if I would try and google something, but I had fun. So knowing the pattern I knew how the legs would move and I thought it would be much easier to animate one leg separately so I did just that and then used frames when I needed them. 
I tried moving the cockpit side to side but I wasn't satisfied with that... 
So rather than changing yaw I changed roll. Maybe it would be cool to combine those but I won't go into that. 
Then I edited it so when the robot was switching from four legs to two it would bob down a little like it's more weight on less support. And then "just add" colours. 
I'm pretty happy with it myself bit I'm also curious what you guys think! :) |
Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 04 April 2015 at 5:00am
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The BG is great!
------------- |
Posted By: Naji
Date Posted: 05 April 2015 at 10:14am
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wow gj with the bg and those tubes
looks neat |
Posted By: Sorsy
Date Posted: 05 April 2015 at 12:24pm
| Thanks a lot jalonso and Naji. The tubes are just 8 tiles but to me they make all the difference. As I look at it I could make some more without fixtures. Ones in the air don't make much sense. But then again, the tubing itself doesn't make sense. Those alien plumbers! |
Posted By: Sorsy
Date Posted: 06 June 2015 at 8:21pm
Hello guys, I have some more sprites for this game I'm making. This one is a planetary lander consisting of two parts. What do you think about it? I'm still not sure about the second stage's design. I guess the cannons could fold out of the hull rather than just come out out of nothing...
Also I'm not gonna post this one in my gallery as is right now but if so is it against the rules to post this? I mean I did all the animations but the movement is programmed in-game and I just screen-grabbed it. What do you think? |
Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 08 June 2015 at 7:32am
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+1
You can post anything you want here even when things are not for the gallery. You have questions or need help just post and ask away. ------------- |