COLOUR MOCKUP SO FAR!




 

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You may or may not have seen my mockup artwork a while back on the gallery, but I've always wanted to turn my comic book, http://www.pixeljoint.com/istvan/blackhole.swf - Black Hole , into a game.

You don't have to have read the book to help me. Want I want is help with the sprites, backgrounds and even story (if you feel so inclined).

Yeah, this is probably a bit similar to Larwick's Rustbug thread. I've definitely been inspired by all great advice and comments he's received.

My Black Hole graphics once occupied their own exclusive gallery, but it's different these days. That said, the gallery can still be viewed in it's entirety http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixels/icons/cats/cat2081.asp - here .

IN SHORT...
-The running title is "Black Hole: The Game that Sucks."
-It's a comic book platformer where you control the hero, Black Hole.
-Black Hole has the ability to suck, store, repel objects (sort of like a vacuum cleaner) using his hands.
- He will also jump, climb, hold, slap, punch, talk and scratch
-The graphics are currently done using only four colours (Black, White, Grey Green)-- this is prone to change, but I need your suggestions!
-The game will loosely follow the first few adventures of Black Hole, so read the comic for more ideas.
-This game is currently just in the concept and graphics stage. I would love to talk to anyone about coding it, but I have no means to do so myself.
UPDATE:  
-BH will have a special attack named 'Supernova.' The attack features in the first episode of the comic, http://www.pixeljoint.com/istvan/bh1_07.htm - seen here .  BH claps his hands together in order to blast a flash of white light which temporarily blinds his enemies. I plan on using a sort of 'rage meter' to control this attack. So he'd only be able to use it once he has a certain amount of kills or something.

MAIN BH GRAPHICS!
        

 

NEW COLOURED GRAPHICS:

First off I'd like suggestions for a palette change. Four colours was originally used due to their simplicity and because it reminded me of old Gameboy games- but if you've got any better ideas, tell me!

Cheers for now,
iSTVAN

Thanks Swiifty mate. I guess the childish look is another affect of the gameboy-ish palette and style. Perhaps this will correct itself once I've adjusted the palette. 'The game that sucks' is just a working title, feel free to offer better suggestions! 

The attacks are currently: Punch, Hold+Slap, Hold+Uppercut, and ofcourse the sucking action. He will be able to shoot objects at enemies and suck enemies into his hands then choose whether to slap or uppercut them. Once again, I'm wide open for suggestions!

Shark PM'd me with this:

hey, just checking your new WIP ..nice stuff you got going here, but
just think about what you could do with lots more colors. Of course
keep a GB limited pallette version but i could see this being really
sweet with lots more colors aswell. At the moment it seems very
bright, darkening it down and giving it a more urban feel would suit
the game better. The sprites are nice but some of them suchas
running need 2/3 more frames just to smooth it out. May i have a go
at coloring on of your mockup screens, there basically linearts
anyway lol.

I knew he wouldn't mind me posting it. Sure! I don't mind you having a go at colouring it in for me. Also, I'm not really sure where to find a GBA palette as such, I'd probably just go ahead and start using whatever colours I feel like. If you have a suitable GBA palette you'd like to provide me with, or details on how to get one, I'd muchly appreciate it.

Also, keep in mind I started this project about a year ago, I just never thought to involve the community until now. So basically, my skill level SHOULD have improved, thats why I am willing to be more ambitious with colour.

Cheers guys.

Hurrah for game WIPs! ^_^

I actually liked the whole simple style, it was like an amusing pisstake of older games (especially the running animation). Of course, it would be cool to see a fully coloured one aswel.

Really cool stuff, can't wait to see more. Although as some critisism i think the AAing for some parts of the main screen could be improved (the title especially).

@Spoony: Thanks man. Haha, green was only originally used because I was using the Lil' Dudes palette from the main gallery. But I made some test variations early on. Check out these four:

@Larwick: I agree with you totally about the Title Screen AAing. I am weighing up whether or not it's worth it to redo it using the current palette, if I'm going to be moving to full colour stuff. I'm glad you were amused by the simple style of graphics, a pisstake is precisely what I was aiming for! Especially as far as the running sprite goes. I have not intention to add any more frames to it.

PS. Also, does anyone know the standard pixel size for game sprites and background objects? I might have to redo some of the tiles...

@Spoon: Thanks mate, lycra spandex tends to get a bit itchy...in my experience. Thanks for the tile sizes. I hadn't really broken up the background into proper tiles, I've just been using seperate items so far- not really considering their practicality for a game

Here's some preview colour images that I just threw together then. Two versions, one with all black oulines, the other with variations. I like the second best. Has a sort of Kenneth Fejer sort of look.

Go right ahead Spoon! This is all I really had in terms of background tiles so far:


And I recoloured the talk icon:

Looks very nice so far, thae only thing I don't like is that you can't get a good effect with grey shading when the color it'self is used as a shade sometimes the used as a color othertimes. I would keep the other colors but dither areas where the green is the color of te object. I guess it just doesn't seem natural to shade with grey and green when ther green shares a simular saturation. It might be nice to look at some old children's books to see how the 50's monocoor artists did their work. I just wouldn't shade with the grey and green on the same space there are too close visually to conver demension. Perhaps you could also do each level a different palette. Overall excellent work!

P>S> Please don't moditate me for critiquing your fine fine work.....

Thanks PO. Don't worry, you haven't upset me enough to warrant my "moditating." Your critisisms are very valid. The orignal grey and green colours were poorly chosen. They had a sort of subtle charm about them though. I tend to avoid dithering for game graphics.

Have you checked out the new colour graphics? I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. It is very fun to go back and fill in my previous works with new colour.

I'll upload some new colour talk icons that I made in the morning. Goodnight!

Oh, and thanks Shark, I only just got your comment! Nice idea about the old school minigame. I can't wait to see your coloured interpretation!

I should be sleeping, but my mind ain't in the clouds yet. Here's those new talk icons.

Shark: Any effort is appreciated ;)

The right leg keeps going back.
Both arms go forward but the right leg just goes like so.

Back -> Middle -> Back

http://punky.ensellitis.com">
I am the jesus of PJ.

Your spray paint inspired me to attempt to draw my new nickname.

http://punky.ensellitis.com">
I am the jesus of PJ.

well i just think the 1990's style looses the 1950's monoculor feel. I have had a book called Your Friend The Garbage Man, it was monocolored.

Thanks for all the helpful comments so far people.

@Souly: Thank you! You're so right about the leg when he runs! I can't believe I've never noticed this before. Here's an updated verion:

I've also updated the main post with the new graphics to save confusion. Also, the grafitti you and Shark have made has given me the idea to include any graphitti signatures you guys wanna send me as actual tiles in the background! Just a way to give back to the community ;)

@Aleiav: Thanks a lot. With a little help from the community this thing might just see the light of day as a real game!

@Shark: I really like what you've done with the background! Thanks. My version will probably be slightly lighter, but you've definately inspired me to go full steam ahead with a entirely coloured version. Thanks mate. I really like what you've done with the sky and the brick building especially.

@PO: As mentioned above, my version of the background will be slightly different. I look forward to getting your help once I've completed it :)

@Swifty: Your demands for a coloured version will be met, sir! And thanks for the suggestions. As far as additional attacks go I failed to mention my plans to have BH perform his special attack 'Supernova.' The attack features in the first episode of the comic, http://www.pixeljoint.com/istvan/bh1_07.htm - seen here . BH claps his hands together in order to blast a flash of white light which temporarily blinds his enemies. I plan on using a sort of 'rage meter' to control this attack. So he'd only be able to use it once he has a certain amount of kills or something.

The skill system is also a nice idea, Swifty. I definitely plan on having special items that can be used for different things. This would add a level of strategy to the game. Got any ideas for this? I'm thinking the sorts of item progression that you see in games like the first game boy version of Zelda.

@Larwick: My new coloured version will probably follow more the composition of the original mockup I posted, but hopefully it will still sport eye candy graphics that please you!

@Saboteur: The updated first post should clear up any confusion about the issue of colour. That three frame animation Souly posted was actually posted earlier by me, and I've corrected a minor problem with it. I still have no plans to smooth it with more frames, but we'll see how things go. Thanks for the encouraging words, it's definately a dream of mine to see my Black Hole apppear under an endless line of crappy merchandise.

@Demon: I'd love to talk to you further about this man. I think it would be really fun working with you. PM me with the details you need, and we can start talking seriously ASAP :)

@jalonso: Thanks mate, I only started this thread last night, but I did most of the drawings a long time ago.

White holes are a perfectly valid mathematical solution to the equations of general relativity, but that doesn't mean that they actually exist in nature. In fact, they almost certainly do not exist, since there's no way to produce one. (Producing a white hole is just as impossible as destroying a black hole, since the two processes are time-reversals of each other.)"

Spoon: Thanks, although I hate Family Guy.

!Swifty: Well your scientific mumbo jumbo alines perfectly with my current 18 year old drunken state, but yes! Combining both hands does create a special attack weapon. I like your thinking for the ultimate boss. It would be cool to make them polar opposites.

As far as you contributing to the art, I guess I'd have to see some examples of your previous work before I took you on. This is all happening pretty fast, and I'd probably want to discuss things further with Demon before anything to do with the game is decided.

Overall, I think I should sober up before I use the internet ever again.

Love Ivan (iSTVAN).

@Demon: Fantasitc news! Do you have any more information I can read about your team BlueStar?

@Jalonso: Haha, I think this mainly took off so fast because I responded to almost every post myself.

Oh, and yeah, sorry for my drunkeness earlier on. Won't happen again, promise.

Okay, finally some new stuff!

And I've written up the different keys.

keys/actions-

x= jump
c= punch attack
z(and hold)= sucky action
d(and hold)= scrolls through inventory, to the right
s(and hold)= scrolls through inventory, to the left
a(tap/release from hold)= shoots current item
c+z(provided rage bar is full)=perform 'Supernova' special attack

You can suck enemies aswell as objects, however they cannot be stored. When sucked, the enemy collides with BH and he holds them up by the collar. They can only be sucked when they have less than half of their health. From this position the player can press either:

c= perform upper cut attack that sends the enemy flying; or
z= slap the enemy around for a bit

There will also be strategically placed obstacles throughout the levels which require BH's super power sucking ability. These situations will be defined by the  environment.

Now, here's a description of the first five levels that encompus the first episode of the comic:

Level One: Street Patrol
Start: On the streets of Sydney

B.H says: ‘There’s a lot more thugs on the street than normal. It looks like it’s time to suck up the trash!’

Objective: We join BH on his daily street patrol. Destroy all the street thugs and get back to your apartment.

Level Two: Sky Scrappin’ it
Start: Outside BH’s apartment lobby.

BH says: ‘The Door man doesn’t recognize my face…again. I’ll have to get through the window on the 42nd floor…again!’

Objective: Climb your way up towards BH’s apartment window. Use the roof tops to gain height, whilst fighting off various enemies and obstacles. At one stage you must scale a construction site, full of hazards and thugs that drop heavy objects onto BH.

Level Three: Call of Duty
Start: In BH’s apartment.

TV says: ‘A hostage situation has developed in downtown Sydney. Police are warning that the villain behind the hostages is armed and dangerous. The producers would like to make an official call of duty to all known local super heroes. Pixie Boy, Red Radish, The Super Happy Friends and Volcano Man-- your city needs you!

BH says: ‘Who the hell is Volcano Man?! And what ever happened to good ol’ bat signals, eh? It’s just a popularity contest with these people.’

‘Well, I better get down there. I wouldn’t want to miss the pre-crime press conference.’

Objective: Reach downtown Sydney. This time you also have to face on coming traffic and pollution fogs.

Upon reaching downtown you find that a crowd of people block the path towards the building.

BH says: ‘Let me through, let me through! I’m a super hero! I don’t wear this spandex outfit because it’s comfortable, you know!’

We see Volcano Man, the Super Happy Friends and Pixie Boy ahead of the crowd.

BH says: ‘What’re you playing at?! People could be dieing up there!’

Pixie Boy says: ‘But he’s got a GUN!’

BH says: ‘Yeah, and WE are super heroes!’

Volcano Man says: ‘Settle down there, little fella. Let’s just leave this one to the authorities.’

BH must suck an alley way ladder down to his height in order to climb it and get over the crowd of people from the rooftops. Other such ‘interactive environment’ puzzles will appear during the levels so that an element of strategy is added to the game, and the most is made of BH’s powers.

Level Four: Office Relations
Start: On the first floor of the hostage building.

BH says: ‘I’ve got to find and free all the hostages before I can clock off for the day.’

Objective: Free all the hostages. They will be scattered over 10 floors of the building, including a basement floor. Keys, elevators, stairways and doors will be used to make it to higher levels. Thugs will litter the building.

Level Five: Boss Thug
Start: On top floor where the boss Thug guards the last handful of hostages.

Boss Thug says: Who do you think you are-- Volcano Man?!

The hostages laugh, despite being gagged.

Boss fight starts.
Wave One: Punches don’t affect him and he’s too big to suck and hold. You must suck surrounding objects from the office into the boss so that he is injured enough to suck up and uppercut/slap.
Wave Two: Boss Thug starts shooting at BH with his gun. You must suck the bullets and project them back at him.
Wave Three: Mini thugs appear from behind doors and you must defeat them so that your rage meter increases. Then you must blind the Boss Thug and continue attacking him until he is defeated.

BH says: Go to hell, muthafu—

Boss Thug says: My…my mother died when I was twelve!

‘Awkward Pause!’ splashes on the screen. 

BH says: Well…say hello to your mum for me!

BH slaps the enemy out of the window.

I should have some more background stuff up soon! Oh, and there should be a warning at the top of this post that says 'GAME SPOILERS, DON'T READ!'

@Shark: Your demand have been met!
@Stitchy: Currently they've never been washed! And thanks mate.

Well, okay. For those of you not interested in long reads, check out this updated colour mock up!

I took it upon myself last night to mess around with coloring it because it seemed fun. Now that you posted your own it's not as useful but here it is anyways. Aside from the background buildings and clouds I used your sprites and slighty modified BH but only for clarity of appendages reasons.

My thoughts exactly. Also, the shading on the tree baskets needs to have an even distribution of the light bands make dark grey on the other side too. Also you might make some slight hints of light on those bricks and add some slightlyy dark flecks to the masonry.

Alright, first off some responses!

@Jalonso: Thank you very much! Your support is very encouraging. Some updates I think will be required, but I will try to please the pro-simpletons aswell.

@PO: Thanks. I'll be working on bringing some elements a bit more texture. Expect an update soon man!

@Shark: Thanks. At the moment, I am going for a chirby sort of feel. It wouldn't match the big headed cartoony character sprites to use dark disturbing colour schemes. And it will make it more dramatic later on when the game DOES get darker. The ground might be different overall if I'm going to add road tiles and cars, so bare with me for the moment. The trees, well, I like the simple cardboard cut out feel--i don't want them to overpower the character sprites. I will, however, experiment with this. Cheers.

@Swifty: I would definately like to bring a bit more to the city background and sky, I'm just not exactly sure how to go about it yet.

@Doppleganger: Thanks for the colour edit mate! Your's has a very textured arty feel that I'm not quite sure would work in a game, but looks great anyway! I mainly like what you did with the buildings in the background and the tree. Cool stuff!

@Stitchy: Yeah!

@Demon: Nice looking site you have there! I'm excited to be involved. I really like your updated inventory bar. Oh, and that big level write up way back up there was particularly intended for your eyes. I've added you to my msn contacts so I look forward to discussing this further with you ;)

@Aleiav: Cheers. The colour of the top bar is meant to match up with BH's costume colours. If you can think of a different combination of his blue and yellow, I'd love to see it. Thanks for the suggestion. 

And heres an updated mockup!


You'll notice I've now added some clouds, a 'rage meter' in the top bar, fiddled with some colours and edited some small things.

New coloured Thug sprites.

Running and punching.

EDIT: And here's another variation on the thug, with both animations.

And a slight update to the mockup:

How's this looking, Aleiav? I hope this looks better. I never saw any distraction, but then some monitors are brighter than others, and I want to aim to please the majority of computer screen eyeballs out there! Now you make me worried about the trees.

PS. New BH animations: from hold to slap and from hold to uppercut.

@Shark: The trees doppleganger drew are too highly textured and highlighted to match the rest of my backgrounds. Like I said, I want to avoid overpowering the sprites with complex backgrounds. I've changed the tree colours and swapped the brown with a lighter brown found in BH's costume.

I'm gonna try and get a new scene up soon using some new background pieces and sprites. I'll try and make it as different to this one as possible.

@Shark: Thanks mate. I'll be having variations in trees throughout the levels, so hopefully everyone will get their way at one stage.

I other news, I'm looking to take aboard another pixeller for this project. The job will primarily involve tile based work (which is not a specialty of mine). You'd be working under me, and ofcourse you'll get credited for all your hard work. If anyone is interested, please PM or email me with examples of their work.

Nice topbar. :) Much better.

And I really like the clouds.

@Larwick: I suspect I've repeated what you've described with the inconsistent tree colouring and mixed old colours with updated ones making my colour count massive. I've kept one set of original tiles, so it should go down to a lower number when I put them together again. I'm no pro at tiling, I admit it. Thanks for taking a closer look! And you're right about the yellow tree highlighting, its looking much better!

Working on some new tiles for a construction site scene mockup.

@Demon: Hey thanks man. I've been keeping the background objects as seperate layers, parallex scrolling would work awesomely for this! My tileset, as mentioned earlier isn't really a tileset, but here it is.

It's a sloppy way of doing things, I know. This is my main reason for wanting some outsite help on this project.

And here's the new mockup I've been working on:


Don't forget, I'm still looking for another pixel artist to help out!

Thanks for the comments peops!

First off,
@Aleiav: Dunno how I missed your message, but I did! Thanks, I'm glad you like it now.

@KawizradSaddrax: Thanks! This has come a long way, I'm really happy with the progress. And nice linkage- I definately see the similiarities. That Scrapyard dog looks like a strange game!

@PO: Cheers. Feel free to make an edit of the tree basket to show me what you mean.

@Demon: Funny you should say that. My main game related inspiration for the project has been coming from a couple of different GBA Spiderman games I used to play.

Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions for background pieces for the construction site, or any of the other levels I described on page two, please let me know! I needs ideas.

News for anyone following the game:
Shark will be joining me in the art department to help bring a proper foreground tile set. It also looks like he'll be aiding me with other aspects of the game. I'll still be controlling all big decisions, he'll just be lending a hand when it helps- which is similar to having Demon aboard with the programming in the first place.

Hope to have some new stuff to show off soon!

I hope the Black Hole is like one of those hero's from the 1950's that makes all the kids wish that they had the hero instead of their real fathers.

Gordon: Say son how would you fancy fishing with me!
Jack: Gee wiz dad, that would be real keen, but the new issue of The Black Hole comes out today.
Gordon That's okay son.......maybe some other time...

@PO: Hahah. Black Hole could maybe beat your mother, but he's no real fatherly figure- that's for sure. He's more like the drunken version of Spiderman, only less whiney. That said, you can still expect many cheesy, typically superhero-esque. http://www.pixeljoint.com/istvan/blackhole.swf - Don't forget to read the comics if you want more background info on BH!

The tiles and items are looking great, Shark! I especially like the different types of bricks. I'm only not too fond of the dithering on the pavement. I like the gutter you did, but I don't think we need to add any texture to it really. It'd look sharper just with a highlight line I reckon.

Oh, and I'll have 6 weeks off as of this afternoon to work on the game! Can't wait to post some more stuff!

@Aleiav: Cheers!

@Swifty: Shark answered your question! It also makes him look pretty goofy, even a bit of a pussy. Remember, Black Hole (the comic) was always a superhero comedy.

@Shark: ;)

I'm personally happy that I finally managed to get some cape movement going on. That thing was looking pretty damn stiff up until now. It sort of looks more like he's practicing Tae Bo, rather than beating up some felons-- and I find that hilarious!

This just seems a bit of a contradiction to me. Cartooning is all about sacrificing a bit of realism for simplication and humour's sake. I want to hear your suggestions, cos I know this game could be cartoonier-- and for better!

And don't worry, just the fact that you've taken the time to get involved with the game is enough to warrant your input some significant amount of weight. I wouldn't bother posting it here if I wasn't willing to take aboard everyone's ideas.

Oh, and if you want to know why he throws his head around like that, then simply try doing it yourself. Throw a punch at an (imaginary) enemy, and turn your head the other way as if you were practicing some sort of exercise routine. It's the best way to describe the humour of the action. It also makes BH stand out from the regular Thug way of fighting.

EDIT: Oh, and I think I compromised making this a serious game when I decided to make the characters big headed. I may well work on a more serious adaption of my Black Hole concept further down the track, but at the moment, I want something light, fluffy, and fun filled.

I'm gonna work on colouring some of the other character sprites now. I should have some new stuff up soon. And don't forget, Swifty, read the comic!

@Swifty: Glad I could beat some sense into you with my punching demonstration ;) I will consider making some further body movement to the action.

Regarding the 'control' of BH's sucking ability. Currently plans are to have a considerable control of where exactly BH is sucking and propelling. I want there to be a curser that follows an invisible radius of say 30 pixels surrounding BH. When you press and hold the suck button the curser appears and you can use the left and right buttons to move the curser around the invisible circle. When you release the suck button it sucks in that direction. It sounds complicated, but believe me its not. Here's a little demonstration:

This will make it funner to hide secrets, objects and objectives in the background because the player has a much greater amount of directions to choose to suck, rather than just make him suck left, right and up. And once the player gets used to it I'm sure it will become faster to control.

This will probably mean BH's arm will need to be a seperate object, so that it can rotate in every direction, but I'll work that out with Demon.

EDIT: That's just a standin curser, by the way. Not sure what we're gonna use yet.

OH yeah! That's awsome!!!