Show off your graphics!

Post by **TMC** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:11 am

Oh, cool! Is this just the title screen, or is the game actually set in space?

Ichiro · Post by **Ichiro** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:28 am

TMC wrote:Oh, cool! Is this just the title screen, or is the game actually set in space?

It's set on a colonized exoplanet.

Mammothstuds · Post by **Mammothstuds** » Tue Mar 15, 2016 4:30 pm

I'm going for an earthbound-y style for my HotOHR game. I'm a fairly inexperienced spriter, so it's the best route I can go for in terms of making my game look decent.

Whaddya guys think?

guo · Post by **guo** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 12:53 am

Clean & readable - works fine if you ask me.

Post by **TMC** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 1:04 am

I'm actually impressed with how decent that looks, given that the cliff tiles are so simple. What will be a big factor in what the player thinks of those tiles is whether the same tiles are used everywhere or whether there's plenty of variety in the game. (I believe quantity is more important than quality.)

Feenicks · Post by **Feenicks** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 1:15 am

Mammoth: Going to have to agree that in spite of those tiles being really simple, they actually work rather well. Also going to have to agree that having a lot of variety in your tiles is vital if you're going with that style, though.
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On my end, I've started drawing out all my backdrops for my HotOHR game. Going to try and have one for each area [10 in all] done by the end of the week.

kylekrack · Post by **kylekrack** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 2:03 am

@Pheonix: Beautiful palettes at work there. Do you have a master palette you usually stick to or do you design them uniquely from game to game?

Feenicks · Post by **Feenicks** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 2:20 am

I change around the palette I use every few game attempts, but most of them have the same general ideas behind them [small ramps, the ability to shift between nearby shades relatively easily].

The whole issue of getting nice colors in the backgrounds is definitely made easier by the fact that I draw them at 4x, then downsize them, shifting around colors as needed. Makes drawing them out a lot easier as well [doubly so, given that I'm not using the most detailed style with these].

kylekrack · Post by **kylekrack** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 2:31 am

Oh fascinating. I will definitely start drawing backdrops at 4x size from now on. I did something similar with the last portrait sprites I drew, but I also used pictures of paper drawings I made.

Thanks for sharing your methods.

Post by **TMC** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 2:52 am

That's a really great-looking style.

The down-scaling and palettisation I know Fenrir draws his backdrops at 640x400 before down-scaling. The down-scaling and palettisation can really butcher some graphics; I wonder if there's much difference between working at 2x or 4x. I also drew all the sprites for Bad Boy at 2x in monochrome so that down-scaling would create anti-aliased edges.

Mammothstuds · Post by **Mammothstuds** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:26 pm

TMC wrote:I'm actually impressed with how decent that looks, given that the cliff tiles are so simple. What will be a big factor in what the player thinks of those tiles is whether the same tiles are used everywhere or whether there's plenty of variety in the game. (I believe quantity is more important than quality.)

Given that it's rather easy to create such a simple tileset, I'm fairly confident that I can create a myriad of different tilesets with the same simple art direction. So yeah, I think you can safely count on my game having a lot of variety.

Mammothstuds · Post by **Mammothstuds** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:34 pm

Meet Tentus, the first boss of my HotOHR game "The Successor's Legacy". He's encountered really early in the game, as is the case with most first bosses.

I'm a little concerned about this sprite; his left tentacle looks a bit sloppy IMO. So, I'mma ask for feedback. Just wanna know if the sprite itself looks passable or not; because I don't really wanna change the monster design.

Mammothstuds · Post by **Mammothstuds** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:36 pm

Phoenix: Your screenshots are, like, seriously amazing. I know the words are thrown around a lot in the world of game reviews, but I'm seriously wondering how you crank all that detail into such a simple graphic engine. One day I wanna be able to sprite like that.

Feenicks · Post by **Feenicks** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 6:22 pm

Ah, thanks. Always great to hear that. For the backgrounds, I just started big and shrunk it down to the OHR's resolution.

Regarding your sprite: once you fix up the skinny bit on that left tentacle it should look nice. Seems like a cool guy, in any case.

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On my end, I'm starting on the enemy sprites for my HotOHR game. It's going to have an enemy rank system in place, and instead of just using palette swaps to signify enemies getting stronger, I went with something slightly different [s]if only because it let me keep on adding onto a sprite instead of drawing entirely new ones.[/s]

guo · Post by **guo** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 9:06 pm

Pheonix I really like that you have your own style, many of your games look like watercolour paintings or works of art.

I guess I should share something while I'm here: