Newest pixel project - initial stages

[terley]

 

UPDATED

 

 

 

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/1549/level7vk5.png

 

supposed to be viewed as x2, copy into paint or whatever program, to see.

 

 

 

My goal is to within the next 4 weeks to create 2 level mockups, a starter screen and a ending screen for my game idea.

 

 

 

You may recognise this from the pixelator challenge we had a few months ago; Its in my signature.

 

 

 

I basically just thought it was a shame not to carry on with the style, it is a totally new project and with such a short deadline I can't exactly fumble around with initial tiles when I've got a perfectly good set ready to be expanded on.

 

 

 

My idea for the game is basically an ellaboration on what a shop worker has to do each day, the game starts with a top view plan of a shop with various sections around the shop; fruit and veg, drinks, sweets, alcohol etc.. each of these sections lead to a level. This level for instance will be fruit and veg based, with the enemies as tomatoes, carrots etc.

 

 

 

Its based on myself and the shop I work at (SPAR), and whilst workin on the shop floor I gotta check for any products that have exceeded their sell-by-dates and 'waste em' by scanning it on a hand-held device.. This is mostly a boring task, but a great idea for a game imo.. it just needs a little imagination ;).

 

 

 

Im gonna be also creating a poster for this, and the packaging. so keep in tune the next 4 weeks. Its for college so im megaserious about hittin the deadline.

 

 

 

Any advice, crits or general comments are welcome.. cheers guys.

[salim123]

thats a really cool pic if u made it

[runescape_rocks]

thats a really cool pic if u made it

 

 

 

what are you inferring?

 

 

 

anyways, looks really good so far.

[terley]

thats a really cool pic if u made it

 

 

 

why would I post someone else's work here for cc?

 

 

 

cheers runescape_rocks.

[Sir_Erderik]

I like it, brings me back to those winter days playing Contra on the super NES. Hope the finished product turns out good, cuz it looks awesome to me right now. Are you thinking of actually turning this into a playable game, or just making a level layout and whatnot?

[terley]

well i've set myself so much to do for the deadline, im considering getting the one level playable as a demo for my end of year show in 5 weeks. But Im trying to be realistic with what I can achieve in the 4 weeks. which is various mockups, packaging, posters etc to be displayed.. It'd be ridiculus trying to get a game created in that time.

 

 

 

But I will most likely carry this on, it all depends on how it develops throughout this time.

[xxxShade]

The background looks pretty good. I think you could throw in maybe 2

 

different tiles to change it up a little and I think the character would look

 

better if you seperated each of his parts with darker lines.

 

Anyway, I think the trees look really nice as well as the grass. I think you're going

 

to get a lot better feedback from people over at pixeljoint because they

 

are way more experienced.

[terley]

yea i've got this up on pixelation, but Id never rule out TIF for critisism experienced or not i've always been able to rely on this forum to give honest responses and genuine suggestions. My target audience is young teens, and the 'more experienced' people are usually much older. It'd be foolish not to ask for cc here, most of the community here is my target audience. :D

 

 

 

well i've decided to have a go at animating the character, slight changes in the design whilst animating. He walks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

edit- fixed any flaws it had.

[LeonardMart]

i kinda like it, really lookin forward to the finished product, make sure you tell us when its finished!

 

 

 

and are you sure it should be viewed 2x ? cause it looks better at the current zoom...

[Lovelydude]

I beg to differ Mistubishi. Though most people here would prefer 1x, 2x is more readable, and imo, nicer to look at. Go play any good snes rpg to see what I mean.

 

 

 

Ter, why are you using the tileset for the bg? Why not put some pretty cliffs, mountains, or some kind of structure/landspace there instead. It would help resolve a lot of the issues that come with tile use.

 

 

 

I think you should put some highlights on the protagonist. Making him slightly larger couldn't hurt either.

[Nazgul740]

Interesting idea, i'll be watching this topic...

 

 

 

Got any sketches or quick ideas on the poster for now?

 

 

 

As for c\c, well lesse...

 

 

 

First off i would add some type of clouds in the sky, everyone loves being able to bounce around jumping from cloud to cloud. Somthing greyish and threating, no happy clouds...

 

 

 

Depending on what type of level this is sopposed to be (eg swamp, woodland ect) the colors vary alot. This tileset seems to be more focused on a murky amosphere (yay for not knowing how to spell) Which mostly fits the colors but the trees imo need some darker colors thrown in there...

 

 

 

I would also try and add variations on tilesets instead of creating whole new pieces... Say in one add mud that in a game would drown the character in another add rocks that need to be climbed or a slope or somthing...

 

 

 

gameplay comes first in games graphics second, but with the same graphics beating somone over the head a person quicly becomes bored. Evenyone likes variety...

 

 

 

Just my two cents :wink:

[rik]

It looks good, but like already said: maybe work a little more at the background, so it looks a bit nicer :wink:

 

 

 

And atm i dont can give to much advise since i'm in school :(

[terley]

well Nazgul any ideas goes straight into my ideas sketchbook, not exactly started much on poster ideas but through the next few weeks I need make some concept art. Which will most likely be used in the poster and packaging.

 

 

 

Yea I've not got round to the sky atall so, it would be a bit bare atm. I've bin focusing atm on the ground tiles and objects.. You can only do so much at a time, still got a lot to add in.

 

 

 

I think adding mud is a great idea, the grass may look a bit monotonous atm. Ill start to build it up with like various objects, new layers to give the right atmostphere. still need to add some water.

 

 

 

thx for the comments Naz will, keep those ideas in mind..

 

 

 

rik, any advice is welcome. Its good to have an extra opinion.. do you like it or not? would you change anything? suggest any ideas for enemies/objects etc.. anything will do.

[rik]

Ok i'm home now an i have noticed a few things:

 

 

 

* If you looks good at the mockup, i think about 100-150 pix below the grass there is a part in the rocky area where u can see some sort of line. Maybe get that awey. Also a suggestion: add some fossil's in the rocks or maybe magma :wink:

 

 

 

* Get more sort of tree's and rocks maybe only 2 sort of tree's and 2 or 3 sort of rocks make a big difference i think, because this realy looks copy/pasted. So... i hope u have enoguh time for some chances like this, because i realy think it makes a big difference :)

 

 

 

* The person is against some background i think pretty hard to see. With his black trousers and black hair.

 

 

 

* The red outlines are a on some parts to outcoming (i hope i say it clearly enough :S). If u want i'll mark the parts that i think are to much.

 

 

 

* Zoomed to x2 or even better x4 i have realy noticed something that bothers me with alot of RPG's : With all those copy/pasting things alot vertical clearly visible. With this mockup its on every edge on the right or the left (i can't say it exectly) there is 1 vertical blue line just untherneath the grass, and thats copy'd everytime. I hope u see what i mean :wink:

 

 

 

* On the left part there are some small parts that get higher every time, but somehow it looks like they get closer everytime :? (only if i look from the left to the right)

 

 

 

are the first things i noticed.

 

 

 

A few idea's:

 

- Maybe make some diagonal parts and not only high/low difference.

 

- Maybe make something like a pet that follow's him. It could attack or not, but there are more things then only enemy's and the head character in there then :wink:

 

- Don't make at the end an Big Boss or something, but just something else. I dont know what you could put in there then, but its over used to my idea :wall: ( i don't know if u were planning one but just thought maybe say it)

 

 

 

Ok i hope this is enough help for now, and lolz.. i have put 25 mins in just 1 post, my new record :lol:

[terley]

cheers, very greatful for the comments rik.

 

 

 

I totally agree with you about noticable patterns in the tiling, seems like some rocks are all in line or something.. and in places its easy to tell it's been tiled.

 

 

 

I'll try to take your advice into account, alot of your ideas would work beautifully.

 

 

 

if it helps, heres a mega rough plan of what im hoping to build into this.. a lot of people have commenting on it being too bare, so maybe seeing where im going with this will help you understand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

some foreground with rocks, bushes etc. a bit OTT on this plan tho..

 

water, which the character must avoid falling into.

 

some background behind the front platform.

 

possibly a rope ladder?

 

And some decent looking clouds, which im really not looking forward to pixeling.

[Nadril]

Very cool terly, looking foward to seeing how this turns out. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

Brings back memorys of the good 'ole days ;p.

[Smapla]

Jeez terley, you program too? What're you going to make this game in?

[LeonardMart]

I beg to differ Mistubishi. Though most people here would prefer 1x, 2x is more readable, and imo, nicer to look at. Go play any good snes rpg to see what I mean.

 

 

 

what i mean is that at 2x zoom the picture seems to lose quality. of course it would be easier and better to play at 2x zoom rather than 1x, but at 2x it looks a bit... pixelated?

 

 

 

btw nice work (again) you gonna fix that water right? it looks a but weird for now

[Dharockslayer]

Wicked 8-) .

 

 

 

I could give you a little advice on the sun and all that, but one of my weaknesses too is clouds :lol: :D :) :(

 

 

 

Goodluck with this awesomeness.

[WeeBoab]

if its about ur job in spar, id put things with juice or sandwiches or meat or something in em, rather than cliffs etc. and instead of water, maybe a sack to represent being fired? i dno.

[terley]

sigh... mitsubishi64, as I said that was a sketch over to show where im going to be adding things, of course its looks odd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

bump anyways..

 

 

 

I don't think there's any need to make the level itself into fruit and veg, the idea is that you've got to zap out of date fruit and veg, the level is just supposed to represent their habitat.

 

 

 

well Smapla im not a programmer, but my brother is, he's gonna program the one level for me. not sure what he uses, sorry.

 

 

 

again, thx for the comments.

[Lovelydude]

Ter, the water tiling is killing me. When I scroll, it's like death D:

 

 

 

Why don't you add a splash tile or something. It is raining there.

[terley]

yeah the water is way too repetative, it does need some added reality, splashes ect.. Im designing some enemies atm, best to get the initial stages done before trying to polish up the demo mockup level too much, they really do need to suit their surroundings.

 

 

 

Any major problems you see guys, please point em out.. 2 weeks left starting monday. I've started another level and im drawing some illustrations for a starter screen, they're still very much new, so nothing im willing to post yet. :-w

 

 

 

cheers guys.

[WeeBoab]

is it an internet game or a psp game or what? if its on the net give us the link :thumbsup:

[Fortress2000]

Terley, seriously, if you make this into a game to be purchased in the shops, I'll be the first one in line. :D I'm a huge fan of the classic Metal Slug, and these pictures bring back old memories. Make the game somewhat to Metal Slug's level, and I shall worship you. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

By the way, fantastic work so far. :lol: