Some ideas for new art style

[Andail]

Playing around with higher resolutions. I plan for these to be really wide (so more pictures will be added to these), and scroll sideways, with parallax effect (they're already drawn in layers).
Scanned lineart and coloured in PS. I will be more careful later on (since these lines are a bit sloppy) but this is just to try out the style.
The player character will be relatively small, and only walk sideways, so graphically it will look a bit like a platformer.




Any c&c?

[bicilotti]

I am not an artist so I will refrain from critiquing, but the backgrounds are very cute (and remind me of Knytt, a game I enjoyed a lot).
Would definitely play a game made with these backgrounds!

[Darth Mandarb]

I quite like it.

What I would suggest is moving the walk/focal areas up (more towards the horizontal center of the images) and extend the "ground" areas down a bit.  I think this would feel easier to look at it (when playing).  With so much space over the player I would probably always find myself looking up from the "action" areas.  Not knowing the game play mechanics though it's hard to say for sure!

Also, it [moving the focal areas up] would open up the possibility of some foreground (black/indistinct) objects to really sell the paralax scrolling.

Obviously, with the second image, if the PC is able to get to the areas towards the top of the screen this "moving up" wouldn't be necessary!

[CaptainD]

I like the stark contrast between foreground and background.  Are you going to have a single parallax layer our a couple?

[miguel]

I'm going for the same kind of background art on a game but not high-res. 640x400 allows me to have an easier control on objects and character animations. So, yes, I really like the style, specially the first one (more polished).
Your line work is pretty cool.
Platformers and hybrid platformers are a fantastic way of telling stories while adding lots of clever game play ideas.
Good job so far.

[Ghost]

I really like the clean art and the focus on clear details. Pretty sure it'll look great in-game, especially with parallaxing.

One thing- in the first screenshot you're using a prominent texture for the rocks, which makes them stand out more. I wonder if the trees in the second pic would benefit from a similar texturing (like the rocks they are the larged thing on-screen, filled in one colour). Maybe worth a try?

[Monsieur OUXX]

the first image is very pretty. I like the second one much less. I think it's because the lighting in the first one is very alive, while the second one is very flat and dull. It's a night scene and the light sources are: 1) the luminescent background, 2) the enlighted windows and decorative lights. Yet, none of them seem to light the tress in any way : the trees don't even look cylindrical. Actually it's almost like you did some pillow shading all over the scene.


I think that's the biggest issue with the second scene while, then again, the first scene looks gorgeous.

[gingersnap]

These are gorgeous. I... really don't think I can say anything constructive about them. They do seem a little flat, but in a way that is useful to a side scroller. I just like them, they have charm.

[xil]

They look awesome, I would very much enjoy playing a game in that style.

My only critique would be to add around 2 more parallax layers. It seems so flat because it goes from foreground to far, far distant background in one step. I'd like to see some less blurry trees/forest and perhaps some rocks/trees in between that layer and the current foreground. The 2 extra layers I propose would hopefully be very 'reusable' so not cost you too much time to produce.