Loooking for some critiques.

Wolfina · Wed 18/01/2017 23:45:11

I'm trying to solo a project and wanted some feedback on my backgrounds and characters so far.

Here is the main character.

Backgrounds:

In the game there is a window over that random square of outside.

The last background I know I need to fix the grass on, it's a bit of a WIP the feedback would be for the house/sky

KyriakosCH · Thu 19/01/2017 11:23:07

Nice style

The winged guy looks a bit ominous

Danvzare · Thu 19/01/2017 13:56:54

I absolutely love the backgrounds, although I think the isometric style of the backgrounds might look odd with the character, who doesn't seem isometric at all.

Also, apart from the lack of animations, I like the main character. I just hope he has a fun personality.

Babar · Thu 19/01/2017 16:30:21

You wouldn't be able to see the sky or horizon in the last picture.
And the sky in the first one might work if you're in some tall building

.

Wolfina · Thu 19/01/2017 17:49:43

I am working on animations and making it a bit more fluid, i'm going to change the animation where he lifts his hand to be a bit more than just that

I never noticed the isometric view not fitting the character or anything like that it all looked fine in game.

As for the for the sky or horizon in the last picture i don't quite understand..? How wouldn't it be visible? Sorry ^^;; I just don't see how that works if it was just grass

This is how it looks in game:

Spoiler

[close]

KyriakosCH · Thu 19/01/2017 18:36:34

Cool cursor.

Retro Wolf · Thu 19/01/2017 18:59:57

That tree's art style looks too different, you already mentioned the grass. Other than that I really dig the isometric style!

Danvzare · Thu 19/01/2017 19:36:02

Quote from: Wolfina on Thu 19/01/2017 17:49:43
As for the for the sky or horizon in the last picture i don't quite understand..? How wouldn't it be visible? Sorry ^^;; I just don't see how that works if it was just grass

The angle shows you the top of the roof of the house, and has almost a top-down perspective. So unless the house was at a steep angle on a hill, you shouldn't be able to see the sky. I'm sorry that I'm not good at explaining this, art is not my forte.
In short, you're looking down as indicated by the roof, yet the sky says we're looking from the side. Am I making sense?
Also, think to other isometric games like Habbo Hotel (it's the first that came to mind), you can never see the horizon, because the camera angle is tilted below the horizon line.
Overall though, I still like it, even if it is odd.

And having seen your character close up in the room, I think he matches quite well. Much better than I had anticipated.

NickyNyce · Thu 19/01/2017 20:58:33

Danzare is correct. It's important to have all objects in the same perspective. I'm not saying that a game must have perfect perspective, but for many of us that understand it more, it pops out dramatically when it does exist.

The house is drawn at an isometric angle, but the tree is not. The tree appears to be directly in front of us, which is fine, but if we can see the houses roof, we should not be able to see up into the tree because the houses angle suggests we are up high looking down.

Wolfina · Thu 19/01/2017 21:04:10

I get it now! That makes sense, and yea the tree doesn't match, I wanted to keep it as my sister drew the background originally, but honestly I think it's because I'm terrible at foliage xP

I can see it now that it's been explained a bit more, I didn't quite get it at first. So either change the perspective of the house (which then would clash a little bit with the other perspectives) or change the horizon line? Would the horizon still be visible or just be gone entirely?

Like if I had the horizon here instead would that work?

Babar · Thu 19/01/2017 21:29:12

Quote from: Wolfina on Thu 19/01/2017 21:04:10
I can see it now that it's been explained a bit more, I didn't quite get it at first. So either change the perspective of the house (which then would clash a little bit with the other perspectives) or change the horizon line? Would the horizon still be visible or just be gone entirely?

Like if I had the horizon here instead would that work?

No, the horizon wouldn't be visible at all.
The simplest way to place the horizon is to take two lines that are supposed to be parallel in the scene (like the top and bottom of the brick wall in your last picture) and extend them forward until they meet. The point they would meet would be your vanishing point, were you'd put your horizon.

In your background, if you extended two lines, one from the top of the brick wall, and one from the bottom, they would never meet, no matter how far you extended it- thus, no horizon.

There's nothing WRONG with having no horizon, it is a style of perspective, and it works in your other BGs (except maybe the sky in the first one, again, unless you were in a tall building), but it doesn't work in the last BG, because it clashes with the sky and tree.

Wolfina · Thu 19/01/2017 22:08:08

Ah I get it, I didn't learn perspective much in school (except a slight bit in grade school) but i understand.

As for the first picture is a very tall building, well at least very high up. So that makes sense at least lol.

NickyNyce · Thu 19/01/2017 23:25:40

I'm no expert at perspective, and I never will be, but here is a quick change. As you can see in my my quick and terrible mock up, I can only see into the neighbors yard with the current camera angle, unless of course, like Danzare mentioned, you could be on top of a hill looking down at a town, city, river...etc. Once again though, I'm not saying you need perfect perspective to make a game or draw something nice.

Wolfina · Fri 20/01/2017 01:56:14

ooh that mock up might be quick but it does make it look a lot better, in terms of perspective :0

i might just use that as a base to work off of, if that's ok with you, i've been curently working on getting the tree to fit better with the style, cleaning it up and making it actual pixel art,

Wolfina · Fri 20/01/2017 03:07:23

This is what i've worked out so far, the grey house is still wip, need windows and maybe a bit of roof on the edge there,

Do you think the perspective is better now?

NickyNyce · Fri 20/01/2017 03:22:30

Much better. Very nice!

Danvzare · Fri 20/01/2017 13:39:05

That looks much better.
It's a shame we can't see that beautiful sky anymore, but I think the corrected perspective more than makes up for it.

The tree is a little blocky though.

Matti · Fri 20/01/2017 13:45:20

Yes, the tree looks blocky, because the pixels are twice as large in width and height than the others. Is that intentional?

Wolfina · Fri 20/01/2017 19:32:03

Nah not intentional, just had to make it double the size because i originally made it too small. I was looking at it after I posted it and I'm planning on going back and re-shading and making it look less blocky, because despite my best efforts it still doesn't quite fit xD

Also i did save the sky separate planning on using it somewhere later.

Wolfina · Sat 21/01/2017 03:15:55

Cleaned up the tree, and made it less blocky. And now a boulder to fill out that empty space a bit. Some grass too, not too sure how to do the grass pixelated but i think this fits alright.