Prisoner Screenshot

[Quintaros]

I wanted to ask a few questions about the artwork for my game.  

What do you guys thing of the shading technique?  I've been using lots of gradients and they come out a little funny when I import the image to AGS (most obvious in this image inside the fireplace).  I'd like to fix this some how but if I can't I can live with it.  The shading technique differs from the characters shading as he was done much earlier.  Should I go back and fix him to match?

What about the dead-on angle of the room?  I find rooms to be more dynamic when they show things at an angle but sometimes I'm kind of lazy when it comes to perspective and go for the simplest approach.  

Note the painting in the centre and parchment(?) to the left.  They're cut right out of a photograph and  pasted as a layer into my image.  Is that too jarring a technique or can I get away with it?

I'm making the game in a wide aspect ratio but not using the letterbox feature of AGS.  I simply put blackbars at the top and bottom of each room.  The reason I do it that way is so that I can make the bars walk-behind areas so that I can have the characters walk a little below the frame.  Does that present any problems?


What do you think of the GUI?  Standard style but custom buttons.

Any additional comments?

Thanks.

[Moresco]

I was really confused about the angle until you said it was dead-on.  Now, when I look at it, I think it needs more room or something.  And you said he should be behind the wall, and I just don't see it....maybe if he WAS behind the wall I could figure it out.  Basically I think it looks really cool, especially your gui which I've not even gotten to in my game yet...I'm frightened a little of it. ^^

The gradients look fine, except I don't see a gradient inside the fireplace & maybe that's what you're talking about.  The pastes of the photos don't bother me one bit.  I like it & before you said anything I would not have been able to tell.  Now, maybe a more mature artist than me(only been at it a couple weeks or so) could tell...but I couldn't.   So you're really doing good with this one!

If I had to pick something to point out, it'd be the difference in the two candle/glass/whatever holders on top of the fireplace.  One is darker but there's nothing else different on the fireplace that I can see.  What I mean is, I don't see any other shadows.   Ok that's about it for now.

[Quintaros]

Regarding your comment about there needing "more room", there actually is more room.  The room overview is below but doesn't show very well the wall with the fireplace (it would be to the extreme left of the overview shot. The wall that he is partially behind is the wall between the couch and the door in the overview.).  When the player walks to the left of the room, the game cuts to the new screen with the fireplace.  I'm not sure if its clear what I mean.  Basically there are two game rooms to depict a single room.  Would that be confusing in a game?

[Scummbuddy]

I do agree that the painting and the paper on the first shot, that without you telling me, I wouldn't of been able to tell.  Nice job on that.  Perhaps writing a little tutorial to others who don't seem to get that right, I would appreciate that, I know.

On the second shot, I would probably tone down the orange color on the skinrug, and the vase/glass on the table also stands out too much.  I would suggest a blue hue or something for the glass insides to get away from the glaring outline of it.  But really, everything else looks great.