Alley background

[Mats Berglinn]

Another background done for Caribbean Mysteries. This time it's in an alley in the small town of Pueblo Pequeño (for those who don't understand Spanish it means "small village"). I know there's not much here but I'm not exactly sure what details I should add to this one. I'm not entirley sure of the shading and the shadows either. What do you think? Some suggestion of improvments? Paint overs, maybe? Don't hesitate to tell me!



In case you wonder, the stump is there for cutting wood (in the game there will be an axe as a object) and the trash can, without covering, is a place where you will find some importaint stuff (the covering will be added as an object). If you look closley on the trash you can see two injoke items from existing adventure games. Try to figure out where those come from. A clue: These have been iventory items.

[TheHidden]

IMHO :

-the whole bg is too bright
-the floor is out of perspective and there are no shadows on the trash cans and the stomp
-the stomp should get wider near the bottom
-maybe you could also replace the zick-zack-lines on the wanted poster with something that actually looks like written words. (Honestly I wonder why someone would place a wanted poster in a dead-end street)
-the street could use some dirt - after all it's a dead-end street with trash cans - it seems kind of sterile.
-the bg lacks of a caribbean mood. there could be palm leaf hanging down from the top right corner and/or an ad for a classic carribean drink/the local carribean bar next to the wanted poster.

On the whole I must say, the quality of the bg doesn't come up to the quality of the pirate guy on the wanted poster, who IMHO is very cool. You should really consider putting the same amount of love into your bg's as you put into your characters. I'm sure you rather read such comments as usefull suggestion than as crushing game review. While this may sound very hard, it isn't meant to be offensive in any way -  after all you requested C&C.

[Tom S. Fox]

I would add some old newspapers and boxes on the floor, and a rain pipe coming down the corner would be nice, i think.
And the windows seems to be too... clean and one of them could be broken.

[TheHidden]

Just to let you know where I was going :



I usually don't paint with vectors, so I had some trouble remain your style - I would have added more objects if it weren't for my lack of talent with the vector-tool.

[Setsuna]

I just wanted to say the roof is lacking some depth imo, here's a quick paint over just to give you some ideas.
I know this isn't located in US but i thought the poster could look more like this:



I hope it helps.

[Khris]

Here's my shot:



-lowered ground's saturation
-changed window, poster
-adjusted left trashcan

With your comical style, 320x200 would have been a much better choice, IMO.

[Synthetique]

I like it the way it is.
It's not to bright. Just add some texture, shading and more outdoorish stuff. Skip the leaf o' mystery in the corner.

[Mats Berglinn]

The latest edit:



What's changed:

- Added two more posters. One add for a soda you will get in the full game version (but you will see the soda-machine for it in both demo and full versions) and a Crocis Crocodile concert poster (as an injoke for Crocis Crocodile who will feature in future games). Edited the wanted poster from TheHidden's paintover (note: The main character will read the poster for you so that's why the text is "illegible".).
- Added a drainpipe (the outlet is out of frame so that's why it's not added. I'm not sure how the things that holds the pipes up, looks like so I left them out for the time being.
- Added some flowerboxes under the windows for decoration (and for a part of a puzzle in the full game version).
- Added some wood to be cut and some already cutted wood.
- Added some junk on the ground. Will add some more later.
- Used Khrismuc's trash-can. Don't worry, I'll change the others too.
- Added some shading including Setsuna's trash can shading.
- Gave some dimension on the windows to make them more "3D".

Khrismuc, I just want you to know that I handdraw my backgrounds and scan them. Adjusting to such small scale as 320 x 200 would ruin the quality of them and the same goes with the characters (who's also handdrawn and scanned, most of the time). So, please, I beg you to don't ask me to change resolution!Ã,  It's already tough as it is.

Any other comments and/or critic's?

[PsychicHeart]

cool. i think it needs to be more "street", but that is just my opinion.

[Mats Berglinn]

You mean like a concrete ground and manholes and stuff? Sorry but this is a small village, not a town, so there are no pavements and stuff like that.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention: Even if the game's timeline is around the 21:th Century the village was build around the late 17:th/ early 18:th Century and this village haven't changed so much over the years (from the outside). Just want to use that to get a more "pirate-y" feel about it. The inspiration for Pueblo Pequeño is the town of Puerto Pollo from The Curse of Monkey Island. There is electricity and indoor plumbing in this village, though.

[T_ed89]

Yes I agree and I also think that the wall would be more realistic with holes, and maybe the paint has gone of a bit so that you see the bricks?

[TheHidden]

The new bg is sooo much better.  (Heil to the Critics Lounge)
Unfortunately the flowerboxes are drawn wrong. (perspective).
There sides should go ~45° up (parallel to the left outline of the street), and not down. Maybe it would help you to draw a coordinate plane on the handdrawn templates while you are creating them - it's making things much more easier.
Nevertheless: This bg is the way to go for that kind of style.

[Mats Berglinn]

New version:



- Added some more trash.
- Corrected the perspective on the flowerboxes (Does it look right this time?).
- Added cracks and some breakdown in the paint so you can see the bricks.
- Added a detail I missed on Crocis' neck.

Anymore improvements anyone?

[Khris]

I don't want to be overly critical, cause you did a very good job on the details, but there are some serious perspective issues.



As you can see, the vanishing point is determined by the two lines to the left (blue).
I've drawn how the right flowerpot should look like (bigger to make it easier to see).

The bricks in the lower left corner are wrong, too. The vertical line should be vertical
And, bricks aren't put aligned above each other but with an offset, usually the offset equals half the width of one brick.

The top of the stump doesn't match the trashcans. You can see that the stump is actually two times as deep(?) as the cans. But that's only a minor flaw.

About the res: Of course I didn't ask you to change it, I only mentioned it would've been a better choice. IMO, the choice of resolution doesn't have anything to do with whether you draw-scan-paint or do it all on the comp. It's just that a lower resolution would fit the style better. Trust me on this.

[big brother]

The composition seems very static. There is almost no overlap between items, and it almost looks like two rows of aligned objects (the posters and the trashcans). Also, if you made the cans darker, they might seem more like a foreground and frame your picture more.

A good background provides the player with space to rest the eyes as well as clues to what she should be looking at. When I look at this background, nothing seems spotlighted. It's almost like every element is fighting for my attention equally.

[Mats Berglinn]

Khrismuc: Thanks for pointing out the wrong perspective. I think the difference between the stump and the trash cans is because the trashcans were drawn by the circle tool in Paint while the stump was handdrawn. It will be tough to change it but I'll try to. I understand about the perspective point of the bricks but I think you have "said wrong but thought right" because I see the problem on the left side of the screen, not right.

Big Bro: What do you mean with the items don't have any overlap? Can you please show me an example because I'm confused of what you said. I don't know how to change the background in the way you say about "the players' attention", so could you make a paintover, please? If you want to know the trashcan without a lid (which will have a lid in the game) is where you get a couple of inventory items and the stump have a vinsible inventory item and also one of the windows and the flowerbox under it have also significance for a puzzle. The rests just to make the scene less empty.

[big brother]

Ok, I can give you a few examples.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/indiana-jones-and-the-fate-of-atlantis/screenshots/gameShotId,2359/

Notice how the artists use lighting to make the door the main focus of the room. The light fades out by the left edge. The crates frame the picture with their overlapping shapes. They could have drawn them all in a row, but they look far more interesting the way they drew them in this picture, don't you think?

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/indiana-jones-and-the-fate-of-atlantis/screenshots/gameShotId,2357/

In this second shot, the two most important objects are the door and the fridge. Notice how your eye is almost naturally lead to these areas because of the difference in color saturation and value.

In your background, perhaps you could tone down the colors of the unimportant objects, like the flowers and plants. They tend to draw the player's eyes away from any more important locations.

EDIT:
I took 15 minutes and drew up an idea for a different composition.



Notice how the focus is on the open garbage can? Also, look at all the shapes that overlap one another. I hope this helps.

[=The=Brat=]

YOU DREW THAT IN 15 MINUTES! 

[Mats Berglinn]

Thanks Big Bro for the examples (man, that version of your background is awesome. Could almost be used in the Apprentice games but unfortunitly I wouldn't allow it because it would be ripping of my backgroundÃ,  ). I have changed the flower boxes by using khrismuc's example and darkened them slightly to make them not draw attention to theirselves. I understand what you meant with highlighting the trashcan but your drawings lightning is different from mine. The wall you see with the posters are facing east and the sun shines from the east while your version, the lightning seems to be coming from north. Also, your pic have no wall at the right side opposed to mine where the "players' POV" is right where the wall is (imagine it's like a movie set were you can remove a wall to place the camera). So in that case, it's quite tricky to make the lightning highlight the open trashcan more than the other two. This bit of info isn't complaining but tell you that you have misunderstood: That's not a rubber-ducky in the trashcan but a rubberchicken with a pulley in the middle (Yeah that's one of the two "injoke items I talked about earlier, the other is the broken TV-antenna from Two of a Kind). To ensure that it won't be mistaken again, I changed the color from light yellow to white and made the chicken slightly bigger.

Another edit:



Other changes I've done apart from the other's mentioned above:

- Corrected the perspective of the stump and the bricks.

Is it better now? Does it need any more improvements or is it perfect now?

EDIT: Please, Brat, don't use caps lock because we AGS members doesn't like shouting.

[CoffeeBob]

YOU DREW THAT IN 15 MINUTES!Ã, 

Please stop spamming the critics lounge, it only makes you look stupid.

Anyways, as for the pic, it looks good. But you should try spreading out the trash more. Can't come up with any other crits since I'm a bit tired atm.