Alright, I have these two backgrounds with characters for perspective. While they are relatively large, the actual display onscreen will be cropped to 640x480. To see in game screenshots, look at this (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=38554.0) post.
(http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww158/ddq5/house_4tmp.png)
(http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww158/ddq5/house_5tmp.png)
I'm mainly wondering about the things listed in the topic, such as the shadows, use of perspective, and general impact. The house the rooms are in is under construction, and the stairs in the first image lead to the second one. The visual feel I'm looking for in my game is a higher resolution, more legible, stylized interpretation of simpler games, at least when it comes to the colors and shading. On the characters, the colors are mostly continuous and the shading, mostly absent. In the backgrounds, beside the Photoshop lighting filter, there is hardly any shading or texturization. I'm kind of going for a clean, simplified look.
Also note that in the second image, I'm planning to the soft shadow as an overlay or object or something, to preserve the fading. I tried it without the gaussian blur, but it didn't have the same impact. Finally, notice the vertical locations of both rooms. I'm positioning the base in the first image higher up and extending it to the top to show that it is a tall, lower floor, room. I do the opposite in the second image, with a low ceiling and floor, though I do not actually draw the ceiling, as it gets in the way.
Please tear these pictures apart. You hurt me because you love me.
Small input. Would the lights on the first pic, really be casting a shadow like that? If at all?
I was wondering that myself, that's one reason they're in that picture and not the other. If you can't tell, the only lights that are on are the front and right ones; the other two are out. It looks like it MIGHT be possible, but it's hardly probable.