Hello! I am working on my first adventure game. I don't have a lot of experience with pixel art, so I wanted to get some feedback early on. This is pretty much the setup of my first room of the game. The game itself is going to be set in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, and has a purposely muted palette.
The goal of the graphics is something that evokes the simplicity of the early Sierra games but with a somewhat enlarged palette and much richer scenes. A direct nod to Trilby's Notes is order too.
Anyway, let me know what you think on any aspect of it. I've been staring at the same scene for about two weeks (not constantly, obviously!) so I'd like a little outside feedback, a fresh viewing.
This particular room is the detective's squad room in the LAPD. That's one of player characters on the right (the game has you switching between player characters at different parts in the game).
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/screen1.gif)
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/screen1.200.gif)
Looks ok to me, maybe the perspective is a bit weird, but I can't tell why.
One more thing - I wouldn't know that it is an LAPD, if you wouldn't written it. It just does not look like LAPD office to me. But, you know, I do not even know how it looks in real life...
Quote from: Oliwerko on Fri 26/10/2007 14:31:13
Looks ok to me, maybe the perspective is a bit weird, but I can't tell why.
One more thing - I wouldn't know that it is an LAPD, if you wouldn't written it. It just does not look like LAPD office to me. But, you know, I do not even know how it looks in real life...
I don't think they have/had LAPD written on it in big letters, but in any case, it will be clear in the game itself. (There will be a typewriter overlay that say something like "LAPD, Detective Bullpen, 2:10 am" or whatever.)
Quote from: Oliwerko on Fri 26/10/2007 14:31:13
Looks ok to me, maybe the perspective is a bit weird, but I can't tell why.
Yeah, it doesn't really use a common vanishing point and all that. It's meant to be somewhat isometric though some things use somewhat different vanishing points than others (compare the desks to the table against the wall).
I'm not sure if that's a problem or not, though. Part of me feels like in a game like this keeping perfect perspective is not totally necessary, but another part of me isn't sure if it will turn the player off or not. The question as I see it is whether that will distract from gameplay or not..
Yeeeaaah, the desk, THE DESK.
It is the desk that is disturbing. I like the isometric perspective though. Maybe it will be hard sometimes, but it is definitely interesting. I would suggest correcting the desk against the wall to the isometric perspective.
That's not iso, it's a variation of cavalier perspective, sometimes called "military perspective".
The style works really good, but the desk stands out way too much.
The perspective will work fine as long as you stick to it.
Just a warning! Walk-behinds are a pain in the arse with this type of perspective. My first game started off in this perspective and the walk-behinds made me switch to a different view.
The desk is mostly an issue, to me, because you did use the 'correct' perspective on the table with the coffee machine. There's inconsistency due to it. Also, other than the desk, there's no real issue as far as I can see, but fixing the, well, I guess it's a table rather than a desk, really, but if you fix that, the image is a very, very well-done and stylish background.
Though obviously, going from this, it isn't very LAPD to me either.
What year is this game going to be happening in?
Quote from: voh on Fri 26/10/2007 17:55:34
What year is this game going to be happening in?
You mean "the mid-1950s" isn't accurate enough for you? ;)
The background looks very interesting, but as most of the preceding comments point out, please do something about the table. Consistency is more important than your choice of style and/or perspective.
Heh, I suck. Apologies for skimming over that :=
About the walk-behinds:
I couldn't resist testing it and came up with a working setup:
(http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/598/explcavwbfr4.png)
The markers to the left show the positions of the baselines, the yellow outline represents the walkable area.
This works fine as long as objects in the middle of the room are at least twice as wide as the character.
As soon as there's, say, a thin wall drawn like this /, it gets much more complicated (as in the baseline has to be repositioned constantly in relation to the character's position).
Thanks for the comments!
Here is the new version with the corrected back table:
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/screen2.gif)
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/screen2.200.gif)
I'm not too worried about the overlays in part because the motions of the player are very constrained in my game -- all of the walking directions are given via scripting (not through mouse clicks or arrow keys) so there are a limited number of pre-defined paths. It is a typing and thinking game, not a clicking and walking game. :)
The desk fits in much better now. I have a bit of a grievance with the left wall, though. The top of the wall doesn't bother my eye, but the bottom is actually slanted away from the common vanishing point. It sort of feels like the floor is mysteriously getting larger instead of smaller with distance. I understand that you deliberately used multiple vanishing points and types of perspective, but I don't see that this particular instance of it contributes to the picture.
Overall I like the level of detail and colors. I think my favorite bits are the brown writing surfaces, the beige desks, and the wall portrait's face. A couple of little stylistic issues caught my eye, however. Some objects are antialiased (like the flag) while others are completely hard edged. Also a couple of objects look like they have soft shadows around them, like the clock and the coffee pots, while most of the scene has no shadowing at all. Another microscopic suggestion is that the tables along the wall could benefit from a bit of framing just beneath the tabletops.
Looks good so far, keep up the good work!
I like all the little details! I'm wondering, though, why you don't use the entire screen. Why that black border around everything?
--Erwin
Sparky: there aren't different perspectives in the pic anymore and there's no vanishing point.
The left wall is a bit off though; the top isn't drawn at a 45° angle and most of the bottom was shifted down a pixel, probably unintentionally.
I've noticed this just yet: the blue part of the flag should take up about one quarter. It's as high as the top seven stripes (of 13) and half as wide as the flag.
Quote from: KhrisMUC on Sat 27/10/2007 15:24:37
Sparky: there aren't different perspectives in the pic anymore and there's no vanishing point.
The left wall is a bit off though; the top isn't drawn at a 45° angle and most of the bottom was shifted down a pixel, probably unintentionally.
Hmm, yeah, maybe I'll play with that.
Quote
I've noticed this just yet: the blue part of the flag should take up about one quarter. It's as high as the top seven stripes (of 13) and half as wide as the flag.
It's actually not quite as wide as half the flag (if you Google Image it you'll see it is a little over a third). In any case the flag is, other than the portrait of Ike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:General_of_the_Army_Dwight_D._Eisenhower_1947.jpg), the only thing I "traced" in this scene (I couldn't manage drawing either from scratch and having it look semi-realistic), so that's actually how it was in the original (compared with this (http://www.robbins.ecasd.k12.wi.us/class/kindergarten/images/Judy%20M175.jpg), which is what it was based on).
Quote from: Erwin_Br on Sat 27/10/2007 13:18:24
I like all the little details! I'm wondering, though, why you don't use the entire screen. Why that black border around everything?
It's meant to be something of a letterbox effect. I might try enlarging in on the horizontal axis, though. In any case, the GUI is a Sierra-AGI style text parser (bottom of screen at all times), so it needs to be up a little bit on that border so that the text parsing is always at a comfortable place for the eyes (e.g. not at the very bottom of the monitor).
Quote from: Oliwerko on Fri 26/10/2007 14:31:13
Looks ok to me, maybe the perspective is a bit weird, but I can't tell why.
One more thing - I wouldn't know that it is an LAPD, if you wouldn't written it. It just does not look like LAPD office to me. But, you know, I do not even know how it looks in real life...
Tell you the truth the room looks just like the staff room in my old school (the teachers would all be so busy walking around, grading papers, etc)
In fact, the guy in the scene looks like a teacher, I'd think this was a story about supernatural phenomenon happening at school or something.
Quote from: vertigoaddict on Sun 28/10/2007 14:51:36
Tell you the truth the room looks just like the staff room in my old school (the teachers would all be so busy walking around, grading papers, etc)
In fact, the guy in the scene looks like a teacher, I'd think this was a story about supernatural phenomenon happening at school or something.
Haha, well that's fine. He's supposed to look like that. In the game you actually play as two different characters -- one a relatively weak and unimpressive detective, the other a rather imposing and dangerous seeming mob heavy. And as you can probably guess, in the end the question of who is really tougher, meaner, more moral, becomes a little confusing -- it's a narrative about deceptive apperances, in a sense. So looking like a schoolteacher is really IDEAL in this case!
I'm trying to think of details that would make it more clear it was a room in the LAPD. I just doubt they'd be putting up signs that say, "Hey, this is the LAPD!" From what I can tell most squad rooms are pretty straightforward and uninteresting looking. Which again is fine narrative-wise.
Don't add anything obnoxious to indicate LAPD.
It looks like a police station to me (like I've seen in movies such as LA Confidential). Another reason it does is because you said it was. Also, in game, it's not like you're going to enter a police station and then enter this room and think, "whoa! Did I just transport to a school?"
In the context of the game, this would never enter into a players mind.
I agree with Darth. In-context it will be extremely obvious as to exactly what the building is.
About the only helpful suggestion I might have would be perhaps to try and differentiate the contents of each desktop a bit more. One thing that stood out to me was that the contents of each of these desks seemed very similar. There's not much variation from one desk to the next.
Understandably the desks should be kept tidy and in working order, just perhaps if there were a bit more...unique qualities between the desks...? Either way I really like this background. Great job. :)
Specifically, I'd adjust the telephones so they're not all identical or flipped copies of each other, but rather viewed from slightly different angles. You could also add family photos to some of the desks.
It looks quite good, especially with the modified table. Kind of reminds me of Space Quest 3, in a way. Plus, it's quite evocative fo the time it's supposed to represent. If I had to say anything, I'd say perhaps make it a little darker? When I tihnk of 1950s detectives' offices like that, they always seem to be smoky.
I really like the style, but as others have noted, perhaps it needs a few more details to identify it as an LAPD office. I think a notice board with crime scene photos, police sketches of suspects and perhaps some wanted posters would do a lot for the room. And, in case you widen the room a bit, there might be space for a window on the back wall to show a view of Los Angeles.
I keep thinking that should play a bit more with light sources (especially if you add a window), but it may not fit the Yahtzee-inspired style. The colors could also easily be more desaturated, but it all depends on which mood you're going for - I'm imagining a James Ellroy sort of story, so these suggestion may be way off.
Quote from: GarageGothic on Wed 31/10/2007 16:26:30
The colors could also easily be more desaturated, but it all depends on which mood you're going for - I'm imagining a James Ellroy sort of story, so these suggestion may be way off.
Haha -- are my interests so transparent? The whole thing is meant to be very Ellroy-esque in a very direct way (much of the plot is just copped from taking various elements from different Ellroy and changing them around a bit, mashing them together in unfamiliar ways).
I've been bowled over with ("real") work this last couple of weeks but next week I'll post the new version for comments. I'm expanding it horizontally quite a bit and playing with a few things, having quite a bit of fun with it, but it's only partially complete for the moment and I'm going to be out of town on official business for the rest of the week.
But these comments have been immensely helpful so far and have been good stimulus for my own thinking on the scene and graphical style of the game in general. So thank you all!
OK, I'm back in action!
Here's my current version of the scene. It is expanded, colors are a bit desaturated (put a semi-transparent layer of gray over the whole thing), some more things on the desks and the walls, etc. Thoughts are appreciated!
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/scene3.gif)
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/scene3.200.gif)
I don't really knwo if you can fit them in the picture reasonably, but policemen write reports and they usually use typewriters for that :)
But maybe these guys just have so beautiful handwriting that they write their reports by hand ;D
It's amazing how much a simple thing like desaturation can help a picture.
Looks very professional- honestly, I don't think anyone will be able to think of much to add or change. I'd recommend moving on to another background. You're doing fine on your own.
Good luck with the game!
OK, I think I'm about done with this.
A few last tweaks:
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/scene4.gif)
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/scene4.200.gif)
1. added some typewriters (I had been meaning to do this...)
2. extended it all the way across the frame on the left as well (that one pixel line wasn't really doing anything productive).
Note that in the actual game, the second hand of the clock will slowly rotate as time goes by. You know, for effect and all. Just for fun.
(http://atomlandonmars.com/misc/ticking.clock.640.gif)
Thats come along nicely frission.
One little nit-pick though. The blue part of the US flag looks a bit wrong. Partly because it's all one flat colour, and partly because theres no suggestion of the stars on it.
Can't wait to see this in action.
I love the new colors. And those typewriters really finish it off - great work!
Anyway, I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but the first thing I thought when seeing this picture was "Army". :-X
--Erwin
It's Fantastic!
(newspapers newspapers newspapers)
Erwin -- Army is fine, close enough!
Quote from: vertigoaddict on Wed 14/11/2007 10:18:20
(newspapers newspapers newspapers)
I _tried_ to make newspapers but I just couldn't come up with something that looked plausibly like a newspaper at that resolution. I guess I could try again. But I think I'm done with that one for now. It was just too hard to put in the kind of "text plus a graphic" appearance that newspapers have when I only had a 8X12 pixel area to use for it.
The ba\ckground is perfect as it is already. I know details are important. But don't put too many details.