Adventure Game Studio

Creative Production => Critics' Lounge => Topic started by: Revan on Tue 31/01/2006 15:13:28

Title: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Tue 31/01/2006 15:13:28
hello.... I've just finished one of the BG's for my game, and was wondering what you think of the style... (took me about 3 hours)...

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Castle12.png)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: MrBen on Tue 31/01/2006 15:28:52
I like it but im not much for makin graphics so it dont take much to impress me
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Tuomas on Tue 31/01/2006 17:56:18
Very nice, clean and simple.

Yet something bothers me. Is there supposed to be a corner of somekind on the right? I assume there starts a hallway or such.
   THe perspective too is just a bit crooked, but I'm sure someone'll let you know better soon enough.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Tue 31/01/2006 19:44:46
Yeah, it leads into a hallway then into a kitchin, I see what you mean about the perspective....
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: on Tue 31/01/2006 19:59:08
I love it!

About that wall corner on the right. You can maybe put line that defines where the doorway starts (a vertical line), and the wood should also turn across the doorway.

I like the clean style, it definitely works and fits with your main character. Love the wood texturing :)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: i k a r i on Tue 31/01/2006 20:02:13
It looks good  ;D
I would just say that the right archway shouldn't be visible till its end, because we don't see the whole rug...
Hope I make myself clear..
Other than that (and the extremely coloured flag), it looks very good!
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: JimmyShelter on Tue 31/01/2006 20:28:45
It looks nice, but compared too your knight figure it doesn't look comical enough.

It's a bit too straight, maybe losening it a bit would help. I'd start with making the archways round.

The stones that are visible in the archway aren't completely right:
(http://jimmy.safekimono.nl/images/Castle12.png)

Look at the red circles (mind, it's a very quick fix).
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Khris on Tue 31/01/2006 22:03:36
You might want to mirror the doorway:

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/redraw_rev3.png)x0.5

(Keep in mind that hires BGs usually are 640x400; I know it's supposed to be a scrolling room, but I thought I'd mention it because the BG is 1200 px wide.)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: DonB on Wed 01/02/2006 11:17:54
It doesn't look bad, but tbh.. it's missing atmosphere..

i don't know if the castle is supposed to be spooky or safe.. but it's missing both atmospheres..

if its a spooky castle.. make it much more dark and make the flags cut apart and all.. and some armor hangin beside the flag..

if its a safe castle.. then make three of those flags (make them a little smaller) and put them beside eachother.. will work out much better I'm sure.. + make the place more alive.. in some way.. more details are needed i guess.. try it out

In both ways i explained above i would suggest make it a bit darker.. the color's are way too bright..
it was Darkwood right?

Tho.. a positive point ;D: I really like what you did with the stairs.. nice piece of artwork!
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: skyfire2 on Thu 02/02/2006 04:49:28
i agree with donb, it wouldn't hurt to decorate your background with "scary stuff" like a full suit of armor with a axe, you know, castle decorations.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: sergiocornaga on Thu 02/02/2006 09:46:11
The carpet looks superb. What needs work is the wooden areas (more detail) and the bricks on the walls in the corridors.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: DonB on Thu 02/02/2006 10:51:28
Even the carpet could be a little bit darker..
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Reminder on Thu 02/02/2006 11:28:27
Good background. The style remembers me classics EGA adventures.
You can add lights, like candles or the sun projection  trought the windows.( I can't imagine a castle without candles  ;) ) Fine.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: A�rendyll (formerly Yurina) on Thu 02/02/2006 12:43:42
I'd say, add some details and more shadows. This looks a bit too flat. Try to get a main point wherefrom the light comes, and work it out just a little more.

The ceiling also looks a little weird.

But besides that it looks pretty good, don't worry! ;)

~Yurina
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Thu 02/02/2006 15:24:38
Hello again, Thanks for all your crit...... changed quite a few things.....

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Castle13.png)

the light effect of the sun from the window will be placed in all windows (What do you think?)

Also I'll be using music to set mood aswel
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: MrBen on Thu 02/02/2006 16:01:34
Its good, but the flags, dont make them any wider, but try making them longer, a couple of inches above the skirting. That should make them look a bit more like tapestry.....and try losing the green, make the flag red, and the whole flower yellow....or at least i think.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Thu 02/02/2006 16:43:15
what do you think now?

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Castle_longer1.png)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: DonB on Thu 02/02/2006 17:22:05
Quotebut the flags, dont make them any wider, but try making them longer, a couple of inches above the skirting
Exactly what i had in mind..

Revan; very very good edits.. the flags are good now! i love it!
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Corey on Thu 02/02/2006 17:36:50
maybe be lit those candles and add some admophere?  :)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Reminder on Thu 02/02/2006 17:52:05
Yeah. You're in the way!  :D

I think you could try to draw the projection of the windows over the carpet and light on the candles.
Ah, if the candles melted and with drops of wax... This woud be superb!

Mhh. Aslo you could try to make the candles longer, with a impressive appearance.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Tuomas on Thu 02/02/2006 18:20:30
Seriously, am I the only one that is bothered by the right side of this that should absolutely have a corner? I mean come on, don't mean to be rude, but I said it once, and has no-one else even noticed it? Revan drew a corner on the wooden panel above, but doesn't the wall need a corner too? It's really distracting.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Thu 02/02/2006 18:22:19
Hi what do you think now.....
Plus which it better?

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/longCastle_longer2.png)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/longCastle_longer4.png)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Corey on Thu 02/02/2006 18:50:57
the first one... the light fall looks the most realistic
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Thu 02/02/2006 18:55:15
ok... used that one..... andmade a corner (What do you think then)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/longCastle_longer2cor.png)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Tuomas on Thu 02/02/2006 19:00:32
I'm glad you took my advice, and I think it looks very good. I noticed you cornered the left side too, and it looks very nice. I like tha bg as it is now :D
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: DonB on Thu 02/02/2006 19:05:45
Quotemaybe be lit those candles and add some admophere?
I hope Revan is gonna do that with an animating object or something.. of course melting and all..

And now i look better.. indeed fix the light thing also by the other two windows.. very nice..

Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Thu 02/02/2006 19:08:18
do the candels realy need to be lit as it is day......... I was gonna wait till night time in the castle to light them.......

ALSO made a lighter area in other room at top from unseen window.. keep it or lose it?

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/longCastle_longer2corlight.png)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Corey on Thu 02/02/2006 19:20:36
well there needs to be some light source, or make it a bit darker
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: on Thu 02/02/2006 19:23:14
hey toumas, that was my advice, look on the first page  ;)

I did a paint over, but then I accidently saved it into grey colour, how did that happen?  ;D

I love the new background Revan, I'll do what wanted with the new, but it's not majour.

Great work.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Tuomas on Thu 02/02/2006 19:25:44
I'd say you have a light source... some people call it sun. At least here it tends to illuminate at least a bit. I suggest that you reduce the contrast on those beams that come from the windows a lot and it'll look like the whole corridor is illuminated.

Buloght, check my post on the first page, we did the same suggestion there, and not that it matters but I WAS FIRST!!! :=
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: on Thu 02/02/2006 19:40:22
toumas, it seems you were :) my bad. All i can say is: great minds think alike.  8)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Thu 02/02/2006 19:45:54
oops   :o

double post sorry   :(
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Thu 02/02/2006 19:46:50
ok I edited it to make it darker... look better? (Look at the style of my character as well)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/longCastle_longer2cordark.png)

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Revan.png)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: The Ivy on Thu 02/02/2006 20:12:20
I think this BG could benefit from some more muted colouring.Ã,  Here's what I mean:

(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/The_Ivy/revover.png)

I cut the black edges and replaced them with darker tones of the surrounding colours.Ã,  I also cut the saturation of the rug a lot.Ã,  If you leave the colours looking like they came right from the MS Paint palette, they're going to end up hurting your eyes.

I also changed the doorways to give you an idea how arches might look.Ã,  The kind of angular doorways you have now don't make much sense architecturally.Ã,  If you google a few pictures of castles and cathedrals, you'll see that arches are fairly trademark of medieval buildings.Ã,  I just drew some in roughly, but you can imagine how the shading on the stones might work (you've got a good handle on that :)).

I saw your latest edit and I think darker could be good...just think about the mood you're going for and hopefully you'll get some ideas.Ã,  Good luck!

Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Thu 02/02/2006 20:29:09
love your door........ yeah Im going for a cartoony feel (But might change the colours like you say)

did a quick edit with the candles lit what do you think?
Also gradiented the sky...
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/lightcastle.png)

Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: LilBlueSmurf on Thu 02/02/2006 20:46:53
Couple things that stick out to me.
1.  The door.  Try looking at one of the above posts for an idea, they did a pretty good job.
2.  Candles.  There are a few problems with them.  First, they are gigantic.  Second, they have no kind of wax catcher.  And last, it is very unlikely a candle would be used instead of a torch or some kind of oil lamp.
3. The ladder/balcony in the back.  These look tiny.  You either need to work with the and walls more to make it look farter back, or increase the size.
4. Right Archway.  You need to make this thicker.  Adding the shading helped a lot to make it look angled, but it looks like a very thin wall seperator instead of either a narrowed hall, or a wall made of stone.
5.  The stone in the hallway going back are very wrong.  If I can I'll do a paintover.  Otherwise, try drawing lines that would represent the current brick lines and you should see what I mean.  It might help to draw some guide lines of how the bricks should be first, then put in the graphics indicating them.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Khris on Thu 02/02/2006 21:25:31
Only two things:

-As mentioned before, the right archway looks like made out of cardboard
-Two suns? In the back, the sunlight is coming from the right, but the sun is above the middle of the background, isn't it?

Just a minor issue, but: usually, sunlight shining through windows wouldn't cause those bright beams, unless the air is dusty as hell. It would lighten only solid things.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: i k a r i on Fri 03/02/2006 06:11:32
Am I the only one who thinks the archway cuts the rug in two?..

It feels like if that archway shouldn't end there.. We should see the whole rug passing trough the archway.

(I've learned a new english word "archway", so I'll use it many times)..


EDIT: I'm talking about the right ARCHWAY
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Tuomas on Fri 03/02/2006 12:13:42
yes you are, and I must admit I have no idea what you are talking about. :P
I think the carpet's just fine they way it is, but the light beams look as if the room was full of dust in the air. khrismuc said it's a minor issue, but I might disagree. This way you'd have to make the knights armor reflect the light everytime it hits it. I say spread the light so that it'll look natural
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: aussie on Fri 03/02/2006 12:14:03
The pic was good at the beginning, but has improved a lot.

Some small things, freel free to ignore them:
- The right archway is paper thin. Since castles are made of big stones, it should be quite a bit thicker.
- You should probbly shade a tiny bit under the wooden beams in order to add depth.
- The candles are massive! They're bigger than the windows.
- Your doors/archways tend to end up right at the intersection between walls. Wall openings are usually a bit further away from corners, particularly in old buildings.
- The colors are a little too bright. I prefer the orange rimmed carpet to the bright yellow one. In fact, the 'muted' edit is the best IMO, but I guess it doesn't quite fit with your character's black outlines.

All in all the bg is great, but I think you can improve it further with very little work.

Good luck!
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: MrBen on Fri 03/02/2006 13:12:16
I agree i dont have a clue what the problem with the carpet is, and i also agree that the sun should light a room up just fine without the use of candles. I mean, we've all visited castles during the day on holliday or with school right? How many lit candles were there?
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Kweepa on Sat 04/02/2006 00:14:03
Here's the carpet problem:

(http://www.steporg.com/step/ags/critics/archway.png)

The carpet can't go through the archway evenly (there's no space on the "right hand side").
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: sergiocornaga on Sat 04/02/2006 02:34:10
The main problem I see that has still not been adressed is the perspective of the bricks in the archway.
It doesn't quite match up with the angle that the wall is at...

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/sergiocornaga/perspectif.gif)

Hmm, I just realised that the bricks you have work with the top of the wall, but mine work with the bottom... you might need to paste this segment into the full pic to see what I mean.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: i k a r i on Sat 04/02/2006 05:00:33
Oh thanks Steve, thanks..
I'm not alone..!!

PD: archway.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Mon 06/02/2006 15:32:27
Hello again all.... edited my pic AGAIN.....

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Fullcolcast.png)


and this one too

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Cas.png)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: MrBen on Mon 06/02/2006 15:53:18
Looks good, the archways gone completely? Are ou gunna spend this long on every room?
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Mon 06/02/2006 16:43:38
Right added black lines

also lowered the colour depth

which one do you think I should use?

x24
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Cas24blacklines.png)

x16
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Cas16blacklines2.png)

x8
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Cas8blacklines2.png)
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: MrBen on Mon 06/02/2006 19:08:09
The first
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Tuomas on Mon 06/02/2006 19:12:15
Absolutely the 1st, and don't let me hear anything else people >:(
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Revan on Mon 06/02/2006 19:16:01
how much does it affect the game/ memory when you make a 32 bit game?
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Nikolas on Mon 06/02/2006 19:18:19
The honest answer is that you could have a perfect BG with 8-bit, but not by drawing it at 32 and then downgrading it to 8. This is not the best way to do it... I'm sure that you can do better than that.

As for your question, you have to wait for someone else to come, I don't know. But I guess a lot...

And for the BGs, as they are, the 1st.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: A�rendyll (formerly Yurina) on Tue 07/02/2006 07:53:11
Can somebody tell me what's the difference between those 3 versions? I don't see a difference...
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Nikolas on Tue 07/02/2006 08:00:02
the colour limitations. 8,16 and 24 bit. 8 bit is 256 colours. So limited and since he downgraded it shows on the grey walls...
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: A�rendyll (formerly Yurina) on Thu 09/02/2006 13:10:11
I see...

Well, I like the uppermost version best! (24 bit, right?)

I love how it turned out, will there be a night version too?
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Khris on Thu 09/02/2006 13:24:47
You don't see a difference, but you like to one best that's the biggest RAM eater? ;)
Seriously, there's no need to use 32bit, unless you'll really need it (e.g. to display pngs with alpha channels).
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: DonB on Thu 09/02/2006 15:16:08
So.. to keep it offtopic, how do I know if i use 32 bit or whatever pictures, I always save pictures in photoshop highest quality gifs..

Ontopic; 1st one.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Khris on Thu 09/02/2006 15:24:08
GIFs are always 8bit (=256 cols).

EDIT: Oh, I see.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Gilbert on Fri 10/02/2006 00:52:43
No, GIFs can be 1, 4 and 8 bit, there may be more options, it just couldn't support anything above 8-bit.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Intoxicatedowl8 on Sat 11/02/2006 00:21:04
too bright, annoying, use textures
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Intoxicatedowl8 on Sat 11/02/2006 00:22:04
I see the later pics, much better.
Title: Re: Inside castle, What do you think of the style?
Post by: Afflict on Sat 11/02/2006 22:37:13
Beams of light were better IMO
Your character style and background style dont seem to be the same.
Looking down the passage way your isometric gets all messed up.

The latest pics the light source looks wrong, the room lokos tilted.
Aswell as the doorway on the left hand side looks wierd following the
corner line up it doesnt match up theres another line and that just looks
wierd...

Hope that helps. The picture has progressed alot since the first one!
Keep it up.