I want to finish a game, but they always end up way too big and become way too much work. So I've decided to really keep it small and minimal this time, about 15-20 rooms max.
Anyway; I think crits for sprite animations are best done when seeing them in action, so I've uploaded a small test, ~720 kb big.
http://www.faind.com/bernie/interface1.zip
I'd apprecciate feedback on:
sprites: colors, animation...
background: too blurry, overall composition, clashing with sprites...
interface: is it useful enough, too bland or clunky...
I don't want to spend too much time on backgrounds, so I'm keeping the details to a minimum and try to get some 'atmosphere' across with colors. The BG in the interface test took about 20 minutes, and I want to do the rest of them like that.
Also, here's a screenshot if you don't want to download it:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/witchshot1.jpg)
There's another character in the game test, it kinda didn't make it into the screenie, heh:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/sprite1.jpg)
Thanks for any comments, suggestions and crits! :D
Well you certainly know how to draw. I really like the colors, they suit the scene fine. Your characters and animations are fine, just speed them up a little. They really walk painfully slow right now.
The GUI was nice, I enjoy a break from the old Sierra.
Hope to see more real soon!
I really enjoyed the background. Great use of color saturation.
I found the walking speed to be just about perfect (playing fullscreen, not in a window).
I think the bright green buttons, buckle, and collars on the player sprite really work well, lending originality to the character.
However, the redhead character looks a bit generic, and his outfit looks familiar for some odd reason.
Aldric's transparency was a good idea, but I don't think it's obvious enough that he's a spirit. He seems more like a lumpy green dog with wings. Maybe it's intended, but he blends into the background too much for my liking.
Other than those minor crits, I really like the direction you're heading.
the graphics are beautiful, the game plays flawlessly and really was easy to use gui.
I would say its near perfect
Oh man, what a great atmosphere you've got there! Nothing to critic really, walking speed was just finem interface worked well and graphics, animation and music are great.
Can't wait to play this game if you ever finish it.
i love the dragon thing that follows you it has stuch a great movement to it and the other animation are pretty darn good aswell,
really nice work keep it up,
-Daz
Thanks for the comments.
Geoffkhan: I think I already have a few ideas of what I could add to the redhead guy. Not sure why hid outfit looks familiar to you though, I didn't use any references for him.
Any ideas what I could do with the dragon? Changing colors would be easy (maybe blue?), but I'm not sure if it's enough of a change. Maybe I can do something with the animations?
By the way, I forgot to mention that the music is not original, it's from a game midi collection I downloaded.
Thanks for trying it out! :D
Absolutely stunning! It looks so professional!
This might be the best in-production game I've seen this year
The interface is great.
The graphics are great.
The animations are great.
Finish the game, please. :D
As already stated by others: very good looking!
One crit on the GUI. Afer choosing to use something, for example the glasses, and having tried to use it at something/someone, for example NoName, the action continues to be "use glasses on", which is good since you might want to use the thing on something else. However, when you want to do something else, for example talk, clicking on that button yields a "walk to" action. Would be great if the action was set to the action indicated by the button you click, instead of the standard "walk to".
Do you get it? Did I explain it confusing? If so, just ask...
Excellent work!
Beautiful graphics, congratulations.
I agree with Geoff it's not very obvious Aldric is transparant, you might want to make his coloring more bland/washed out..
I noticed the same thing Matzyboy explained: after using an object clicking on anything else besides walk to makes you switch to walk to anyway.. I don't think it does need a change though for a simple double click solves it.
The dragon: Maybe if the pulsing from opaque to transparent was more dramatic, or if he never got to completely opaque
knowwhatimean?
otherwise it's very beautiful and the walk cycles are really nice
The Good ...
- walkcycles are excellent (and flying cycles I guess).
- backgrounds are top-notch.
- the scaling is subtle and very nicely done.
The Bad ...
- Aldric's nose seems to get cut off?Ã, I couldn't tell really might just be me.
- at first I didn't realize Aldric was transparent at all
The Ugly ...
- nothing.Ã, It just seemed appropriate to put 'The Ugly' next.
All-in-all I would say excellent!
The Bad were very minor things, and The Good were actually VERY good!Ã, My guess is that because Aldric's base color is green, and the background is very green-ish that might explain why it was hard to see his transparency.Ã, In other BGs with more [other] colors, this'll be more obvious I'm thinking.
Great job.
Very nice! The Background looks great and has a cool atmosphere. The main character looks great, the other I have to agree looks great but a bit generic (he looks like a guy from a random japanese anime rpg game which probably is why you could call him 'generic'. He looks a little out of place compared to the rest of the game art. Still it's a great sprite 8)
The interface is ok but I have one minor thingy: maybe you could give the left side a little makeover as there is a lot of unused space left under the 'action buttons'. Aside from that I think your game looks awsome. I hope you finish it!
Good luck
Quote from: Bernhard on Wed 16/06/2004 11:11:34
Geoffkhan: I think I already have a few ideas of what I could add to the redhead guy. Not sure why hid outfit looks familiar to you though, I didn't use any references for him.
Any ideas what I could do with the dragon? Changing colors would be easy (maybe blue?), but I'm not sure if it's enough of a change. Maybe I can do something with the animations?
Rather than going blue with Aldric, I would try a more rust-color. You could still leave some green in it, but the redness would complement the green in the backgrounds. Think pale.
About the redhead character: his outfit just looked familiar because it struck me as generic. With the sleeveless shirt and headband, he could be the guy from Contra (or Metal Slug?), some RPG, or a fighting game.
To clarify further, when I look at your main character, maybe his design isn't totally original with the witch's hat and all, but you've added enough to make him yours. Now if someone else posts a character with long red hair and a green buckle on a hat, I will think of your sprite. The headband guy is forgettable.
Thanks for even more replies! :D
A lot of good points have been made:
MrColossal: Good idea, I'll make the transparency fading more noticable.
mätzboy and Ryz: Good point about the 'use' thing, I'll change it, it really shouldn't be that way.
buddha: I'm gonna add some details to that guys clothes, that'll hopefully fix the bland look. Also, I wanted some space down there because I'll need more buttons later on - one of them will call a spell book window.
Darth Mandarb: I'm not sure what you mean with 'nose cut off', maybe could you explain it some more?
big brother: Rust color sounds good... I'll try that. Hmm... the headband guy definately needs more work - I'll tinker with him some more! :)
EDIT - I think I have the right outfit for him now, what with him being with the city guards anyway:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/guy2.jpg)
I had a chance to check this out last night, and thought it was really great. Only thing I thought was off is the animation of the wings... not sure what it is... too slow maybe? Really good characters/animation, and I like the colours and layout of the interface. Excellent stuff. :)
I like the new outfit much better. It doesn't look like he escaped from a Rambo-style game anymore. :)
Thank you. I've already animated him in his new outfit, and gave the dragon a color overhaul:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/shoty1.jpg)
and i thought you couldn't improve it any more
great work, keep it coming
-Daz
The new dragon colour looks excellent, and I like the new outfit a lot more. I really like your style, your characters have always been some of my favorite. Keep up the great work.
I have to tell you that the things you draw are totaly awesome.
A while ago I showed your drawings that were on the critic lounge to a friend of mine. I said that I never seen sprites this good, not even in Capcom games, and my buddy agreed. These are the BEST sprites on the planet.
Enough idolizing. You want feedback that can help.
When the menu appears, the interface gui disapears making half the screen black. It's like looking at the nightwatch and the wooden frame disapears. :-\
You should make the menu gui as big as the background. You can then also add buttons for increasing/decreasing sound and walkspeed.
The menu button itself is out of place at this moment. You're going to add more buttons, but maybe you should place the menu button in the upper-left corner and make it pop up (like the auto hide menubar in windows).
let me show you what I mean.
function repeatly_execute(){Ã, //global script
Ã, if (mouse.x<=20 && mouse.y==0){
Ã, Ã, GUIOn(1);Ã, //gui with only a menu button in the upper left screen 20x10
Ã, }
Ã, if(mouse.x>20 && mouse.y>10){
Ã, Ã, GUIOff(1);
Ã, }
}
or you could display the menu screen when you press Esc.
Thanks for the comments! :D
jetxl: The normal gui will be even more empty if i remove the menu button, and i need something in the middle, so I don't really want to put it somewhere else.
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/interface1.jpg)
Also, I've made the interface only go 50% black when the menu is open, and it opens when pressing F5 already. Not sure if I'm gonna add volume/speed sliders, maybe later on.
I agree about removing the menu button from the main gui.
How about this layout:
(http://www.strazer.net/ags/edit_bernhardinterface.gif)
Hey, that's a good idea... I'll do that, thanks! :D
I wish I had a fraction of your artistic talent, Bernhard. Keep up this excellent work!
I don't believe in talent, only practising helps to get better at stuff (at least that's how it is for me). :)
Anyway, I've been trying to do some art stuff after having abandoned drawing for about a month. For this game, I want to use a non-manga/anime-like style. I usually draw manga stuff, but I want the artwork for this game to be a bit more natural and not too cute.
Here's my attempt:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/guy3.jpg)
Does this still look kinda like manga stuff? I'm having a hard time telling... I really should do less manga art, heh.
Beautiful work, Bernhard...
Sorta looks like manga... things like the pointed nose, hair, eyebrows, and mouth seem close to the style. The shading and overall character seem to be "a bit more natural", if that's what you're going for, so you don't really notice the manga aspects unless you're looking for them, IMO. Really nice work.
it looks like the really realistic style manga. Bloody beautiful. infact id say it looks more like marvel comics style, spiderman ect.
Thanks! In that case, I'll stick to that style, it's fun to draw like that and a good change to my usually pretty cutesy manga style, heheh. :D
I get a "Page not found" when i try to download itÃ, :-[
Oh, whoops. I removed it from the server yesterday. I'll put it back up right away! Try downloading again in 4 minutes.
Beautiful
Thanks!
I think I got even more away from an anime/manga style now:
(http://www.faind.com/bernie/guy4.jpg)
Or at least I hope so!Ã, :D
Brilliant, Bernhard , but is his hair on fire? ;D
I agree with you that it is even further from the anime/manga style than the last one. Stick with this stuff, and make us a game!
Now that I think about it though.....his chin seems a little off, like its leaning to the bottom right, but his neck more to the left. Ah, but I have funky eyes, so its really up to you. I may do a paintover after the Father's Day festivities to show you what I mean. Again, great peice of work!
havent stoped before but i wanna tell u that i also like ur gui and sprites. drawings aint bad aswell, first one is more like anime than other. neither is classic manga but style is anime definitely.
cheers
Hmmm...still thinking about the spirit's new color. Does anyone think the rust color makes him look demonic? You could always go with a cute pink or a baby blue...
P.S. Demonic is bad.
You think? Hmm... maybe I will change it, gonna check how it looks with some other backgrounds.
Quote from: Bernhard on Wed 16/06/2004 22:05:33
Darth Mandarb: I'm not sure what you mean with 'nose cut off', maybe could you explain it some more?
Somehow I missed this ...
I went back in to take a screenshot of what I was talking about but couldn't duplicate the problem.Ã, Took me a while to figure it out but I think what I was seeing was that the character was floating in precisely the right spot that an element from the background was blended perfectly into the face of the character and was creating the effect.
This time when I played it through I didn't notice anything wrong with the nose area. Sorry for the confusion.
I don't have any critics at all, except the background looked a teeny bit blurry.
And another thing, I thought the latest pic you posted looked familiar...
And THEN I thought: Pixellation forums... Right?
Good stuff, man.
Darth Mandarb: No problem! :)
Highwaygal: Thanks! Yeah, I posted some pixel stuff at the pixelation forums yesterday, along with that picture.
Well, blurryness is almost always an issue in photoshopped backgrounds, except when you actually pixel them. If I can find a good, fast way to pixel my BGs, I'll do that, otherwise they'll have to stay this way.