Very first room - feedback on graphics, anyone?

Jondahr · Mon 15/04/2013 12:24:29

Hi!

Making my very first game with AGS and am in need of some feedback on my graphics. If anyone has the time to drop me a few lines, that would be great!

This is the first room in my game, complete with characters:

(Please ignore the fact that all the characters look identical right now.)

How is it looking? Any ideas on what I could do to improve it? I will be basing the rest of my rooms on the style of this one, so it is kind of important that I get it right.

Anian · Mon 15/04/2013 14:28:45

First of all, you need to stick to standard resolutions, is this without the GUI? Because it says the image is 800 Ã â€" 498px in size.

Second major thing is perspective. Take for example the path that goes through the gates. If you really could see the path outside the walls like that (kind of above it, then think how you'd see the stairs that lead upstairs, you'd see them from above, not from the side. Horizon is definitely too high and it looks like a two point perspective, but it's not really that.

The stairs actually look nice, except they'd make a shadow below them. Where the stairs end upstairs, the drawing just gets weird and I don't really understand what I'm looking at. You also might be overworking Photoshop brushes a bit too much, you might think it's not noticeable, but it is. You need to keep the consistency of style and texture - for example the path has a "realistic" detailed texture, while the door on the stairs is blurry and it's closer to the viewer so it'd be sharper.

Snarky · Mon 15/04/2013 15:42:47

Technically there's all kinds of things wrong with it (as Anian points out), but I kind of dig the composition and overall impression. Yeah, work on the perspective, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

But for god's sake get rid of the Photoshop patterns! You may think it helps, but it really doesn't. (The one exception is the leaves on the tree, which are OK.) It just makes things look flat and inconsistent. The different angles of pattern on the tree branches look ridiculous. If you're going to make a game with lots of backgrounds, you'll get a lot of practice, and if you keep trying to do it yourself you'll get much better at it. But not if you try to rely on Photoshop brushes and patterns as a crutch.

Do you have a drawing tablet? Drawing backgrounds like this with the mouse is difficult, because lines tend to get shaky, and because you can't vary the brush size smoothly.

But I think it's looking really promising, and when you learn some things like perspective and get some more experience, I think it'll be very good.

Andail · Mon 15/04/2013 20:16:17

It's messy and uneasy to look at. Lots of colours, shapes and textures everywhere.
You need to start over from scratch. Sketch out the basic lines. Use perspective guidelines. Use grayscale or only a subtle hue. You need to take control of your graphics - this background doesn't feel controlled.

It probably sounds harsh, but you need more basic training.

Jondahr · Mon 15/04/2013 21:03:32

Thank you all so much!

Yes, it's without a 100p tall GUI at the bottom, so that's the reason for the odd proportions.

And yes, there is definitely something odd about the perspective. Thanks for some good pointers, I will try to work it out (and remember to draw proper guidelines from now on). Also an excellent point about the blurry door in front.

Did not realise that I was overusing brushes so much. I will definitely try to simplify in the future. Thanks a lot!

Sadly, I do not have a drawing tablet, so I'll have to do with the mouse.

Jondahr · Mon 15/04/2013 22:30:27

Trying to see if I can improve on it (I know Andail said to start over, but I thought I'd try for a bit longer with this one first, if only for the practice).

Gotten this far:

Trying to fix the perspective problem inside the archway, tidying up a bit, and also tuning down some of the colours that seemed to cry out a bit.

Is this moving in the right direction?

Miez · Mon 15/04/2013 23:21:14

Yes, I think the changes you've already made to the perspective and toning down the colors makes the image a lot easier to look at. Perhaps it might be an idea to darken the tree in the foreground somewhat as it now seems to "blend into" the background.

Pizzapie · Mon 15/04/2013 23:29:14

I kinda like your second attempt

maybe you can try to add more shadows and contrast, to make it look less "plain".

Jondahr · Tue 16/04/2013 00:15:55

Thank you so much for your advice!

Added some light and shadows and tried to create some depth:

Pizzapie · Tue 16/04/2013 20:53:29

Quite better! It's a night scene, right?

Anian · Tue 16/04/2013 21:43:39

Looks much better.
Two things though - the bottom of the stairs looks a bit high to step on, maybe add 2 stairs that lead from the ground to that wooden box part and in the middle of the tree it looks like a thick branch stops and then a thin leafy branch grows out of it, you might want to move that around a bit.

Jondahr · Tue 16/04/2013 23:34:26

Heheh, whoops, no, it's not supposed to be a night scene, so i might have to boost the light and/or colours back up a bit then.

Well spotted with the branch, don't know why I didn't see that. I have thought about adding some steps, but just got lazy about it, I suppose. Will do it right away!