Criticism on an ancient background

[Aljoho]

Hey guys. Life threw a bunch of crap and exams etc at me and I haven't AGS'ed in ages, and i just dredged up my old game. I eventually gave up on it because i lacked the persistence and artistic talent to finish it.

anyway, i looked at a few of the backgrounds for the first time in about 6 months, and with new eyes they don't look so bad. There are still a lot of flaws and i thought i'd just put it up to the community before I decide, and begin working on my game again



The hair is just my character (its an in game screen shot so i capture all the objects)

This is obviously a run down apartment. my protagonist is probably around 20ish, and the room is covered in mould and horrible nasty things. I'm pretty sure the perspective is slightly off, although thats partially an addition to the quirky, rotten look.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

The spiderwebs are horrible, im aware that i need to do a fix on them,
The bed sheets are really distorted, any ideas how i can make them look better - wrinkles are bloody hard to do!
The tree just outside the window.
I havent yet coloured the window visible through the door
I'm aware also that its an unlikely poster for a 20 year old to have, it was just intended as a test and it will probably change, as will the box full of teddy bears. I was just experimenting.
The arrows on my UI, although again, these will change.

WHAT I DO LIKE:

For some reason i like the computer monitor.
I like the mould spots and the dank blobs on the wall
The background for my UI


Just out of interest can you recognize the black outline in the foreground left, because im not sure if its identifiable to anyone but me

Spoiler

Its just a random pile of crap. i realize its probably not recognizable as anything else, but i wonder if anyone can actually understand this just from looking at it. I think it is because it lacks depth, i need to add a few shades of grey behind it

[close]

This is the adjacent kitchen.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

The Floor texture - it doesn't go at all with the walls, or the run down look (its just a gimp texture)
The peeling wallpaper - something isn't right there
Calendar, phone - Phone is too small, looks cut in half. Calendar not parallel to the wall
Dishes look strange, everything else is almost spotless, except for the sink.
Just realized, by analysing it for this post, quite how horrific the perspective is on this one. I think it'll have to be a redo.
I just realized how functionality nightmarish these are - Both having really disgusting areas, and some spotless areas.

WHAT I DO LIKE:

The metal texture on the sink
The bin, and the leakage. it looks just gross enough


I've pretty much convinced myself, through writing this post, that its a redo job, but i'll post it up anyway for further ideas, ones i have undoubtedly missed, or disagreements on what i think.

Any thought would be great. Thanks for the help

[Trihan]

They're not all that bad at all, really. There are some glaring flaws, but it's definitely a better attempt than I could do I'm sure.

One thing about them is that they're very...bare. There isn't a whole lot going on in them and it just doesn't look like a very interesting room for an adventure game. Also, in your second screenshot you've got some funky perspective going on with that doorway, it looks like the door goes through to an uphill golf green with a bed at the end of it. Seriously, from the angle the foreground room is at, a straight carpet wouldn't be angled like that and you wouldn't see that bed from there anyway.

You also seem to have been a great fan of ridiculous textures back in the day.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Yeah, I agree with your feelings of redoing the backgrounds.  You obviously have noticed your flaws from when you first drew them, so consider these practice.

I really really don't like the bookshelf being in the foreground.  It literally leaves the player wondering where they are until they see the characters hair poking up.  It's a very bad layout/viewpoint.  It wouldn't be so horrible if the shelf was half as high, but it's still not great being there.  If it were on the far wall the player would have something to interact with.  A box of toys, books, some trophies, etc.

Your art style on the backgrounds don't match the poster at all.  It looks like something drawn from a 5 year old with MS Paint, so yes, go with your feelings on scrapping the poster .

I know you like the GUI, but it's really way too distracting.  I personally think it's too high, but sometimes people use the GUI to help them draw less for each background.  Whichever suits you.
I'd prefer a black solid bar for the GUI.  Check out  Cure for the Common Cold, nice small black GUI.  It's simple, and looks very professional.

I usually try to avoid changing the perspective from one room to the other.  But sometimes you need to change things up depending on the background.  If I were to map out the design for the rooms, the character going from the kitchen to the bedroom would be on the same perspective.  For example: In the kitchen you walk left to the bedroom, and in the bedroom you start on the right.
This may not be a rule (to my knowledge), it's just something I prefer to do to avoid confusion.

You mentioned this already.. you completely went against the vanishing points in the kitchen scene with the bedroom in the background.  It looks like it's on a 45 degree slope. 

A good thing for you to do (which I need to start doing myself) is draw the top view sketch of each room.  Quickly map it all out, then decide where you'd like the viewpoint to be.

Anyway, I like your style it would be a fun little game.  Oh and I hope you have realized by now, your character has little midget arms. 

[Trent R]

I usually try to avoid changing the perspective from one room to the other.  But sometimes you need to change things up depending on the background.  If I were to map out the design for the rooms, the character going from the kitchen to the bedroom would be on the same perspective.  For example: In the kitchen you walk left to the bedroom, and in the bedroom you start on the right.
This may not be a rule (to my knowledge), it's just something I prefer to do to avoid confusion.

Actually, this is very similar to a filmmaking rule, called Crossing the Line. I'll try and find a tut or wiki on it, cause I doubt I'd be able to explain it very well.

~Trent

The Wikipedia entry for it is actually pretty explanatory. It's also called the 180 degree rule, because if you imagine a line through your scene you can move the camera anywhere of the 180 degrees of that line. If you cross it with a jump cut, then it disorients the audience.

This totally applies to gamemaking, because you are also looking through a camera and change scenes with jump cuts.

~Trent

[Aljoho]

Thanks for the suggestions

The perspective and composition tips really helped - i tend to not plan my bg at all (or at least i did six months ago) and just keep adding random crap to an empty cube until i was happy, and then work that into my puzzles later. Obviously now i realize that what pretty stupid, but heck i learned a lot from it so it wasnt wasted.

Ryan - thats meant to be a large wardrobe, although the fact that you could recognize means it needs a serious change anyway. Ill take into concideration the UI tips - i think your right actually, i started it as a school project, and whenever someone watched me over my shoulder that was the first thing they asked about, so i think i shall have to sacrifice it

Trihan - I definitely need to fill it up a bit,  bringing the rest of the room up to the nastiness of the worst bits, much like Common Cold, and perhaps making the room smaller overall to make it more claustrophobic

Trent - Thanks for the rule, i had no idea but it does make sense. when i plan the next rooms, ill take into account stuff like this and recompose the room, i think it'll make it a hell of a lot easier to compose as well, because i barely have to show the other room, and don't need to display my awful perspective-ing skills.

Also one more thing i just realized, because the rooms are at different angles, the character looks messed up (especially in the kitchen one where the character is pretty much side on and the camera is at a 20/30 degree tilt)

Thanks again,
Aljoho

[Dualnames]

It doesn't look that bad. But well, sorry to bring this up, the GUI sort of kills me eyes. I actually used to use a lot of flashy distracting GUIs for my games, but well, they really can't be a simple one.