Opinion and Critique on art-style

[g1orkatsos]

Hello Everyone! My name is George and i am new here. I have finally decided, since i love adventure games and i know a bit of programming and image editing to try and make my very first (possibly lame) adventure game. I have no idea on a plot or even a concept whatsoever, so i thought i should start making some random pixel art and maybe i could get inspired that way. And i came up with an art style that i am personally starting to really like, and i would appreciate input and opinion from others as well.

First after deciding on a basic character model i started making various different characters. i probably went a bit overboard.
I also gave my self a few restrictions for a more simplified style, like a character's body cant be taller than 16 pixels for example.
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/9Aqn0MV.png[/imgzoom]
This is a concept on different ages:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/If8B7dY.png[/imgzoom]
These are the frames for talking and moving around:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/yxZjgpm.png[/imgzoom]
Here are animal concepts:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/mYXouu0.png[/imgzoom]
Here are some different body type ideas (including batman, because why not?):
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/Z13iOI5.png[/imgzoom]
And finally here is one of my test rooms:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/N6KGwJi.png[/imgzoom]
Basically this is for a 320x200 low res pixel art game, and i am aiming for a sort of pixelated, overhead, dollhouse effect. Keep in mind that the coloring and and the non-existing shading are all temporary, and this is more like an design concept test if you will.
Any opinion would be greatly appreciated!

[Jack]

For a first game I think it's best to keep it as simple as possible, and this style is great for that.

[Blondbraid]

As far as pixelart goes it looks pretty neat, though hopefully the actual game might be a little more zoomed in
(I'ts a bit hard to make out the details on such small images). They kind of look like some minecraft characters went on
a holiday trip to an old school pokemon game, which is actually kind of cute when I think about it.

When it comes to ideas regarding plot and story, there is a thread full of other peoples thoughts and ideas
which might provide some inspiration here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=33176.0;all

[Mandle]

Looks really cute and fun! Just one thing though:

In the room shot I believe you have the light from the window upsidedown on the floor. You have just copy/pasted the window image and you need to flip it upsidedown to make it realistic. The bottom of the windowframe in the lighted area should be closest to the window itself.

[Darth Mandarb]

I have no idea on a plot or even a concept whatsoever, so i thought i should start making some random pixel art and maybe i could get inspired that way. And i came up with an art style that i am personally starting to really like...

This is exactly how I developed my first [and only] released AGS game and, oddly coincidentally, the styles are very similar!





I like what you've come up with so far and look forward to seeing how it progresses.

[g1orkatsos]

Thanks everyone for your kind words Greatly appreciated!

This is exactly how I developed my first [and only] released AGS game and, oddly coincidentally, the styles are very similar

love your art! mine is way crappier in comparison

In the room shot I believe you have the light from the window upsidedown on the floor.

thanks for noticing and  i fixed it

hopefully the actual game might be a little more zoomed in (I'ts a bit hard to make out the details on such small images)

well other than muting the colors a bit, and making the contrast higher i experimented a bit with the size (without messing with the art and the intentional lack of detail)
and i am basically between these 5 :
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/Z37G0JL.png[/imgzoom]
^ this is the original 320 x 200 game window
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/FlEEQ6F.png[/imgzoom]
^ a 320 x 200 game window but with double the pixel size for the images
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/dUpmpL2.png[/imgzoom]
^ double the pixel size on this one too but on a 640 x 400 game window instead
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/Mpb4fkN.png[/imgzoom]
^ 4 times the pixel size on a 640 x 400 game window
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/dzuBvSL.png[/imgzoom]
^ 3 times the pixel size on a 640 x 400 game window (i think my personal favorite, but i may be an idiot and wrong)

any thoughts on which of the 5 is the most "eye pleasing"?

[Cassiebsg]

since you are only zooming and not actually adding any detail, I think you should just leave it at the original 320 x 200, cause the player can always (using winsetup) add a x2, x3, etc filter to zoom it as it pleases him the most.

[g1orkatsos]

since you are only zooming and not actually adding any detail, I think you should just leave it at the original 320 x 200, cause the player can always (using winsetup) add a x2, x3, etc filter to zoom it as it pleases him the most.

i know players can do that indeed, but i just wanna make sure that details are not too small despite the zooming

[CatPunter]

Wow! Super cute. I love how it reminds me of the old nes rpg games.

One thing to be careful of is you don't use colours similar to the characters/important objects in that scene. The yellow of the walls is cute but the girl's hair gets lost in front of it very easily. You also see this with the boy top right with the green/yellow shirt that seems to blend into the wall as well. However, the man in the blue room pops out almost immediately without being garish. I'd advise to lean more towards that type of colour schemes if you want it to really pop.