Two backgrounds from my new project...

[Rincewind]

Well, I've been planning and planning to get a good story for my next game, and thanks to Snake and Leitors Edge, I know how to do it a bit better now...
Anyway, here are two backgrounds I've been working on recently, that I need some comments on. The first one is a shop, and the second is the police officers offfice.
I know that the shelves are empty, but they will be filled with things when I've figured out a bit more of the plot and the puzzles.




 
The office definately needs some help - But I can't really think of what do do to make it look less empty.

[Ginny]

These look great! Is that a broken mirror on the wall in the shop (the one covered with the curtain)?

The door on the office looks a bit of perspective, though I can't really tell since I don't know mush about perspective. It's just odd that the top is straight and the bottom diagonal.
You could put a picture on the wall in the office, or maybe a certificate of some sort..
I can't see anything wrong with it other than that.

You should at least have a large portion of the plot worked out, before starting to really draw things, unless you're sure these things will be in the game. Otherwise it can be a waste of time (though not really since it's always good to practise).

[Rincewind]

Hey, GinnyW, thanks for commenting!

Hehe, no, that's not a broken mirror, although it looks a bit like one, now that I think about it.... It's just a window. Heh.

You may be right - I'll try to make it straight and see how it looks.

A certificate or a dimploma is a good idea, I was thinking of something along those lines, but I didn't get it to look too good. I might try again, and see if I can improve upon my first attempts...

And so far I've only done the rooms I'm absolutely certain will be a part of the game. I'm not even close to finishing the story, but I've got the main ideas. I might be needing someone to help me eith some ideas and plotting, but so far it's no problems...  

[LL Notorious B.I.G. Will C-H]

Did you finish joey the rocker? I was looking forward to that

[Ginny]

Actually it just looks like a mirror cause there seems to be a wall or a wooden plaque behind it, instead of a hole that shows the outside.
The door could look better straight or it could look better diagonal, depends..

What's the basic story? What type of game is it?

[Renal Shutdown]

Hey

The first one looks kinda like a mining community in the wild west.  The door is a little of perpective wise, so I'd suggest lowering the right hand side just a tad.  It also looks a little, well..  clean.  It looks like it was built yesterday, and swept every hour since.  You could try putting some general dust/filth/mess/stuff around, to make it look like an established shop.  Also, the counter.. the bottom left part is off perspectively, and needs raising that side.

The second, it does look very sparse.  As it's an office in a cop-shop, I'd suggest files and file cabinets, photos of his/her current case, waste paper bin, maybe even a newspaper clippings of big cases solved he's solved.  Oh, and donuts..  nothing says "cop" like donuts.  (Mind you, nothing says Cliché like a cop/donut reference).  I'd also suggest checking the police station in the first Gabriel Knight game, for more ideas.  Oh, and a chair for the person he interviews and an IN/OUT tray on the desk.

Hugs
Iqu

[Czar]

I say what Iqu says too for the office, file cabinets, you can even open a drawer and put out some files(yellow ofcourse) ...
Anyway, if you havent noticed the chair behind the desk isn't on the right place, its like in the wall, so you need to move the desk a little lower... Put a water machine too, maybe some diplomas, b/w photos, and another chair in front of the table, remember its the little things that matter  .
And yeah you could try( but i dont know if you want to), to do a window(in the first pic) circle shaped, and the frame to be the same ?pattern? as the thing in the middle of the desk with the cash register..
Anyway, all sumed(?) those are nice backgrounds....

[MachineElf]

Although they look very good the perspective is quite off in both of the pictures. It's not a big thing, you don't really notice it at first really, but I think you should look into i. Try choosing a point somewhere in your picture where all lines in the direction into the screen (if you get what I mean) meets.

The office could be filled with just about anything, but you could also try to make the room smaller and add a black frame around the picture. Remember that you don't always have to make use of your whole screen for every background. If you look at some Sierra games, especially interior views, you'll see what I mean.

[SLaMgRInDeR]

Actually it just looks like a mirror cause there seems to be a wall or a wooden plaque behind it, instead of a hole that shows the outside.

thats the mountains...

anyway, they look great, the office: maybe you could put a cupboard or poster on the wall, maybe even a pic of the boss with darts in.
(   (   ( <( -_-)> )   )   )

[Ginny]

Oh now I get it! The sky looks like broken glass..
Now that I look at it, the mountains re great! I think adding depth to the window somehow would help. In the door it sometimes looks like broken glass aswell, though not always. Isn't there a door? If it's not too wide open maybe you could see part of it, though I'm not sure that'll look good.

Heck, maybe it's just me and my obssesion with broken windows, where there's a wondow, there's a break.

Maybe it'll help to add something to make the windows not look like they're just holes, like a little less natural view. Unless the window is open..

[Rincewind]

Hey, thanks all for the suggestions and comments! I really appreciate it!

Will: (A lot easier to type than your full screen name... Sorry...)
Joey The Rocker is undergoing Beta testing now, and I'm going to fix a lot of bugs and errors. But hopefully it  won't take too long.
I also realized after downloading your Punk Quest that our games have quite a lot in common - Just that your is about a punk, and mine about a heavy metal-type...  Hehe.

GinnyW:
Well, it's going to be a serious, mystery/thriller game, alá GK and Broken Sword(-Cliché-Warning-), about a young art student who moves into a seemingly rural and quiet mountain community... But of course, nothing is what is seems to be... As usual... As I mentioned, I will be doing all of the story before I even touch the AGS Editor, and not do as I did in JTR, and just make up the plot as I go along... Ahem...
 
Iqu:
Well, it's supposed to contemporary times, in a small american mountain town. But who knows - Maybe there was a gold rush there once upon a time?
And I'll try to correct the perspective issues too. Never seem to get them right, do I?  

Czar:
Aye, you may be right about the chair - I'll move the desk down a bit.
And thanks for all the suggestions! Now I've got some more inspiration...
(I actually have a version of the background with a water Machine, but I wasn't sure if it looked good or not, so I saved it as another picture...)
And I like the idea of a circle shaped window - I might do that.

Vargtass:
Hehe, thanks. I get what you mean - My perspective knowledge isn't what it should be...

Slamgrinder:
A picture of the boss with darts in would be a good idea, but this is actually supposed to be the boss' office... Hehe. Maybe I'll do that in some other room...

And just one final thing: The poster in the first picture - Does it look allright? I mean, it doesn't look akward compared to the rest of the background?

Thanks, all! Don't know what I'd do without you.

[Ginny]

The poster looks fine, but I can't see what it says from this distan... I mean, it's small. I'll see it on fullscreen though..

edit: Now I know what it says . The 5% off sign is off perspective umless it's not suppsed to be straight. It seems to be wider on one side than the other..
oh and there's an easter egg thingy (more like a thankyou easter egg eh.. lol put snakes in the game too ), it's nice..

[Rincewind]

The "5% Off"-sign may be a bit off, so to speak, yes. But I didn't get it too look good when I made it straight.

Yeah, you could call it a Thank You-easter egg...  Just three AGS games I'm really looking forward too...  
And of course there'll be snakes. Loads of the buggers.  

[Ginny]

Thankyou to Leitors Edge I meant. Brb.

[aurynnz]

Hi there,

First Image:

Perspective -
1) The little white note outside the door does not follow the perspective of the wall it is attached to - you will need to make a correlation here.
2) I'm struggling to find your points of perspective for the interior - as when drawing lines toward the centre from each object they all centralise at different points - and not necessarily at the same centre line (such as the shelves at the back). I would suggest setting a skeletal perspective frame.
3) The 5% sign - you can reduce its seemingly off-perspective appearance by simply reducing its width - as it currently suggest it is very wide rather than square. The main problem is not the sign shape itself but the wording on it - that gives it an incorrect appearance. The word "Off" would decrease in size from the letter O to the letter f. The number 5 is not correctly skew in perspective either. The best thing you can do is use a paint program such as corel or photoshop and test the alphanumeric skew.

Colouring -
1) The light source is not clearly defined. The floor is the lightest panel in the room and suggests it recieves the most light. The back wall is the lightest wall - and suggest the light source comes from the middle front top of the composition. This seems ok - but little things like the top of the central floor shelving need to be adjusted - lighter. The ceiling will also need to be brighter if the source is so close to it (it suggest there is an internal light bulb).
2) I would suggest establishing a light bulb somewhere (even if its theoretical and not solid) and shade accordingly - or - concentrate on the outside being the light source - in that case you will need to change the back wall/ floor and left wall to accomodate.


Second Image:

Perspective -
1) Again - you need to define a strong perspective point of set of points.
2) The table top angle from front to back needs to be less abrupt and increased.
3) The door is ok - if the top is the horizon line - but if it is the horizon line - the rest of the composition needs to follow this lead.
4) Simple solution to the cornered wall - draw in a line. It looks strange because you haven't completed the line from floor to ceiling. There is a line from floor to ceiling in the corner - but no line from floor to ceiling following the right edge of the door frame. When you create this line - you will notice the right edge of the door frame at the bottom follow the wrong perspective. You will need to adjust it so the bottom of the door and frame angel up to the left.

=A=

[Rincewind]

aurynnz:
Hey, that's some detailed critisism! Thanks for the tips, now I know what to change. I've done some chnages already, but I'll do even more now... Hehe.

[Rincewind]

Ok, I'm not finished by far yet, but I thought I'd post so that you can see how far I've got. I tried doing a circular window, but it didn't look right.
I've also made the floor a bit less clean, added some stuff on the brick-a-brack-shelf, plus I made an attempt to define shadows a bit more, but I don't know if I managed...  

[Snake]

Hey!

Heh, this game doesn't have anything to do with alternate realitys, does it? ...bastard  

They look alright to me, Rincy. The only thing that bothers me about the first one is that the shelves and counter-top are empty. Maybe the counter could use some papers and a map or somthing

The office is WAY to empty Maybe it could use some bulliton boards (sorry for spelling mistakes, I've got a buzz going on and I can't really tell what's wrong and what's right at the moment...lol), posters, maybe some plants on the floor.


--Snake

[Neole]

They look great. The second on could do with a lot of those amll details like the first one has.

[Rincewind]

Snake:
Heh, no - You can be sure there are no alternate realities in the game... But you never know, I might throw that in just for fun... Hehe.
The shelves are empty, because I will have objects there, which the player will be able to buy. I'll add some to the background, but most of it will be pretty empty before I put it in the editor, so to speak...
And I actually did a rack of postcards for the counter, but it looked like some robot martian with serious anorexia or something...

I'm working on the office, and I'm working on a filing cabinet right now, but I've got a hard time getting the perspective right... Phew...  
A bulletin board isn't a bad idea either - I think I'll include that.

Neole:
Thanks! I will add more to the second one.