Space Sytle Start Menu

[Preex]

Hi, this is my first attempt at making an AGS game! It's called Star Tramp and I would like critique on the start menu, any paintÃ,  overs etc. are welcome, thanks.

Here it is...

[Khris]

It's "frontier"

Loose those white blobs, instead, use single pixels with different levels of brightness.

Apart from that it looks really nice, I like the old school style.

[Preex]

Ok, paintover...



- Changed White Blobs
- Corrected Obvious Spelling Mistake (thanksÃ,  )

[Ubel]

I dunno, I somehow prefer the original one with the big white blobs. The new version looks pretty empty. I liked the first one. Gives it a bit of originality.

On the other hand, all them blobs being the same size makes it look a bit disturbing. If there were a lot of stars with different tones of brightness and also different sizes (not too big), it would look good.

[Preex]

How 'bout now? I added some more stars but the bigger ones were the smallest I could get the stars without them being "blobs".Ã, 

BTW. I am hopeless with music! Anyone who is willing to compose a "spacy theme" for me please do, I would be very gratefull.   

[Darth Mandarb]

Before I do a paint-over ... are you trying/wanting to use just the two colors?

[esper]

You know, you can do animated backgrounds with AGS. I haven't tried it yet, although I'm planning on having every background somehow animated in my next game, so I don't know if it sucks resources or what (although I'm sure that it does)... but I think, just purely IMHO, that it would be neat to do some kind of starfield simulator with this.

[Fizzii]

The stars are all spaced too evenly - really they should be in clusters and chaotically random, not placed an even distribution. You can also add in the occassional bigger/brighter star too. Google should have plenty of space pictures if you need reference.

[Peder 🚀]

You forgot to bring the dot over the "i" with you when you fixed the spelling mistake.

Also here is a small edit attempt:



- Moved the dot over the "i"
- Attempted to make the stars look a little bit better by using more different tones of brightness.
(I not sure myself if it looks any improved. Though then again I not an artist .)

[Preex]

Erm... I think I'll leave the start menu for a whileÃ,  . I'll have a go at the actual game bgs now... what d'you think of this (PS. resolution changed so I'll have to change the start menu anywayÃ,  )

[monkey0506]

The way that all the stars are pure white makes them stand out and look bad. Also the edges of your...planets(?)...seem rough though that may just be from the JPEG's lossy compression. I'd suggest using PNG format. It's nice.

Also, try implementing some shades of gray for those stars. It will help the illusion that they're further away (see previous paintovers for reference).

For further reference, this has a wide variety of examples...though...it does have a few more stars than you'll really need. But I figure it can help you sort out shape, spacing, coloration, etc.

Good luck with these screens!

[Preex]

Thanks...

How 'bout now?

[esper]

The addition of the blues and greens are good... try some very pale reds, too. Also, what program are you doing this in, just to give us an idea of what capabilities you have.

The planet loks like a giant ball of water. Even if it really is, you would probably still see the trenches and such under the surface (check a topographical map of the sea with google image search to see what I'm talking about). If the water is turbulent, you would instead see the waves. Also, with that much water on the planet there would be definite precipitation, in the form of clouds, depending on the atmosphere (is it, as Star Trek would say, an "M" class habitable planet?) If it is, for example, a desert planet with blue sands, there would be sand dunes. If it is supposed to be a giant, smooth ball of blue steel, you're good. 

Also, you don't see it on regular photographs of planets, but a lot of  science fiction shows and movies add atmosphere by making a faint light-blue glow around the planet. That would certainly liven things up a bit.

And lose the two really, really bright stars. They're just cluttering the screen up.

[monkey0506]

I'd definitely say that is an improvement!

But I must agree with esper about the two huge stars. My only other suggestions are:

• Try to desaturate the colorful stars. It's okay for them to have some coloration...but you have to be careful not to give them too much.
  
• Spread out your colors more. You seem to cluster similarly colored stars together. Just diversify your universe a bit.
  
• Spread out the cluster of small stars just to the left of the center. It always attracts my attention directly to that cluster. Some clustering is okay (as it's natural and all that), but that particular cluster just seems to take my eyes off everything else.
  
• Give the planets a little more texture. esper got this pretty good as well.
  
  If you put yourself into this it will come out nice. Just don't give up too soon or it'll turn out like crap! 8)
  
  One more thing...your stars seem to avoid the borders (of the screen as well as of the planets).
  
  Keep up the good work Preex!

[Sean]

Just a quick paintover, to give you some ideas...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/Magic265/SpacePaintover.png

EDIT

Well, I spent a little more time on this version.. and I'm not sure  of Graphics Gales power but.. here's an idea of where to take things!



- Remade the main planet, adding textures,shadows and an "atmosphere"
- Cloned the planet, re-coloured it.
- Created my own custom star-field, using mainly "noise"
- Made an interesting colour layer, that uses swirls and blurring to acheive that nice "spacey" feel

If you would like any steps broken down, please feel free to ask

[Preex]

WOW  :o
Is it possible to do that on GraphicsGale? 

[esper]

here's a little rework using all the ideas up till this point.



I'm not sure what graphics gale can do, but for stars, I highly suggest using Project Dogwaffle. It's free, and not too big to download. I made the stars in my image by just running the brush over the screen until it filled up nicely.

EDIT: I remade it, that's obviously not a paintover, so I'm not necessarily saying "Make the red planet bigger!" I was just showing you how you could make the stars and the nebulae and the solar winds if you were using dogwaffle.

EDIT AGAIN: I was a little hasty to post that last time... I forgot to shade the planets. Here's the reworked rework...

[Darth Mandarb]

Space BGs are some of my favorites to work on 'cause you can achieve such great results with a minimal amount of work

Here is a 10 minute paint-over:



rushed the purple nebula cloud thing ...

Spent most of the time on the planets.  Just some ideas you might like to look at (not sure of the capabilities of the program you're using.)

Anyway ... hope it helps.  Perhaps later I'll take a stab at the title screen.