A background...

[markbilly]

It's a derelict room in a space craft, with a machine in it...

Just any tips on anything really. Also this is the general style of my game, so any comments on style would be great too. Thanks...



There are a few objects around too. A spray can on the floor, a door, and a panel on the machine. All part of this first puzzle. So it looks a bit bare without the debris.

[accolyte]

Well, I,d say this look,s pretty good. Simplistic but nice style and sufficiently detailed and shaded. My biggest complain would be the cracks in the floor which looks more like sticks to me. (The cracks under the machine almost looks like feets, no offence. ) 
Make them smaller and less linear I,d say and use a little brighter color than pitch-black for them. 
Also, you could perhaps add some buttons or something to the machine in the corner. (Just a thought.)

[Mr Flibble]

I like it.

I also did a very lazy edit to show how you could use the monitors as light sources. I'd suggest you pixel more of this than I did. Otherwise, this is a great background, well done.

[Medical Waste]

The machine looks very flat, assuming it's supposed to be cylindrical.

[Stupot]

Nice BG MarkBilly, but very very Dark, I had to put a blanket over my head and the monitor to see it properly, Mind you it is mid morning and the curtains are open, I'll have another look tonight with the lights off.

But other than that, the only thing I'd have a look at is the top of the door on the right hand side.Ã,  I feel it should be a bit more level, at the moment it's kind of skewed and makes the door look funny.

[Edit]
I've done a rough version of what I think it should look like.

The green dot is where the vanishing point is according to the top and bottom edges of the right hand wall, so to make the top of the door frame seem level with them I drew another red line and from there you can work out where the top of the door should go.

[InCreator]

Quite nice BG. I edited Mr. Flibble's Edit, since it's quite good and needed some advancing IMO.



* Took much braver attempt at shading Elevator/door thingy. Kind of messed up with lightest rightmost shade, but you get the idea.
Why are newer 3D games so dark? Because all kinds new shading effects are better visible in dark. The metal in a dark room should be much more shiny. That was my idea behind new shade
* Replaced/Added er- "weird/palette conservative glow" with airbrushed glow. It looks much better, though it's a bit of pain to use. And makes image filesize tad bit bigger.
* Increased overall saturation and contrast of image.
* More of an experiment, but I thought reflective floor could make this place more scifi-like. So, I copied contents of the room to the floor, y-flipped and at very low opacity. This wasn't the brightest idea, since I usually draw more realistic "reflectmap" in those cases (it looks a bit wrong right now), but again, made it quick and idea is visible anyway.

Suggestion: Get rid of black outlines. I used them for a long time, but as soon as I started experimenting with not making any, my images got much better.

[markbilly]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I like the idea of using the screens as light sources, though I can't really use your edits, as they don't fit the syle of the game. Maybe this will help the fact that it is very dark (well, it's really light on my monitor and a few others, but dark on the rest, which is irritating).

The reflective floor is also a good idea, however I'm not sure I'm able to do this with my paint package, I am using Paint Shop Pro (not that good really) at the moment. Any ideas?

On the subject of black outlines, I have done 7 backgrounds in this style now, and it looks nice and consistant. One: I don't have the time to go back and change every background and every sprite, and Two: I think the style works well. But thanks for the suggestion anyway, I have looked into it before.


P.S. Shading on the machine probably won't need to be added, as it's a short animation at the very beginning of the game, and stays like that for about 2 seconds.

[Medical Waste]

I don't know what PSP version you have, but what InCreator did with the reflective floor can easily be done in at least 6 (which I what I have so I know).

Copy the part of the room you want relfected, make a new layer, and paste it in, then flip it and move it down to the floor. Then in the layer properties lower the opacity.

You would probably want to deform the layer so that it matched the floor perspective better as well.

[markbilly]

I don't know what PSP version you have, but what InCreator did with the reflective floor can easily be done in at least 6 (which I what I have so I know).

Copy the part of the room you want relfected, make a new layer, and paste it in, then flip it and move it down to the floor. Then in the layer properties lower the opacity.

You would probably want to deform the layer so that it matched the floor perspective better as well.

Yeah, I thought that. I'll try it. I have 7 by the way.