Background Art - Updated

[Sean]

Hey Guys/Girls.

I've got a few background samples from a game I am working on and wondered if any of you had the time to comment on them. If you dislike them please point out why and the same applies if you do like them.















I am slightly concerned about the raised perspective I have on some of them and what complications that may cause for sprite scaleing. Hopefully it won't cause any major problems but if worst comes to worse I can change the angle and reimplment what I've built.

Thanks in advance for any advice and criticism you can offer.

- Sean

[ScottDoom]

For some backgrounds, they look like they'd be better suited to a first-person game (like the one of the toilet and bed) because they're very close up and at an extreme angle (for an adventure game) and there's little room for character movement. Also, I know it's a dark and mysterious prison, but it's a little too dark and lifeless. Adventure games, to me, are more about exploration and discovering new things, and discovering grey concrete wall after grey concrete wall to me wouldn't be very exciting.

I'm not sure how much story or puzzle design you have, but maybe try adding some crawlspaces with a crawling view of the character or underground sewers and other things to add variety to the locations.

[Sean]

They appear as 'First-Person' because thats what they are

I've mixed both Third Person and First Person perspectives. Movement will be your standard point and click. A lot of objects will have an 'examination' view which allows the player to get up close to the object and take a nice long lookÃ, 

Crawlspaces never really occured to me but thats an interesting idea that may be worth investigating. Without a character artist at the moment I can't assume that I'll be able to get the required views for something like that. I could do it in first person. Script a simple 'WASD'ish control system that cycles between rooms... Hm. How well would that work though....?

Edit: Also, in response to your comment on how the graphics might get repetitive. Do you have any advice other than different perspectives that may 'spruce' things up a bit? Luckily the corridors of cellblocks A and B aren't the only setting for the game but they will play a significant part so I'd like to get them as nice looking as possible.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I like the textures, but overall the backgrounds seem too dark (even for a moody atmosphere).  If you want to add some color I would put in signs or something of that nature.  I really like where you're going with these.

[Sean]

Thanks for the comments ProgZ.

I myself have been worried about the darkness of the images. Also, 1 of my 3 'testers' so far mentioned the fact that he couldn't see anything at all except rough outlines. Obiviously his monitor was a bit crappy but that's something I'll have to consider. Keeping everything 'dark' was the way I planned to create a creepy atmospheric environment. However, if I lose playability beacuse of the brightness then they will obiviously need to be revised. I'm quite an adept photoshop user. Perhaps I could exploit theese talents to add effects to the images that make them appear 'Dark, Moody etc' without actual losing too much of the visibility. It's possible that I could perhaps 'Overlay' brushwork on the lighter areas and degrade the area to a 'gritty' level. That way I'd have control over the entire image compistions lightness levels instead of just a basic.. 'Oh, it's dark'

I think today will be spent working on one of the main 'Puzzle' areas. At the moment the corridors interlink each main puzzle room.

[seaduck]

Nice work!

A little too monochromatic for my tastes. Even though it's concrete, it shouldn't be totaly desaturated. Old wet concrete walls have all sorts of color tints... green from algae (microscopic plants), white from condensed salts, yellow/red/brown from condensed iron, etc.

I suppose te grates are iron, they look like concrete. You should make them a different colour.

You used luminiscent tubes for the light, they're brighter than light bulbs, but still not completely desaturated. They are either yellowish or blueish depending on the type of gas they are filled with (sodium yellow, potassium blue, I think, but I maybe I'm mistaken).

BTW Don't be tempted to put too much empty corridors in, it would be boring.

[Sean]

Thanks for the comments Duck 

In reply to the corridor comment I'm not sure about the amount I will have at the moment. A lot of the game is based around the corridor system and although they don't take too long to travel through a couple of people (Yourself and Dr Lecter) have mentioned that featureing a large amount of corridors may not keep the player interested. I won't have an excessive amount. Moveing from Puzzle area 'A' to 'B' via the corridors will take around 2-3 minutes maximum per area switch. I think that the corridors help build the tension as I'll be adding some events between each transition. The player won't know if they're going to encounter something whilst travelling around.. hopefully it'll keep them edgey. A lot of my game is based around story and as such I don't want to add a lot of puzzles that feel disjointed and random. I need a certain amount to interest the player and lengthen the experience but as it stands a lot of the gameplay will focus around studying clues.. and then flashbacks and confrontations to piece everything together. It's not a traditional puzzle game. More an 'Interactive' novel I suppose. I think that for now I'll carry on adding corridors as I have been and then if I get enough negative feedback about the excess amount when I put it out for testing I'll start cutting unneccessary stuff out. I'm not an experinced developer and I'm haveing to expirment with things as I go along. Hopefully I'll have something fun and playable at the end of my experimentation.

Thanks for your comments  

[Sean]

Pardon the double postÃ,  Ã, 

Today, I've worked on one of the 'Puzzle' areas I spoke of. I've attached the room backgrounds that I'll use for this area.

[Mordalles]

looks cool.
hey, put some blood on those walls.  thatll make it creepy.

[DonB]

I really like the style.. you are a criminal and wake up in your jail, totally abandoned? .. not knowing why nobody is here anymore?

Very exciting!

[Sean]

Not quite criminal but not quite innocent either   8)

@ Mordalles - Be patient... it'll be bloody soon enough  :o

[Neil Dnuma]

Generally a nice atmosphere in your BG's although a little too gray as others have pointed out. They are also very low contrast, just a few brighter colors wouldn't hurt. You might wanna experiment with tinting the image and/or play around with level settings in photoshop to look for other options.

Quick example:



The textures are nice, but try putting in more variation - the repetition is esp. noticeable on the pillars in the last two BG's.

I'd advice getting your character up and working, and check how he fits in with your choices of camera angles. The more tilted camera, the more problems (usually). The POV-shots should be fine.

[Kinoko]

Do what Neil did, it's a small change but it makes the background FUN!

[Sean]

I've been considering expermenting with photoshop overlays in order to spruce things up a bit. The problem is the images themself in my opinion loose their variation. Admitedly the texture work is a little repetitive but I don't really have a large texture selection to work from. For my first production I am useing stock textures from one of my purchases that run off of UED. Although I may resort to modifying them in photoshop. Thanks for the criticism. I'll experiment with hue adaption and over such photoshop modifications.

There are 2/3 main areas with totally different graphical styles. Variation will be present to some degree. I'll be expermenting over the next few days to try and get things looking a little better. I'll post up for crits when I have something worthwhile.

Thanks again

- Sean