Help with a building's texture...

[Ketskari]

While I'm painting in photoshop instead of pixelling (I can't.. I suck at it), I'm only using a few colors (brown, red, black, green).

Also, I don't like the two orthogonals making a point at the edge of the picture plane... it was supposed to be a decorative line of bricks, but doesn't look like it. And the dark side of the building foreshortens too abruptly, so I'll make the vanishing point farther away. The trees in the background aren't finished and the texture on the building is supposed to be old, plaster cracked in places to reveal brick underneath.

Also, the building to the far left doesn't really read, so I'm thinking of getting rid of it or attaching it to the main building.

Okay, think that's all I can see at the moment. Any c&c is helpful, especially as far as suggestions go for any of the above, since I'm kinda stuck.

[Evil]

Think about the functionality of this background (Why is the character here, what can they see/do here, where are the hotspots, where does this BG exist within the game) and then reconsider your layout. Overall it looks very nice. I think the style and colors look good, and the perspective isn't that terrible either. I think the brickwork under the right window on the front of the building looks great, and the textured ivy has a really good feel to it.

The door placed facing out so far on the left side of the screen looks strange. There are two points of focus, the front door and where the back of the building and the tree line meet, and they're fighting each other for control of the image.

Here's a quick mockup I did to illustrate some of these ideas. I moved the door, adjusted the perspective of the building a bit, and adjusted the tree slightly to give a sense of mystery/possible hotspot.

   

[Ketskari]

Wow.. that changes the whole thing... thank you!

[Tuomas]

You're a good drawer, I can see that. But you might wan't to clean up the right side windows a bit. They look really hand-drawn, of course, but I mean, off perspective and shabby. They just need some adjusting imo.

The house next to this one, on the left doesn't stand out because it doesn't look like one. There's either a shadowy corner with no dept, or the narrow lane between the two buildings is way too narrow. I can't really say which one it is..

[Ketskari]

Thanks! When I get a chance I think I'll expand it into a panning background so that the player can climb the tree as well as walk a little ways over and see the next building instead of just an awkward gap on the left-hand portion of the screen.

[JimmyShelter]

What's the style you will use for your character sprites? Will you paint or pixel them?

If you do pixel them, you could take some pointers from ben's style: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=40058.0

He also paints his backgrounds, but at double size, and he resizes them to fit his sprites. That way the pixel and paint style don't clash as much as they might.