Anyone started high-res then cursed themselves?

[Badger]

I've got quite into a 32bit game, adn loving making it, love the graphics, love the story and feel.
But it's big.
And looking back, I'm wishing i had seen this coming (it's my first game) and changed to a lovely small pixel/low res game.

Anyone done similar?
And if so, what did you do?

(This isn't a mid-game crisis..I'm finishing it..just wondered )

[markbilly]

Yeah, if you consider 640x480 as hi-res then I had this problem. I ended up starting again. You can read about it in a thread here and an article, here.

[Igor Hardy]

I started Frantic Franko in 640x480 and while it proved to be quite time consuming, I do think it is a good res for a first time game and trying out your craft.

Snakes of Avalon I initially proposed to be in low-res so that we would make it for the contest deadline, but the animator said "high res!", so we did it high res. The rest is legend.

[Mr Flibble]

I have nothing against hi-res games, though when I see beginners in the C&C forum drawing in a low res style for a high resolution game, I think that's something that ought to be cured.

[Trumgottist]

It's alright for a game to take time to make.

I have nothing against hi-res games, though when I see beginners in the C&C forum drawing in a low res style for a high resolution game, I think that's something that ought to be cured.

Painting the graphics pixel by pixel? Wow, that's impressive.

[Mr Flibble]

Nah, it just means you have large empty rooms with no detail in them.

[hedgefield]

No, never. I do occasionally change my mind about the aspect ratio, but I was never a big fan of 8-bit graphics or 320x240. 640x480 is even a little low for me, but in terms of workload it's my preferred resolution.

[loominous]

Not sure I understood Flibble correctly, but I would agree with the sentiment that approaching hi-res in a pixelart kind of fashion is risky.

If you look at popular "analog" animation, many use very simple, and resolution independant styles, such as:

Futurama / Simpsons / Family Guy:



South Park



Despite an almost complete lack of shading, they work very well, at least in my opinion, and the resolution doesn't really matter since they consist of only lines and fill colours.

However, if you look in the CL, people will often insist on adding more or less elaborate shading to everything, in a lo-res kind of fashion, even when dealing with hi-res, or medium-res.

So, I guess my point is that if you want to go hi-res/med-res, have a look at ordinary animation to see how it's usually solved, instead of immediately resorting to some augmented lo-res approach.

[Igor Hardy]

Not sure I understood Flibble correctly, but I would agree with the sentiment that approaching hi-res in a pixelart kind of fashion is risky.

If you look at popular "analog" animation, many use very simple, and resolution independant styles, such as:

Futurama / Simpsons / Family Guy:

That's what Baron has done in Snakes of Avalon and it worked great.

But vector graphics and cut-outs are not the ultimate solution to everything. I wouldn't like if people cultivated only this one way of doing character art.

[GarageGothic]

Pixel art definitely has its charm - and this goes beyond pure nostalgia, for instance I don't consider Ben's art style 'retro' in any way. But personally I don't have the patience for mucking around with pixel placements and color tones to suggest recognizable human features on a 16x16px face. Were I to make a 320x200 game, I'd most likely paint all art in hi-res and let Photoshop's bilinear scaling take care of the pixellation (the result can't possibly look any more messy than VGA era Sierra games).

By biggest issue with the current state of AGS is actually the lack of support for hi-res widescreen resolutions. I love AGS scripting too much to ditch the engine altogether, but hopefully CJ will eventually allow plugins to take full control of the viewport initialization so I can make my game fully resolution independent.

[2ma2]

Scaling graphics is not to be recommended, you'll lose a LOT of detail, strangely enough. Much better to abstract lowres gfx from scratch. Now, hires does not imply better graphics by default. Pixel-pushing is an art-form in itself. Like many other creative outlets, it is birthed in the limitations of the 80's medium, but by golly, was there some talented people pushing the limits of 320 x 240 even in the 90's.

Also, you can accomplish ALOT with medium resolution and 256 colours, and that limited colour-space will decrease your game with 90% in pure byte-size.

[GarageGothic]

Scaling graphics is not to be recommended, you'll lose a LOT of detail, strangely enough. Much better to abstract lowres gfx from scratch.

No argument there, but I think most people who aren't artists themselves don't really care as long as it fits the atmosphere of the game. I don't recall any review of its day argue that GK1 had worse graphics than the LucasArts games although the characters were a bit of a blurry mess.

[joelphilippage]

I once did the opposite.


Why would I want to use these graphics for my game?



I spent about half a year upgrading the graphics, but I feel it's worth it to capture the mood I want. If you have the time and skill, it's worth the extra effort. This is just my experience. Some definitely draw better in a low resolution.

[xenogia]

I'm actually wishing for HD support (1280x720) so I could make my game that res.  I guess the thing being different for me is the fact all my graphics, sprites are actually filmed    But I can definitely see how someone would go "oh shit" for a first game especially if your not an accomplished artist as such.

[Phemar]

I have nothing against hi-res games, though when I see beginners in the C&C forum drawing in a low res style for a high resolution game, I think that's something that ought to be cured.

That's not too bad, it's when they have an object/character/foreground that's drawn in a different resolution to everything else. Ends up looking really disorientating!

[Dualnames]

Joel very impressive, I'd personally play both games, the graphic style of the hi-res appeals to me more in this occasion.

[Mr Flibble]

That's not too bad, it's when they have an object/character/foreground that's drawn in a different resolution to everything else. Ends up looking really disorientating!

Yes, mixed resolutions pain me in a way I hadn't thought possible.