Criticism wanted for sprites & cursors (UPDATED)

Started by x_traveler_x, Mon 21/02/2005 00:56:33

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x_traveler_x

Hey, good people!

Now that I've hammered most of the rough edges out of my game's interface, I'm finally able to move on to the fun stuff-- CONTENT!

My game will follow the classic Sierra-type interface.  I've always prefered that interface, and since it's my first project, it should be easy to work with.

First, here's a sample of a character sprite.  He isn't really a main character, but will serve as the basis of how the rest of my characters will be drawn (haven't drawn a female yet):



Next, a couple samples of mouse cursors.  Note the "arrow" shape on each, which virtually eliminates pixel-hunting (as seen in SQ6):



Finally, here is a possible tune which will be played when my logo shows:

( http://fallingpeople.constructivechaos.net/FANFARE1.mid )


Well, there you have it for now... fire away!
~~- - -. . .finding a cure for mundanity. . . - - -~~

Vince Twelve

Some great stuff here.  Especially those cursors.  I hate it when a cursor is a hand or a walking man and have the cursor's hotspot is the hand's ring finger or the man's left leg.  You never know what you're pointing at.  I'm building cursors like this for my game as well, but they have no where near the sense of style that yours have.  I hope that style is mirrored in the rest of your GUIs as well.  Consistency in presentation, and all that...

I would consider making the third arrow (I'm assuming it's the default cursor) match the others by having the rounded end.  You can either leave the black circle empty, or fill it in with blue to match the rest of the arrow.  Just a suggestion.  You might like how it looks now better.

The character is pretty good.  You've got a bit of the cross eye effect going on there.  The walking legs look great, but the upper body, esp. the arms have a pretty big jump accompanying each step.  Looking at the side view, he's got some gentle movement when his hands are behind the line of his back, but they jump very suddenly from there to the full front position in back.  Smoothing that out a bit would go a long way towards making the character look more natural.

Oh, and if you're planning on using the smiley face shirt, i'd make the eyes a little more visible.

Bombadil

I think they are great.

As Vince Twelve said you should try to make Smiley's eyes more visible and I'd smooth the arms movement a bit because they seem to be punching the air.

I love the cursors but IMO maybe they are too big [compared to the character] and if you are not using a big resolution they might be enormous...

Babar

In the still view of the character, you should have his feet facing forward. Their current (sideways) position looks very uncomfortable.
The ultimate Professional Amateur

Now, with his very own game: Alien Time Zone

Penguinx

The cursors are really stylish and, more importantly, functional.

I'm completely rythmless and tone deaf so I have nothing to contribute about the music.

There's a bit of a ratcheting, herky-jerkyness to the character's walkcycle during the contact frame -his shoulders tend to 'snap' into position. That's being nitpicky, though. Overall, very nice!

x_traveler_x

Wow!  Thanks for some excellent feedback, everyone.  I'll make some touch-ups today and post them a little bit later. 
I'm a little surprised that the MIDI file didn't seem to get much criticism, be it positive or negative.  Any comments on this?
~~- - -. . .finding a cure for mundanity. . . - - -~~

Indie Boy

Im no music crit but heres my view, Over all the 8 sec was good but the only thing was that snare rattling in my head
I won't use this login.
Try IndieBoy instead

x_traveler_x

Okay, I updated the main front view of this sprite:

before: 1x 2x

after:   1x 2x

btw, the game is 640x480

I only got to work on this still frame for now.  I'll fix the animated one later on.

Anyway, I did away with the smiley design altogether, since it seemed to be diverting attention away from the rest of the image.  Then I moved the feet closer together, while still angling them out, since that's how people usually stand naturally (I seldom see people stand with their feet aiming dead ahead unless they're standing at attention).  Also, I removed the black outline in an atempt to fix the cross-eye problem, therefore changing the whole style entirely.  Overall, I like it better, but something about it still irks me a little. 

Thoughts?
~~- - -. . .finding a cure for mundanity. . . - - -~~

lo_res_man

Traviller X, your cursers are superb. but that sprite is very unsutabul for the resoluton your talking about.
at that high the caractorwould be hard to see, made worse by the fact that you made it with a darker colour outline. if your caractor was outside in a map screen it would be great. but as a main sprite that you will use for most of the game, it is too small.the update is a great 320/240 sprite, and great work for that, but for high res. sorry. Download some high res games and some lo res nes to see what i mean.
†Å"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.†
The Restroom Wall

InCreator

It's pretty good, except for pants shading. The shade colors are too contrasty, represent nothing and whole shading seems pretty random.

You should shade some wrinkles, much-used-spots (don't know the exact english word for this) or similar to pants to give them some realism.

The best way to learn proper shading is...
...going to local arcade and observing how japanese do it :D

Following is the sreengrab from King Of Fighters 2000 game, just see Terry's pants and you'll understand what I mean.



x_traveler_x

#10
Quote from: lo_res_man on Tue 22/02/2005 22:03:45
that sprite is very unsutabul for the resoluton your talking about.
at that high the caractorwould be hard to see,

Not to sound defensive, but I've been playing adventure games for a long time, so I know some good points of reference.Ã,  I think a sprite this size will work just fine for a 640x480 game.Ã,  In fact, he's proportionally the same size of the average character in a 320x240 game.Ã,  I know this because I used King Graham's image doubled in size to approximate how large I should draw him.Ã,  Did you think King Graham was too small in any of the King's Quest games?

One thing I neglected to mention was the fact that I'm using scaling in my game.Ã,  So If there's a scene that calls for the character to appear larger in the foreground, he'll be automatically re-sized appropriately, although slightly pixelated.

Thanks again for your comments!
~~- - -. . .finding a cure for mundanity. . . - - -~~

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