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I don't personally think the game HAS to include backgrounds in which the character is scaled down, unless the story calls for it. It sort of depends on what shenanigans our friend here will be getting up to.

Introducing Joseph Merrick, Victorian thinker, writer and reluctant performance artist. Friend and confidant to such illustrious personages as Dr. Sir Frederick Treves, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, and Queen Victoria herself. He is commonly considered to be the most drastically deformed human being to have ever reached adulthood. He is certainly one of the most remarkable ones.






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Rock the colouring ball!

This game looks really cool and I'm so downloading it right now.


Just as a note, though, the conversation in this thread pretty much lets the cat out of the bag. I'm not sure if it's meant to be something you don't figure out until the end, but the summary seems like it was carefully crafted so as not to give too much away, so I thought I'd mention it. 

[Stupot, Venus & ProgZmax:]

Stupot, Venus & ProgZmax: Hey, that's based on MY walk! I ought to mince out of here right now! I suspect the femininity comes from the hand-on-hip stance combined with the swaying arm - which is offset so it swings lazily behind the rest of the movements. I want to keep the hand on the hip, so I'll try altering the arm and following your suggestions.

I'm probably alone here, but there's nothing wrong with mincing, but I also don't think that's really what he's doing. He's not swinging his hips or shaking his modest bosom, and the walk didn't strike me as feminine before everybody said it was. I think it just isn't overtly masculine or exaggeratedly nerdy, which is great and shouldn't be altered drastically, in my opinion.

I think he's really fantastic. He reminds me somewhat inexplicably of Josef K., the protagonist of The Trial. He also has a certain Corpse Bride feel to him, which is great as far as I'm concerned, and I imagine Gorey's work was an influence on that film.

I do, though, agree with Hudders' comment about the suit. My only other nitpick would be that the geometry of his eye sockets doesn't really seem to match his small eyes and eyebrows.

I also think if the top right expression is meant to be one of perterbation you might bring the eyebrows together slightly. I think his face is perfectly capable of all the expression you'd need. This is a great character, imo.

I love those entities at the bottom. 

I made a small paintover because I'm too lazy to write out how I would answer the questions you posed. I tried to keep to the same style and just make small edits. I used the eyes to decide where the runes go on the bottom characters and altered their shoulders in the side views slightly to match the front views.

I think the face shape of the main character is fine for the style; the problem, imo, is the shape of the hair. I also think his arm was a bit narrow given the bulk of the jacket. I moved his head back a pixel so he didn't look like he was drooping forward (but if that was the desire look, then the head was good where it was), and messed with the lay of the jacket a
bit to see if I could get a closer match to the frontal view. Finally, I changed the shape of the hand so that we see less of the thumb and no space between the thumb and forefinger.

Also, I changed the background color to make the figures stand out a bit more. I hope you find this helpful in some way. 

I think you have a good start on a texture for the tree. The only real problem with it is that the lines are random, not really giving us a sense of the shapes of the tree bark. I would suggest looking at photos of trees and thinking about what you're drawing as you add the texture.

The forest toward the back of the bg could be improved a lot just by added a layer between the top and the top of the hills for tree trunks. You could even take that opportunity to put in some glittering eyes the way they do in scary cartoon forests.

Also, decide where the moon is and put in some blue-tinged highlights on the side of the treet facing the moon and maybe some bluish shadows on the side facing away.

I also would suggest making the grass a bit scruffy along the edge of the path to make the difference between them clearer.

[do]

I like new version but--
how can one browse what one cannot see?

I mean, the records are in darkness, and it's supposed to be a store. Or is it simply closed?

You're right; I'm just scared to add more light sources. I'm afraid I'll muck the whole thing up. I do want it to be darker than average, but I don't want it to be so dark it isn't functional as a shop. I'll work on that, and see how it goes. *dread*

The only thing that bugs me is the way the left edges of the steps do not align as they probably should.

You're right; I really need to fix that. Thanks for the edit, too, it'll help me out. I had the hardest time getting the stairs to look even halfway decent.

That's a pretty secure looking door for a record store. I imagine you'd be scanned by LINC before being allowed through.

That's actually the door into the rest of the building. The street door is the one at the top of the stairs, your basic glass number. I might at some point try to hint at a railing or something outside it, if I can make that work.

Excellent job on the lighting. I do agree on the stairs, they're a bit off. The top and bottom are not that divergent that perspective slimming would be applicable. Try letting the railing go parrallel with the stairs.

I think the reason the stairs look funny is that the railings are asymmetrical. I used a reference photo for that (I couldn't have come up with it on my own) and really liked the way it looked, but if you're not expecting it to be that way it can read strangely, I think.

Here's the latest version. I tried to incorporate the suggestions I got, but I'm not sure how well I did.







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It could still be improved a lot but I think I'm going to set it aside for the moment and work on some sprites. I really appreciate the help improving it.

The statue is the entrance to the shore, near the docks, and it's pretty far from where the guy is sitting. I don't know what you mean about giving the statue a blue tint. Is it for the reflection of the water?

He means because right now it looks like the statue is standing right over the guy's shoulder. Giving it a blue tint and paling it some will make it seem like it's farther away. You might do the same, as someone else suggested, with the water where it meets the horizon.

Otherwise it's a fantastic background! I can't wait to see a game full of these.

I think this could be a really interesting style. I'm curious to see what the sprites will look like in conjunction with the bg.

I like the wood floor, but I also think the deep red of the original could work if it were not too saturated and textured in a subtle way.

The left side suggests the former (staircase, l-desk) while the right side suggests the latter (trunk, door, air conditioner).  If you want to get somewhere between the two -- which is what I would suggest, since neither style is extremely visually appealing in the age of high-definition monitors -- is to alias the sharper edges of objects rather than just blending them, like so:

I plan on antialiasing, I just haven't finished the background, as I said in my first post. There are some items in the room that I haven't even begun to work on past the shaping stage. The trunk on the wall, for example, is what everything looks like when I start out.

Thank you guys for the advice, and the encouragement. And InCreator, I love your paintover. That's very much like the effect I wanted to achieve eventually but didn't know how.

I'm going to do my own edits to try to incorporate your advice and also Ildu's, but it will take me a bit of time. Thanks again and look for a new version soon. 

I like this sprite a lot. The main issues it has, in my opinion, are the lack of contrast in the shading (I think you have to have no fear when shading ) and the fact that his face is spread over almost the whole height of his head. I also think his arms are a little too short.

I did a ratty paintover to show you what I mean about the face, and gave him slightly more prominent elbows. I also lengthened his arms slightly, shortened his neck by 1 pixel, and shortened his torso by a couple of pixels. Finally, I curved his eyebrows just a bit.



But I'd really like to see a game with this style. It's boss. 

although it does seem to be floating slightly.. not sure why.

Do you think it's because I've let some of the light hit behind the counter, where the side of the stairs is shaded down there? Should I darken the floor between the counter and the stairs? *cry*


Or is it because the lower portion of the counter contrasts too much with the floor directly below it?

This is a background I'm working on for practice to get the rust out. It may or may not end up being used in a game my partner and I are thinking of making.

It's obviously still in progress, as certain things haven't been detailed yet (the crate against the wall, the door), but I have real trouble shading some things so I thought I would go ahead and ask for help before I muddled the whole thing. I'm also not all that happy with the color scheme.

If you can't tell, my main inspiration is Sierra's high-res period.






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Any comments are appreciated.

I think your style is really neat.

As someone said, though, the marble texture and the cracks on the poor side of town are very hard to make out.

I don't think the composition is bad at all. It just needs more stuff crammed in to give it that cramped, Victorian feel like cobra79 mentioned. Victorians were very showy and status driven (sound familiar?), so if they were very rich they probably had all manner of chronologically-appropriate knick knacks and luxuries filling the available space. Plants or candy dishes on tables, fancy armoires against the walls, more curtains with fine embroidery, elaborate desks with hidden compartments, possibly even embroidered cushions on the divans.

And I would also suggest a cat in the lower left corner sleeping. A little sleeping animal is a pretty common weight to throw into the less-emphasized portion of a portrait scene and it'd be cute. :>

It could benefit, maybe, from perspective adjustment but if you're not that concerned about perfect perspective it might be worth putting your energy into other aspects of the bg. Just my two cents, anyway.

Thanks a million, SSH, for hosting it!

You're my hero.  8)