Highwire's Pixel Corner

[Highwire]

@Lexou: The banding on what exactly? The sphere on the pillar? Or the shading on the curved part of the gate?
UPDATE:
-Changed pallet of gate pillar and altered shading on sphere and gate
-added 2 new brick wall tiles
-added single door and double door w/animations
-added brick double door framing

[Kirbyfan]

@Lexou: The banding on what exactly? The sphere on the pillar? Or the shading on the curved part of the gate?

I see some notable banding on the curve of the gate. It's not too bad, in my opinion, but many people do not like banding of any sort.


I'm just upset that in that screenshot you posted a few posts back, the gate hides that beautiful bush. =P

[Highwire]

@kirbyfan: Ah, ok then. As for that bush I'm personally not a huge fan of it. I'm not sure if it fits well or gives the right feeling I'm trying to go for. I might even re draw it at some point I dunno. I suppose I could move it out from behind the gate though.
UPDATE:
-Altered the yellow brick pattern to repeat less noticably (did this for all brick tiles except for double door frame)
-Added a yellow brick exterior window
-Got rid of the yellow brick red carpet platform
-Altered the shading on top of lamp posts to match direction of light source in the rest of the sheet
-Altered bush 1 a little bit
-Got rid of the first grass platform. These two new ones will replace it
-Made both bush 2 sprites match
-Got rid of the banding on the gate sprite and implemented new shading
-Changed curvature of the gate door
-Added 2 new cobblestone platform tiles. Both have 2 variations. 1 is a flat stone face, 2 is a cobbled look similar to the ground tiles. These may be subject to massive change at any time.
-Changed some of the color variation in ground bricks in the cobblestone platforms


I'm really not sure what to do with the gate shading. That took up most of the time I've spent working on the sheet today. I don't know if I need to completely redo the curvature or what but the lack of banding has really fucked up the perceived curvature. Thoughts?

[Kirbyfan]

In reference to the top, curved part of the gate:

To my understanding, the shading of the lower portion is inconsistent throughout the curve. The shading of the parts parallel to the ground is still notably banded, while the curved part's shading has no banding. This inconsistency in shading is what makes the shading look odd and the shape indefinite.

I suggest fully removing the banding on the parallel potions, having the darker shade be mostly 1 pixel high at the bottom to match the curved part. This should make it easier to look at and help define the shape.

(I tried to phrase that in an understandable way. If you need clarification ask.)

[Highwire]

@Kirbyfan: Thanks a lot for the help. I've tried out somethings to see if it works out.

UPDATE:
-Slightly lowered contrast of darkest shade of lamp post green. Was too dark and stood out too much.
-Changed shading on gate door again.
-Added 2 variations of a generator and switch. Not sure which one to go for. I have both on and off and neutral sprites shown.
-Added a glowing lightning bolt with 2 animation frames that would be placed on generator 1 when powered on.


Generator switch could change a lot as the game's development goes on. Main concern with it is that its not too busy and stands out a little from the rest of the world. Its a game play mechanic so it needs to look like you can interact with it. Thoughts?

[Lexou Duck]

make it more saturated, and animate it noticeably to make it seem "alive"

also try and change the color so it pops out more from the green, like brownish red

[Highwire]

@Lexou: I've gotten similar comments on it so I'm working on it. Thanks for the crit!

UPDATE:
-Changed the saturation of the generator pallet
-Changed shading on brick pattern to make it softer for use as a background while keep hard edges on walls.
-Added an alternative to the generator--a key pad with various light up animation keys. These lights will flash.
-Added a black outlined variation on the keypad to make it stand out against softer background objects.
-Added a variation of the keypad that has different symbols. This is for colorblind support.
-Added a power cord of sorts that connects a switch to what ever it powers. I've got more variants of these in another sheet.
-Removed the doorframe. It was ugly.


Now then the power cord is something that is is going to frequently change as play testing goes on and more backgrounds are made. A black outline might be added at some point.
Thoughts on the new update?

[Gors]

idk man, laid separated like that, they look rather nice, but I wonder how well they look if put together. I still think that the generator is a tad desaturated, give it a little more color to make it not blend with the background props.

the bushes are kinda bad, in the sense that they don't look like bushes, but green masses of something. I'll edit it a little later to give you a suggestion.

[Highwire]

@Gors: I haven't been happy with the bushes very much at all for exactly that reason, but nearly everyone I've asked for criticism on them haven't had any problems with them which would be why they still look like that. I'm totally lost on how to make them look like actual bushes so that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for doing that! c:
I'll redo the generator so it has a black outline and a more saturated pallet.
I'll also supply a mockup screenshot with the updated sprites next time so y'all can see em together. I'd do it now but I've got a midterm in an hour sooo yeah xD.
Thanks a lot for the help and advice Gors!

[Gors]

I admit that I was really stumped while making this tree, which I suppose it's a pine tree



I added the steps for didatic purposes. First, I sketched its shape, taking the leaves' shape into account.



Pine trees have harp leaves that point roughly upwards, so I tried mimicking that early in the making so I don't get distracted by it. The second step builds more on top of the initial sketch, adding some in-between colors. Though, I noticed that the dark shade was a tad too dark, so I made a lighter tone for the shadows. 3, 4 and 5 are logical steps, and it's worthy to note that I shaded the tree as a whole in step 5, so its right side is lighter than the left one.

I'll make the normal bush sprite soon.

---

this didn't take as long as I expected



In this case, I started the bush by laying out a cloudy shape, much like your sprite. The second step adds a bushy shading to it, really roughly. Then, I added a leafy outline. Step 4 neatens the shading. It's good to note that the leafy pattern in the shading needs to be similar to the leafy outline (they're supposed to be the same size, right?). The tiny highlights help making the bush more 'healthy', with glossy leaves, but if that's not your intention, you can remove them. Again, I ditched the really dark green for this sprite and went for something more smooth for the eyes.

[Highwire]

@Gors: Wow, this is fantastic! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! This really is exactly what I needed when it comes to criticism and is massively helpful. When I get the time I'll try out a few bushes for practice and post them up on here to see if I'm doing it right. Thank you so much for this!
I now see where I went wrong when making them though. I had sketched out an outline of their shape rather than a sketch of their structure and skeleton, which I suppose makes a lot more sense for something like foliage. I had also outlined all of the shading ahead of time which contributes to the blobby look of mine I suppose. I'll try out this method and get back to you guys when I've done some stuff!
Srsy, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this Gors.

[Highwire]

Wow. I haven't posted here since what, september? whoops.
Anyway I've been busy with a few other projects during my absence and I've recently jumped back on this one. Its currently back in the prototype stages of things and I've started making graphics for it again whoo!
So anyway, heres the new stuff:

Ok, so, these are all interactable assets. The top left is an elevator that requires a weapon to be used on it to move either vertically or horizontally. It'll have a track that it runs on to make it obvious which direction it will be moving in. The top right is two possible door types with a little bit of variation going on. Type A requires a weapon to be used on it to open, while Type B requires you to simply walk up to it to open. I'm not entirely sure which one to go with for either one. I'm leaning more toward the orbs rather than the more quadrilateral ones since it just feels like it can come apart easier but I dunno.
A few motifs I tried to incorporate into this would be the obvious lightning bolt and yellow color association for the weapon needed to be used on it. The yellow/black caution stripes are for moving machinery or objects and I tried to place them in places that make sense for the objects movement and put emphasis on the objects contact points.

The sprites on the bottom are the current character sprites. A lot of thought and iteration has gone into her design so far, but I'm still iffy about it. She's bigger than the older placeholder so I can put in defining details. This also means that all of the past assets I made will most likely be unusable which is fine since they weren't that great anyway. As for things I tried to accomplish with her design, She's got the big goofy hair to put contrast on her facial features to make it a focal point and to fill up her hitbox. The bright blue and red are to bring some vibrancy and contrast to the various parts of her to hopefully balance her out. The white stripe on her waist is to make a little divide between her upper and lower halves to ease that transition. She's got big white gloves for two reasons; She's a scientist so she needs lab gloves, and she needed to have her hands stand out for emotive reasons and to have them stand out from the weapons she carries. The bi-colored shoes are to help convey the angle of her feet more and add some more depth. I've worked quite hard on her colors, but I'm not entirely satisfied. I can't make up my mind on either 1 or 2. The current sprite in the game is 1, but she's still under a lot of work so I can change that if necessary.

So thoughts on this stuff? I'm quite worried about the colors and designs of these so any feedback would be swell.