DDP's Sprite Workshop

[Ton]

Exactly what I meant for Paula.

[DragonDePlatino]

Thanks for the help, CBL! It's really important that I get the style juuust right so that when I draw the rest of the game's overworld sprites, I won't have to go back and fix anything. Here's the updated sheet with fixed side-profiles. I also cleaned up Porky's hair and shrunk Poo's humongous eyebrows.

[DragonDePlatino]

While working on my Earthbound Zero project (unrelated to sprites above) I noticed the game's tilesets were really restrictive...The game's engine can work with up to 64 8x8 minitiles per tileset, but a lot of space was wasted on path and wall tiles. Not to mention, all the trees were all the same size...

So just for fun, I decided to make an overworld tileset mockup using as few minitiles as possible. Here are my results!

[Koh]

First I've heard of the tile limitation. The detail on the tiles looks superb, but I can't help but find the trees awkward with the way they look. At least the bigger ones. The ones that cover a 32x32 space look okay, but the bigger ones look weird to me.

[DragonDePlatino]

Thanks! And yeah, I agree, but pulling off natural-looking big trees is tricky due to the 16x16 tile limitations. Let me give it another shot...



I think they look a little nicer now! More angular, but the shading is deeper and the bottoms don't look flat anymore. Also, while reorganizing my tile sheet I accidentally created donut trees and some rather innappropriately-shaped ones.

It's only by sheer willpower could I resist posting the latter.

[DragonDePlatino]

In a follow-up to my outdoors mockup, we have a house mockup!



Again, I was really agressive with my tile conservation and I ended up with a lot of leftover minitile slots. I'm happy with the results, though I think I could use a little more furniture variety. If anyone would like to add their own furniture, go ahead! And don't worry about the limitations. I'll handle those myself.

[Koh]

I actually think the furniture looks fine. I want to suggest that the wood floor has some lines to denote rows of planks or something, though. Not absolutely necessary, but without it, you can't tell if it's carpet or wood.

[DragonDePlatino]

Well, after getting my home internet working again, making great progress in PyGame and browsing the incredible art of TIGSource and tebited15, I decided it's about time to make a mockup! And a BIG one at that, with my own characters! Here's my progress so far:



These sprites are going to be for a 320x240 adventure game mockup. The person on the right is finished, but Platino still has a looong way to go. I don't have any exact ideas in mind of what the background will be, but I know it will have a perspective like Monkey Island except with tile-based graphics. 

Oh, and thanks for the suggestion, Koh! It worked out great! I finished this a while ago, but hopefully I'll be able to update this thread more often now that I've got a stable internet connection.

[Kelvin]

Oooooh, I love the dragon! He looks so cuddly!

[DragonDePlatino]

Well, I think I can call these two guys finished for now.



First things first, I'm aware that Platino doesn't have any wings here. And that's because he's a Tumidon, a race of wingless dragons in Terra Confundo. He can strap on two wingblades while in battle, but when he's walking around they aren't usually on because I'm too lazy to animate them that would be impractical. Also, I'd like to add a bit of musculature to Platino, but I'm not sure how to approach that. A little help here?

[DragonDePlatino]

Next update! I was working on the backdrop for my mockup, and I decided I wanted to draw a quaint little town with a storefront and alleyway. I'm still working out the perspective I want, but I think a mix of orthogonal tiles and isometric characters would be interesting. Here's my first pic:



Wow. I'm loving how this is turning out. The characters are fitting snugly into the 320x240 resolution without looking too small or too big. But I'm not to sure about the cobblestone texture...Anyone want to take a crack at that?

[Neweegee]

I like how everything looks so far, but since you said you're not so sure about the cobblestone textures, I thought I could see what would make it better.


I think you should just add an extra shade to it kinda like this. I don't think much else is needed

[Kelvin]

The only thing I see wrong with the cobbles was that they had these obvious lines between each tile that made them look unnatural, so I made some changes to them:



And then I saw Neweegee's post and thought he was right about the highlight, so I added that to my edit.



Hope these help ya. ^^ By the way, I dunno what you're going for with the dragon, but I personally don't think he needs to be muscular; pudgey dragon is cute. ^^

[DragonDePlatino]

Thanks, guys! After a bit of experimentation, I decided to just go ahead and make some actual 3x3 cobblestone tiles for the mockup. Here's my progress so far...All that's left is adding an NPC character sitting on the boxes and maybe some GUI. Anyone have any ideas for the character that could be sitting on the boxes, and what they'd say?



Also, while browsing PixelJoint today, I felt a stroke of monochrome-colored inspiration. So here's another little mockup and my idea to go along with it...



What if MOTHER got a direct sequel, and we figure out what Ninten’s dad was talking about? What if we got to see all the characters from the first game go on a new adventure? What if Giegue returned, and launched another invasion on the Earth? And what if this adventure was released on the newly-made Game Boy?!? We’d get “MOTHER 2: Giegue’s Revenge”! Everything in this mockup was made using Game Boy restrictions, including the characters and tiles. So what do you guys think? Should I make a few more mockups in this style? I always thought the Game Boy would be the perfect fit for bridging the series! I mean, it came out between the NES and SNES, after all.

Also, yes. I’m aware Earthbound is MOTHER 2 and that Cognitive Dissonance is MOTHER’s direct sequel. Don’t judge me! 

EDIT:

Holy cow! After looking over my post, I just realized that if you blow up a Game Boy screen to 2x resolution, it's the same width as a 320x240 mockup! MIND. BLOWN.

[DaHog]

I'd definitely play both games!