[art test] Klepto v2

edited in Projects
After seeing so much love in pixels lately and being absolutely daunted by it, I decided to just dive in and give it a shot...

And MAN it IS a lot of fun!

Here are some results - please comment - I'm not sure if this artstyle fits what what I want very very well - mainly I'm not sure if having customisable helmet, two weapons, and an amulet is too much to communicate/fit into this sprite space.

What do you think?

Comments

  • Thats sweet guy! I initially thought the little guy was riding a tank or something in the background, when you present stuff jst maybe put a little bit of space between the guys so that the sheet is easier to look at, its a bit cramped atm. Also maybe just put a strap over his arm or something to show that the guy is actually on his back? I like the gold wing helmet the best! Is that a bubble blower the last guy is holding ? or a magnifying glass! I prefer bubble blower :P
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • Thanks my pixel-art inspirational character! :D

    I actually stuck to the 32x32 grid and just grabbed a screenshot, but I hear exactly what you're saying! Edited and uploaded again :)

    That last one is a magnifying glass but a bubble blower looks the same! That's awesome! :D I was testing recognisability of stuff, there's two piece of "pop culture" reference that probably won't be recognisable till pointed out.

    Not sure what you mean by strap over his arm? You mean like a shoulder strap for the the big guy in the front? Or for he little guy who's riding? I think the sitting on the backpack thing is, while cute, not very practical, subject to change :)
  • edited
    I initially thought the little guy was riding a tank or something
    @Tuism OMG please make them ride tanks!! ... ok you don't have to but I just have this irrational urge to want to see the axe wielding warrior with a lil' dude on his backpack, riding a tank... *shakes head*, anyway ...

    I'm not an expert but they look awesome and you seem to have nailed it first time! Love the flaming sword (is it flaming or spurting blood? maybe try some orange and yellow if it is a flame?). Love the round (ruby and emerald?) belt buckles. And friggin' love the shoulders! they are just so dwarf :D
  • Tanks! Erm, I'll try and fit it in if it can be fitted in :P

    Thanks man, yeah that red sword is just a red glow, and if I make it flame I'll definitely make it more flamy and less dracula-esque :) The emeralds are supposed to be amulets dangling around his rather low chest :P Let's just call it generic accessory :P

    Began animating it a bit. I see a problem with this... It's TOO much fun and I blink and half the day's gone into this... I won't get to actually MAKE a game if this goes on like this @_@

    The legs seem funny... What do you think?
    klepto_01.gif
    128 x 128 - 18K
  • The future vision of the game looks something like this: It's all about the loot :)

    I have a question for you fundis out there... It's about Game Maker Studio. I wanna make the guy up from parts, like you see above.

    So is it possible that instead of creating entire animation cycles for every single item separately and putting them on top of each other, I could perhaps tween the animations in the code? Does this involve writing custom tweening code? Has anyone tweened in game maker?

    (I saw Spriter but it seems to be pretty much outputting sprites after tweening in the program which doesn't help this)

    Thanks for looking! :)
    loot_dash.JPG
    1009 x 536 - 62K
  • Ha, I dig the walk! :D Especially the slight offset in the timing of the helmet that makes it knock against his head. :D

    I think the walk is fine. :) (But if you had to change it, it looks as if the frames are the same for when a leg rotates forward and backwards. You could be using the same animation for running forwards and running backwards then, as opposed to there being more of a push off for moving forwards...?)
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • Dude, that's awesome! And ditto on the clanging helmet and amulet, conveys a lot of character.

    ...

    Also.. Is that... Iron Man? :P
  • edited
    hehe, that's pretty awesome. I imagine him demanding lunch with that move slamming fists into the table, "Lunch! Lunch! Lunch!" or maybe beer? Talking about beer, how about giving one of them a beer goblet :)

    first comment would be to say it's too busy for a small sprite, I had to really look to see all the elements. Something that might help if you decide to keep them this small and with this many items, would be to make sure your value range is high, so that each element get's it's own different value.
    I took the last image into photoshop and upped the contrast played with the brightness and it helped readability, but still suffered from crampalitis.
    They have really cool character to them, and I also like Elyaradine think the helmet is classic! haha.
    The timing on the medalion hanging by his crotch seems disjointed from the rest of the timing (in terms of physics happening on the backpack and helmet), I imagine it to have the same timing as either of them.
    As for the legs, feel a little swing like, change the timing so it's not so even and I'm sure that's going to help get rid of that.
    Could be cool to separate the arm movements in the X plane as well.
    But that's all nit picking stuff, the main crit is readability at small scale, less items and higher value range.
    painting with the black and white filter can help you check that. Also look at the histogram it'll help you see where the majority of your value is.
    The Item of most interest could possibly have the most contrast, whatever defines the character most should stand out most, again achieved with biggest value change.

    This looks like a promising one, these characters are fun!

    Keep on keepin' on.
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • Also.. Is that... Iron Man?
    Indeed that is :) there are a couple more recognizable characters there too :)

    @pomb Thanks for the awesome comments! That was the first question I wondered about: whether the tiny space of a couple pixels can convey all this customization very well.

    I started looking at different sprites and saw the outlines that everyone used, and tried it then realized I can't do that cos I have multiple objects, and I can't outline AND animate all of them cos that'll be even bigger and squishier.

    I could double up the pixel count but then I feel it kinda loses the point of being a pixel sprite, too much fidelity? I'll play with the levels thing, that's great advice :) I did that up to a point but I see I need more contrast.

    I'm actually hoping that the character, being central to the game, and the subject of much customization, would be easy to identify with after a while. The pixels also help me not have to verbatim references and able to suggest them and they'll look like they're "that", iron man for example, and there're a couple of Japanese references too :)

    I'll play with the medallion and legs, I think the legs' animation frames are animated too evenly, then. @Elyaradine there are two different "extreme" frames, one with the left leg forward and one with the right leg forward, the rest is about the same.
  • edited
    I like the King Arthur one with Excalibur the best!

    How big do you think these guys are going to appear on screen? (I ask because I'm wondering about the readability) It also changes based on the type of game (action games obviously need better readability).

    I'm not having problems reading them as it is. But they're appearing quite large and static on screen at the moment. I do like the earthy/warm tones you're using and the primary colour choices. It feels dwarfy and a little story-booky.

    I really like them. I love the style and the imagination put into them.

    My only criticism... or question... is about the mouth. At the moment a black line describes the mouth. It gives him a great grumpy expression. But I'm wondering if it is a bit more cartoony than the rest of the style? (In that the colour of the mouth isn't probably black but a black line is being used)

    image

    I mean something like this (though I'm not saying this is necessarily better).

    Also: JPG is a gross format for pixel art (it gets all furry around the beautiful pixels).
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • Thanks @黑天贓艦 :) You hit it right on the head on how big it's gonna be on screen - and what you see there is pretty much the intention - 4x pixel size, so I don't think if it's illegible it'll be due to size but due to clumpiness. But being quite big, I think, makes it pretty legible. It'll be an action game, but a very simple one. It's all about the loot, the combat is uber simplified.

    I wanna call it Forever Loot or Loot Run or something like that. Working on it (not very hard :P)

    The idea with Excalibur is that after conditions are met, the rock falls off and the weapon powers up 100000x :D

    That comment on the mouth is totally valid - I was wondering about that myself and got lazy what you got looks pretty right! I wanted to give him little braids at the end of the two ends of the beard but that got REALLY too much, unfortunately.

    Do you find that extra pixel on the right of his mouth (how I had it) gives it an extra dimensionality (facing right-ish), or does it just look wrong?
  • I like the animation! I think he should breathe in and out his mouth while he runs :D! Like a train... CHOO CHOO
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • I can't believe how everyone's input is pretty much awesome :D The mouth thing's a great idea but I think I wanna keep him grumpy for character :P
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