Graphics [ANDROID] Does this look good?

jazzzar

Member
Hello there, ok so after too many tries to ehmm "properly" scale the game for android devices, i finally gave up, as i'm like 90% done with the game , and this thing was driving me crazy for a long time (scaling) , and after trying many tutorials, buying edgeds scale engine on the marketplace and lots of hours trying to get things done, i gave up, SO this is how my 800X1024 game looks on a 1440X2560 device (galaxy S6) , what do you think, is it THAT bad, i know it's not good looking, but is it actually too bad? :(
Ideas ?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated :)
 
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Aura

Guest
First of all, I'd suggest resizing the view instead of scaling it up/down, that is, determine how much area of the room would be visible according to the display size instead of determining a view area to show yourself and scaling it up according to the display size. Works for me for the most part. ^^'

Either way, the game looks nice at the moment. But you'll probably want to gather feedback on the basis of a video or a demo; a (static) screenshot can't tell what your game looks like when being played.
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
Resizing the view rather than scaling it is rather important. Otherwise you dont keep the right proportions.
Another option is to add some trim, preferably in a decorative way.

On a side note, Limbo has spawned way too many games with the same aesthetics... If you want your game to really stand out, go the sin city route and choose one colour to emphasis.
 

jazzzar

Member
First of all, I'd suggest resizing the view instead of scaling it up/down, that is, determine how much area of the room would be visible according to the display size instead of determining a view area to show yourself and scaling it up according to the display size. Works for me for the most part. ^^'

Either way, the game looks nice at the moment. But you'll probably want to gather feedback on the basis of a video or a demo; a (static) screenshot can't tell what your game looks like when being played.
my game is a puzzle game and everything happens in the same room, scaling the view up would need me to dynamically place objects and scale them so they don't look really tiny or whatever, this would be a real pain at the moment as the game contains too much code and is nearly finished :(
Resizing the view rather than scaling it is rather important. Otherwise you dont keep the right proportions.
Another option is to add some trim, preferably in a decorative way.

On a side note, Limbo has spawned way too many games with the same aesthetics... If you want your game to really stand out, go the sin city route and choose one colour to emphasis.
the same thing i said to aura about the views, and about the theme, my game is basically dark themed and sad, so that's what i actually want :)
 
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Shihaisha

Guest
On a side note, Limbo has spawned way too many games with the same aesthetics... If you want your game to really stand out, go the sin city route and choose one colour to emphasis.
Or add flappy birds to make it stand out. Did somebody already make a Limbo x Flappy Bird crossover? :cool:
 
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Shihaisha

Guest
can you please leave some feedback?
I have posted my suggestion already in another thread of yours, and don't have anything new to add. If you make a game specifically for mobile phones, you should make your room with correct aspect ratio of mobile phones. Just change the size of your room to, e.g., 720x1280, check "keep aspect ratio", and that's all. Your game doesn't have a lot of objects or complex gui, so adjusting them can't be that difficult. Trying to make a 800X1024 game to look good on a mobile phone is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It won't fit.
 

jazzzar

Member
I have posted my suggestion already in another thread of yours, and don't have anything new to add. If you make a game specifically for mobile phones, you should make your room with correct aspect ratio of mobile phones. Just change the size of your room to, e.g., 720x1280, check "keep aspect ratio", and that's all. Your game doesn't have a lot of objects or complex gui, so adjusting them can't be that difficult. Trying to make a 800X1024 game to look good on a mobile phone is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It won't fit.
ok but chaning the room sizes means i need to dynamically place objects and resize them right? that's the thing i am concerned about
 
What they are trying to say is that your selected resolution is uncommon for mobiles, so it's going to look stretched on most devices. They're suggesting you change your room size from 800x1024 to 720x1280 because it will scale better and stretch less. Keep aspect ratio will scale up the screen without distorting it like in the picture you posted.
No need for dynamic placement or resizing objects.
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
Simply add a trim then, its a cheap and easy way to keep the aspect ratio the same.
If you code does not allow you to change the view size, then you must have incredibly bad code... Changing the view doesn't mean changing the room size.

To easily scale the view correctly, choose either a fixed width or fixed height.
Then determined the aspect ratio of the device.
Finally change the height/ width (the one that you did not decide a fixed size for) such that you keep the aspect ratio the same.
 

jazzzar

Member
What they are trying to say is that your selected resolution is uncommon for mobiles, so it's going to look stretched on most devices. They're suggesting you change your room size from 800x1024 to 720x1280 because it will scale better and stretch less. Keep aspect ratio will scale up the screen without distorting it like in the picture you posted.
No need for dynamic placement or resizing objects.
OMG man i have i already have 27 levels, it's gonna be hard to redesign every one of them because i'm too lazy, but i think i'll do it :(
What Siolfor said up there.
Right now, like it or not, the game look stretch. Will never look "pro" if stretched.
i DO KNOW it is stretched, but that's the final thing i can do before releasing :( , do you think people will notice this thing ? :p
Simply add a trim then, its a cheap and easy way to keep the aspect ratio the same.
If you code does not allow you to change the view size, then you must have incredibly bad code... Changing the view doesn't mean changing the room size.

To easily scale the view correctly, choose either a fixed width or fixed height.
Then determined the aspect ratio of the device.
Finally change the height/ width (the one that you did not decide a fixed size for) such that you keep the aspect ratio the same.
My code isn't actually bad in any way, i simply DO NOT use views, they're not enabled, so why use them in the code than? from the start of the developement of the game i didn't have the views thingy enabled, it's a puzzle that happens in the same place, so no need for them (actually there is a need which is scaling but now it's too late) , but thanks for the feedback :)



EDIT : and guys that's a 1440X2560 resolution which is pretty high end (Galaxy S6) the game isn't intended to be played on a Tab anyway so i think that is the hightest resolution it will go for
 

RangerX

Member
Check online to dig out information about the most used resolutions for mobile. I like this article here because its pretty in depth.
https://deviceatlas.com/blog/most-popular-smartphone-screen-resolutions-2015

Also, you will notice at the end of the article that newer phones are all 16:9 screen ratio. Would be smart for your game to be 16:9



EDIT:
And why do you keep making threads when you clearly don't want to change a thing? Your situation is not dramatic, adding views would fix your problems and it wouldn't be hard to implement in your game. Yes people will notice, don't worry. There are thousands of "me" out there and I notice it right away.

The only problem your game is having.... is you. Think about it.
 

jazzzar

Member
Check online to dig out information about the most used resolutions for mobile. I like this article here because its pretty in depth.
https://deviceatlas.com/blog/most-popular-smartphone-screen-resolutions-2015

Also, you will notice at the end of the article that newer phones are all 16:9 screen ratio. Would be smart for your game to be 16:9



EDIT:
And why do you keep making threads when you clearly don't want to change a thing? Your situation is not dramatic, adding views would fix your problems and it wouldn't be hard to implement in your game. Yes people will notice, don't worry. There are thousands of "me" out there and I notice it right away.

The only problem your game is having.... is you. Think about it.
Thank you for the article , AND NO, sorry but your point about me not changing a thing is not true , these thread is just asking if it looks good or not , my last try was today , i tried to resize the room , than dynamically place things ,which worked, now for scaling things , it didn't turn out to be good , jumping distances and such changed and it all messed up so i stopped , and already bought the edgeds engine and it didn't work (it uses views so i already tried that) , tried your 1:1 method and it didn't work , tried the blog posts by nocturne and still a big nope, tried to make my own thing too and nope, so giving up was after lots of tries,i TRIED to change a thing, so sorry to say that your point is completely wrong :(
 

RangerX

Member
You're doing it wrong. You're not supposed to change your game and assets. That's the thing.
Sorry if I push you but you seem to have something good in hand. Do it right!
 

jazzzar

Member
You're doing it wrong. You're not supposed to change your game and assets. That's the thing.
Sorry if I push you but you seem to have something good in hand. Do it right!
No problem man,
looks like what siolfor said is kinda right :

no more stretching, changed rooms size to 720X1280
and yeah checked keep aspect ratio in global game settings, no black bars on 1440X2560
EDIT :eek:fcourse they're both 16:9 haha :p
 

jazzzar

Member
this looks like Limbo. That's the first thing that comes to mind.
i can never make something that looks like 10% of limbo, i'll take this as a compliment but is it a positive thing or not? although i don't think it looks like it, just dark themed like it,it's a puzzle game that happens in the same place so please explain better :p
 
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Marigio300X

Guest
I'm not sure if this is what you were going for, but I think the BG needs to be a bit lighter in order to see the character better. Here's an example of what I mean (Image from Donkey Kong Land, 1995)
68723-Donkey_Kong_Land_(USA,_Europe)-2.png
It's hard to see the main character because of the background, right? That's no fun. I'm not making you change it, just suggesting a brighter background palette.
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
The problem now is that not a phones have the same aspect ratio...
You really should consider a way to a just the aspect ration of your game of you want to make people happy!

i can never make something that looks like 10% of limbo, i'll take this as a compliment but is it a positive thing or not? although i don't think it looks like it, just dark themed like it,it's a puzzle game that happens in the same place so please explain better :p
If you want my opinion, its both a good and a bad thing; on the plus side it looks great. Its a nice aesthetic.
On the down side, its been over used, and people won't associate the graphics style with your game, but think of Limbo instead.
The game looks good, but for that extra bit, I highly recommend you find a way to differentiate it from the rest.
 

jazzzar

Member
I'm not sure if this is what you were going for, but I think the BG needs to be a bit lighter in order to see the character better. Here's an example of what I mean (Image from Donkey Kong Land, 1995)
View attachment 1315
It's hard to see the main character because of the background, right? That's no fun. I'm not making you change it, just suggesting a brighter background palette.
i'll look into it, thanks for the feedback,although it's not what i'm going for :p
The problem now is that not a phones have the same aspect ratio...
You really should consider a way to a just the aspect ration of your game of you want to make people happy!


If you want my opinion, its both a good and a bad thing; on the plus side it looks great. Its a nice aesthetic.
On the down side, its been over used, and people won't associate the graphics style with your game, but think of Limbo instead.
The game looks good, but for that extra bit, I highly recommend you find a way to differentiate it from the rest.
thank you for your feedback again , i can actually only program , these art were somehow easy to make because of that theme, and my game's name is Darkest Dreams so that is what i tried to accomplish with the art style, i don't think i can make any better art , i can't even draw a decent looking crate, not even a tree :p so how about the characters , maybe after finishing this project , i'll learn how to make art before i start with something different , i hope i can get better at drawing art :)
 
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DyingSilence

Guest
I'm no great artist, but for me things are out of place if compared to others.

There are 3 styles in here:

One for characters and blocks.
One for the frame.
One for the background.

For me the game would look the best if it was entirely that watercolory as the background is.
The blocky style of character and platforms isn't bad either.
The frame... It would be good if justified. I've seen this style working fine in The Hero Of Many for example, but overally it really doesn't fit.

Summarizing, you should stick to one of the styles. But it's just my opinion, keep up the good work :)
 

jazzzar

Member
I'm no great artist, but for me things are out of place if compared to others.

There are 3 styles in here:

One for characters and blocks.
One for the frame.
One for the background.

For me the game would look the best if it was entirely that watercolory as the background is.
The blocky style of character and platforms isn't bad either.
The frame... It would be good if justified. I've seen this style working fine in The Hero Of Many for example, but overally it really doesn't fit.

Summarizing, you should stick to one of the styles. But it's just my opinion, keep up the good work :)
Hey , thank you for your time writing this feedback, i can in no way make uhhm one art style for the game as i'm not an artist in anyway, i have no idea how to draw these stuff, those in the game are some quick drawing i did in game maker editor which justifies why they're not pro looking, if i succeed one day, than maybe i would hire an artist or learn drawing myself, for now i don't feel like changing anything because i feel i'm gonna ruin everything
 
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Drewster

Guest
I didn't think the other one looked bad, but this unstretched one definitely looks better.

Generally your approach should be to keep your aspect ratio without doing black bars on the sides or top. That typically means one of these:

1- Dynamically size and place all objects -- use large sprites and large fonts, and scale down for size relative to either the width or height (keeping your room size matched to your screen size). Then you are also dynamically placing everything. For example, calculating that I want this button 5% of the horizontal width from the right side of the screen and the same distance from the top of the screen, for example. Or deciding that you want the button to take 10% of height of the screen or whatever, and then scale appropriately. This has been my approach in most projects.

2- Manually set up and layout multiple rooms with different sprite sizes -- way too many variations to accommodate because of so many different android devices, so I don't love this one.

3- Set up one oversized room with everything, adjusting your view to a part of the room that you will actually use on the given device. I've used this approach once and it was okay for what I was doing.

No problem man,
looks like what siolfor said is kinda right :

no more stretching, changed rooms size to 720X1280
and yeah checked keep aspect ratio in global game settings, no black bars on 1440X2560
EDIT :eek:fcourse they're both 16:9 haha :p
 
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