Art Style, For a "Sterile," Game

Zerb Games

Member
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Example 1: Plain Sterile white environment. Other than the annoying lines that for some reason show up ):< I really like the look of the overall design.

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Example 2: Another plain and sterile environment, this time however it has a much higher contrast foreground, and little details within the walls. I like this look, but I found it to be a little too sci-fi looking.

Example 3: A combination of the black walls with a nice colorful wall I've made. There's grass to add some environmental interaction. The lighting is very detailed, and wobbles which adds a nice feel of motion...

IGNORE THE FPS! I had a screen cap on. Lags it a bit, plus my computer is already crap. Also, the art is far from done, in fact most of the art hasn't been redone in over a year. So I was a bit hesitant sharing this, but I need the input now.

SO I'm having a problem with my art, other than a weird line issue I find the pixel art style is consistently conflicting with the lighting system. I want to go for a very simple pixel art style with 16 max color pallet for each sprite. Overall I like where I am heading with this I see a lot of potential in the grass, the player texture, and the wall texture(s). So I don't want to do a complete overhaul on style, I just need to clean things up and make it stick to a pallet. Any, and all input on art style is incredibly appreciated, and will go a long way! Constructive criticism is always welcome!

Something I am also having trouble with is making the environments interesting. The environments are very much so supposed to be representative of hospital/sterile lab type theme. Up until this point I've never really had such a constraint, and if my environment was looking dull, I would throw in some trash, a shirt on the ground, rubble, a blood stain, maybe a dead animal, something to add interest overall! However, here this cannot be the case. Any ideas of things I could add to make it interesting? I guess I'm not sharing much of the world, but I can't really as I want it to be more of a secret told through visuals.

Thanks guys!
 
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Deleted member 467

Guest
You can't really bump topics made less than an hour ago, the rules afaik say 48 to 72 hours, then you can bump.

For a sterile environment Maybe broken glass (it happens), pools of water, lab tables, tables, chairs, furniture in general, and clothing. I mean, accidents happen in labs so everything you said already can happen in a lab and could be found on a ground.
 
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Grimlock

Guest
If you're up against a creative block when it comes to level design the best thing to do is to tell a story to yourself about the environment or area (nothing that has to be directly shared with the player or even be a part of the story line). Basically you tell yourself a story about an event that happened in a particular location (that you are working on or trying to spice up) and then express it in your level design. What you're doing is adding history to your design/room/area whatever, "something happened here" or "this place used to be uses as...". Doing this can add a lot of depth to your level designs and inspire you to create some interesting graphics to express your ideas.

Good luck! And if you don't mind me asking how are you approaching your use of lighting, it looks really nice!
 

Genetix

Member
The shading on those tiles (Not from the light source) could definitely be fixed up a bit. I would give the walls a basic texture and adjust the shade from the top and the sides of them a bit. They come off a bit to black for me as well - not something you would likely see in that type of environment - i'd go for more whites and grays - oh, and blues!
 

Zerb Games

Member
If you're up against a creative block when it comes to level design the best thing to do is to tell a story to yourself about the environment or area (nothing that has to be directly shared with the player or even be a part of the story line). Basically you tell yourself a story about an event that happened in a particular location (that you are working on or trying to spice up) and then express it in your level design. What you're doing is adding history to your design/room/area whatever, "something happened here" or "this place used to be uses as...". Doing this can add a lot of depth to your level designs and inspire you to create some interesting graphics to express your ideas.

Good luck! And if you don't mind me asking how are you approaching your use of lighting, it looks really nice!
I'm actually trying to tell the entire story through visuals. Every room has a story, I'm planning on doing something to get it out of a lab setting so I can let my creativity flow a bit more.
 

Zerb Games

Member
The shading on those tiles (Not from the light source) could definitely be fixed up a bit. I would give the walls a basic texture and adjust the shade from the top and the sides of them a bit. They come off a bit to black for me as well - not something you would likely see in that type of environment - i'd go for more whites and grays - oh, and blues!
I would have agree with you there, gonna add a blue, and grey wall. I'm planning on adding lots of colors, just gotta finish up my level editor!
 
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