Soul Healer - Brave Caterpillar Music! :D

kupo15

Member
I dunno, I always sort of liked the style of non-pixellated music in a pixellated game.
(Don't get me wrong, though. I love chip music.)
For me that all depends on the mix. For example I found Owlboy's 8bit/16bit SFX against the live recorded soundtrack to be quite jarring. I think the visuals barely met the threshold for it to use live sounding orchestral quality tracks as well at least for me.
Its been a while since I played that game so I forget exactly what was so jarring about it but I do believe having the sounds/music match up with the visuals is creates a much more engaging experience because they fit together.

Shovel Knight would have been so strange sounding live and thinking back to Lttp those synth sounding midi's fits so well. The last indie pixel adventure game I played which really captivated me was Treasure Adventure Game...live orchestra would have ruined the immersion in that game for me. The audio quality in that game matched so perfectly!

That's just me though :)

Edit: Actually I think it was the opposite, the beginning of OB started with low bit music which was jarring against the beautiful graphics. Then it developed into live sounding music but the SFX continued to be 8/16bit sounds which I really didn't like
 
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FROGANUS

Guest
my understanding-
pixels in music are 'bits', 'bitrate' measuring fidelity, amount of bits/data per second (like pixels/inch).
but the correct adjective for low-bit music?..
genre-wise, 'chiptune' and '8bit' have traction (for some reason 8 is the proper relatively low bitrate i guess because of the famicom..)
'bit-crushed' describes the sound of a higher bitrate sample 'crushed' down using effects.. *shrugs*

nice track, rich!
 
About "pixelated music": Music just needs to match the atmosphere of the game. Some pixel art games could do it, others couldn't. I'll post a video of gameplay with music soon - I think you guys will agree that it fits the game, even though it's using new instrument samples. =)

I'm also using hardware samples from the early 90s. Depends on the atmosphere of the area. =D
 
Small update while I work on the "actual" update. I did some thinking today, and I thought I should start giving my game a more painterly sort of look...I love the look of old SNES pixel art, but sometimes I feel like I'm sticking to traditions just for the sake of sticking to traditions, which isn't a good thing...I shouldn't be ignoring certain possibilities just because they don't line up with what I grew up with. With that in mind, I doodled two different sorts of grass today:

[old grass was jank, will upgrade soon...]


The first was drawn with what I've learned from pastels recently in mind. The second is sort of Breath of the Wild's method of doing grass....just drawing every single blade separately onto the screen. The second is good because I can have the grass bend when the player walks through it, but I do like the look of the first, too. For the first, I'd just have a shadow layer kind of thing under the player, and I guess I'd have to animate each grass tile rustling or something when the player walks though. Keep in mind these were both done in about 20-30 minutes...if I did a real tileset in either of these styles, I'd spend a few hours on just the grass.

I dunno, guys. Any thoughts on this?
 
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I like the second one a lot. The top one, not so much. It looks like a pile of spinach... I think the flowers don't work so well in that exact manner. Though of course I know you'd work to improve either before you had a final version, so I'm sure it'd be fine, but based on that I think the second is stylistically better. Also, the grass effects you mentioned really add to the feel of the world and makes it more fun to walk around.

I agree you shouldn't limit yourself to a style just because that was what the NES looked like. So long as you keep the pixel-art I think you can branch off quite a bit.
 

kupo15

Member
Definitely agree with your thinking! I personally love the one pictured with the Fox. How do you go about drawing each blade of grass so they individually move out of the away? Some sort of shader or what?
 

CMAllen

Member
Definitely agree with your thinking! I personally love the one pictured with the Fox. How do you go about drawing each blade of grass so they individually move out of the away? Some sort of shader or what?
At the most simple? If the grass is a purely visual effect, with each blade drawn individually, you'd get the distance to the nearest character, get the sign of difference between the grass x and character x, and adjust the image_angle based on distance*sign. At least that's my simplistic take on it. I'd wager a shader would be faster (but I'm still a shader novice, so I wouldn't know where to begin).
 
Definitely agree with your thinking! I personally love the one pictured with the Fox. How do you go about drawing each blade of grass so they individually move out of the away? Some sort of shader or what?
Just use an instance for each blade of grass, obviously! =)
No, I'm joking. I have no idea, lol. I don't think that far ahead!

I was vaguely thinking something like @CMAllen mentioned, but I wasn't really worrying about it while drawing, besides thinking "yeah, I'm sure GM can do it somehow," haha. X'D

Edit: typing it out like that, it sounds really funny that I was planning on spending five hours drawing a tileset I don't even have the tech to implement. I guess I'm a true-blue optimist! "Maybe I should do the code first to make sure it's feasible?" didn't even occur to me until I answered your question! :'D
 
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HayManMarc

Member
Yep, I like the idea of reactive grass. Good luck finding how to best do it. It will add a lot of character to the game, much like the fish under the ice.
(An occasional little white butterfly/moth flying out as you walk through, maybe?)
 

Bearman_18

Fruit Stand Deadbeat
I think the second one would be good sometimes, whereas the first would be like wet and trodden upon. Though I also like the second one best.
EDIT-
Wait. Is the first more than one tile? If so, I think it would look good as a solitary tile, like a patch of lonesome grass in the mud.
 
I think the second one would be good sometimes, whereas the first would be like wet and trodden upon. Though I also like the second one best.
EDIT-
Wait. Is the first more than one tile? If so, I think it would look good as a solitary tile, like a patch of lonesome grass in the mud.
Yeah, the first one is actually supposed to be thick marshy grass. The second one is just normal tall Summer grass. I guess I shouldn't have asked "which is better" when they're both for different things, hahah. The first one is just a sketch, no tiling, but I could get it to tile if I did a real one. =)
It will add a lot of character to the game, much like the fish under the ice.
Yeah, that's what I figured. I think I'll try a test version tonight. Kind of excited. =D
(An occasional little white butterfly/moth flying out as you walk through, maybe?)
My other forest set already has little moths/butterflies flying around the flowers actually. You can see them for 1/2 a second in the trailer maybe, hahah. Having butterflies/grasshoppers and stuff jump out of the grass as your walk through it is a great idea, though. Breath of the Wild does that too, actually, and it adds a lot. Good suggestion - I'll add it, heheh! =D

Thanks for the comments/suggestions, guys. I will continue trying to make cool stuff for you to look at. (´﹃`)
 

cidwel

Member
grass movement would fit perfect in your game!
Feels that you want to show a soild kind of connection with the nature in your project

ps: would be a bit early to start making fanart of your project?
 
grass movement would fit perfect in your game!
Feels that you want to show a soild kind of connection with the nature in your project
I don't want to sound like a pretentious or anything, but I love wandering around in the woods and outdoors and stuff as much as anything else on the planet. I remember seeing Princess Mononoke when I was a kid, and being completely amazed at how well the movie captured the feeling of being out in nature. That movie is what made me start taking drawing seriously. I read an interview from Miyazaki later saying that one of the main things he wanted from the movie was to make kids want to go outside and explore more. That really resonated with me. All of my favorite games are adventure games/RPGs where you get to walk around exploring, and I love when games take the time to make it feel like you're actually outside. It's why I loved Breath of the Wild so much this year, hahah.

So yeah, you're right! My main way of thinking for this game is "will this area be interesting/pretty/exciting/scary/etc to explore?" And then I go from there! =)

ps: would be a bit early to start making fanart of your project?
It's never too early! Just the question alone is super flattering, hahah! O:
 
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Kobold

Guest
...must be one heck of an attack...
...the prepping is going on since a few weeks now.

I don't wanna be around when that thing ignites... or whatever
 
So, no huge update today, since I'm still working on the next cool thing for you guys, but I wanted to post anyway, because Soul Healer has gotten it's first piece of fanart, thanks to rad cidwel!



So awesome! That really made my day, so I wanted to share it with you guys. Super cool of him to take the time to make it, I think! Many thanks! ^ ^

Now, for a small update on what I'm doing. Working on this guy again!

I started him awhile back, but now I need to finish him up for one of the upcoming posts. He won't actively attack the player, but he leaves sticky trails of silk everywhere he goes, so he's a nuisance anyway. He's going to make cute squeaky noises when you hit him, so players will have to wrestle with the choice between letting him live and dealing with his 💩💩💩💩, or cruelly killing a cute non-aggro caterpillar just going about his business. I'll probably honestly leave them alone most of the time when I play, but I'm sure many players will be meaner. Poor bug, haha! :'D

A fun (extremely boring) fact some of you might've noticed if you've seen a lot of my animations: I always animate on a dark blue background. I have no idea why. I just like the color, I guess. I try to pick a color that suits the character for each animation, to make the pixel art easiest to see for me, but I always end up with the same dark blue color in the end, anyway. :')

Anyway! See you guys in another day or two. I think what I'm working on right now is really cool, so I'm excited to share it. Hope you guys like it!
 
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Ampersand

Guest
The scene with the koi fish under the ice and the winter weather made me feel things that Link to the Past did the first time I played it as a kid. There's already so much life and character to your art, it makes this project very compelling!

I can't wait to see more combat.

Edit: watching it again, I really can't wait to absolutely wreck slime hordes myself
 
The scene with the koi fish under the ice and the winter weather made me feel things that Link to the Past has all my life. There's already so much life and character to your art, it makes this project very compelling!
Zora's domain in Link to the Past, with the sound of the rushing water, and the shade everywhere....magical. Under the bridge with the guy sleeping, too, where it's nice and quiet. Perfect. Stuff like that has always amazed me, and I've wanted to make games because of things like that ever since playing Link to the Past. My game's story is one big excuse to travel to places like that over and over and over again. I think it's really really going to connect with people, especially people who really appreciate things like that. "Fish under the ice" is basically my game's mantra! =')

I can't wait to see more combat.
Yep, that's what I've been working on for the last few weeks now, on and off with other things. The version of my game in the trailer only had simple attacks and some magic...the new one I'm working on is going to have rolling, blocking, dash, and charge attacks added. Lots of work, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun when it's done. I'm taking it really slowly to make sure the game-feel is top tier. I want people to enjoy just the feeling of walking around and attacking things when they play my game, even when they're over leveled for an area or whatever. =D

Thanks for the comment, Ampersand! =)
 
L

Lonewolff

Guest
Zora's domain in Link to the Past, with the sound of the rushing water, and the shade everywhere....magical. Under the bridge with the guy sleeping, too, where it's nice and quiet. Perfect. Stuff like that has always amazed me, and I've wanted to make games because of things like that ever since playing Link to the Past. My game's story is one big excuse to travel to places like that over and over and over again. I think it's really really going to connect with people, especially people who really appreciate things like that. "Fish under the ice" is basically my game's mantra! =')
Man, I probably need to go back and play some of these games. The Nintendo era passed me by somehow. Never touched one in my life.

Had the Atari 2600, C64, Amiga 2000, and somehow jumped straight to the PC. Sounds like I missed some great stuff.
 
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You missed Link to the Past, Secret of Mana, and Earthbound? I just almost started crying!
And Chrono Trigger....and the Soul Blazer Trilogy. And Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Contra....Donkey Kong Country.....Mario....Super Metroid.....and so many others.
A game designer who's never owned a Super Nintendo is like a composer who's never heard classical music. It's incredible and borderline heretical to me. :'D
Go buy a 💩💩💩💩ing SNES, @Ghost in the IDE. I told you like five years ago that you missed half of the best games ever made by not having one, hahah. Then go buy a Switch, because Nintendo just released two more of the best games ever made last year, and are poised to keep on going. Also, you'll want one to play my game anyway, lol. =)
Game looks tremendous. Good work. Any ETA for beta?
Thanks, weird! ETA is "soon," but it's been "soon" for a long time, now... :'D
This soon is the real soon though, I promise. =D
 
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