What you think of this?

AriesGames

Member
Hello everyone and thanks for looking at this,

I am building a sci-fi dungeon crawler and I am having a bad time with the color palette.
I am trying to emulate some science fantasy metal looking like material. And from my perspective I am failing...
Here is a ss....theres also a drone kind of robot thing there. Also the main robot its not worked, obviously.
There are no shadows, they are not shadowed yet....like I said trying to get the overall look right.

Also my knowledge in pixel art is basically 0, this is the first time I am creating something serious.
Yes, I know about colors rules and basic stuff, but you can glance the non-professionalism in my pixel art.
When I see others work, which is professional, I get angry. lol

I want to get an opinion from you guys and how could I improve it?

 

Kyon

Member
Hello everyone and thanks for looking at this,

I am building a sci-fi dungeon crawler and I am having a bad time with the color palette.
I am trying to emulate some science fantasy metal looking like material. And from my perspective I am failing...
Here is a ss....theres also a drone kind of robot thing there. Also the main robot its not worked, obviously.
There are no shadows, they are not shadowed yet....like I said trying to get the overall look right.

Also my knowledge in pixel art is basically 0, this is the first time I am creating something serious.
Yes, I know about colors rules and basic stuff, but you can glance the non-professionalism in my pixel art.
When I see others work, which is professional, I get angry. lol

I want to get an opinion from you guys and how could I improve it?

I really like the style already.
Maybe a little more contrast?:

I guess it's all about what kind of game you're making.
 

AriesGames

Member
So fast responses, had a feeling the design part of the forum is slowish...guess I was wrong.
For some reason the image is 480p quality >.< on my pc it looks way better, lol.

@Kyon Thanks for the response.
Exactly, contrast, more contrast. Nice advice.

Its a wannabe Isaac, well...not really...just the flow of the mechanics borrowed from Isaac. A dungeon crawler with infinite scaling...that's the dream....
A lot of transformations, synergy between items, "infinite" scaling....you get the idea.

@JackTurbo What do you mean by tonal values....I am in dark here. Can you be more precise please? Hehe...
 

JackTurbo

Member
Tone is how bright or dark a colour is. So two colours with different tonal values would be noticeably different in lightness.
 

AriesGames

Member
@JackTurbo Sorry for my laziness. I "researched" it...yea it's brightness on the grey scale axis. We could go as far as calling it contrast...

Really thanks for the help guys, I could stare hours at my art, mess with colors, luminosity and wouldn't notice it lacks contrast. >.<
Just added a bit of contrast and it looks way better. But this demands more detail, which I would need to add eventually anyway, like a little taste of texture.
Thanks really...lol
 

Rayek

Member


Add more contrast. Shadows adjusted.


Then you decide it needs a different perspective, and some bevels.


That floor still looks rather 1-dimensional, and the robot needs more contrast.


You know, flat is out. Add subtle textures (FilterForge spaceship panels junk filter) for more visual interest.


Wall components need more contrast. And you decide to add a bit of coloured texture as well.


Lighting needs work. Gradients! We need more gradients!!! Oooh, eerie greenish wall lighting coming up.


Aaarhggghh!!! More Darkness! Even more gradients!!! Must... Add... Glow... FX...


Puny water gun weapon? Really?


Okay, no more. Not going to add that end of level boss. Gotta get back to work now.
 

AriesGames

Member
The atmosphere...dayuuuuuuuum.
Wow, just wow...I never even imagined my game like this. This is so impressive. I don't know if I can ever reach that level of effects but I will try my best. You have showed me a vision, which for I can't be grateful enough.

I have but one question. Can you sir please tell me if you used the same image resolution or made it bigger? Because your FX doesn't look like pixels at all...
You just took the image and edit over it? Or increase its size to actually fit in those effects?

Do I have your permission to use this vision for my game?

I wanted to say and rumble what I can take out of this and what I understood, I deleted it all.
I will post here in a few days my version and tag you sir in. Thank you.
 

Rayek

Member
I can share the source file with you, if you like. I actually down-sized your image to half the resolution to work with the actual pixels. The entire thing is organized in non-destructive layering (mostly). It's very messy, though, because I spent ~30 minutes on this during a break as a quick example.

It is possible to convert those effects to pixel-art versions with the index painting technique. I will add that for you, and you can then work with it yourself. Give me some time to organize the file, after which I will upload it.
 

AriesGames

Member
You don't have to add it yourself, you have done far more then enough. Also keep the source file or share it, I need to learn this by myself. The hard way.
The fact that you did that in 30 minutes is absurd from my perspective...you sir have a project to work on, so please don't waste too much time with newbies...
You actually down-sized it, wow....

And as a matter of fact it looks pretty awesome, pixel art (shaping, form, concept) combined with non-pixel art effects (lighting, shadows, textures etc.). I might stick with this idea.
You said index painting, I will research it and learn it. But I might not even need too. I totally forgot about photoshop and the power of gradients and texture brushes,
I used to play in photoshop as a kid...maybe that's why I forgot about it. You showed me a road I can take, that's all I needed.

I have a problem with perspective, you know games like zelda, the binding of isaac, enter the gungeon, the like, have that perspective for a reason.
What could I do? Re-design my perspective or add more shadows to the connection between walls and floors?
If I choose to re-design the perspective the problem is I can't add rooms like that up and bottom anymore. Maybe if I go isometric but then I need to re-build the whole movement system...hard time.
The movement south (down) will become at a certain degree, angled (if that's even a word). Also there wont be so much Y axis anymore, so combat changes drastically, heck even projectile collision.
There are upsides on this though, no more Y images (or at least fewer) on the sprites. I was having a bad time designing the minimalistic drones on both axis...if I choose X to be detailed, Y went plain and vice versa.
I could go side-scrolling like with a feel of space, like The Darkest Dungeon with its map system.

What can I do here? If you want to help me, sir, answer me a few questions...in time...when you can.
 

Rayek

Member
I'll see if I can whip up an example for you later. PS I am using PhotoLine, not Photoshop. For this kind of work PhotoLine actually works better than Photoshop (in my opinion). And no renting involved.
 

AriesGames

Member
Thanks for the upcoming example on perspective, I am currently thinking about using the same perspective view and tone the spots where walls meet floors more darker.
Also I installed my old CS 6 and its awesome, one gradient with low opacity on the floor and I got the metal look I was trying so hard to obtain with brute colors.
I really don't know why I was using only the built in pixel editor GM comes with, guess I was looking at it like a challenge and forgot that the game is above that. >.<

Only from what Ive seen on the site, it uses positions in the image. So, for example, a gradient can be much more precise defined with that software. Interesting.
I guess it has tons of other cool features too.

Also I said I will post my version in a few days, actually tomorrow I will post it. Its getting late now, but if I would use textures with PS I guess I could finish tonight a very unbalanced version. lol
The thing is I want to try to make the textures by hand, pixel-per-pixel, maybe even create a small library of them.
Then it will probably take me another day maybe even two, to make those aesthetics dynamic in the game. I am not talking about shadows, that's pretty time consuming and generally hard if you need to code them, only FX, glows, maybe even some gradients like lighting, like that greenish one.

I am talking too much, but I feel like I have to say this things. I know that puny water weapon was a joke, but my game will be built on procedural progression we might call it,
the more you win and survive the more greater and awesome weapons you get, so yea...that's why it was puny. And I didn't work at it since two months ago...
Now on the other hand, my birthday is coming in a few days and I wished to gift myself a version, a state of the game which I could be proud of.
What you did, reminded me of the power of effects, for some reason I wanted to build everything as good looking as possible without effects and lighting and FX. Which is a no-no.
What you did was a clear example step-by-step on how much impact those have. I forgot that...so thank you. Soon, I will actually have something to be proud of.
 
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Rayek

Member
Well said. Have a look at Gungeon, and you will see that pixel art graphics are mixed with gradients and other effects that heighten the overall visual quality a lot. No-one should stare themselves to death on a particular graphics style - combine if that works best, and keeps asset creation time down.

PS If you think Photoshop gradient tools are "awesome" - in reality Photoshop's gradient tool is terrible to work with compared to some of the competition out there. But that is a different story for another time. Have fun with Photoshop - I NEVER prepare art in the built-in art editors in game engines. Always use external tools. The built-in ones are just way too limited.
 

AriesGames

Member
I knew it, Gungeon uses effects that are not pixel art. That's why it looks so good. They are so many pixel art assets in the game, you can barely notice the FX. Interesting.
At the start of the project, like two months ago, I lost two weeks on the shape and form of a asset, a wall. ._. I would get it done easier with a tile system. I learned from it...
Like I said I forgot what effects can do...

I am going back to work, I said I post my version today. Also still waiting on how you would tackle that perspective issue, don't lose too much time on it, just draw it in paint with lines and I will understand it.
 

AriesGames

Member
I didn't even notice that in Hyper Light Drifter, its so smooth you can easily miss it.
Since Hyper Light Drifter had so much success on kickstarter, they worked the 💩💩💩💩 out of it. Early versions can't even be compared with the release version.
Even The Binding of Isaac new versions use smooth gradients.
 

AriesGames

Member
Yesterday I had some real life things to do and I didn't get time to do this...I finished in about 6 hours if I sum everything up.
I didn't do the floor and the robots, the floor was lacking detail in my version I needed to balance it with the wall, more work.
All the textures are made pixel-by-pixel, only gradients and shadows/lighting are made in PS.
I might have went over board with the textures and with the power of the lighting. No wonder, didn't worked on "effects" in years.
This is a very broad example of how the game might look in months. Graphics and aesthetics might be subject to change.
>.<

Special thanks to @Rayek for reminding me what effects can do.

1x


2x (This is how almost you see it in the game)
This one I actually just doubled the pixels in the image, so quality is a little worse.

What I mean by that, the quality is like the 1x but doubled the size...if that makes sense. >.<

Yea,there are a lot of things to improve, textures, shadows, even less glow etc. But I need to actually go back to building mechanics and gameplay.
 
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