beetleking22: Dude, those trees, the rocks, the flowers are just stunningly pretty. I like the aestheic a lot as is, but I can't help thinking the gras could use a tiny bit more detail. Then again, it could busy things too much and you're very clearly better at this than me so I'll just shut my mouth up now.

Del: WE MARRY NOW! (Again, probably!) Seriously, those houses are my favourite things forever today.

Mock-ups of a card game I was supposed to do for a monthly game jam...

Absolutely adorable, but how on earth is Merlin not a marlin?

[so if you want to be surprised when you play the game, maybe don't look at them.]

I've finished the fourth boss, and I figure it's time I posted some new screens. These screens show each of the bosses I've finished working on, so if you want to be surprised when you play the game, maybe don't look at them.
Boss 1
Boss 2
Boss 3
Boss 4 (the plant thing shown earlier)

The numbers don't correspond to the order they'll appear in game as I'm still working that out. Also, all of the rooms and tiles are placeholders and will hopefully be more interesting before I'm done with them.

Here are some screens showing the menu:

General Status
Weapon Status
Configuration Screen
Volume Slider
Quit Screen

The number on the robot's chest in the general status screen corresponds to number of deaths. The most important config option, the ability to remap keys, hasn't been implemented yet and is a bit intimidating for some reason and might get scrapped, depending on how ambitious I get. If I do scrap it, I'll at least try to include alternate default input options so as not to alienate anyone not working on a QWERTY board.

I would like to simply double my screen size and remain in windowed, however when I do that certain tiles leak their boundary lines, Its rather hard to explain. Is there a known fix for this?

Chevy's scaling code that I mentioned earlier solves exactly this. In my experience, Game Maker doesn't handle scaling well on its own and, as far as I know, there's no "official" fix for it.

This is going to sound stupid but what is a reference in terms of pixel art.

in terms of pixel art.

stop
stop

sto
p


s
t
o
p


you dont need your references to be pixel art in order to be helpful
its worrying that you think you do

This is such a common perception, though. That pixel art is inherently different from other mediums in terms of how it should be approached. Anyone have any ideas why? (I've been considering it lately, so this is genuine interest not snark)

Well, the yellow lamp-light complicates things a bit. Generally at night, you'd go for the heavy blue wash, but in this case, where things are in the light, they should maybe have yellowish highlights, and more blue shadows?

Edit:
As nicely illustrated by Chrono Trigger:

I just did a quick google image search on "hanging oil lamp" which provided all sorts of neat designs and might give you some ideas on where to take your sprites. More simply, though, try not using pure grey (the same goes for the buildings and background). Try tinting it slightly with a colour instead. In this case, I'd go for a slightly yellow tint, given the colour of the light being cast by the lamps. As for the background, making the night sky a deep blue should take care of things.

Here's a small example I whipped up to help illustrate what I mean:


The example up top is for the greys, and I think it's pretty self explanatory but I can try to elaborate is you'd like. The example at the bottom shows, as the image says, hue shifting. That's probably not the proper name for it, but it's basically the process of, well, shifting the hue of your mid tone as it lightens or darkens. Doing this will create a more visually interesting and (if done subtly) naturalistic palette. Natural light generally tends towards yellow, while shadows lean more towards blue. You can see how, in the non hue-shited ramps (the top ones), the colours lose saturation, get muddy, or just end up looking... wrong as they darken/lighten (check out how yellow turns into that gross, snotty green). In the case of a night scene, giving things a pretty heavily blue tint helps give off a more 'nightish' atmosphere. Check out the difference between these day and night screens from Seiken Densetsu 3:




The use of colour totally changes the atmosphere, and you can easily pick up on the intended time-of-day with a quick glance. Not being an actual artist or having any art training, I won't embarrass myself trying to elaborate on any of this, but googling some basic colour theory stuff should be pretty enlightening (and not just with regards to pixel art!)

This is longer than I intended, and I'm going cross eyed trying to re-read it. Please let me know if it's rambling, and I'll try to better explain.

Hey, man, I did a small edit on your barrel to point some stuff out. here we go:



Thw two major things were perspective and detail. I assumed you were going for a standard "JRPG-top-down" perspective and rounded out the shape of the barrel accordingly. The biggest thing was that the shape of the metal ties didn't conform to the shape of the barrel's top and made things look a bit wonky.

The second thing was that the brightest colour on the top of the barrel made things look over detailed or cluttered or something, so I just did away with it, which I think cleans the look up considerably. One of the more common mistake made by people new to pixel art is trying to cram too much into a small space, leading to less readable sprites.

Other than that, you seem to be going in the right direction. Good colours, good contrast. Give animating your sprites a go, and see where that leads!

If you are going for a crisp pixel look (which, honestly, will look better if you're working with low res pixel art), I'd use ChevyRay's Game Maker scaling code.

There's a small catch in that ensuring crisp scaling requires you to use either the draw_sprite or draw_sprite_ext function in every object's draw event, and use x div (1) and y div (1) as x and y coordinates, respectively.

If you want a more painterly look, redo the the art in higher res (or, I guess, in low res), with a painterly look in mind. While someone's enjoyment of the aesthetics is going to be subjective regardless of what you do, the blurry-but-with-visible-pixels look just comes off as, well... blurry.

Hey, Elk, how many times have I either told you that I love you or proposed to you? Well, add one to whatever that number is.

Quick mockup of a scene for an adventure game I've had in my mind for a while now. 

Is that a freshly showered Einstein in a bathrobe getting drunk at a hotel bar after murdering a legless bellhop? I need this to be the case.

I just noticed that the sprites in your sig linked to a dev thread that, somehow, I didn't know existed. My prior ignorance is inexcusable, but now that I'm aware of this project I have two sentiments that must be expressed:

1) I absolutely love these sprites beyond all conceivable notions of love, and

2) I absolutely adore both low poly 3D and retro 2D aesthetics beyond all rational levels of adoration.

These facts have led to the conclusion that I am

1) entirely smitten with your project despite having not yet played it, and

2) entirely smitten with you as its creator.

That is all.

(Useful feedback once I've had a chance to try it. Honest!)

Small update to prove I'm still alive.

Three bosses are in, and with that I'm essentially back to where I was when my hard drive died. I've also implemented the upgrades and pause/menu system, though, so really I'm quite a ways beyond where I was before. Things have been a bit slower due to other commitments and, frankly, a bit of burnout. I'm taking a bit of a step back from working on this as I don't want it to become a chore.

I'm having a bit of an internal debate about the bosses. Namely, I can't decide if it would be better to force the player to encounter some of the same bosses regardless of the upgrade path they choose or having unique bosses for each area. I'm leading towards the latter, but I've considered the possibility that forcing the player to face certain bosses regardless of upgrades could make the upgrades seem more, well, useful. For example, say you face off against the plant boss I showed earlier; having either extra health or extra firepower could change the dynamic of the fight a bit. Like, more health and you'll be able to hold out longer but so will he due to your lack of firepower. It just occurred to me that allowing the player to choose their upgrades might be an option as well. Like a pseudo-rpg skill tree type system where you can ultimately only unlock three abilities, resulting in the same end loadout as would following any of the given paths under the current system.

I think I'm getting rambly so I'll stop here but feedback, as always, would be great!

The bullet charging system makes sense and sounds pretty good. I like the idea and how you're going about making this - it seems like you know what you're doing, or at least are giving it thought and consideration. Nice job!

SolarLune: I'm glad I'm giving that impression because, despite putting a decent amount of thought into things, I certainly have no idea what I'm doing.

dont worry about developing your own style
worry about improving

Exactly this. What's more, don't make the mistake so many people make of assuming that working with low-fi pixel art precludes an understanding of the fundamentals (not saying you are, but a lot of people seem to). If you want to draw a ninja, even a tiny, three colour ninja, an understanding of anatomy is key.

Study, then reap the rewards! ♥

whats with the lack of love for famicom detective EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD

Two questions: 1) what's a Famicom Detective, and 2) give me one.