If mountains are at the same height, then the mountains on the background should be the highest, but they still need to conform to normal perspective.
Let's say the following set is the peak height of the mountain in screen space relative to the center of the screen, from the closest to the farset. Then the set should be something like:

-2, -1, -2/3

Or in other words:
h - Closest mountain screen space height.
d - distance between two adjacent mountains(in z)
Then,
y_i = h/(1+i*d);

The point is, both screen space world space x and y should be scaled by 1/z, where x and y are numbers relative to the screen's center. And z is the distance from the 'camera', either in world space or some normalized distance value.

This is out of my head, I hope I didn't make any mistake. Maybe others can elaborate.

Edit: Sorry, actually x, y and z should be in world space.

I don't understans what is the meaning "Make what the audience want". I have no idea what the audience want, because I am incapable to read minds of thousends of players.
Maybe if someone explained how do you "Make what the audience want", because I can't tell how you can do that.
More than that, I think the most succesful games are those no one knew they wanted. If you always do what your audience want, then you don't give them new things to play.
You are the game designer, you need to think yourself what people want. You can't rely 100% on the audience, because they are not game designers and they don't necesseraly know what games will be fun for them.
Kind of like how Steve Jobs created products no one knew they wanted, he made them want them.
Of course, there is the whole dimension of marketing, so it isn't always dependant on what game you actually have, it also depend of all the things you do around the game.

I have decided that the artwork as it is now look consistent enough, and I will start animating the characters relative to their current shading.
I have made walking animations for the Sumerian guy, and one attack image.
I am not sure what kind of updates to make, I could make tiny updates as often as possible. Showing a sprite here, a gif there.
Maybe I will just make updates of what progress I have made and have post some visuals only when I have more to show at once.

I am also thinking of delaying gameplay videos, eventhough I can show them.
The reason is that playing against myself when only two units are available, is not very exciting. I am not sure there is a point to show that.
What I would like to show is some gameplay of me against my friend in online multiplayer. I have most of it implemented already.

So what do you think? You think I should update the devlog this way? Also, yea this devlog is also for me, not only for you.

Leonard Cohen once said that poetry that comes from true feelings sound horrible. And I agree. Professional artists know how to "polish" their poetry.

Thanks rek,

Well I guess you got tired from seeing still sprites all the time. And also progress is a bit slow, so it might not be as exciting as it was before.
But now I am working on animating them, so soon I will have animations to show and some gameplay.

pgil, well the previous version had all those unshaded characters animated, although not squiggly, but it was playable with them.

[IOTY]

Copied from Indie DB:


IOTY
 First of all, if you didn't and if you would like you could vote for "Sumerian Blood: Gilgamesh Against the Gods" as Indie game of the year. Who knows, maybe it will surpass Survivors of Ragnarok? Hmm... probably not... heh. But still, I would appreciate that.
 
New Units

 
 This is Enkidu(Name might change since I have seen different names for him in different sources).
 In the Myth of Gilgamesh, it was told Gilgamesh was oppressing his city as a king. And thus, An, the creator god creates Enkidu in order for him to kill Gilgamesh.
 Enkidu lives among the animals like a savage. That is why I made his back arch in the sprite. However, he have been civilized by... female companions... it's in the story. heh. That is why he is shaved and wearing cloth.
 Eventually Enkidu fights Gilgamesh, but Gilgamesh is victorious. However, Enkidu proved to be a formidable opponent, and thus Enkidu and Gilgamesh become friends.
 Enkidu is a unit in Gilgamesh's army.
 

 The word Griffin comes from the Greek word 'Gryphon', this word is used to describe this creature even though the word came in later periods of history. I am not sure why, my guess is that they didn't find good references to how this creature is actually called. In archaeological findings it's not always clear what are the names of the creatures in the art since there aren't always captions or a name attached.
 Not much is known about this creature's place in the mythology, but it is depicted in quite a few places and it is believed it has some sort of protective qualities.
 In the game this is one of the most powerful units in Gilgamesh's army.
 
Your help is needed(Visual style)

 I have completed all the still sprites of Gilgamesh's army, except for Gilgamesh himself. I have took a screenshot of the board with Gilgamesh's army on both sides, and a Sumerian in the place of Gilgamesh.
 I wanted to make this screenshot so you could see all the units placed together.
 When I began working on the art work, it was a first time for me to create this pixel art style. Obviously, my style and skilled improved and changed throughout the creation of all the units. Most significantly the shading.
 I would like to ask you, which units you think have better shading, so I would know which shading style to choose. Then I would like to know which units are similar to the "Selected" units and which units need their shading to be reworked.
 I would like to focus on the shading(lighting\shadows), because I think that is the most problematic aspect.
 I want to gather as many opinions as possible to help me decide what to do next.
 Thanks.
 (I believe you need a few clicks to see the image in full resolution)
 
 

You are right about the wing, I should have done the shadow convex instead of concave.

Edit: I would like you to "analyze" the following screenshot.
It got all the units of one army(except for Gilgamesh, for whom I put a Sumerian solider instead).
I would like you to look for the best shaded creature\character and tell me what other units should be changed for it to be consistent with that "Alpha unit".
You can also say whatever you want and any comments you like, but what I asked would be more helpful for me. I think.

If the board's going to be at that angle, why not have two sprites for each piece? One for facing upward-diagonal and the other downward-diagonal.

A random idea I just thought of: you could rotate the view into isometric, so the main axis of the board is left-to-right across the screen, and mirroring the sideways-facing sprites would then be fine.

I am not sure what you ment, but I did think of rotating the tiles, as to make the tiles diagonal. It was mainly to try and save screen space.
But then someone suggested to squeeze the tiles a bit, so it saved enough screen space.

Also, here is the Griffin. I think the lighting is good but is inconsistent with the rest of the creatures. :/
Edit: I updated the griffin image, fixed the wing.

All I see are sprites and something that looks similar to a chess board. If I wanted to play chess, I'd play chess.

That is my first impression. I doubt I'll change it either.

edit: Looking back on this, it seemed a little rude. You can make whatever type of game you want to. However, you have to realize that some genres are going to limit your possible players. If that is what you enjoy though, go for it. I don't want to deter creation, though I doubt my opinion would convince anyone to give up on a game. I just wanted to clarify this.

Yea, only, it's not a chess game. It would be kind of saying like the battle in Heroes of Might and Magic is like checkers. But since you can't change your mind even when you have no idea how the game play, maybe I shouldn't even try.

If the board's going to be at that angle, why not have two sprites for each piece? One for facing upward-diagonal and the other downward-diagonal.

I could do that, at some point, though for now it's really unnecessary.

Ok, I made Endiku, he is Gilgamesh's best friend.
I wanted to make him look a bit like a savage, that is why his back is arched. Although he is shaven because he was civilized, by err.. female companions... well it's part of the story. Not sure if I can tell that word here.
I think I have done a better job with the lighting, although maybe I don't have enough contrast.
I didn't give him curls, atlhough in some babylonian or later statues he seems to have curls. However, that might be just a mistake, the curly 'person' is actually the demon Humbaba that Gilgamesh and Endiku killed. So I reserve the curls for Humbaba.

My thought is that some people are too worried or too inexperienced in buying games in other places than Steam and the bundle.
It's common for people to not try things they are unfamiliar with. That might be another reason, maybe not the only reason.

Then again, as has been said in this thread before, they're much more likely to want to try to buy games from new places than just buying it retail, like it was before.

There is strong value in networking and being known alongside having a quality product, how should I expect for steam to pick me up, or a place like tigsource to frontpage my project unless it's something out of this world or something that falls in taste of the "gatekeepers" if I'm not known beforehand.

It does make me think of minecraft, Valve could've hired notch or just picked up minecraft a few months earlier if they wanted to, but they weren't even sure of that project until they notice it picking up speed and everyone there playing it, and they missed out on a big product that way, and they were too late.

They will say no to big fine products if they don't feel like there's any pushing-power behind the product, and they'll often be wrong too, it can be quite a gamble.

In case of aquaria which is one of my favorite games, how was the exposure of the game before it went into the humble indie bundle, was it big at all?.

Some good games are just incredibly hard sells, and valve probably knows that, and while it is not the whole goal of their very being, they are interested in a profit.

I was talking about the consumer, not about steam. So I have no idea how what you are saying is related to what you were qoueting.
The consumer can make his own choices about which games to buy and from where, or can make his own choices of which games are good or not. But the problem is that the consumer is sometimes too lazy or too afraid to do that.
Just like people who swear by MetaCritic. There are people who swear by steam and the bundles.

So then you agree that Valve isn't fixated on the bottom line and selects games on a basis other than only profit.

What? Where did you see I agree to that?
I said I don't know, but I also said it is not unheard of for corporate to donate for charities and do "good things". Though, knowing those corporates it is probably just their way to improve their image while they hide the bad things they do.
What I was trying to say, that even if Gabe is saying they are doing good things, that doesn't necesseraly mean they care about anything but money.
Doing good thing is good, of course. But it seem hypocritical when you also do bad things.

Edit: Jimmy, I am not sure how much is it "We are going to wait for a sale" as much as it these people don't know how to get indie games other than Steam and the bundles.
My thought is that some people are too worried or too inexperienced in buying games in other places than Steam and the bundle.
It's common for people to not try things they are unfamiliar with. That might be another reason, maybe not the only reason.

Voted and tweeted.

Voted, and a good idea, I should tweet it too.

MS does all sort of "local community" projects, green projects and etc. They donate money for charities and etc. Do you have any doubt that MS is not a business that sees making money as a top priority?
Corporates invest money to improve their image, it all boils down to making more money. They don't do that out of pure generousity.
Same thing with Google.
Apple is just plain evil, lol.
So, I don't know about valve, but it is not unheard of for a corporation to do "good things", eventhough they might operate companies like foxcon. Or whatever that chinese company that works out people in slave conditions.
Didn't google always talk about "Do no wrong"?
It's all just part of the money making game.