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[Angelbait]

COWS WITH GUNS

I wanted to start keeping track of where I am with this project and thought it would be fun to do so on the site that got me this far!

So without further adieu, Cows With Guns!

The title screen so far

In game

LINK TO GAME
http://gamebunnies.ca/aaron/


I literally could not have gotten it this far without TIGsource and will be continuing to pursue being a solid member of this community!

Thanks for any critique and enjoy my silly game!

[Angelbait]

AUG 30/11:

After some serious study into colour theory I had decided to rework the palette into something I can use across all of my assets.  My big problem right now is I STILL don't feel as if its a "complete" palette, like I am missing something really important.

Any help would be much appreciated as I start reworking all my graphics, but I don't expect any soon so I'll be working on it as I take suggestions.

So here's my new palette


Nothing else to report other than the small crisis I had when I came to this realization

[Happy Shabby Games]

Hey Angelbait, hopefully I can help a bit concerning the graphics.

I think your biggest issue is too many colors. I would pick at most 3 shades per color in this case. Right now you have almost 30 colors total in your palette when you could get away with at least half of that.

Your main character was using around 16 colors very inefficiently and doesn't look very much like a cow at all. The dithering wasn't adding anything either.



I redrew it using only 7 colors-


Here is the original size-



I'm pretty new to pixeling personally, but one of the biggest things I've been learning from the artists here is that less is more. Try making a thread in the creative>art>workshop and posting your pixel art there to get some more constructive criticism.

Good luck with your game!  

p.s.-

Here is a pixel art tutorial by Derek Yu that's been helping me out a lot.
http://www.derekyu.com/?page_id=218

[keoni29]

I like your new style

[Angelbait]

I redrew it using only 7 colors-

Thanks a TONNE for the suggestions, your cow is AMAZING!!!11!1 
Made mine akin to that of a child!

Anyways, less puckering up and some questions, my biggest problem is ARRIVING at those choice colors.  I never seem to get a straight answer about it, or even just one I can cheat a little using. 

I always seem to start with a color I will need later, such as the pink for her skin.  Than I slowly move the hue towards a cool color while I move saturation down as well.  I do the opposite and voila, my palette.  But they never seem to come out as... efficient as others?  I don't quite know

Well, thanks for the SUPERB help already.  Iteration is the key to game making so GOODBYE graphics!  Time to start afresh :D

[Angelbait]

SEP 4/11:

Hey Angelbait, hopefully I can help a bit concerning the graphics....(cont)

Thanks again for the help man, I took some time to REALLY think about what you said to me and its really helped.

I managed to bring her color base down to only 6!  And still keep my original design (Everything will be of similar style :D )whilst upgrading the entire character dozens fold!

So here she is!



How does she look now?

[Happy Shabby Games]

Nice, you're really improving! Good perspective and I like the selective outlining. Where is the beefy machine gun ? The thing he is holding right now is hard to read. Also there are some jaggies in your outlines.

Sorry for not replying to your last post about coming up with a palette. To be honest I'm still learning this and I don't have much advice to offer. I just try to find a limited amount of colors that can be used for a wide range of objects and use a couple shades of each. I don't use pure blacks or whites either. That's my limited knowledge on palette selection. I used this to get colors for my game Doppler.

[bart_the_13th]

I do still like this one

Though, it's not blend nicely to the other graphic, so you should also change the other to match that one...

[Angelbait]

Nice, you're really improving! Good perspective and I like the selective outlining. Where is the beefy machine gun ? The thing he is holding right now is hard to read. Also there are some jaggies in your outlines.

Sorry for not replying to your last post about coming up with a palette. To be honest I'm still learning this and I don't have much advice to offer. I just try to find a limited amount of colors that can be used for a wide range of objects and use a couple shades of each. I don't use pure blacks or whites either. That's my limited knowledge on palette selection. I used this to get colors for my game Doppler.

Hate to say it but you are very talented in what you do, and I can only hope to learn as much as I can from as many as I can meet.

On the other hand, what do you mean by jaggies?/how do I go about fixing things like that?  And that website is AWESOME for palette's!  

I'm re-working the background right now but something is off on my shoulder and its taking me a little extra time

Edit: Doppler is fuckin GORGEOUS!

[vlaube]

Great work with the colors. Thats what i call progress!

One thing I noticed was that your silhouette lacks readability. At first glance it's not quite clear if it's a cow or a pig.


This silhouette is much more readable:


You should probably look at some cows


Valve did a great job with Team Fortress 2. This article (PDF, 2.7MB) has some more details.

[Angelbait]

JAN 5/12

Haven't updated in awhile as things have been moving slowly...  Working full time as security and another part time job has left me barren for time sadly.

Thought I might pop on here and throw down a link to the latest version of CWG! Version 0.11.

She has the second newest version of Heff and other graphics going for it but little else seem how I have once again, ditched all art assets to begin learning in Flash.

Heff 3000:



She will see at least one more iteration due to some smaller things changing about her character but this is the last full on change.  I got a few comments about her silhouette and design, but I'm finding her roley-poley kill everything that moves with a giant mini-gun attitude to be quite humerus....  But thanks for the help so far!  With TIG at my back, this will be a good game yet!

Another note being that I got permission to use the song I wanted for CWG.  I just need to edit it up a bit to match the menu's, and other sound-effects I have planned.

More to come as soon as I'm not working!

[Angelbait]

Jan 11/12

Worked on the coding for a couple of hours and managed to get some rocket sheep in there!  MWAHAHAHA!!!  Got them working properly as well as fixed up a couple of non-deloading(wha?) objects.

Also smacked the new Heff in there for shits.

COWS WITH GUNS - VERSION 0.12 - README

Have fun, I know I'm starting to like it!  Though I'm mad at myself for not putting sounds/music in it yet.

[JoGribbs]

Why is this not

Udderly

Ridiculous?

[Happy Shabby Games]

Hey I'll try this when I get home from work and give you some feedback!

[SolarLune]

Why is this not

Udderly

Ridiculous?

Same.

@angelbait - You've improved with the art considerably. Keep working at it!

[Angelbait]

Why is this not

Udderly

Ridiculous?

Boom.

@angelbait - You've improved with the art considerably. Keep working at it!

Thanks man, means a lot coming from this community.  Thought I would get laughed at for making the art in Flash though  

[Happy Shabby Games]

I agree with SolarLune. The art looks a lot better than before. You have a good little start to a game here. I think it could be really fun with a smaller amount of enemies on screen, but more variation like your rocket sheep dudes. being able to shoot up and down would be nice too. Keep it up!