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[beestings]

Okay so basically I had this really cool idea for a game (a very general and not well thought out idea) involving jellyfish. Though the player/main character isnt a jellyfish, I want it to sort of resemble one. I kind of had ponyo in mind while trying to design the character (not exactly but Ponyo reaches the affect I wanted with being fish-like and human-like)

The whole game takes place deep sea (so the backgrounds will almost always be dark blues/purples), and I really wanted the main character to kind of be luminescent like a jelly fish. I was thinking of making the transparency lower (on either the inside or outside) but really am not achieving the look i want...



Here is a super rough one on what I currently have.. ( that first little scribble of a first draft is pretty hysterical... I'm not sure how it turned into the one on the right)

 any suggestions on reaching the effect I want? Should it be most transparent in the middle... or along the outside? I really want to go with a brighter warmer contrast to the cold dark blues of the background.. So, Any tips on the color palette so far (the reds)?

Also, this little guy (or gal?) is going to be somewhat like a guardian of the sea... any tips on a name? I want something that has meaning... couldnt really find too much.

[retrohelix]

No suggestions for the art (apart from yes, I think it should be transparent - with white highlights to emphase the shape and... rubberiness) but.. in a game world where you can dictate what means what and how powerful things are, I would probably use these guys on the frontline of any battle, based on how cool they look. Maybe you could derive a name from it somehow?

[beestings]

Yeah, I feel it just wouldnt do it without being transparent in some way. Maybe I'll work on it a little more and post an update; hopefully that will get a few more responses.

Really cool suggestion. I was looking at alot of deep sea creatures to add in as background scenery enemies or whatever they would be.

More on my idea:

I guess this type of game would be considered more of a platformer (because it'd be side-scrolling/or view or whatever) but I really want it to be storyline based (so not something like super meat boy, where the goal is to get past obstacles and to the end). I was thinking that jellyfish could be the rulers of the sea sort of thing (like how the lions in lion king rule the Savannah). And when something goes awry you (the main character) are summoned/awakened and have to try and fix it. A possible gameplay something like paper mario? Not artwise, and probably not with the same fighting system.

Not sure what the conflict should be..  and not sure this is the place to ask, but I'll come back soon with an update on art.

[Shoryucas]

The idea reminds me of the game Ikachan. It's from the creator of Cave Story and it has the same Metroidish gameplay except you're a squid.

What you got now looks promising. Can't wait to see when it's more polished.

If you're using dark blue in the backgrounds, you could try giving it a white or pink outline and transparent toward the middle, like the jellyfish pictures you shared.

It depends if you want it to look like a person inside a jellyfish (like the Ponyo pictures) or if you want it to be a person made of jelly.

Re conflict: Dark wizard sharks?

[Derek]

Really cute design/shape. I say make it darker in the middle and a little lighter around the edges. Just try it out and see what it looks like - it'll be a lot easier to tell what works/doesn't work once you have it filled in.

 

[beestings]

Thanks to you posters so far! Really appreciate it. I am having a tough time with the transparency in general... I realize it would be very tedious to create the effect manually... and was thinking maybe I could just go over the sprite in another pain program (SAI in this case) and do the effect there to speed up the process..

This is a quick thing I tried out (doing the effect in a different program, SAI). Its pretty sloppy since I just wanted to see how it looked... Do you guys think thats a better plan? Also, should the most solid (100% opacity) color be in the general center of the entire sprite, or the actual center... (sorry  i dont know how to explain it)


I havent fully gone into some other comments yet, but once I decide what to do with transparency it'll be a lot quicker I think (since that my number 1 issue right now)

I will reply with a more indepth on other comments later! 

[DeadPixel]

Name her Umi.  Kanji that means ocean, afaik.

[Shoryucas]

If you want it to look more like a jellyfish you need to have it be more transparent toward the center of its body. You can see the flesh most clearly where it is overlapping the most.

Also, after looking at what I did, you might want to be able to see all the inside parts, like the legs behind the dress and behind the head to make it look more transparent.

You don't have to do the transparency in SAI, if you just treat different opacity levels like colors in a palette and color it like that.

It might even look better not as pixel art and just painted digitally. Just a thought.

Umi sounds good.
Kurage is jellyfish in Japanese if you're looking for more of a male sounding name.

[firebelly]

I'm interested in this thread. I've always wanted to see some cool jellyfish art done. I wanted to include it in my game some day. Looking forward to see what comes out!

[beestings]

I definitely will continue this when I'm a little less busy. Yeah, I feel the same way--its such an interesting creature! 

[csg]

Really nice idea, I love that small guy/girl. Umi sounds good too, maybe adding a ko ( child ) for umiko ( child of the sea ).
I tried to add some random thoughts on this jellyfish discussion in my picture:

- Jellyfish are almost completely transparent, what you see dependents on the refraction of light. So bending things like the head inside the jellyfish would be an idea. you could also use shaders to fully refreact the background, but maybe this is a little bit over the top...

- For the bright light effects, think of it as liquid glas ( Animation would be a good idea ).

- What about some tentacles? Could be used as weapons, so cute! <3

- The jellyfish might be able so emit light - maybe the one and only lightsource in the game? Moving though a almost dark environment, while smal light amebas are attracted to him/her.

[Shoryucas]

that looks real good

[beestings]

SO AMAZING!! COMPLETELY LOVE IT! I have stopped this for a while since school is starting and I have to get in the groove of things... but really like the ideas you had and what you did to it