Err, thanks.

Probably not going to be featured, but still:

Not too much to report on graphics side, I'm still soldiering on finishing them portraits. Ridiculous to think that they'll be purely for flavor at the end, but I have half of them done now.
And after all, it was me who insisted to do one for every goddamn crew member we have.

The background graphics should be presentable too at the moment.

Here's another little sneak, but I promise that the game will be more than just some faces! But honestly, all this real life reference drawing has given me some appetite to try "standard" caricature too.

WIP, of course - color tweaking will be done later.

_{Solution: Hedy Lamarr, Rita Levi Montalcini, Shuji Nakamura, Justus Liebig, Trofim Lysenko, Lise Meitner}

Adding full four-way (or worse, eight-way) animations can be a pain in the ass, especially since you seem to prefer not changing the characters' facing direction.

There aren't that many options probably, perhaps...

1.) Generic front-facing run cycle for all directions. Think Binding of Isaac, only that even the body remains as is. You could do puppet-style animation à la South Park, or those Eastern European silhouette fairy tales. In that case, I'd just make a front-facing run.

2.) Hopping. Yeah, it might sound silly, but if they did little hops from square to square, that would probably be really easy to animate, save tons of work... and even help emphasizing the grid for the player.

Crazy idea here, but if the game plane is all set before a bright and colorful stained-glass window, have you thought about just leaving the player black, casting a silhouette against the background? Perhaps with a one-pixel outline that dramatically reflects the light color hitting it?

That would do wonders for immersion, and potentially save on artist expenditures too (cough). Also, if you made the angels, say, white, there would be a nice and constant coloring scheme in the game.

By the way, 100 sprites = 100 frames of animation, correct?

thanks for the advice, I'll think and look how to fix the contrast thing.

But I don't understand what do you advice about the sharp edges and organic characters. Should they be more edgy?

BIG EDIT: OK sorry, forget everything I said.
peous just posted in like the same millisecond as me, and given that the stairs are placeholder graphics, you can throw the second complaint I had right out of the window!

As a general note, might I suggest tweaking the contrast on the characters and the brown tileset?
As it stands, the creatures seem to have very low contrast on them (no pure blacks or whites, soft and diffused light), while the background tiles have tons more variation in value, from near-white to almost-black (I'm exaggerating, but hopefully you see what I mean).
As an all-purpose readability test: Just try converting any shot to greyscale and see how the characters don't silhouette against the level at all - the biggest contrast, for some reason, seems to be on the diagonal wall tiles.
The blue tileset in your latest post works much, MUCH better!!

It's also a bit strange how the level art has sharp edges and straight lines (such as the flights of stairs), while the characters appear soft and organic. I'm not sure if that type of contrast is intended, but I'd either correct it or crank it up to eleven.

Sorry if I'm coming across like a prick, I'd just honestly like to help.

(gym explanation)

Welp, shows how much I understand about game and level design.

Sorry, seems like I completely misunderstood. Then again, you should probably consider the fact that a lot of people out there might be just as intellectually challenged as myself, and perhaps show some short, but specifically designed courses in an update - or just slap a big "TEST LEVEL, DO NOT ENTER" on the current footage.

Good luck, I'll be watching this closely!

EDIT: And congratulations on making your goal in excellent time! Now hire more of everything!

Not really sure about this.
I can definitely see myself funding something like this, but the playing area shown in the video doesn't really inspire confidence design-wise - lots of samey stretches, blind jumps and elements placed next to each other haphazardly. The graphics could use some polish, especially with your claim to improve on the classics.

You should have no problem meeting your goal, but personally I'm holding out for some more gripping gameplay footage.

I have no idea how this game is supposed to play, but it looks amazing.

How are those sprites animated? What technique and which software package, if I may ask?

Thank you! There will be no actual action gameplay. The sprites are just static on the map, moving around like board game pieces. I just wanted to make them look more alive instead of just using fixed poses or simple bobbing. (Not that I didn't cut any corners, mind you.)

As for the technique - I'd post images if I could, but right now I can only explain.
I'm one of those fossils that grew up using Flash for vector animation. I'm sure all the kids are using fancy new software, but I appreciate the simpleness and the excellent line control.
The grid is 64 x 64 px, so I sketched out all creatures digitally and then saw about how much detail was needed to make them look neat, but not too busy. The animation is mostly nudge and squash in Flash, with everything being hand-tweened (so no objects or automatic "Insert Tween" stuff). A few details, such as the bat wings, are plain old keyframe animation - four frames to get the general movement down, then tween and adjust.

They're exported into Photoshop at original size, which already gives them a nice antialiasing effect. Then some filters are applied, just what I feel looks right on the creature.

And that's pretty much it!

Thank you guys, I'm really happy you like it.

Ashkin, anytime!

what's that painting program you're using?  I noticed the japanese text in the corner

I'm using GraphicsGale like pretty much 100 % of the other people here, I assume. I never got around to check how to switch languages.

Thanks!

Well actually, I just drew up a little making of for those interested. Be warned though, it's pure blogspam!

If you're interested and have questions, let me know  what still needs to be added!

Nah, just made by hand.

Tried a bit of a soft running animation. This isn't pixel art, so it goes here, right?

(This was actually a bit more of a time investment than it may look...)

I figured he might have been referring to imitating all this 3D texture/shader stuff as sprites as closely as possible. Perhaps a bit like this:

That would make sense given the low resolution, I guess?

ben35, I figure if you post a current screenie or video of your project, we can better understand what you require precisely.

I just want to control a green guy and blast me a few humans.

...Wait, that is what this game is about, right?!

Getting there!

Thank you!

happymonster, the BG is indeed very brigt at the moment. And while personally I would like to keep a big contrast in value between collision stuff and deco layers, we have been planning to add some texture to the background!

Currently doing bits and pieces and scraps, a bit of everything really! Let's hope it'll come together at some point!

   

   

Fits like a charm.

This is absolutely incredible. I so want to make some graphics around these tracks.
I'll have to get you on board SOMEHOW next time I'm on a new project.

All very lovely! Your tracks have all sorts of colors and feels to them, and the compositions are rock-solid! I feel you're one of the few guys who could do any job extremely well.
Also: no empty "buildup" filler seconds, just pure melody. That's something I'm honestly very happy about.

Now wait until I get rich, then I'll be showing up here again.