Ahoy everyone!
This is a double post from the site, so I appologise to those that have already read it, but I've recieved a lot of requests to show the process in which I make the backgrounds in Owlboy, so I thought this would be of interest.We're still chugging away at the game. The last week has mostly been adding content to a new dungeon we're working on, but since that's something we can't show at this point, this seemed like a good time to show off something that's been a long time coming: The NPC's houses:
This is Bomboman's house. He's been in the game for a while now, but after being busy working on other parts of the game for a while, it was high time we gave him somewhere to live. Bomboman is themed after lot of different cultures as a reflection of his drumming. I suppose subconsciously my idea was to merge Indian and Native American themes, but of course, this is only in the vaguest sense as it still needs to look Owlboy-esque. As a break from the usual pattern, I'm going to show the whole step by step process of how the house was built from start to finish:
Construction of Bomboman's House
I start off with a vague idea of what I want the interior to look like. I know what the house looks like from the outside, and it needs to follow along that same pattern. I draw the outlines and the colors of the walls with some shading. The interiors in Owlboy are always bright so you can clearly tell where the edges are, but are also somewhat desaturated so the characters will still pop out. Next, I've defined the edges a bit better, but this actually somewhat unusual, as I tend not to start any kind of polishing until the halfway stage towards the end. Woodwork is added (I do woodcarving, so I subconsciously put wood in everything I suppose.) Next up, I jot in the drums, which is the central element in this area. I didn't have a log of it, but I tried several different placements of these drums before I got the idea to put them on a platform in the middle of the house. They had to be centered due to how you use them in the game, and placing them up there also made use of the roof space.
The windows that are visible on the outside are added so I can account for light. Next are some decorative elements to give a sense that there's someone living here. Sometimes, It's important not to get too carried away with this step, simply because it might get overwhelming and the player won't know what to interact with. A fireplace and a teapot is added for some light animations. I'll admit, the teapot is in an odd place, but I figured Bomboman might need something to drink while on the second floor. A drum/cabinet and a dream catcher get sketched in, along with some artwork.
Then comes the polishing phase.
This can sometimes end up taking longer than the everything else combined, mostly since I'm ridiculously perfectionistic about how my pixels look. I try never to add any colors unless I absolutely need to. On one hand because it keeps the file size down, but on the other, as the project continues, I'll end up with gradients that I'll probably never use for any other sprites. I tend to feel that using a certain palette unifies the game better, and considering I've used the same palette in ever part of the game, that seems to be working. Needless restrictions maybe, but it's how I enjoy working.
So that's Bomboman's house. Speaking of Bomboman, his name is still tentative. We're still trying to name this guy, but his pet name at the office has kind of stuck for a while, so we might change that very soon.
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