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[JLJac]

Check out this weird plant!

[oahda]

I bet you haven't slept yet!

Now you need to name the plants! They look like wheels. And rollercoasters. And a little bit like Fibonacci spirals, some of them. And they're red~pink. And they're tall. WORK WITH IT.

Looks great. c:

[Polyflare]

That's definitely a weird plant.

[lagdog]

cant wait to play all this stuff ^^

[tortoiseandcrow]

Just remember to take days off, you guys! The perpetual crunch-cycle is no way to live.

[JLJac]

Update 433

Working on visuals. How do you guys feel about this? Better?

[Christian]

Idk, the second one seems very busy and cluttered and dim. The first seems more visually distinct; the depth of the environment is clearer, little details like pink plantlife and rust and the rivets/ruts in the metal structures pop out more. I do like the more dilapidated look of the environment in the second, but I feel the other environmental aspects are too obscured

[Wlad]

I like it...however isn't newer version's foreground too dark? Some details are completely gone.

[gimymblert]

clear version is best

[alwex]

I prefer the clear version, I find easier to differenciate background and playground in this version.

[tortoiseandcrow]

I like the additional depth to the background on the right-hand side of the screen, and how the pipes are more clearly part of the background (whereas before they were too similar in tone to the platform on the top-right, next to the transport tube), but otherwise there's too much visual clutter going on there. The spraypaint effect seems to flatten the background a lot on the left-hand side. Also, I like the purple! I think we'll probably get our fill of black in Shadow Urban, yes?

Honestly, the only change I'd make to the original is to move the pipes back a few layers so they are slightly lighter. The busted ropes and metal case that have been added in the bottom left-hand corner are a nice touch, though.

[oldblood]

I'm going to swim upstream. I like the darker version, feels more realistic. More "post-whatever apocalyptic thing" happened. And at some level, I always felts the colors in the alpha were bright and almost saturated. Maybe some middle ground between the two?

[Ashedragon]

I definitely also prefer the darker first version. It sticks with the general vibe way better, but it is rather hard to tell what's what.

[lagdog]

I like the cleaner version but it doesn't have the deep black value of the other which i feel adds more atmosphere.
maybe to much detail in 'wall' areas feels like they should be hidden

[Lim-Dul]

I don't know which version is newer (I assume the darker, more cluttered one) but I definitely prefer the lighter one. In the darker environment there's just too much stuff added to the background - in a platformer this could be a huge problem once the foreground starts blending in with the background and players lose the ability to distinguish where they can jump.
I find the light-dark contrast gives a very clean dividing line between foreground and background from a gameplay perspective.

[JLJac]

Thanks for the feedback guys! The darker palette is because I'm doing a thing where "inside" or "underground" rooms have an alternative darker palette, but I might have gone a bit too far with that. When it comes to how "clean" it is, that's a weird balance; obviously I want it to be an image of a dirty place, but it should be a visually clean image of a dirty place haha!

I tried taking your comments into consideration and came up with this, what do you think?

[chriswearly]

Yeah I was gonna ask if you could you mix the two. And you've done that perfectly! Looks really good now :D

[JLJac]

Slightly subtler still:

[Greipur]

I must say that I like the original more, but I guess I've grown used to it for so long. I think this project have always looked interesting visually, but I think it's worthwhile to re-examine how you use textural (or detail) fidelity. I propose that you either reduce the detail fidelity in the foreground or the background. I think Lotte Reiniger's work is a good inspiration. She used more detailed backgrounds and simple silhouettes as the foreground.








So what I'm suggesting is simply that I think your game would be more easily read if you decide to use details more sparsely, either in the background or in the foreground. I think it's worthwhile with making it darker though, and the purple/blue tint is very beautiful.

[oahda]

The new one is pretty much what I was about to suggest. The last clearer one was good but had too little contrast between foreground and background IMO. New one seems to have fixed it.