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[Jungletoe]

Hello!

I'm the head developer for Dwell and I'm really stuck. While I do the programming and design for the project, I also guide what needs to be done. Alas, this is not a pixel art improvement thread as much as I'm seeking generalized advice about what the game needs to improve on, visually.



It might just be that I've poured countless hours into the game, but what is missing? Something seems really off and I can't put my finger on it. Is it the UI? Is it the transitions of the tiles? I can't really tell.

Any feedback about anything visual would be appreciated. I'll forward the thread along to my artists as well.

Thanks!
Jungle

[Alicecomma]

- The UI uses different pixel scaling. Keeping the same pixel scale for everything is preferable;
- The art style is very dark on objects but very simplistic on the grass;
- Not everything has a dropshadow;
- It looks like you tried to make the grass seem randomly tiled, but the randomness is applied in a pattern which makes it look less random. Adding a second shade of random grass blades goes a long way too;
- Your transitions only go from X to dirt. You'll want two-way and three-way transitions for grass/dark grass/dirt and maybe for grass/dirt/water too.

[Jungletoe]

- The UI uses different pixel scaling. Keeping the same pixel scale for everything is preferable;

How does Terraria do different scaling without it looking horrible?

*the rest*

Great, thanks! Forwarded it onto my artist.

[Glyph]

How does Terraria do different scaling without it looking horrible?

In short, it doesn't. It would be much better off without it.

[Jungletoe]

In short, it doesn't. It would be much better off without it.

Yeah I understand that. Just trying to figure out how to salvage the situation I guess.

KAG does it too


I mean I understand it's a no-no...

[Alicecomma]

If you want your game to be entirely pixel perfect at a 2x scale, make your UI that scale too! Otherwise, don't try to introduce a 1x UI. Having two completely different scales looks terrible in any game.

I'd suggest either:

- making it like Terraria where you make 1x scaled UI scale between 1x and 2x;
- making every UI part at a 2x scale;
- not worrying about pixel perfect UI at all and just try making it look nice.

Whatever you decide to do, keep a consistent style with the UI.

----

I also think the status bars would look better on the top left.

[EvilDingo]

The things I notice are the ugly UI font, and the scale is off. Look at that tiny dude. Look at the butterfly. It's about the size of his entire head. The bushes are massive and appear to have more detail than the guy.

I'd ditch that font and make the characters 2 tiles tall. That would go a long way to improving it, I think.

[michelmohr]

I'm far from an expert, this is just what I would change.

http://androidarts.com/pixtut/pixelart.htm



Furthermore, there's a lot of pure black/white. Don't do that.


Reworked the interface while waiting for feedback on my own thread.

Ideally the top of the General settings would line up with something to the left to connect it and make it seem more like a whole, but I just closed photoshop.

By moving the interface elements away from the edge of the screen your game feels bigger, more open without the interface framing it.
It's also important to align elements to make them seem a cohesive whole. If you draw horizontal and vertical lines across the entire screen along the edges of your interface elements you'll notice the separate elements don't align at all, or barely not.
(the chat)
 

[ryansumo]

Just a couple of thoughts. 

1. The game itself seems rather fun and playful, but the doesn't suggest any of that.  Of course understated UI is a good thing, but you may have gone too far in that direction.

2.  It could just be this particular location, but the color palette is almost overwhelmingly green with a tiny bit of brown.  That's fine, but then even the moving elements, like the player, the butterfly and the worm thingie are all kind of desaturated and blend into the background as well. Try saturating the colors of the characters so that they "pop" out of the background.

3. Shimmergloom mention the black outlines.  Generally these do lack appeal, but you can use the effectively if they denote something.  For example, you could use black outlines to denote objects that you can interact with.  The weird thing here is that you seem to be using black outlines and colored outlines indiscriminately.

Hope that helps!