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[stewiepixels]

                                       Nanioheian
 Hey fellows, I'm working for some time now on a dark, sci-fi metroidvania,   alien and metroid inspired. For the last 2 months I
am working on defining the visual aesthetics for it.  Would really appreciate your thoughts on this.




you cand find more screenshots and info here - https://www.facebook.com/nanoheia/
                                             - https://twitter.com/nanoheia

[TinyAngryCrab]

I really like the classical pose of this (reminds me of david - hand up cocked hips) combined with the modern feel and outline disruption.



Do you have any in-engine material yet or is this just visual direction? My feeling would be to run a bit more with those muted colours eg the blue and red on the statue to break up and add more visual interest to the rest of the scenery to avoid the background turning into a grey-black morass

[stewiepixels]

I see. Valid point. However part of all this gloomy and desaturated palette is part of the design. I'll have to find a way and diversify as you mentioned.
And yep, the 2 of them are concept art, the one with water reflection is in engine screenshot ( rough one, wip)

[absolute8]

Nice imagery. These are mock-ups, right? I'm interested in what shaders and options you use to achieve the visual effects you're going for.

[stewiepixels]

hey thanks, the bottom one is a screenshot from construct2. Basically, it's a mix of desaturation, color aberation and an old tv filter that it gives a cinematic look.

[TinyAngryCrab]

I see. Valid point. However part of all this gloomy and desaturated palette is part of the design. I'll have to find a way and diversify as you mentioned.
And yep, the 2 of them are concept art, the one with water reflection is in engine screenshot ( rough one, wip)

I don't mean changing the palette as such - merely that even those muted blues and reds set off contrast with the surroundings, so you can really make elements of the environment draw the eye and pop with them!

in the statue pic eg it makes sense because statue is centre of attention - but in the earlier landscape i feel like slightly more structure pulled out of the background and the blue specks in the foreground broken up and made more irregular would add some balance

[stewiepixels]

wasn't 100% of the main character silhouette so I reworked it some more. It feels to me so much better now

[joey4track]

Looks awesome! I love the chromatic aberration too. Let me know if you need someone for music and sound, this kind of stuff is right up my alley 

[Ian_A]

[Josh Bossie]

I feel like I can smell these screenshots. Your art direction is undeniably cool. I'll have to see it more in-action to see if there's that visual clarity that metroidvanias typically need

[stewiepixels]

to see if there's that visual clarity that metroidvanias typically need

thanks Josh. Would like to go into details about what you mean by the visual clarity. Like being able to read well the characters from the background and easy to see the "action" in the game, could you add some more ?

[joey4track]

I can't speak for Josh because I don't exactly know what he means but I will say that what I like about this work is actually that it's NOT especially visually clear. The style is a beautiful oil painting style that leaves much up to the imagination while providing very heavy emotional feels through the broad strokes of color and shape. The art reminds me very much of the brilliant work from Drew Tucker, who has done a ton of MtG cards among other things. If you haven't heard of him check him out, I'm sure you would love his work.

Anyway, just my two cents! As long as I can tell clearly where the paths are when traversing the map I think this visual style is perfect for a metroidvania.  

EDIT: oh do you have a Twitter? for those of us not on fb...
DOUBLE EDIT: I found it ;P

[stewiepixels]

thanks Joey,
  although we have 2 candidates on this ( music part)    it is still very early to talk about that and not everything is 100% decided yet
 But thank you for the interest

[joey4track]

Sounds good, well I'm here if you need me keep up the good work!

[Christian]

wasn't 100% of the main character silhouette so I reworked it some more. It feels to me so much better now

This still concept art, or the in-game aesthetic?

[stewiepixels]

it's in game   (however the art is not polished, it is rough, just for testing)

[Christian]

it's in game   (however the art is not polished, it is rough, just for testing)

Oh, really? I actually love that aesthetic. It looks like a painting. What was the final art style were you thinking of? Any chance you might keep this look for the game?

[stewiepixels]

yep going to try and keep this style while making everything distinguishable for the gameplay. I started with the idea to have a "cinematic pixel art" feel to it ( if that makes sense haha)

[stewiepixels]

here's the difference between the old and the new main character silhouette

[alaNintendo]

Very cool. Like the photoshop filter effect feel! A bit like Rain World and not