[Grytpype]

Just a few rough screens from the first demo I'm trying to get out over the upcoming Christmas holidays. I know they're not great examples of pixel art, but it gives an idea to the style of the final product.

Should be ready by early January, and have about 2-3 hours of gameplay in it. 3 of 6 characters will be playable.



Please excuse the dodgy cliffs, and the tree foliage that looks like large, green slugs piled on top of eachother.



Pyrus and Villier in the first town (don't worry, it doesn't get burnt down by an evil wizard with no valid reason for doing so).



Pyrus at home.



Here's a simple battle shot. I'm currently trying to pack as much variation into the original battle engine as possible. It's a turn-based affair, but with a few embellishments like energy metering (the red gauge) - where characters consume energy points/stamina points (EP/SP) for physical attacks, much like magical attacks consume MP. EP can be regained however, through the Focus and Defend commands. Defend raises EP without attacking for a turn, but also gives the character an oppurtunity to execute a counterattack if they are attacked while defending. Focus is where a character concentrates their energy for a turn, raising their basic stats and EP, but leaving them vulnerable and without the ability to counterattack.

[Jocke The Beast]

Screenies looks very nice and I think the tiles are well done. Good luck!
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Jocke The Beast

[Grytpype]

Thanks Jocke, much appreciated - and I'll need the luck!
The tiles sure are looking a hell of a lot better than they were a couple of months ago, but there's still room for improvement. I'm sorta getting a bit obsessed with becoming a better pixel artist (probably not a good idea when I'm doing all the coding as well).

[Bjorn]

Yeah, I like them as well. It all seems to follow a single style, which is very nice. The sprites don't really stand out from the rest of the world, but then they don't in the real world either. I think the bright lines above the trees are kinda weird though.

[akOOma]

Yeah, these screenies are kinda cool. I like your gfx style.
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Keep on codin'
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Just another post to increase my rank...

[Grytpype]

Thanks Bjorn & Akooma. You're right about the sprites - they don't stand out much, thanks to me discarding the whole black outline idea for a 16x16 sprite. I wanted to give them a different style than the FF4 type of sprites of this size, dropping in a bit more detail, but this had to be at the expense of a pixel-hogging outline. I think the main problem is that there's barely any contrast within the sprite itself, so it looks very flat on most backgrounds. I'll try and brighten the centre of the figure and darken the edges, it might just do the trick.

[valderman]

Looking good, though I think the sprites should stand out a little more from the backgrounds. Perhaps if, as you said, you darken the edges a little...
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[Killergoat]

I like your style but I think if you add some shadows to the cliffs on the ground and just do some simple shading to the trees and take the highlights out that separate them then it will add alot more depth and dimension to the scenery
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[Guest]

Right, I've had a quick fiddle around with the character sprites, and here's a comparison of the new to the old:



The top left pic is before the change, the top middle pic is after darkening the outlines the whole way round, and the top right has the outlines darkened apart from the tops of the chars heads, which are lightened. I noticed that Villier's pic (char on the right) actually stood out more originally than it did when the outline was darkened all around. Maybe a little unorthodox, but the question is, taking into account all the different background samples here, does it work?

Killergoat & Valderman - Cheers for the C & C, you're right about the cliffs, they look pretty flat in transition from the ground below them. I'll introduce some shadows, and blend in the trees properly.

Thanks again for your comments everyone.

[UscGradEray]

I like the light hair-outline. It does help the sprites stand out (although the brown hair against brown still blends in somewhat). As far as being unconventional, it's something that would occur naturally with an overhead light source like the sun, isn't it?
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[Xegnma]

Very Nice!!!

[Grytpype]

[syn9]

wsup w/ the pyrus name? you're not pyrus are you?

[Grytpype]

[syn9]

ah, thats cool, pyrus was a qb programmer from a long time ago