Moonpearl wrote:On the positive side:
- the characters look nice and healthy, could have been actual sprites from an old game
Thank you, that was my exact intent! However I intend to make 'less healthy' versions, this is of course just the base design.
- clothes REALLY look good and varied
Thanks again, they're are actually quite a few reuses too. Also every piece of clothing is a paper doll, used separate from the other pieces. So everything present can be mixed and matched. I was hoping to eventually make it compatible with your character maker.
- good choice of colors, not too flashy
Colors are my weak point, and pretty much everything starts out a different shade or tone as what it ends up as. I'm glad they are good.
- good thing there are emotes, they lack too much in RPG Maker and other stuff, and help give a life to the characters - so I say don't be greedy with emotes and make as many as you can.
I agree 100%. It's one of the things I hate the most about graphics packs. I definitely intend to have both 'static' emotes, such as facial expressions and simple gestures, as well as more complex emotes, such as dancing, sword fighting etc.
- you actually went through the trouble of pixel-arting, wow
Yup. It's really important to me that the game ends up with a similar feel to the classic rpgs from the snes days. For this reason I am going to be using pixel art for the entire base graphics.
On a less positive side (:p):
- the perspective, ah, the eternal debate... well we know RPG Maker-like games definitely don't have a realistic perspective, but my opinion on the topic is that what matters is what our eyes see. The angle you chose for your characters make me see them standing right in front of me, I imagine them in a platformer or from a subjective view (if that's what they're for actually move this point to the good side), but not from a fake isometric top-view. Might seem trivial but it tends to reinforce the impression of flatness in the gaming world, especially if the maps are pretty flat too.
I agree completely, part of it is my lack of experience. The view I chose for the maps isn't isometric or top view, it's actually refereed to as 3/4 view. I definitely noticed the same thing about the sprites during initial creation, but I really can't fix it just yet. This is exactly why the sprite progression has stayed where it's at.
- I haven't had a chance to see your sprite animated yet but from what I can see the walking might seem a little awkward, well maybe it's just me.
Agreed, stationary, it looks bad. But when walking the eye fills in the gaps rather well I find. I'll make an animated gif to show you.
- colors may be too light in a general manner, and if it might be an interesting artistic choice, I believe more contrast could at least help getting the contours and details better (particularily an issue when you're a little myopic like me XD cause I have to lean forward to make out the emotes for example)
Agreed. Contrast, a part of color, is where I struggle as well. I have issues when colors 'pop' too much from their counter parts. I realize it's to show sharp changes in lighting, but it bugs me some times. There is definitely room for improvement on my designs, and I will see what I can do.
- I know you posted zoomed images on purpose but I'd still like to see what it looks like in real size (not to say "aaah they're too small" obvisouly but I have trouble getting past the pixelation, surely the fact that the zoomed images contrast with the crisp text around it). Also, an example of how those sprites fit in a same-styled map would be nice
My main theory behind this was that when you use rmxp you can actually full screen it, which in turn makes all the sprites double the size. So when drawing them I was constantly ensuring they looked good both zoomed in and not. I figure who is really going to play at that resolution. I added the true sized images for your input.
Overall feeling: nice sprites with a definite style and a lot of work put into it. Keep up the good work.
Thanks a ton for the great feed back. I'll work on a few things to post here.
-An animated Gif of the walking animation
-A screenshot with sprites in a room or town.
One thing I should note is that my techniques and skills have gotten better since originally creating these, but it's hard to be objective when looking at 'older' work. With these criticisms I should be able to improve upon my designs greatly. I look forward to updating this. But I wouldn't expect anything for a few weeks.
Thanks again!
EDIT
So after a bit of tinkering, this is what I came up with for the front view. A ten fold turn around, if you ask me. I'm going to keep working on it, until I'm satisfied and finish up a base model. Just thought I'd show you how awesome your advice was in the mean time.
New-->Old
