Game & Map Screenshots 10

There's not a whole lot linking this elements. If you want to go for the apocalyptic look while keeping the stain glass image something that might be cool would be having the ruins of something like an old church, with this image as a stain glass window, shattered as part of it. That would bring the background and character together.

As for the logo, its a little bland and the lens flair on the sword makes it a little harder to read (something thats tricky already due to the fact I dont know how to pronounce Nerubis, something I think would affect most people who see it). The sword for an I is a nice touch though.

I thought the sword was a T. Now I'm confused.

It is just that some of your stones have darker if not black details in it... ^^ So... yeah. I think instead of grey I would had got a dark brown if I didn't want black. It would had been intuitive for me. But yeah it kinda intrigued me.

Thanks, I changed the sword a bit, thinning the "T" area so that it looks more like an "I". Also made the logo look just slightly less flat. Do you think it's better now? I also changed the image to my original post in the previous page of this thread, but for the comparison, the original is still in the quote 3 posts up this one.

The lens flares have to go, they're an artifact of the filming/photography process and hardly ever look good when digitally recreated on a still image. That's the big one that immediately stops it from looking professional. They need to go. There's not enough contrast between the background and the pink text, and the picture frame has a blur to it that makes me wonder if you found a PNG of a vector file and upscaled that. The text looks alright, I think the border needs to be much darker for contrast reasons, and I think you should extend the gradient and border to the sword as well for reasons of visual cohesion.

@onipunk
In other words, I should start the entire thing from the scratch, since I have made a mistake of combining the layers :S At any rate, I'll think about all you said. Maybe I'll start it over then, or at least fix something like the gradient, the border and the contrast on the smaller text. Maybe I could find a way to edit the lens flare to not look like a normal lens flare...
@VisitorsFromDreams
The crumbled building with the iconography sounds like a good idea. Gotta see if I could still do that somehow.

At the end of the day, everything I said is my opinion and you don't have to take it on board. I'm not a graphic designer by profession, though I have taken paid graphic design jobs, so I'm not coming at this from a perspective of "we'd never do this in the industry" because I don't count myself as part of it. How much credence you lend my critique is up to you. No-one else seems to have mentioned the lens flares, so maybe they're not as bad to others but to my personal sense of aesthetics, I dislike them in nearly all circumstances. If you learn one thing from this, though, it's to ALWAYS save a layered file, and save a new version every time you make changes. You almost certainly will need them.

I changed my reply to you a bit. I think you have some good points there, after all, which I might be able to fix without starting it all over. I'll be asking around other opinions, though. I've noticed people here have a lot higher standards than your everyday gamer.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Here's another (hopefully better) attempt at making a cave.

@Labyrinthine From the opening post which sets the rules for this thread
Would you please, therefore, post the next iteration of your logo in the WIP thread.
Thanks.

Ack, sorry. Didn't think about that at all.

@zimzim I think more games should have an art advisor, even if the person making the game isn't horrible at it. But I think your art advisor is oversimplifying. It can work, but it should be an active choice, not a passive one. Your art is part of the story telling, so dissonance between the character and her environment says things. You should be desiring a meaning and making that choice to fit the meaning, not making art and then deciding a meaning.

In a game situation I think that if a character is made chibi adjustments should be made so that the environment is also chibi. Either that or the chibiness should be done only for a short moment, for an exaggerated emotional effect. If you look at other games, you should see that the environmental adjustment is usually made in RPGs with chibi sprites, but the deformation is often not as obvious as the change in the character. Look at the default graphics that come with your RPG Maker, for example, you should be able to see some of these changes. Doors that are square instead of rectangular. Tables with very short legs. Stuff like that. It's just not super obvious, partially because the point of view is uncommon in real life, but also because the environment and character match.

Unfortunately in the case of yours, the difference in character and the environment is not just because of her chibi proportions. She's just literally too small for the space. Here, check out how much better it looks when she's scaled up by 150%


By scaling her up like this all you'd have to do is adjust the bed to be smaller and she'd fit in just fine.

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since my last post in this forum. Currently I'm working on a side scrolling pixel art game.
Here´s a picture, still on the work, I'll probably make some more parallax images, some trees, props, been thinking of using animated doodads.

One of my first finished maps...I'll probably clean it up or even end up remaking it completely further down the pipeline, but I'm happy with how it turned out for how inexperienced I am.

@Idiot Very nice! I like it.

Mission Select Maps Beta (2 min Vid) I would like to know if I should keep the music the same throughout all selection maps or switch it up based on region. I have a few set up that way already, but is it too much top change BGM so much in one aspect of the game? Plus any observations on the maps in general is good too.

@Paladin-Cleric of Awesome - I like the thought of similar structures in various regions. Gives that familiar feel of layout but adds a different challenge in each area ( I assume?) One thought I had was adding some more plant life to the swamp temple - maybe some passages completely overgrown with vines for example? Or maybe carnivorous plants in the hallways that have to be killed in order to pass through their vines?

Hi everyone worked on new interface for the battle system of my game feedbacks are welcome.

@Dustt nice HUD mate, nice, fresh and clear...i like the font too!

i just finished my last map of shinra mansion! finally.. lol wanted some feedback on this one..i need to darker the potions on the back wall shelfs i think..going to put some materia in one of the mako tanks aswell.

@SoSick. - One neat thought I had for the potions. If you made them event images rather than tile ones, could you vary their opacity so they appear to be catching the light off of the candle, as if they reflect the flicker? (parallel event with opacity changes) Have not tired it but that would be a neat effect and better than them just being dark like rest of room.