My brother and I are teaming up to make Bit Band, a fast action, crunchy-rhythm, puzzle game. We need your help to make it happen. Check out our kickstarter and tell your freinds who might like it. Thanks for your support!
boom> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heybud/bit-band?ref=6dfxst
discountmichellesuit asked:
loftyloftyloftyloftylofty answered:
Hmmn, I can help a little bit! Buckle up.
The guide that I think is the most useful is not actually a guide for pixel art. It talks about using colors and using light sources.
There are a lot of different styles of pixel art, and I think that most of the time it is safe to say that a pixel art style is defined by its rules. Rules create consistency. Consistency creates immersive work.
We can use Starbound’s pixel art style as a simple example of how to create art that has rules. Starbound’s wiki actually has a guide set up to help people create their own assets, but it misses a few important details.
Some (but not all) of the rules that many starbound pixel art pieces use:
1. Most of the objects in starbound are drawn so that you can see the front corner of an object. Here’s an example:
The back half of an object rotated this way usually takes up about 25% of the width of the object. If you look at the other tables, chairs,and props in the game, you’ll see that most of them follow the 25% corner rule.
2. Most of the objects in starbound use a 4-tone palette. The 4 shades of brown used for the wood of this object are the same shades of brown that they use for most other wooden things. The four shades of yellow come from their brass palette. Consistency with colors can be very helpful if you use it correctly.
3. Starbound’s light source is always top-right. Every piece of art in the game is shaded as though there was a single white light to the top-right of the art.
So with all of this in mind, if we take a look at my art for Cat Story, we’ll see a few differences from Starbound’s style.
Using Cat Story’s art style, most objects are drawn with a camera angle directly from the front. The 25% corner rule does not exist in Cat Story.
The light source in Cat Story is usually from the top-left… even if there are lights in the room.
Most of the time, I use colors from the 6bit RGB palette.
Some styles of pixel art don’t need to limit which colors are used. My style uses these colors as a general guideline, but sometimes I lighten or darken colors from this palette to give myself a few extra colors to work with, like the background wallpaper in the room above.
This color palette has a lot more color saturation than the palettes used in Starbound’s art, which is why it doesn’t really mesh that great when you recolor your Starbound character using this palette.
Looks weird and out of place, right?
If you adjust the color levels in the image by a tiny amount, it becomes very very easy to see just how much more saturated Cat Story’s colors actually are!
What happens when we put art from Starbound into a screenshot from Cat Story? Well, it looks very out of place, because it follows different rules for color, size, shape, and shading.
Sometimes, rules get more abstract. Cat Story also uses rules for color heat. Thinking about colors relative to their distance from white or black, with white being the hottest color and black being the coolest color offers some insight into interesting color relationships.
Remember that 6bit RGB palette? This is what it looks like when you take the color away and only look at the heat:
Color heat is a tool that you can use to direct the viewer’s eye to important pieces of your art.
I try to make the character one of the brightest objects on the screen so that they are easy to see for the player.
The next brightest things are usually terrain that you can walk on or objects that you can interact with.
The darkest objects are background props.
Obviously, sometimes it’s appropriate to make exceptions to make a piece of art look more interesting! I have many brightly lit windows in the underground city maps in Cat Story - but I try to keep them small and unobtrusive when I can.
It also helps a lot if you make your enemies easy to see.
Rules and color choice are only the beginning of defining an art style with pixel art.
Some people prefer super low resolution artwork ( @thewakingcloak ), and others prefer comparatively massive canvases ( @shmoopdev ) .
Some people use 3D models to give themselves a better frame of reference for their pixel art. ( http://oddtales.net/ )
Some people use dithering ( @lazymoth - check out their creepycastle project ) to shade and create gradients, other ( @virgovsthezodiac ) people ( @ramheadedgirl ) prefer ( @preecedev ) flat ( @artificerdev ) shading styles.
Anyway I’ve spent an hour or two longer than I expected on this reply, so let’s move on to the other half of your question.
How do you get into game programming?
It depends on what language you want to program in. Personally, my hammer of choice for game development is C++.
There are a lot of different places to start if you’re brand new, but no matter what programming language you want to use, you need to know some programming basics.
This is the resource that was most useful for me to begin programming games in C++. Shoutouts to Lazyfoo!
Websites like stackexchange / stackoverflow also help a lot when learning basics of programming.
What are some things that are important to know if you want to program your own games?
Learn how to do things using timers. If you attempt to do huge amounts of stuff all at the same time, it is often more complicated than simply doing a little bit of work once per frame. Breaking up your workload with timers often helps performance, too.
Start with a small project, like clicking on a colored dot for points. I thought a platformer would be easy and I’m here 3 years later still trying to finish what I started. Do not attempt to build some enormous MMO as your first project, that is a bad idea; speaking from experience here.
Learn to keep your code clean. Comment everything even if it’s obvious what it does, because 5 weeks from now it won’t be obvious anymore.
Learn the difference between public and private variables/functions and use them appropriately so you don’t trip yourself later on accident. That’s the reason those safeguards exist - to help you not accidentally use the wrong tools.
You are going to need to be able to understand math relationships. The computer will do the heavy lifting for you, but you need to understand the formulas and why they work. Basic things like moving from point A to point B, which looks like this:
new_position = old_position + normal( destination - old_position ) * movement_speed
Thankfully, most of these math relationships are very easy to use once you understand them. Now is a good time to brush up on your trig.
If you’re going into gamedev in C++, learning how pointers and references work is non-negotiable.
Some other notes:
A lot of helpful code libraries are out there on the internet that are designed specifically for making games. Most of these helpful libraries are free for you to do anything you want with them. SDL2 is my weapon of choice, but there are many other options available that might be better for what you want to do.
Sometimes it is appropriate to use tools like GameMaker or RPG Maker to make a game. Sometimes it isn’t. It is useful to know how to use these tools, and it is also useful to know how to get your hands dirty and do it yourself.
Lots of games have basic programming included! You can learn a lot about how programming basics work from reverse engineering objects in Garry’s mod, SecondLife, Starbound, and plenty of other places.
There are hotwings on my desk that need my attention.
Hopefully this is more helpful than “Practice a lot and also google some stuff”
Cheers,
Lofty
that isn’t voxels. Hmm.
still something I’m chewing on
modern game development is all about finding coherent aesthetics that allow you to eschew realism because god damn realism is expensive.
hence MineCraft, the 8-bit retro craze, Undertale, even polished cartoony looks like Witness and Firewatch.
The broadside express?
A mockup of a project.
To better understand pixel art, game development and game maker studio 2, I am doing a shorter, much smaller game to learn. I want Severed Tales to be as wonderful as I can make it and there is so much in it I wish to improve. So, as such, this smaller project will be something I work on so I can improve myself.
So I’ve been receiving messages and asks here and on my other blog (the Wishgranter) from some artists trying their hand at pixel art for the first time. BIG DISCLAIMER : I’m by no means an expert in the medium but I’ve been studying and working on pixel art for some time and I thought I would share some things I’ve learnt for other beginners. I will be using the following image (with permission) as an example to give tips - done by @yatagansaber and sent to me for feedback.
First of all, for me what defines an image as pixel art is not it’s small resolution or the fact that you can see individual pixels, but it’s the way that it’s made. The art of ‘pixel pushing’ differs from other digital mediums by the fact that each pixel - or at least most pixels - in the image are hand placed by the artist and have a purpose.
What I mean is that regardless of the size of the canvas, the artist probably went in at some point with the 1px brush and hand placed most individual pixels. For me, I usually start with a larger brush to define forms but then I switch to 1px brush very early in the process all the way to the end.
Point no. 1: Canvas size
So for this case, the canvas here is pretty large and the artist is going for an armor clad character which means the canvas was probably going to get larger. So here I would strongly suggest going for a much smaller canvas especially since the artist is just starting out with pixelart and it is much easier to grasp the concept on a smaller canvas. I usually start with a 60x60 canvas and then adjust as I go, but I very rarely go over 100x100. In pixelart you will not be blending with giant brushes, so for the big flat areas you will either end up with a single flat color or do a lot of dithering which might take away from the final image.
Point no 2: Defining curves
Define your curves better. When working with pixelart, curves need to be defined properly or it will end up looking very jaggy in the end. Referencing the image, The neck area of the armor for example could be defined better to have a more presentable effect. Focus on having the lines gradually decreasing in pixel width alone the curve of the object you’re drawing.
Point no 3: Coherent Light sources
More of a general art tip. The image doesn’t seem to have a coherent light source. On the shoulder pad to the left it seems to indicate a top left art source while the neck area completely ignores that light source and indicates one to the top right. Another light source is indicated to the bottom right in the torso area. Although having multiple light sources is totally acceptable it needs to be done coherently. Artists usually stick to one main light source and maybe some back lighting for effect.
Point no 4: Light and Forms
Also a general art tip. Make sure you use lighting to define your forms. The lighting on the shoulder pad seems to suggest a flat, sharp surface while the general form seems to suggest a cylindrical object. This very important as it will help the viewer understand what they are seeing. To help with this, try to find references and see how the lighting hits specific objects.
Point no 5: Contrast
When drawing metal objects such as armor you must think about it as a very reflective surface. The light source should be much brighter and stronger then the rest of the palette to create a good contrast. Again, this isn’t exclusive to pixel art, but to art in general. The best way to get used to these things is to watch a lot of real life references and other artist’s work.
Point no 6: Color Palettes
Choose a more interesting color palette. When drawing pixelart you’re not going for realism, and even in real life, it’s very rare to see something being completely one color. Don’t simply stick to one color and increasing/decreasing brightness. Try messing around with hue variation and saturation as well to create a much more pleasant image. For this case I didn’t have time to create a new color palette so I simply added some hints of color to the shades. Ideally before starting a new piece you decide on a color ramp with different hues and stick with it till the end.
Final Thoughts
So after applying those points (except the canvas size point) to the armor piece I ended up with the result below:
It’s obviously nowhere close to being perfect since I do not have the time to keep pushing it to a good finish but it should give a good idea of how those several little points can help make your pixelart look better.
That’s all I got for now. I hope this can help someone out there with their art! All feedback appreciated and feel free to ask me anything.
With Ludum Dare 35 behind me, I want to share some hard-earned lessons about working in groups at game jams. I have finished games for over ten game jams now, half of them were team efforts. This post has three main sections: Team Composition, Game Design and a Time plan. Some of the stuff in here is the opposite of conventional wisdom on software engineering and project management because of the time constraints and ad-hoc team structure. If you have successfully made a jam game with more than three people, feel free to ignore this advice or tell me where I’m wrong.
Team members should have skills that complement each other, but they also need to work together. Everybody builds a different part of the game. Everybody has different strengths. They need to work with the same tools, on the same game, at the same time.
Often game jam meetups ask you to rate yourself on your proficiency as an artist, coder, game designer and musician. This a good idea. Every team needs at least one passable coder and one passable game designer. They can both be the same person. Although coding and game design are important, you do not usually need many full-time designers and coders. In the early stages of development, a single coder must implement a foundation: the core mechanics of the game. During that time, this coder works with placeholder art while the artists produce the main assets or concept art. Afterwards, the others can interate on all kinds of content in parallel. Art asset creation and level design are much easier to do in parallel than coding. More artists are better. If your jam team has more than 50% non-artist non-level-designer coders, consider pair-programming. If your team has one or more full-time “game designers”, ask the designers early how they want to make themselves useful. It is easier to produce something with one coder and many non-coders than the other way around, but it can’t hurt if artists also know the basics of your language and game engine.
When you form groups, take into account operating systems, file formats, tools and version control software. Try to use exchange formats everybody can open (like above, it is a huge productivity boost if every team member can edit the assets). The time in a game jam is too short to learn new tools and be productive in them. It might be better to use popular tools like Unity or Flixel instead of Lumberyard or Torque2d if your artist is familiar with the former but not the latter. Artists should be able to create a new build of the game, integrate their assets and commit changes to source control. Coders should be able to make small changes to assets on their own, like palette swaps. It is a huge productivity boost if everybody can work on a part of the game without pulling somebody else off their computer to figure out Blender and Photoshop.
I once participated in a three day game jam where it took us the first two days to implement Tetris-like falling blocks. We had built it an a rather roundabout way in Unity3D, so AI critters could do path-finding around the blocks. We wanted to use an AI library my friend had worked on with his company. He adapted the library, which was built with 3D RPGs and open world games in mind, to work with dynamic and 2D environments like Tetris. At the end of the second day I expressed my frustration. The game was half finished and we would need at least a fourth day to implement our original design. I considered the jam a failure. He said: “Think about how much we learned! This was a very productive weekend.” He was not frustrated at all. It is ok if you are not that psyched about finishing a jam game. Just be upfront with your team mates. It can feel really unfair if you think you have a shot at making something interesting, or even winning a prize.
Talk to your team mates and manage expectations: - Do you want to finish a game? - Would you rather fail with a greater vision or succeed building something small? - Do you just want to try out a new tool/engine/plugin? - Are you committed for the whole time of the game jam?
Game Design for teams in game jams boils down to two principles: Consistency and work division. All team members must know what aesthetics they should go for and be able to deliver it consistently. The game design needs to be divided into pieces the developers can work on independently.
Pick a core mechanic that makes it easy to get up and running with your engine. You can build a First Person Shooter in Unity with a few game objects, the stock FPS-character-controller and a couple of lines of code for shooting and destroying objects. The core mechanic should not depend on lots of content or assets. If your game is a city builder, you need to demonstrate the core loop with only two or three kinds of buildings. You can add more later.
Plan what kinds of subroutines and assets you need for your levels/quests/story content and prioritize work on these. Make a list of features/content that should definitely be in the released version. Plan in such a way that the essential content will be done and integrated after 66% of the time available. To be sure, plan essential content to be done after 40-50% of the time. For example, say on day 2 of 3 there will be a main menu, a tutorial, 2 guns, ammo/medkit drops, 2 kinds of mob, a boss and 2 non-tutorial levels.
One way to make content teamwork-friendly is to pick a game genre and story where you can easily fit more content into the game. For example:
| Genre | What to add |
|---|---|
| ego shooter | levels, monsters, guns |
| puzzle platformer | puzzles, tilesets |
| metroidvania | secret areas, monsters |
| racing game | cars, tracks, car decals |
| MOBA | hats, maps |
| RPG | swords, spells, NPC dialog |
| brawler | moves, enemy types |
| survival game | craftable items, plants, animals |
| SHMUP | guns, ships, enemies, powerups |
You can start with a base game and one developer adds more guns while another adds more levels. In a jam game, you should not pad out the length of the game too much beyond five minutes. More guns and enemies are a safer bet. Different developers can add different kinds of content in parallel.
Genres like 4x or city builders have complex systems that need to be rebalanced when new content is added. Competitive two-player games (Fighting Game, RTS) are sensitive to balance changes.
Avoid designs with a long chain of dependencies: A with a crafting recipe for a sword where you mine iron ore, smelt it into bars, refine that into steel, forge with a hammer and anvil and temper in cold oil has lots of points of failure. If any of the steps isn’t ready by the end of the jam, the game won’t work. Point-and-click adventures are escpecially difficult, with interdependent items, riddles/puzzles, characters and plot points.
Ideally, these additions will each be small and self-contained. If building another level takes one developer too long, you will run the risk of not finishing it/scrapping a bad idea too late and lose hours of work time.
If you run out of time before you can implement any non-essential features: Good thing you didn’t work on the non-essential stuff first!
Pick a mood/feeling for the game. It can be fun, joy, exploration, cameraderie, sadness, fear, whatever. Try to build the visuals with a color palette that supports the mood. Pick a soundtrack that supports the mood. Try using sound effects that work together with the other effects, the music and graphics. If you record sound effects for an action in real life, do not mix them with chip-sound effects and vice versa. If your graphics are simple and colorful, your sound is electronic and the characters jump several times higher than tey are tall, your writing can be over the top as well.
If you have more than one artist working on your team, you need to agree on an art style that all artists can produce. Pick some kind of visual style in the beginning and stick to it. Use an existing game or set of pictures as reference for the level of detail. For example
Don’t aim for realism! If one artist produces something much more detailed, less detailed, more colorful or less colorful, it is going to stick out. Try to establish lighting and color palettes early on. It is easier to make something with fewer than more polygons, so you will most likely use the lowest common denominator of level of detail.
Picking a mood, color palette and relative dimensions of the player in the world is even more important in pixel art, because you can’t easily scale it.
This time plan mostly follows my older post on time management for game jams.
http://blubberquark.tumblr.com/post/127077371470/time-management-for-game-jams
Make a game design. Try not to take more than 2 hours to come up with an idea, execution is more important. If you can’t agree on a single idea, split the team and make two independent games. Make some quick pencil sketches of the essential assets, level structures and interaction storyboards. While one programmer implements the main mechanics with colorful boxes, the others can start on modeling the main character, the first level and environment art. Integrate everything into a proof-of-concept gameplay prototype. Playtest this prototype and make sure the core loop of your game is interesting/fun/whatever you’re going for. You want to take the prototype as a foundation for future developments, so everybody should play the prototype to base further additions off it. Now you can work toward the essential content.
Integrate the essential content into the game, add win conditions and a main menu and give this game to actual players for feedback. Start adding bonus content. Incorporate feedback from players. Re-work assets to be consistent with the feel of other assets.
Incorporate bonus content. Fix bugs found by players. Clarify the rules/tutorial/help based on player confusion. Add polish/convenience features. Use the second half of the third day to fix the last bugs. Don’t change the game too much in the final hours. Design a logo/main menu based on the best assets you have. Good luck!
TFW you’re editing something and you look at your old work and just-
Goes double for video games.
But you can get away with it because players don’t see what you wrote, only how it plays! Haha they will never know what lurks beneath!
Some pixel art and animation ‘process’ from previous projects.
The goblin animation is done in Photoshop.
2 posts in a day just because I’m overly excited over this scene and the fact that it’s in pixel art! (Context is spoiler)
I decided to keep the scenes in pixel art so that I could make more of them, and I personally think it looks cuter like this. (*´˘`*)♡
Anonymous asked:
retronator answered:
I made a post like this ages ago, so you can check that for start.
There are definitely some new entries to be added since 2013 when I made that. I follow 800+ blogs so forgive me if I’ll leave some of you out (I love you all!).
Great for discovering new games and artists.
@pixelartus (curated by @pixelprospector)
@pixel-archive (accepts submissions, so lots of new art)
@pikselpost / @pixeloutput (they link to each other but the first seems to be a bit more selective)
These are some new follows that are bringing me much happiness lately:
@kldpxl (watching his progress through 2017 was truly inspiring)
@studiominiboss (art and awesome tutorials by Pedro ‘Saint11’ Medeiros, MVP of the scene at the moment)
@romaincourtoisgames (newcomer to Tumblr, but boy do I love his art)
@6vcr (discovered her via YouTube, awesome scenes and creative in general)
@8pxl (love her color choices)
And of course there are a lot of my existing favorites: @pixelshuh, @kirokazepixel, @orange-magik, @weilarddrake … Too many to list them all, but I’m guessing you’re following my posts where I always scream about people and projects I like.
@indieretronews (homebrew scene a.k.a. new games for old systems with plenty of ZX Spectrum in the mix)
@bipolarowls (because I’m bipolar and they have great memes)
@metropolisoftomorrow (concept art of sci-fi cities)
Alright, that should keep you going for a while.
Pixel Art - Brandenburg Gate
Just a little practice for my pixel art and also because I miss Deutschland. I cannot believe I’ve been there, I’ve always wanted to go since I was like 14 years old and now it’s almost been 1 year since I’ve went. It was the best experience of my life (apart from the 35 hour flight…). I might be going back next year and explore more of Europe as a whole. Well here’s hoping, since money is rather tight at the moment and it is quite expensive to go to Europe unfortunately.
