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Returning to my Angelic Oath days on this projects tilesets, I've started from the beginning so I can get the intro done and dusted. So here it is, the beginnning atleast. Its the prow of a small cargo vessel. Obviously missing a few bits like crates and a grate down into the cargo bay. But hey, its been nearly an hour.
Hehe, someone with some balls to actaully say somoething, thanks Tosh.
Yeah, many many (many x n) people have said its either too dark, or needs more contrast. Which I'm not about to do, cos hopefully the finished result will have more then enough colour running around the screen so it should just look like a background.
My main complaint is the packs of three in which the deck's wooden planks seem to be put into... i guess this is from a plank set tile? Either way, you need to have them spaced equally in my opinion.
Other than that, great shape, ropes and pulley system. I like the colors. Is nice for a ghost ship... but in that you suffer a problem.
You can't darken the screen at all... or put cirtain effects onto it or it'll make the ship quite litterally black... Bare that in mind but remember to keep up the good work .
Yeah, I agree with Alicix about that... it doesn't look like you'd be able to tint the screen any darker or anything or it would be completely black. You should also keep in mind that some people's monitors are set darker than others, so it might actually end up being almost black on their screen already. I think it's probably better to grit your teeth and go ahead and make it a bit lighter to try and combat those problems. If your player can't see the background, they can't appreciate the time you put into making it.
And remember, you don't want your player to just see "a background" when they're playing... in order to suspend disbelief, the characters need to feel a part of the background that you put them on and not stand out too much or it just looks like a blob of color running around on a dark screen. If you want to push the "ghost ship" look, try lightening it up and making the wood a different color. As long as the color is fairly desaturated, the player should be able to tell that something is amiss with this ship. Lots of ghost ships have been made in games that don't have graphics as dark as what you've made here... a desaturated cool color could work nicely, like green or blue. It just depends on what color your other ships in the game are, if there are any.
I also like the rope and pulley thing that you made. Nice.
Infact, try the darkening of the screen, make a quick map, add some effects, lighting etc etc and then adjust your ship's colors and brightness to be able to see the ship.
Hm, that sounds like a good idea to me, too... test out whatever effects you're going to want to use in game and see how bright it ends up being. I know that it looks a little too dark on my monitor and my monitor is set fairly bright compared to everyone else's that I've seen.
I meant that it's dark to the point that I can't see it, let alone give critique. But if you wanted it to be dark enough that it appears to be one colour, you've achieved that.
If its just coming up as pure black, then there is definatly something wrong going on. However, due to everyone stating the fact it is dark. Heres the quickest fix you will ever see.
Now don't worry, I'm obviously not gonna be keeping this, I may just tweak it, if you're lucky.
Also, by what I meant about this being the background, I literally meant, the floor boards. Crates, barrels and NPCs will although be dark, not as dark. Also rubble and debris will litter the field, but not getting in the way. So when I meant background, I meant the floorboards and stuff, not the entire tileset. Just to clarify.
Also, the crane design is still being played around with, as the actual crane itself comes from a ship along side it. Just finding the best path to take on that.
That looks so much better. If it's a ghost ship would you not be having any kind of screentones or fogs or anything else anyway. I know alot of people hate that stuff but yeah the detail shows much better now.
Well, as some may know, my game is set up in the clouds, so theres the obligatory cloud effect which will cover the background, but as its a ghost ship, it will be in amongst the blighters, and therefore fogs and the odd lightning storm will hopefully frequant the ships deck.
Anyway, now for an update.
Well, after numerous, well .. one attempt at making it seem brighter, without having to go through the entire palette of a whole .. .. er ... 6 or 7 colours. I've come up with this, although not changing the brightness or contrast of the actual colours, I have managed to get a little more detail showing on the wooden floor, hopefully getting people to realise there is more then one colour down there. As with the previous (monsterous) Bright template, where i had just boosted the brightness and contrast to its max, this although suttle should show the floor for what it is, something to be walked over and ignored.
Again the crane will be changing frequantly, this is still an older version to the one I'm working on as a seperate character graphic with extending arms and pulleys that actual pull, even though I did at one point have them pushing >_>.
Im not sure if its just me but the pulley system and rope seem to bright in contrast with the ship... possibly darkening the metal and making the rope seem a little less uniform would help to add to the ghosty affect instead of hold it back.
And in the air? Are we talking "Skies of Arcadia" type sky?
Basicly by 'in the air' I mean skimming across the tops of clouds. But for this one (as its part of the intro) its just inside the clouds, as its lost its crew its dipped down a little. So its just floating along like that.
And yeah, the metal crane is a little out of place, I'm gonna give it a paint job, probably green, but its not actually part of the ghost ship, its part of a ship that comes along side to steal some cargo from the hold :P
Does the ship really get that thin at the bottom? I have to say im not really liking the sudden width change. Oh wait, thats the back of the ship... Wow, I was expecting it to be bigger. Looking at it as a much smaller ship though.
In my opinion you still need some form of hull under the stairs, and then the propellers could come out of that... I wouldn't suggest having them sticking out so horizontally. Rather, a downwards diagonal angle might be better on the grounds of ships docking or coming along side each other etc.
Cheers, I was thinking of having some sort of turret underneath the stairs, cos like you said, its suddenl very thin at the back. Incase you were wondering, the red lines along the bottom will acually be a curved entrance to the engine room, at the moment its gonna be very cramped inside, I'll probably rig a tent or something for the actual crew to sleep in at the bow of the ship.
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