General Aesthetic input.

[MusketRose 4]

Exactly what it sounds like. I'd like input on the general style and aesthetic that I'm going with right now.It's not really supposed to be clean or crisp.The game itself is serious, it's not really a horror game per say, but it's very dark? The landscapes are supposed to be familiar but off. I'm using a mixture of RTP edits, public domain images, and personal resources. I'm trying to use indexing the RGB images with a consistent dither pattern as a stylistic choice as well. (Since it adds a consistent pattern for the dither over all of the images, if that makes sense? Makes everything look more consistent to me.)

 

I dunno... I'll stop rambling. 

 

Parallax for the outside of her house, minus the door which will be an event so it can open and close. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's her living room, once again minus the actual doors.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the same map with her, the doors, lighting effects, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

This isn't a map, but instead it's a gif of a visual effect for a status effect. I worry it might be too obnoxious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Biverix 15]

Woah, awesome! I love the consistency of colours.

[+ Chaosian 617]

It's going to take me a moment to come up with an accurate feeling for how I feel about it, but I'm not disliking it.

• Nice use of texture, though some are messy to look at, mostly the table and carpet. Could be the static effect, which I am otherwise a fan of. That kind of grainy stuff is a big turn on for me.
• I'm liking the overall tone, sober, moody. It has character right out of the gate, and it'd be quite an experience to see the full game like that.
• The character unfortunately doesn't really seem to be from the same world as the environment. The world is gritty, realistic, the character is anime, chibi in proportions, and with overweight arms. The neon pink eyes doesn't help really sell it either.
• Perhaps as an augment to the strangeness of the digital effect, some of the shadows (particularly on the first image) aren't black. They're definitely blue, like from dead cells on a damaged monitor. It'd probably work if it's a consistent look through-out the game, but if it's just that one area, then it won't fly.

[MusketRose 4]

The top image is a bit of an error on my part. They're supposed to be like a semi-transparent tree covering, but over the blue on the dead trees and the color I shade with, it turned a little too blue. I overlooked it thinking it wasn't that bad, but.... Yeah, it's pretty bad.

I shade with [#110712] which is a very dark purple. That'll be the first thing I'll be fixing. The thing on the left that looks kinda outta place is a fireplace. I think I've gotta work more on that too. 

 

 

Noted with the character design inconsistencies, and I do think I should tone down the carpet too. It is really busy on another glance, especially next to some of the other stuff in the room.

 

I can't really spoil it but her appearance is kinda intentional. I'm not sure if that makes it okay or if I'm really missing what I'm trying to do, but if it still feels out of place when the demo is put together and it still seems that inconsistent, I'll be changing it for sure. I'll definitely work on making her palette a little less offensive in the mean time.

 

Thank you for your input!   Funny how you can't always see the mistakes you make until other people point them out, haha

 

 

Also, thank you Biverix!

Edited September 23, 2015 by MusketRose

[EpicFILE 200]

On the first screenshot, the 2 windows seems like in pretty different size...

Though I don't know if it's intentional or not. 

I think your character need another, smaller sprite when she's going outside. (when she's inside it's okay)

Because she seems bigger than the trees.

 

But overall, the maps are amazing! It can capture the dark feel pretty well. 

Edited September 23, 2015 by EpicFILE28

[Tuckie 59]

I think the use of dithering here is really neat. Is the dithering artificial or is this all by hand, because some of these sprites look really photo realistic, especially the trees. I myself really love the scan lines and chromatic aberration type effect; I think the old VHS aesthetic is pretty cool in any medium. But as cool as the effect is, it kind of does draw away from that dithering effect you have. It may just be the GIF, but it looks harder to notice the texture the dithering adds with the effect. It should probably be fine if the effect isn't permanent.