Need some graphics advice...
Community Forums/General Help/Need some graphics advice...
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Alright, so here's a screenshot from my game: The tiles on the right hand side of the screen are supposed to be of a "bottomless pit" where if you fall in you die. The tile I'm using now looks like crap, but I don't know what to do to replace it. I tried with a plain black tile, but it seems empty and like the level is incomplete. Ideally, it would also have to be seamless. All the graphics are done in one layer. Any ideas? |
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| If it's bottomless, the game should be stuck... for ever :) But really, you should probably either change your concept (like naming it the lava pit and using lava tiles) ooor try something like total black with some stuff indicating a big hole (some branches hanging out of the walls, some weird birds flying around... don't know). I would go with changing the concept somehow. Or using less of it. Like make a 5x5 area that makes the pit and that't it. It won't look so empty if it doesn't cover 75% of your screen :) |
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| Not something that would work well with tiles, but if you can make it see-through, you can draw a 3D starfield moving away from the camera to suggest depth. To draw, first erase the screen with black, plot a (full screen) starfield, and then draw the remaining tiles on top of that. Might be somewhat vertigo inducing, though, so I wouldn't use somewhat dark colors for the stars. |
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| Nice tiles. ;) I agree with _JIM, making it lava/water/sulfuric acid/etc would look better if you want a seamless background. If it has to be a bottomless pit, then your options are limited... How about some simple particle effects to indicate steam or something coming from below? Or add some glinting eyes looking up? (maybe randomize it with several colors) Or you could switch to ASCII and solve all your problems. ;) |
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| Problem is all your tiles are completely flat. If you have at least some depth into it (look at 8/16-bit RPGs to get the idea) you could make the border of the pit "fading into black" - the top of the tile brighter and the bottom going dark and dark, until it reaches total black - to give the impression of depth. Look specially into Zelda on SNES - on some stages you can fall to another floor, and the "hole" is totally black. But it's well integrated in the scene, and you don't notice it as much as in your picture above. Edit: found an image online, just hope it shows:  |
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| Oh... just got another idea. Make a floating rock with a sign on it that says "The Botomless Pit" :) |
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| @_JIM and Ubergeek: The lava is a good idea, but the issue is that I already have lava tiles implemented. Well, I have little geysers or whatever you'd call them, and those damage you over time, whereas the hole kills you instantly. I guess I could use a full out lava tile, but then it gets a little confusing. As for the using less of it, in many instances it will be in only patches. But I want something that can be used for large or small spaces and not be limited in my level design. @xlsior: Using B+ for this project, so while that is slightly more difficult than with B3D, it is definitely worth considering using a overall "depth" background and cover it. Any ideas for a 2d implementation? I guess I could plot different sized ovals for the illusion of depth, maybe parallax it? @SLotman: Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about which why I tried the black tiles. If they had depth it would be a non issue. Sadly, the tileset is (what I believe) to be the best and largest free tileset, so that's what I'm stuck with. Thanks for all the input so far. If I get time later I'll throw up some screens of possible solutions. |
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| I remember some 3D starfield code from a while back that was entirely in 2D, I think it was somewhere in the code archives. That might sort-of work. What I would do is create a bunch of stars with varying sizes, plot them onscreen and parallex each layer individually. My Blitz is a little rusty but something like this: Type star Field X,Y, size End Type for i=0 to 1000 step 1 star s = new star() s\X = Rand(0,screenwidth()) s\Y = Rand(0,screenheight()) s\size = Rand(0,3) next end function And then move them by the camera's velocity time their size. |
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| I agree with slotman, althouh if you made 8 more tiles (for the 4 edges and 4 corners, you could draw a fading cliff face edge. Fading into blackness. |
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| Now THAT seems like a plausible solution... But I'm not sure I have the ability to draw that myself. Time to get out GIMP and do a little researching... |
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Here you go (had an 20 mins spare tonight ;) Notice i have not faded them completely to black as i think black is too powerful a color (even for a black hole. Basically you have 13 tiles on a 24x24 grid (including the gray 'nothing' tile) the 9 on top for a basic hole of any size and there is also the 4 inverse corners which allow you to make the hole any shape/size you like. I haven't test them but if there is any cockups or ugly overlays you can just patch them up :) |
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| Wow thanks man, those are fantastic, just what I imagined. I tried to do this myself and couldn't get anything to that caliber! I hope they'll scale well to 32x32. Again, thanks a million I really appreciate it. |
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| Ooops i though they were 24x from the screenshot. Maybe they will scale. If not send me the large brick sprite at 32x i can redraw the 3 key ones (and you can copy-rotate them yourself) By the way, i have hundreds of free 128x tiles if you want them, you can use any seemless thumbnail image from my "images and textures" website (click try demo) these are 100% free for use in a game. Some of them might scale to 32x ok. PS, just say the word and i can do the same for some water/lava/slime ones for you too ;) |
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| That's very generous of you, and the three main tiles is all I need, as I'm going to directly insert these into the tilesheet over top of tiles I don't use. I'll probably just rotate them in game too. Here's a wall tile:  Right now I'm on the dungeon phase of my game, so this should be all thats needed for the pits in this level, but when I go to the ice, forest, water, fire, and desert worlds in the game I may definitely take you up on your offer! Thanks again! |
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| Glad to help. As i said in the other thread, i like this kind of game, the kind that leaves more imagination up to the player. ;) Edit: here you go, some 32x32s. They -should- tile ok but just patch them up in gimp or whatnot if they don't. (you might need to brighten/darken them too, because i am using a dodgy screen atm and have no idea what the 'gamma' is)  (got a bit carried away :D) |
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| Very nice, that must have taken some time. |
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| Seeing the above beats what I was gonna sugegst :) Gives a nice perspective look, Danman! |
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| Thanks :) |
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| I'm going to get these pieced out, rotated, and inserted in my tilesheet ASAP, but I really only work on games during the weekends. As soon as I can I'll throw up some shots. |
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| I was thinking you could do with a similar pseudo3d one for the dungeon walls. Let me know if you do. |
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| I mean, yeah that would be cool, but I'm not about to ask you to edit my entire tileset. At least until it's to some degree of completeness. If you play it and decide that you'd like to contribute to the project, I'd happily accept, but it feels wrong for me to accept before I even have a beta ready! |
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| lol no probs. Look forward to playing the game if you ever release a PC version (or less likely - if i ever get a 360 :D) |
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I couldn't help myself; I had to put them in. Sadly I forgot what format to export my Mappy file so my processor can convert it to data blocks (duh!). I'll figure that out this weekend, but here's a shot from Mappy: The tiles look fantastic. Thanks a million Dan. |
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| Hehe looking good! I really like some of your other tiles, especially the doors & arches did u draw them ? |
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| I wish I could draw them! But actually I got them from Molotov.nu. They're the one's called "Angband Graphics". It's a very large set and I downloaded all of them, so I have plenty of ground, monster, and character images. The downside is that they lack depth and are not animated, but make excellent placeholders at the very least. |
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