Untitled Pirate iPhone Game
polycounter lvl 18
Hey guys, just starting a new thread as I didn't want to post WIP media and discussion in the low poly art thread, gets a bit crowded and its not fair to spam that up.
Ok, well the general gist is that MetalMind and myself are creating a Zelda styled, RPG-lite for the iPhone. The general rule of thumb is that it will play just like the old Zelda: Like To The Past game, but with visuals and style more akin to the new DS games, hence the view angle and what not. The iPhones got some meat behind it, but even still everything we are doing is made so that it will (hopefully) look nice but still be smooth and playable. A huge issue with most iPhone games is the control, and thankful I've got a nicer solution to that than huge onscreen buttons that never work.
Anyway, heres some of our current art. Everything is always WIP, so feel free to offer suggestions and if possible, we can look into changing them
(Sorry, hosting is still down so having to use Image Shack):
Our hero model. This is made slightly higher res than the world as its seen often in close ups (Shops, talking with people etc), so it makes more sense to have it a little nicer:
The heros home that displays in the world (I have a lot of world WIP stuff but I'll post that later)
Moh's Church that displays in the world:
Church Interior:
A couple of our misc objects:
Finally a mock up of the view, angle and height, to give you some idea of how things display:
Ok, well the general gist is that MetalMind and myself are creating a Zelda styled, RPG-lite for the iPhone. The general rule of thumb is that it will play just like the old Zelda: Like To The Past game, but with visuals and style more akin to the new DS games, hence the view angle and what not. The iPhones got some meat behind it, but even still everything we are doing is made so that it will (hopefully) look nice but still be smooth and playable. A huge issue with most iPhone games is the control, and thankful I've got a nicer solution to that than huge onscreen buttons that never work.
Anyway, heres some of our current art. Everything is always WIP, so feel free to offer suggestions and if possible, we can look into changing them
(Sorry, hosting is still down so having to use Image Shack):
Our hero model. This is made slightly higher res than the world as its seen often in close ups (Shops, talking with people etc), so it makes more sense to have it a little nicer:
The heros home that displays in the world (I have a lot of world WIP stuff but I'll post that later)
Moh's Church that displays in the world:
Church Interior:
A couple of our misc objects:
Finally a mock up of the view, angle and height, to give you some idea of how things display:
Replies
I'm curious why you have redundant textures. You've made two walls [with the windows] that are nearly identical. Same for the triangular eve pieces - mirror the uvs, not the texture.
looks like the uvs on the corner pieces need to be flipped vertically, as well.
props look nice.
all your textures are very monochromatic at the moment, though, and are coming off a bit sterile. everything is a flat color shaded with black and white.
roof textures look great tiling.
the church windows, and their sill/rim, don't stand out enough from the stone wall. they need some heavier shadow/border to help them read.
i think the stained glass could be much more saturated and bold, to really pop.
coffin, or the stand it's on, shouldn't be the exact same tones as the wall. it's getting lost.
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/1483/zelda3000.png
anyway, it looks really good right now, aside from what was said above.
Ah thanks for the feedback guys.
I guess I have to explain this one a bit since I made the outside version of the church. When I made the church model I didn't actually think that far ahead as in making it as modular as possible. So you are quite correct that its redundant to have two very similar wall textures (I actually noticed this myself but got to lazy to change it). Point is that they differ in width :P. Thanks for the rest of the points, all very valid.
EDIT: Actually, I remembered why I did it that way, it's cause of the shading from the roof and the ground grit. Maybe its just not that noticeable
I'm curious why you have redundant textures. You've made two walls [with the windows] that are nearly identical. Same for the triangular eve pieces - mirror the uvs, not the texture.
I assume this relates to the outdoor church model. The triangular ones were not mirrored simply because its a focal point in a way, but mostly because, well, we had UV map room to spare for it. The two walls look the same on a quick glance but are actually different with different grime patterns and trims.
looks like the uvs on the corner pieces need to be flipped vertically, as well.[b/]
Which corner pieces, and on which asset?
all your textures are very monochromatic at the moment, though, and are coming off a bit sterile. everything is a flat color shaded with black and white.
There is colour in there, but I wanted to keep it as even in terms of colour/texture/detail as possible. When working on a handheld screen (remember the iphone screen is 480x320 pixels, 3.2inches wide) you want things to stand out a little more and not be totally over the top and busy. That means that while looking at things on a high res it may look a bit odd, when viewed at the correct res it does fit in a lot more. HOWEVER, if there are any serious eyesores by all means point them out and ill give them a once over
the church windows, and their sill/rim, don't stand out enough from the stone wall. they need some heavier shadow/border to help them read.
i think the stained glass could be much more saturated and bold, to really pop.
I thought the same things myself.
coffin, or the stand it's on, shouldn't be the exact same tones as the wall. it's getting lost.
Again, I feel the same way, the trouble was "WHAT do you change a concrete coffin too, if not grey?". I did think about making it a wooden one instead but then it stands out too much imo.
First up is the hero's home where you start the game. Every house has an indoor, where you cna find anything from items to people to speak with. As this is the only thing on the screen, I went with a little more detail seeing as I could push for that here (NOTE: The green on the texture is currently unused space for other things that will show up in the homes. Notice that the texture also includes a bookcase, which isn't seen here):
Heres what it looks like with correct final perspective and resolution:
And heres a new enemy set, the turtle. It comes in two styles, normal and spiked, the spiked hurting the player a lot more if you touch it and its faster:
It also might not hurt to play with overall colors. The floor, walls, and fireplace are all bleeding together because they are very similar hue/value range.
Odd example but it shows somewhat the hue-shift for shading. Notice the brown walls shadow color shifts toward purple.
http://zs.ffshrine.org/album/link-to-the-past/screens/14.gif
Half decent trick for cheap cop-out (that I am not fully endorsing but its a good example), is in photoshop when you pick your shade color shift down the hue, and your hilight color shift up the hue. So green would have blue-ish shadows with yellow-ish hilights.
EDIT: BTW, actual shadows are alpha planes, not into the actual texture, so theres only so much I can do with most as they have to work in all situations.
I'll do a quick paint-over on your scene.
Hand painted or what?
that last shot is looking very good compared to the others. great progress.
only thing that stands out is the side of the chimney/fireplace. and the light from the fire shouldn't have such a harsh edge, soften it up a bit.
oh, and that tiling texture on the ground looks very nice. can't really tell it's tiled.
Really nice texture work, the light from the fireplace projected onto the floor is a nice touch.
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn288/el-ementrix/lowres-1.gif
I love this stuff, I'll be following this thread
maybe u dont mind to share some wireframes
good job keep it up!
Shep, I love the colour in those screens, they really come alive. The trouble is I'm trying to keep this as fast as possible, while still looking good, hence the vertex lit look it has. Adding light sources to the scene and shadow would increase my overall scene complexity, and ATM I'm aiming for a solid 60FPS no matter whats going on with the action/scene, which it WILL hit. Adding light sources and shadow will mean I can use less overall polygons. I could use lightmaps, but I don't really know how the overall hit would be...
See, deving on a handheld is a lot less complex than a console but at the same time a lot more brain hurting... My main list of "things to hit" are in this order:
1) Must control well (Ala Zelda DS)
2) Must have a smooth frame rate (i.e. unlike most 3d iPhone games)
3) Must have fun, but simple gameplay (Again like the old snes Zelda, why over complicate it?)
4) Must look good.
As usual, its only two guys working on this, so its quite a challenge... The difference is, its a bloody fun one, as I'm used to working with high end next gen stuff, so fitting everything into such tiny limits... Its... Well its actually quite relaxing, and even when somethings hard, its more like a puzzle. I love it.
Well said brother, well said
As requested heres some wires:
the lightsources in the church (torches) could be simple images on alpha planes
a good way i found for painting meshes with shadows cut in is to split the mesh here and create a selection set for the shadowed faces then its really easy to go in and change the shadows after painting the rest of the scene
something like this
symmetry won't be that obvious, as with the bed.
Plus theres the whole "Putting a 2x1 object into a 1x1 space" issue
BTW Guys if it seems like a lot of stuff I say "no" with dont take offence, I'm trying to fit a LOT in at the same time as making it better and some changes I know wont work as I tested then before
Btw, the coffin could be a differently coloured concrete, add a hint of blue or something.
You'll also get much more reuse and variation out of your textures: the comments about the coffin base, for example: just applying some colours on that area would differentiate it nicely from the the rest of the scene. In general it will help to give focus to the areas you want to pop.
It is all looking pretty cool though - keep it up!