I'm still not sold on the new particles. I thought the round bubbly place holders were charming.
Maybe try some more circular looking explosions rather than fluffy explosions.
And perhaps try using fewer bigger particles rather than lots of small ones
This kind of thing looks a little cluttered to me, I know that those are trails from the explosion, but I wish that you could find a way to make it look nicer (one of the nicest things about the place holder particles was that they blended together to naturally make large explosions).
Are the blue lasers and the red bullets place holders or are they just retro?
The 'jello cup' yellow monster things are strange too.
Now that I have talked about the things I don't like, I would take about the things that I do like, but that would take too long, so in short, the game looks awesome, both the gameplay and the art.
Hi folks, I wanted to ask for some level graphics crits please!
I'm just starting to look at different level graphics for different ship 'makes'. For now, it's just going to be a texture swapout, at some later stage I may play with the shape of the blocks.
looking at the old screens, the pickup mechanic has changed now so I don't have those blue orbs all over the place. I kinda miss them, as little dots of bright colour. Maybe I can get that back into the scene a little through other means- little lights on the crates maybe, or something like that.
this is a black n white 'techy' sort of level. on the right is 'low power lighting' mode (click the thumbnails btw)
this design was a homage to speedball2.. it looks really really blue though. I like how low power mode turned out
this is the default graphics seen so far. this tile set has several variations, the others don't yet
one side effect to the 'low poly no filtering' style is lots of aliasing. I don't notice it too bad when I'm playing but you can see plenty of jaggies. I suppose one option is to upscale the textures a few times and turn back on filtering and mipmaps. Turning on antialiasing does very little since in most cases it's the texture not the geometry boundary which contains the aliasing
also, I need a logo real quick! this is the first version of it, any crits on this too? this was my first impulse really. I'd love some other takes on how it could go.
Keep up all the great work! I am loving this so far! I dig the new logo also! I don't know if it is me or just the way the drop shadow looks but the word 'Pineapple' seems off centered. It's not really a big deal, the more I look at it the less it seems off. Just thought I would throw that out there...
I really like what you got so far and can't wait to see more!
Hi all! It's been announced Pineapple Smash Crew is going to be in the Indie Games Arcade section of Eurogamer Expo 2011!
and, I'm completely bricking it. I have like 2 weeks to get the game ready, so this is another callout for some testing help
if you think you could spare a short while to have a crack on the game and report your experience, I would seriously appreciate it! (the game's small to download too)
the game's going to be running for the first time infront of tons of people and I'll just die if it sucks or something goes wrong.. I really want to test the hell out of it (and get the gameplay balanced!). Also, if you test it and we meet in London (and we're in a pub) I'll get you a pint! howsat
hell yeah rooster, show those nerds how it's done
and obviously i would love to playtest!
one small thing about the graphics; i think you could add some color or luminosity divergence between the walls and the floors. right now some of the levels look quite monochrome and just adding some hints of color contrast might make things a tiny bit more readable.
Aww this game would be so awesome as multiplayer! Totally something I'm gonna buy if/when you release it! Love the style of this game.
If you still need a play tester, just send me a pm
Logo is also looking awesome, glad you went with the blue letters rather then the red/brown one.
The levels I'm gonna agree with Slum, top 2 ones have a bit to much contrast, especially on top of the walls.
The 2 middle ones are my favorites, although I think it might look nice if the blue one would have the same color variation on the floor tiles as the tiles in the green level. Breaks it up a bit in my opinion.
Bottom left one I do like, but there is something I can't put my finger on.
Anyway, keep up the awesome work and good luck at the expo!
I'm definitely going to be revisiting the levels sometime soon, all these crits are great- (my eyes really get used to it all, fresh perspective is really valuable)
hey, thanks evilblah! yeah I'll get you a version once I've fixed this crash bug someone found . hate bugs!
dustin: haha, yeah they do a bit . as soon as I find the time I want to do a sweep of all the level gfx and make some changes..
on a sidenote, I see places reporting me as Red Produkt in the arcade lineup . There was a mixup apparently. while red_produkt is an alias of mine, I release all my games under RichMakeGame, bit gutted . Specially since people can't make the connection with my ludum dare entry
i tried, but even then tons of news sources just copy and paste off each other so by the time the source is changed everyone's using the wrong version anyway. meh.
ah well, I'll just have to try make an impression on the day and plaster my logo everywhere
Looks great! I fell in love with the style after watching the vid on the front page. The transition from your concept to the low-poly is impressive Good luck with it!
And if you need any more testers, I'd love to give it a spin!
Looks cool. I'd like to see more variation in the character colours other than just the differing outline colours and also vary the poses. Actally. I'm not sure I like their placement on the screen now that i look at it. Maybe just have the left dude. Make him larger and rotate him inward a bit from the camera and have him looking up to the right "Hero pose". The other 3 could either be removed or silhouetted and placed behind the main logo. Might work, might not. Just a thought.
I'm also not digging the placement of the characters in that splash screen, feels very samy, which is understandable i supposed. They also feel somewhat like an afterthought.
I'd consider removing them, and just having the various logo's on the splash screen, or alternatively, have them running around on that background plane.
Or as stinger says, have the one in full view, and maybe silhouette the others, and colourise it as if it were an epic explosion silhouette. But remove the standing pose, put them into a running pose.
Been watching this for a while now, and like many others, it's truly inspirational, im getting the motivation to actually start something, cant wait to see this at Eurogamer You are there on Sunday right?
cheers for the crits! I'll try a few things out see how it feels
while you're here, what about this as a flyer:
I'm debating how much info to put on there.. I quite like the idea of leaving it cryptic and hopefully generating some curiosity. it could work great or it could work horrible
I think you need to get some info on there tbh. I hate being handed flyers and not knowing wtf its about. In the bin it goes and i'm none the wiser.
Sell yourself more. Get your "rich make game" logo on there and a blog address at the very least.
If I were making a flyer I'd have tons of info on it. Your games got punchy graphics and a couple of screen shots will generate alot of interest. If the flyer has a printed reverse I'd get them on there along with directions to where I can play it/see it at the expo
hmm yeah I guess so. I mean I mainly want something to drive people towards the playtest, and maybe remind them of it later. I think if they have the flyer and don't go its no good either way..
i'm imagining there's going to be tons of flyers covered in screenshots, game features and space marines, so I was trying to think of something simple and striking which might make people curious enough to take a look.
blog and twitter are probably a good idea tho eh, for someone who saw the game, has the flyer and wants to find out more
i'm late but that splash screen seems a little too busy, I think the logo stands on it's own.
As far as attention getting flyers, I think the smash crew guy is interesting enough to draw attention. He's also begging for some papercraft treatment.
As for the flower, put your logo in the corner over the "indie arcade" bit (this ).
Definitely. You want people to see and know the name, but be curious of what its about.
I know you're probably already there, but that's my two cents.
This game is the bee's knees! Just got back from the expo and i'd say was the most fun game in the Indy section, I'd also rate it more enjoyable than some of the AAA titles I played today! Was nice chatting to ya man! All the best
Howdy Rich, also just back from the expo and loved the game - it's shaping up quite nicely
I'm gonna get all my friends to try it tomorrow. I'll rub their heads together and get their reactions for you.
Speaking of reactions, I forgot to ask; What do the blue pads do? They seemed to light up when I tossed a grenade on them but I couldn't figure what exactly. Just curious.
PS. I'm the beardy chap who mentioned trying to get back into Stainless
Was awesome to chat with you and play the game man, I totally second the best game of the indie section comment
fantastic movement feel, easy to learn, really looking forward to playing it once it'll be out
Replies
Maybe try some more circular looking explosions rather than fluffy explosions.
And perhaps try using fewer bigger particles rather than lots of small ones
This kind of thing looks a little cluttered to me, I know that those are trails from the explosion, but I wish that you could find a way to make it look nicer (one of the nicest things about the place holder particles was that they blended together to naturally make large explosions).
Are the blue lasers and the red bullets place holders or are they just retro?
The 'jello cup' yellow monster things are strange too.
Now that I have talked about the things I don't like, I would take about the things that I do like, but that would take too long, so in short, the game looks awesome, both the gameplay and the art.
I'm very excited to see how this progresses ^^
I'm just starting to look at different level graphics for different ship 'makes'. For now, it's just going to be a texture swapout, at some later stage I may play with the shape of the blocks.
looking at the old screens, the pickup mechanic has changed now so I don't have those blue orbs all over the place. I kinda miss them, as little dots of bright colour. Maybe I can get that back into the scene a little through other means- little lights on the crates maybe, or something like that.
this is a black n white 'techy' sort of level. on the right is 'low power lighting' mode (click the thumbnails btw)
this design was a homage to speedball2.. it looks really really blue though. I like how low power mode turned out
this is the default graphics seen so far. this tile set has several variations, the others don't yet
one side effect to the 'low poly no filtering' style is lots of aliasing. I don't notice it too bad when I'm playing but you can see plenty of jaggies. I suppose one option is to upscale the textures a few times and turn back on filtering and mipmaps. Turning on antialiasing does very little since in most cases it's the texture not the geometry boundary which contains the aliasing
also, I need a logo real quick! this is the first version of it, any crits on this too? this was my first impulse really. I'd love some other takes on how it could go.
thanks!
As for the levels, I think the top two suffer from too much local contrast, making the screen harder to read. Too much near black and near white.
In that regard, this one is the worst offender:
http://www.richmakegame.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PineappleSmashCrew_c01-300x187.jpg
I think this is the best:
http://www.richmakegame.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PineappleSmashCrew_c03-300x187.jpg
cheers for the level crit, that's what I was afraid of, wanted some more eyes on it. hmm, I'll have a play with the contrast
Keep up all the great work! I am loving this so far! I dig the new logo also! I don't know if it is me or just the way the drop shadow looks but the word 'Pineapple' seems off centered. It's not really a big deal, the more I look at it the less it seems off. Just thought I would throw that out there...
I really like what you got so far and can't wait to see more!
and, I'm completely bricking it. I have like 2 weeks to get the game ready, so this is another callout for some testing help
if you think you could spare a short while to have a crack on the game and report your experience, I would seriously appreciate it! (the game's small to download too)
the game's going to be running for the first time infront of tons of people and I'll just die if it sucks or something goes wrong.. I really want to test the hell out of it (and get the gameplay balanced!). Also, if you test it and we meet in London (and we're in a pub) I'll get you a pint! howsat
And congrats on getting it into Eurogamer!
and obviously i would love to playtest!
one small thing about the graphics; i think you could add some color or luminosity divergence between the walls and the floors. right now some of the levels look quite monochrome and just adding some hints of color contrast might make things a tiny bit more readable.
If you still need a play tester, just send me a pm
Logo is also looking awesome, glad you went with the blue letters rather then the red/brown one.
The levels I'm gonna agree with Slum, top 2 ones have a bit to much contrast, especially on top of the walls.
The 2 middle ones are my favorites, although I think it might look nice if the blue one would have the same color variation on the floor tiles as the tiles in the green level. Breaks it up a bit in my opinion.
Bottom left one I do like, but there is something I can't put my finger on.
Anyway, keep up the awesome work and good luck at the expo!
I'm definitely going to be revisiting the levels sometime soon, all these crits are great- (my eyes really get used to it all, fresh perspective is really valuable)
Congrats btw, on getting it to the Indie Games Arcade!
dustin: haha, yeah they do a bit
on a sidenote, I see places reporting me as Red Produkt in the arcade lineup
ah well, I'll just have to try make an impression on the day and plaster my logo everywhere
And if you need any more testers, I'd love to give it a spin!
(the camera moves around a bit and the logo periodically pulses)
Best example i could find
I'd consider removing them, and just having the various logo's on the splash screen, or alternatively, have them running around on that background plane.
Or as stinger says, have the one in full view, and maybe silhouette the others, and colourise it as if it were an epic explosion silhouette. But remove the standing pose, put them into a running pose.
I hope something special comes out of this for you and your crew (if you have a crew :P hehe).
Good luck and keep up the great work!
while you're here, what about this as a flyer:
I'm debating how much info to put on there.. I quite like the idea of leaving it cryptic and hopefully generating some curiosity. it could work great or it could work horrible
I think you need to get some info on there tbh. I hate being handed flyers and not knowing wtf its about. In the bin it goes and i'm none the wiser.
Sell yourself more. Get your "rich make game" logo on there and a blog address at the very least.
If I were making a flyer I'd have tons of info on it. Your games got punchy graphics and a couple of screen shots will generate alot of interest. If the flyer has a printed reverse I'd get them on there along with directions to where I can play it/see it at the expo
i'm imagining there's going to be tons of flyers covered in screenshots, game features and space marines, so I was trying to think of something simple and striking which might make people curious enough to take a look.
blog and twitter are probably a good idea tho eh, for someone who saw the game, has the flyer and wants to find out more
As far as attention getting flyers, I think the smash crew guy is interesting enough to draw attention. He's also begging for some papercraft treatment.
http://www.richmakegame.com/?page_id=399
here's some new stuff
this is also a reminder to come say hi at the Eurogamer Expo in London if you'll be there! I need some moral support :]
[ame]
Justins right. The character is screaming papercraft. Just print some "tweaked" UV's.
As for the flower, put your logo in the corner over the "indie arcade" bit (this
Definitely. You want people to see and know the name, but be curious of what its about.
I know you're probably already there, but that's my two cents.
I'm gonna get all my friends to try it tomorrow. I'll rub their heads together and get their reactions for you.
Speaking of reactions, I forgot to ask; What do the blue pads do? They seemed to light up when I tossed a grenade on them but I couldn't figure what exactly. Just curious.
PS. I'm the beardy chap who mentioned trying to get back into Stainless
I really wanted to say hi! But I don't know what you look like and I didn't see anyone hanging around your booth.
fantastic movement feel, easy to learn, really looking forward to playing it once it'll be out
Guys, congrats on the win, looks great, let the internets play it now!
Saw you with TB was really pumped