EGA-Style Room Critique

[biverix]

Hey everyone.

First time I'm actually seriously engaging with AGS and actually committing to making a complete game (about my girlfriend and her cat). I'll post more in the appropriate board once I've got some more meat on those bones.

I'm going for a kind of Indiana Jones EGA vibe.

Now, could I please get some feedback for improvement regarding both this background and overall room design? Perspective sure isn't easy when you've got downwards of 200 usable vertical pixels to work with. I'm pleased overall but it's no Mark Ferrari.



Thanks!

[newwaveburritos]

Can you post the original size, please?  I wanna try a few things out and resizing it is proving problematic as not all of the pixels seem to be the same size.

[newwaveburritos]

That said, I really only ever work in EGA so I feel like it must be my time to shine!  Overall I think you're doing great.  One thing to bear in mind is that your character is going to look super bright if they walk into the shadowy side of the room so you may want to consider a different version and maybe use regions to determine which character to use.  I often use a blue dither for shadow rather than a straight up black but that may just come down to personal taste.  In fact, everything I say can be chalked up to personal taste. Anyway, I think the dithering pattern on the right side is a bit distracting and might look better with a more normal pattern and in blue. I don't like to use black outlines if I can help it but it does keep your character from blending into the background and when you've only got this palette to work with can be a real problem. 

I also use a lot more dithering just in general but that's also because I like it and I'm generally going for more of a late EGA vibe where dithering was more widely supported rather than an early EGA where you didn't see it as much.  Like, Maniac Mansion or Zak McKracken versus the OG Monkey Island.  The girlfriend character is also asymmetrical which I always like to see since it's more interesting to me.  And I love to use that dark purple color in night scenes because it looks so good to me.  One other trick I like to do and you seem to have this down is just picking a light source and just going to town on highlights and shadowing.  It really helps bring a piece to life, I think.

I really love this, though.  I'm always super tickled to see somebody working in EGA and I also love to not shut up about it.  let me know if I can help out in any way and keep it up!  I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this!


EDIT: I've also got a whole shitload of castle interior EGA art that looks similar to this that I've done that I'd be more than happy to share but also I realize that doing the whole thing yourself has a great appeal as well.  But I can also send it over and you can mine it for ideas as well.

[AndreasBlack]

I got excited and wanted to retouch it for a more "Mark Ferrari look" 
But tbh i think it's gorgeous as it is. Great job!

[biverix]

Hey, everyone, thanks; here's the original size if you want to play around with it!

There will be character sprites for walking in the shaded parts of rooms, as well is pitch darkness (for a puzzle), although, to be honest, it doesn't even look that unnatural when the character is standing in shade as it is, like in the image I've linked. Or maybe I'm just used to 80s adventure game conventions.

@newwaveburritos - Thank you, I'd love to see more of your art! Now I have looked at your posts, I see I have actually stumbled upon some of your designs on reddit while doing research for this very room. The mini-golfing zombie has been particularly influential. Small world 

[RootBound]

I like it! I think the lighting works really well, although I'm wondering why the foremost pillar is all in light and not hidden in shadow at the top like the others. It's tricky depending on where exactly you want the light source to originate.

I really like the character and room design -- the characters have a lot of personality (including the cat!), and the room looks like there's ample potential for exploration without feeling too crowded. The castle-like doorways and stone walls are also rendered quite nicely. Good work!

[newwaveburritos]

Oh wow!  It's nice to be recognized.  I'm glad I could have any effect on something like this!  I fooled around with this for a bit.  Mostly I just used the Aseprite gradient feature to add some dither to the area between fully lit and shadow.  Honestly, that gradient tool is awesome and I use it all the time.  I also really like to add a little schmutz around to break things up a little just like a little dirt on the wall or floor.  Another thing to bear in mind especially with EGA is that sometimes the color you're looking for isn't as important as the brightness relationship between two pixels.  Like, sometimes you don't want green but adding green doesn't read as green because it's either brighter or darker than its neighbors.

You're right your character there doesn't look bad in the shadows at all.  Honestly, I might not even change that.  Just kidding!  Playing with light and dark in the EGA palette is the most fun you can have so seize every opportunity!!

I'll also DM you a link with a bunch of stuff I've done so you can look through for inspiration, ideas, or just just steal it lol.  It's been a process!

[biverix]

@newwaveburritos That actually works amazingly well! I probably won't end up using the magenta on the plinth thing as I need it legibly white for gameplay reasons, but the blue/black dithered shadow on the right is really top notch visually.

I'm always a bit scared of completely going ham with EGA dithering a la Colonel's Bequest because I'm concerned it will look too noisy when it renders crisply on a modern HD non-CRT screen, but this is what I feel is the perfect amount and placement.

[AndreasBlack]

I went a bit crazy but hopefully you like something about it!

[newwaveburritos]

I've never bothered to worry about dither-mania on a non-CRT but also I've never actually seen something I did on a CRT so maybe I should!  Just keep up what you're doing and you'll do great!!

[Ophidic]

This looks really nice!

[Moresco]

The way you mixed the blue into the floor dither on the right is chef's kiss.