Screenshot Thread

[Malson]

I mean a shade like this. Not necessarily light, but not #000000 either.

[Irock]

I think that looks really strange.

[pacdiggity]

I'll have to agree with Irock. I think it'd work best halfway between those two shades. Maybe something like #292929.

[cozziekuns]

My terrible artistic sense is telling me RGB: 32, 32, 64

[Japur]

Maybe you could go for a little bit of darker green? :3 I also think Malson's version looks weird because of the background blue, so I changed that a bit as well:

[littlesatyr]

Ooh! Ooh! I want a go too!


Seriously, though. Darker shade of the blue used - how mountains in the distance look blue-grey in color.

This reminds me of a certain game where you had small square people and you had to stack them. It was a platformer too. I think it was called Spic or Spik. Something like that (it was on the old RM2K4 board)

[Malson]

I think we have a winner ^

[Irock]

I think I'm going to go with black.

[Acolyte]

Far away things aren't black in the day time though. It looks unnatural

[CodeMaster]

I agree with Malson the last one looks the best

[Malson]

The one littlesatyr made was more or less what I intended, but was too artistically retarded to figure out.

Like I said I don't really care, it's not my game. It's just odd. It's like Kirby in the foreground, and Limbo in the background. Doesn't mesh well.

[Irock]

Far away things aren't black in the day time though. It looks unnatural

Okay.

[Malson]

All those were likely taken at dawn or dusk.

[Irock]

Yes.

[Irock]

A silhouette occurs when the light behind an object is X times brighter than the light in front of the object. Obviously there's a lot of light on the other side of the trees out in the open and the camera side of the trees is dark because it's in a thick jungle/forest.

[Acolyte]

But you can still clearly see the trees through the opening, so there's gotta be at least a little light hitting them. A pure black silhouette would only occur with next to no light. Your silhouette examples were black because the sun was directly behind the object. If the sun is directly behind your background trees, the foreground would be black too.

[Irock]

The players are going to love this.

Also, check out this cool realistic cave from my game.



But really, I've seen this done in games before. Especially in Mega Man 6 which I got the concept from ripped off. I think it looks horrible and too non-contrasting with any other shade and several people seem to think it looks good as it is. It's stayin' black, cowgirl.

[strike]

once you go black...


hey irock, I have one thing about your game. any chance you could make it so if you die and respawn at the save point and you're in the same area the music doesn't start over? i think it sorta throws it off especially if you keep fucking up on something near the start it gets to be jarring.

also ffffffff damage knockback in platformers.....

[Irock]

once you go black...


hey irock, I have one thing about your game. any chance you could make it so if you die and respawn at the save point and you're in the same area the music doesn't start over? i think it sorta throws it off especially if you keep fucking up on something near the start it gets to be jarring.

I'm actually reworking the death to make it more interesting, but I don't think I want the music to continue. That's more of a thing that trial and error paltformers like Super Meat Boy do where you're supposed to die every three seconds. I don't think deaths would have as big an impact in games like Super Mario Bros, Cave Story or Mega Man if the music continued. It's like everything comes to a hault and then starts over again. I guess. I dunno. Whatever.

[Sashikinaroji]

I'll say it because no one else will.

You're acting like one of the people we all bash, Irock. You have something you like, and a bunch of people tell you it would look better a different way. You get super-sarcastic, then you say 'fuck you guys, it's staying'

I looked at a few screens, and I saw that the colors in Megaman 6 in the level you were talking about were much brighter, which is why the flat black worked there better than it works in your game, where the colors are pastel.

So, to make it mesh better, your two best bets would be to change the black to a lighter color, or make the color more vibrant.

[Malson]

If this is what you're referring to, then it makes sense because 1. there's far more detail, 2. the shadows are outlined in a way that shows the light is hitting them, even if only a little bit, and 3. black is a common shade in the other aspects of the scene, not just the background.

If not, then I dunno lol. I'm just saying flat black looks weird, especially when you compare it to like, the shadow on the trunk of the tree. But I think I've beat the horse long enough.

[Irock]

Sashikinaroji, I said I tried several shades before going with black because black looked the best. Assuming you're actually talking about saturation when you say "brighter", I don't see how a saturation neutral color (black) would look better or worse depending on the saturation of the rest of the graphics. That doesn't make much sense at all. If you're actually talking about brightness, then black would "make more sense" because it contrasts with the bright graphics better. If that's the case, then increasing the brightness of the black silhouette in my game would only make it less contrasting, defeating the entire point of having brighter graphics.

Malson, more detail in the tiles? I don't see how that would make a simple black background work better. I think it looks fine without the red shading.

I've changed a lot of things about my game upon the common request of players, but the only people who seem to think I should make my silhouette brighter are a few people here. I've had more people tell me it looks fine black, and amongst those people are good artists and game designers.

[Malson]

It's no big deal. I'll agree to disagree. I honestly didn't think a wayside comment about background scenery would incite a riot, but here we are.

Do whatever makes you happy. It's your game, and I'm not going to boycott it or decide it's terrible because of a black background. I'm just being stubborn because I dont think I'm wrong.



edit: Before you think I'm fueling the fire again, I'm not. It's not about your screenshot, I just want to know which is more realistic. I think it goes without saying that your game isn't supposed to be anywhere near realistic anyway.

[Irock]

The laws of light don't apply to the mysterious island you are on!!!!! !! !

But it's all good. We all see things differently mann.

[strike]

once you go black...


hey irock, I have one thing about your game. any chance you could make it so if you die and respawn at the save point and you're in the same area the music doesn't start over? i think it sorta throws it off especially if you keep fucking up on something near the start it gets to be jarring.

I'm actually reworking the death to make it more interesting, but I don't think I want the music to continue. That's more of a thing that trial and error paltformers like Super Meat Boy do where you're supposed to die every three seconds. I don't think deaths would have as big an impact in games like Super Mario Bros, Cave Story or Mega Man if the music continued. It's like everything comes to a hault and then starts over again. I guess. I dunno. Whatever.

I guess I can understand that, but in Mario you get a continue screen for a second or two. this you just sorta respawn like a trial and error platformer.  so it feels like the flow is being unintentionally broken. maybe just a "fade out game over fade in" would help it be less like a break in the flow. but hey it's your game.


(from here on down this is personal opinion and not actually critique as I understand it's not actually that difficult I just suck at indie platformers) I think quite a few of the jumps (specifically the one tile or death on either side jumps) in the demo are sort of dickish, especially with the knockback and the lava leading to dying over and over. I am not an indie platformer player and i know that stupid precision jumps are the "cool" thing but it's rather fucking obnoxious when I keep dying and having to hear the same 15 seconds of song over and over and over.