AuroSword

Hey...

I've started doing a bit of art for this game. It's not exactly amazing, and I just can't figure how to polish the up and down sprites, but everything starts somewhere, right?



I work on everything alone, so part of the reason I'm starting this is for feedback from you guys. You guys are awesome. I tried putting these sprites on another pixel art forum, but nobody said anything. The community here is awesome, though.

The game is going to take a lot of inspiration from the top down Zelda games, but I'll probably let some other Nintendo games' influence leak in. I have a small amount of plotline, but it's kinda incoherent. The most solid thing I have so far is the fact that you play as a royal guard. Some monster revived from an age long ago has come to take over the kingdom. You are knocked out, and when you come back to, the king and queen are gone. While looking for them, you go through the introductory "dungeon" of sorts, which is the taken over castle. When you find the monster that took over the castle, you get into a fight, before it hits you hard enough to send you flying away. You wake up on the outskirts of a village, and the rest of the game ensues.

I don't have much to show for it, but I really want to make this, and I have a feeling that this journal will give me a little more incentive to keep working on it.

Thanks for reading!

Your idea sounds like it will make a really cool game. I too love to play around with top-down RPG's a la original Zelda.

Here is a link that you might find helpful in making your pixel art. This guy is really good and his tutorials are easy to understand – though most of the are probably for artists way better than me ;P

https://www.patreon.com/saint11/posts?tag=tutorial

And here is an artist on OpenGameArt with a good Zelda clone set that maybe you can borrow from.

https://opengameart.org/users/lunarsignals

Cheers!

Wow, that guy is really good. He doesn't really have a tutorial for what I'm looking for, but it'll definitely help with some other stuff. Thanks!

About the Open Game Art guy... I kind of want all the art to be original, that way it's just way easier to sell if I finish.

I also did some work on the character's face, but her torso/arms are killing me.

Sounds like a neat idea. Top-down view can be fun to play with. I made a couple small-scale top-down RPGs for Ludum Dare.

I'm not an art expert, but I have one thought. Her sword seems to grow between the right and bottom images beyond what I would expect. Of course, it'll be some longer on the right image because of the perspective, but maybe not quite as much. In the bottom image it isn't long enough to reach the ground, but on the right it is. I don't think I would've noticed it if you hadn't asked for comments, though.

Her sword seems to grow between the right and bottom images beyond what I would expect.

I made a little longer, not sure if it's long enough yet, though.



I also put together a walking animation from one of the tutorials that Crovaxus mentioned:

That looks good! I'm glad the link was helpful. If I may make a suggestion: I have found that my walk animations often look better if I make the extreme frames a little longer; so the frame where the right leg is fully extended and the frame where the left leg is fully extended could be ~2x as long as the others. This is especially useful, I think, at low res where the only discernible difference between the two legs is the darker color on the hind leg.

I have found that my walk animations often look better if I make the extreme frames a little longer; so the frame where the right leg is fully extended and the frame where the left leg is fully extended could be ~2x as long as the others.

Hmm, tried that, here's the result:



I don't see much difference, other than the fact that I ran the frames too fast.

Looking good
I would add a little movement between head and torso but again...looks vey nice!

Looking good
I would add a little movement between head and torso but again...looks vey nice!

Thanks! Are you saying to do something like squish her head down after the foot hits the ground?

I think her head should bob up and down a bit... but it's looking good as is, too.

Th

I think her head should bob up and down a bit... but it's looking good as is, too.

Thats what i meant

Whoops.  Fell off the map for a sec. Oh well.

I put together the left walking animation:

Now I'd like to know, does anyone like the up/down idles I posted (the second ones)? I don't like them because I can't get the arms right, but if people think it looks good, then by all means...

Also, I messed with the sizing in Paint, and out popped this new color scheme:
Should I keep using the fist color scheme, or go with this? I definitely like the sword in this one better.

They seem okay to me. I like the new color scheme, but I think it's also important to consider the background and which one works better against it.

wow! pretty neat.. lots of character out of such few pixels! i am also starting a top down game.. ill go with more snes pallet and pixel art.. if i can

wow! pretty neat.. lots of character out of such few pixels! i am also starting a top down game.. ill go with more snes pallet and pixel art.. if i can

Interesting!