About 1 year ago I started doing my first pixel art, and I sucked at it, however after sitting for about 6-8 hours a day after studies, I quickly got better. But after some months I started to hit a brick wall mentally, in that my studies started to get harder and the 6-8 hour pixel art sessions left me with little sleep. I took a break with pixel art for some months, and regained focus on my studies and some casual programming at the side.
However before i took the break, I had begun my efforts towards my first game, a side-scrolling platformer. Since my studies have eased, and I much desire to return to my project, I am afraid that my overall style might not be in the right direction.
The advice I seek is if people could look below and judge for themselves, and tell me what they honestly think.
Should I use my art below as âexperienceâ, and start a new project with a simpler style (and by that less time consuming)?
Or do you think the art I have here is aesthetic enough to be a positive gaming experience?
I realize the art I have linked isnât completely done, but the buildings and the character should give you a strong indication towards the style.
Less does not equal more. Less does not equal better. Nobody has ever asked for less detail of something theyâre looking at.
Maybe you donât want to admit that youâd prefer to do less work to complete your game faster? If thatâs the case, then draw your main character (which appears to be a fox, an animal with an orange color fur coat) like this:
That seems to be what youâre getting at. If you think that first image you posted âisnât rightâ, then you might have that âconfused and afraidâ issue that artists suffer from time to time. If I could make that, I wouldnât waste one second asking if this was ârightâ. Iâd make a video game with all of that art already.
From one game designer to another, youâre on the right path. You have good style. The buildings and environment look really good. In my opinion. As for your character, I say that the last one is good, but also think about how much time youâll put into that character later on or how much time you spent on it yourself. If youâre the only one working on the game, then remember that it will take a lot longer to complete if you do more details. On the plus side, you will have a better looking game. Better looking though, doesnât always have good gameplay. You also have to think about the controls. My advise on that would be do something simple to test the controls, donât use the character that has all the details to make all the animations until you have everything working well and then you can âprettyâ everything up. As for the artwork, my friend, you have talent. And patience. Me, not so much hahha but either way, youâre doing good. Just stay focused on what your goal is with the game.
Iâd like to see where you go with this, how it will end up. It looks interesting. What are youâre plans for the game if you do continue with this?
And Antman0079 you are probably very right about the âconfused and afraidâ eventhough I hate admitting it, but I do tend to judge my own work in a negative manner. But you were onto something with the time-factor, especially since what I made here took so long, I was fearing the rest of the game would take years if the same quality was to be made in different levels. But I do appreciate the kind words regarding the art, and has definitely gotten me positive about this project again.
Lu3DLC
Thanks for all the kind comments, glad you like it. But itâs funny that you mention the testing and all, since I started recently getting back to C#/Javascript (I am used to programming in C++ and a little Julia) to begin on implementing basic mechanics.
As for the plans, they are still quite loose but I have a âred lineâ that I keep within, as the idea itâs to be a puzzle-platformer game. However if your interested I could tell you some more, but inspiration is taken from âOri and the Blind Forestâ and âTrineâ and these types of games.
The art style is great, but I feel like the buildings could use a bit more shading, as some of them look a bit flat. For example, the building on the left has the roof completely shaded, but the building itself doesnât have any shading at all. To me that looks a bit off.
The character looks cool, I definitely like the style youâve got going on there.
Just my 2 cents.
TimoZ, sharing your idea is up to you. Iâll be glad to give you feedback, my opinion and well, just help you out on the process.
BTW, itâs good to criticize yourself, but also try to remember not to be too hard on yourself and your work. Take your time to make something great instead of rush and make something that breaks. So itâs taken you months to do something little, thatâs not too bad. The work youâve done speaks for itself. So keep going at a pace youâre comfortable with and let your work speak for itself.
Jump and idle animation