Hello everybody,

This is my first post here, so let me say I'm glad to be a part of the community :)

What's made me come here? I have a little problem that's begin to drive me crazy, maybe you could help me. I've made a game, a small little game, but with (I believe) some funny mechanics. I've made some fine pixel art for it, but not all is good. I've what I've called a "Black Background Trouble".

Here is a sample of my problem:



In my view there are three main problems:
1- The dark grey background.
2- The light grey buildings.
3- The black background of the left info panel.


Yes, It's ugly! The background is very dark, it is a dark street sample and I believe it is too "poor".
I've spent hours to make something bright, with nice bluish shadows and orange highlights, but I've failed, that's why I need you help!

So please, give me your comments, feedback and/or ideas in order I solve my problem! Thanks!

All this pixels were done using Gimp and ASEprite.



[Note : the following is not directly pixel-art related, it's just some precision given on the game.]

Here is an animated gif of this game :



In order to having a better idea of the game, you can read an introduction to the game mechanisms here:
http://www.qilineggs.com/2013/06/lonestars-presentation.html. You can also find links, at the end, if you want to play.

[end of note]

Cheers,
Godjam

Edited by Godjam - Today at 2:32pm

You can break up the blackness by adding in lines (like the middle of the road dotted line, or parkinglot lines or such). Sewer lids can help breaking things up a bit as well. To add a dash of colour, you could put stuff like trash bins, letter boxes, barrels, crates, littering trash, lightposts, etc.

Hello,

First, thanks for your replies.

@Raf: I like the idea of parking lines and sewer lids. Actually there is a middle road line, you can see it on the first image, but yeah it's in dark gray on a darker grey road ^^. Thanks anyway, I keep the ideas.

@Skaytr: I think your questions are quite good. The game has only one arena, this road part. The buildings are not platform, but when a boss spawn, it destruct a few buildings, in order to create a new spawn point for enemies.

About the time period: in my mind, the heroes are "trapped" into an empty underground town. A kind of huge shelter controlled by the evil Legumens.

This being said, I choose a dark background, and it reminds the night, but I believe it's the easy choice. I would prefer something maybe more in the blue tones.

About the POV, it's a 3/4 top view à la "Seiken Densetsu" (I'm remarking now the crates don't fit this view)

Now the background. The Lonestars are another secret agency that has been sent to stop the imminent Legumens invasion from their base located into New Mexico secret underground base. The Lonestars are the funky guys and the vegetables are the sect that believes in a strange new order where veggies control minds, people and money.

Last point about the building size. Building are here as area delimiters. They are very small because I don't want them to hide the game arena.

[Deleted, because of multi posting]

Edited by Godjam - Today at 12:52am

I'm not gonna recolour your art for you :P The reason the colouring was rough, was because I did it quickly with the fill tool, and there must've been some artifacting or such in the grey, as it coloured a few pixels and left others out.

Anyways, you now know what colours to use, so you can play around and figure out what you like most ;)

Hello,

Nice to see you!

@Raf: WHAT? U do not work for others? what the hell?

@UltimaOdin: thanks for your reply, I like the light-up you have done and I totally agree with you on the readability. That's the main reason I left the background grey, actually to focus players attention on the game, not on the background. But the result is a dark grey background.

Anyway thank you for your replies. I spend a bit of time to make some pixels and rework the background using your ideas and colors tones.
I think about it and I believe the problem is that it's not a "pixel art" background.
I also rework crates and buildings, making them more "randomizable".

Here is the result:

New background


Buildings


Example of crates


And the in-game version:


(Yes, it's strangely scaled, sorry about that)

See you.
Godjam.


Edited by Godjam - Today at 2:48pm

Nice! thanks!