Viking Side-scroller Game Sprites
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14763
Printed Date: 09 June 2026 at 4:57pm
Topic: Viking Side-scroller Game Sprites
Posted By: tzen
Subject: Viking Side-scroller Game Sprites
Date Posted: 19 July 2012 at 8:37pm
  I know the colors are terrible, and I intend to create a proper palette. Looking for any C&C or thoughts on the size/style in general for a side-scrolling ARPG/roguelike maybe. They're inspired by the (underrated) movie The 13th Warrior which is based on a Crichton novel. The second sprite is supposed to be a man wearing a bear skin cloak. Perhaps the paws/arms are not a great idea. Though the movie did not have any supernatural elements, Norse mythology just has too much fun stuff to not include elements like the Draugr and whatnot. |
Replies:
Posted By: LordHannu
Date Posted: 19 July 2012 at 11:00pm
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i like the natural colors specialy on the viking with the sword. love the pose too. gonna do a game? im gonna follow this thread looks interesting.
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Posted By: tzen
Date Posted: 19 July 2012 at 11:36pm
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Yes, the idea is something like Spelunky meets Zelda II (also underrated). I am glad you like the viking's colors because I was inspired by your awesome viking piece in your gallery.  I didn't copy them directly, just used the general idea (green tunic, white hair/beard). He originally had a blue tunic and red/orange hair. I also made his tunic sleeveless as per you viking; he had half-sleeves before which wasn't badass enough looking.His pose and shapes were already done before I saw your viking, though. I used the pictures here as a ref: http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/viking_sword_technique.htm (cool viking site, btw) I am pretty happy with how he's shaping up. but I do think he's still a little generic looking to be a good main hero. What do you think about the readability on the bear man (called wendol in the film, I think)? Could you even tell what he was before I mentioned it in my post? Edit: This is how he looked before:    |
Posted By: LordHannu
Date Posted: 19 July 2012 at 11:57pm
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hi thanks glad you liked my viking. sweet edit.
the bear man looked more like a bear standing on his two legs. need to draw a human inside, if this game gonna have nudity must have pixel blood :D also you could swing the sword arm one pixel to the right and one pixel to the left. to give litle more motion. would love to see him do a stab with that sword :D |
Posted By: tzen
Date Posted: 20 July 2012 at 12:09am
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Oh, those are older versions of the hero that I'm not going to use. But yeah, the sword was static and it made the running animation look bad. The new hero will ideally have more upper-body animation. As for the nudity, I thought the character I based her on (the "Mother") was topless when Buliwyf killed her, but it seems she had a shirt on or something. I'll probably remove the nudity since she's already going to be a witch-like enemy that the player kills, and it's probably in pretty bad taste to have her be partially nude when she is slain. |
Posted By: LachieD
Date Posted: 20 July 2012 at 12:55am
| I like your style and the execution so far. This sounds like a superb project. I loved The 13th Warrior. |
Posted By: tzen
Date Posted: 20 July 2012 at 1:38am
 Trying to get the readability up on this. Looks a little pillow-shady, though. Might just have to stop procrastinating and make a good palette so I can get some skin tones under the bear cloak. |
Posted By: LordHannu
Date Posted: 20 July 2012 at 4:28am
how about 
|
Posted By: tzen
Date Posted: 24 July 2012 at 2:30am
So I have to accept the fact that with my (lack of) artistic ability
and spriting skills I will not actually be able to get any game concept
to even a rough working prototype without scaling back the detail
considerably. Here is the compromise so far (original up top, new style below):     The character will have 2 modes that the player will toggle: platforming - where his sword and shield are slung and he can run, jump and climb; and combat - where he will draw his sword and shield and can attack and block and walk . |
Posted By: Mikebissle
Date Posted: 24 July 2012 at 3:35pm
| As far as the bearskin guy goes, the main reason it's not reading as well as it could is because of the pants. Since you said the game is inspired by a movie, am I right to assume he is a pre-existing character? and if so, is it important that the pants be the same deep black as the bear's fur? |
Posted By: tzen
Date Posted: 24 July 2012 at 7:56pm
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Nah, they're barely rough approximations of what I remember them looking like in the movie, where you never really get a good, full clear look at them anyway. Once I finish animating the main character, I'll work on making the 16 pixel version of the bearman more readable before I start to animate it. |
Posted By: Yuran
Date Posted: 24 July 2012 at 9:03pm
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Maybe you should add a shadow on the inner side of the shield at the little barbarian?
Может тебе стоит добавить тень на внутреннюю сторону щита у маленького варвара? |
Posted By: Blarget2
Date Posted: 24 July 2012 at 9:09pm
| Hey, if you are doing a game, want some base tiles to work with? and if you like those tiles, i can make you a full fledged tile-set maybe? |
Posted By: tzen
Date Posted: 25 July 2012 at 7:01pm
 Blarget2, I was hoping to do all of the graphics myself. But I'd certainly consider anything you had to offer. Just be aware that: This project will probably die hard and fade into the depths of the Internets as do most one-man hobby game projects. The gameplay concepts are nothing more than constantly changing whimsies, so any level tiles could be rendered useless with a change in ideas. So if you still want to toss some stuff together, go ahead. I'm thinking 16x16 rock/cave tiles. Some features could be stalactites, primitive torches (not iron, wall-mounted torches but sticks stuck in the ground or pyres or something), shafts of light or god rays coming down through openings, roots growing down from the surface, etc. Edit: Yeah. The level tiles are going to be a real challenge for me:  Just trying to add a texture to the back wall confounds me.  Ugh. Dithering fail. |
Posted By: Mikebissle
Date Posted: 26 July 2012 at 9:31pm
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The bearskin man is much better! Readability is there.
Regarding the tiles, I say play with the hues. |
Posted By: LordHannu
Date Posted: 26 July 2012 at 10:31pm
| sweet work looking forward to see some movement in these caves :D |
Posted By: LachieD
Date Posted: 28 July 2012 at 10:31am
| What language are you using to produce this game, for what platform, and in what resolution it will run? |