Harrier, Spider, and Buzz Icon, Pixel Art, Buddy Icons, Forum Avatars

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Title:	Harrier, Spider, and Buzz
Pixel Artist:	Lurdiak (Level 1 Depressed :: 84 points)
Posted:	11/10/2007 4:19:36 AM
Statistics:	3 comments :: 0 favorites :: 0 avatars
More from my game project (for which I'll need a name at some point). (NOTE: these were originally submitted as 3 separate entries with their own commentary, hence the large wall of text you see here) (1st, leftmost) This is THE generic thug of the game, the original from which the other variations come. This is the guy you meet on the first stage and pummel without much resistance. A couple of famous characters from this category are William of the Double Dragon game series, who does cartwheels for no discernable reason and is never far from his burlier friend Roper, and Garcia, a low level thug with a jean jacket who managed to be in all 3 Streets of Rage games. The world may forget these little guys, but they're the backbone of any beat-em-up! I named him Harrier, which seemed like a tough yet generic nickname for a thug to have. His real name's probably Harry. His design is inspired both by hundreds of generic thugs in old beat-em ups (hence the vest and torn jeans) and the punks from the PS2 game God Hand(a more modern beat-em-up that knows its roots). I didn't want this guy to look all that impressive for a video game, but still wanted him to look like the kind of guy you'd not want to meet in a dark alley. Thanks to FrankieSmileShow for tips on this, including "dithering". (2nd, leftmost) Hey, this guy looks familiar! A variation on Harrier, this is another low level thug. What's with the variation, you say? Well, in snes games, there were 2 reasons for these types of variation. One was to keep people from fighting the same enemy over and over. I mean, okay, we get it that there is a "weak guy" but it feels weird to be fighting like 3 of the same person somehow! But then you ask "why not just make a new character entirely you lazy shit?" well, the companies at the time were working with limited technology, so recolors and headswaps and other easy edits allowed them to reuse tiles and save space on chipsets, which basically means save memory and make the game run smoother and probably cost less. Oh you meant why am I doing it? Well me and old companies share the same first reason. There's also the fact that I think it's cool to see what "level" of guy you're fighting with just a glance. And it's also because since I'm making a maker first and a game second, I'm going to make several variations of many of the characters in the game, so if someone doesn't like harrier for some racist reason, they will have a choice of a similar thug to use instead. Don't you feel edumacated! Basically this is like Harrier's nerdy friend. He's probably a little weaker actually! His design is loosely based on Spider Jerusalem, a great comic book character from the series Transmetropolitan, hence the placeholder name. It'll probably change. (3rd, Rightmost) Another variation on Harrier, but not the last. He's a crazier looking guy, with a look that's a cross between acid ravers and anarchy punk. He's totally fucking 80s to the max! Like, you get the feeling a person like this would disintegrate after 1989, you know? He has studs on his bracelet and some crazy bebop sunglasses. This weird guy might have a slide kick or some other tricky move like that! Outrageous characters like this seem ridiculous on their own but the very punk and brightly-garbed look was very common in beat-em-ups. The stylistic influences of those games stem from The Warriors, a cult hit movie from the 70s about colorful gangs brutally fighting for control of the city, and Fist of the North Star, a japanese animated series about a gifted martial artist who slaughters hordes of weird mutant punks in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. C&C welcome as always.

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Lollige (Level 9 Necrophiliac) at 11/11/2007 2:14:50 AM

A tip for you,
If you want them to differ, but they have to be a bit the same too, design the body, copy and paste that 3 times and then draw clothes over it, without looking at the others.. Even the holes in the pants are the same now!
Btw there is a name for it:
Being lazy
(im very experienced in that :p)

Lurdiak (Level 1 Depressed) at 11/10/2007 4:28:15 PM

I suppose if I said that was part of the point it would make me seem like a jerk who can't take criticism, huh? I really did struggle with how much I should change them: chipset limitations are so ingrained in me from playing all these games that I feel like things look "off" if I can no longer tell who is a headswap of who, and there is the desire to keep that classic beat-em up feel... on the other hand, I don't have chipset limitations, so there's no real reason to hold back on originality and detail... Maybe you could call it an artistic constraint?

Probably not.

Lollige (Level 9 Necrophiliac) at 11/10/2007 9:50:29 AM

nice, but they could be some more different from each other.. (now they are just recolors, other hair and other glasses..)

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weak, thug, William, Williams, beat-em-up, green vest, punk, acid, 80s, Spider Jerusalem, variant, Harrier, Spider, and Buzz avatars, Harrier, Spider, and Buzz icons, Harrier, Spider, and Buzz pixel art, Harrier, Spider, and Buzz forum avatars, Harrier, Spider, and Buzz AOL Buddy Icons

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Harrier, Spider, and Buzz :: Pixel Art Detail