Opinions on Game Graphics

joshcal

Hey! after a recent purchase of Tshritboot's Star Smasher template i have been working hard to turn it into my vision of the game. i'm not the best graphics artist in the world, however i've tried my hardest to create the best graphics i can instead of having to pay someone to do it. heres a screenshot of the game so far, (i hope this image works :S)

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz265/joshcal/Screenshot1.png

if you could please let me know what your thoughts of the graphics are, and in what ways i could improve them, it would be great!
thanks - hope to hear from you guys soon!

-josh

DimensionGames

can't see it

joshcal

changed the image link thing apologies.
-josh

DimensionGames

That's better! Write I am no graphic artist but I will try and give some constructive criticism so you can improve I love the backdrop and the bottom half screen. I don't like the ladder seems to stick out for me and the characters I love their arms but not like the parachute (maybe the colours?) the hearts I feel don't need a dark edge.

Overall very nice most of the elements seem very polished and I would probably buy the game!

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

joshcal

thanks so much! that's the sort of responces i'm looking for
woop!
-josh

calvin9403

it is ok I think

DimensionGames

joshcal said:
thanks so much! that's the sort of responces i'm looking for
woop!
-josh

Glad to hear it! Looking forward to seeing the game in the store!

Cheers.

Canioh

I think the balls should be a little more advanced, like the rest of the graphics, right now they don't really fit in.
And like PossesiveGaming said the hearts shouldn't have the dark edge, and definitely not the drop shadow.
But other than that, I like it.

joshcal

@Canioh - thanks so much for the feedback! i'm writing it all down, i'll get to work! after i've got a few more comments ill work on everything thats been said then ill post another link
thanks
-josh

calvin9403

joshcal said:
@Canioh - thanks so much for the feedback! i'm writing it all down, i'll get to work! after i've got a few more comments ill work on everything thats been said then ill post another link
thanks
-josh

make the thing animate so it will look better

ozboybrian

It's not the best but not the worst either. It needs to be sharper and missing the vibrance of games like Angry Birds. But it's on right track.
Good luck!
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mynameisace

Hey there mate,

If you want a completely critical point of view, here goes

The blue background with the overlay texture looks great.

I have slightly different opinions to @PossesiveGaming though (because I'm awkward haha):

I think that the ladders are the best looking image on the screenshot and that you should try basing the rest of the artwork around pulling it closer to the look of the ladders.

I like the brick texture of the castle wall although not quite sure about the cement, possibly the stroke outline is a little too thick, but that is my personal preference.

The cannon-ball looks great, really gives the illusion of being in the foreground.

The wood looks too blurry, needs 'bringing forward' more, possibly not have any blur on the wood and what would be even better would be matching the wood to the way the ladders are now and blurring the ladders (very slightly) to make it look like it's set back and resting against the wall, with the wooden gem holders more in the foreground.

The gems look out of place slightly but I think that they will look more suited once the wood has being brought 'forward'.

Hearts look great but turn the drop shadow's opacity down a little, you want it so it's still 'above' the bad-guys but not such an extreme black shadow.

The pause button should be slightly bigger so that it is more easily 'tappable' and have the same drop shadow as the hearts.

The parachutes need the most work in my opinion; maybe add a little more detail and a little highlight to make it more shaped, like the cannon ball's light highlight for example.

This is subjective, obviously, it's just a list of things I would think about doing.

Hope that helps and that it wasn't too critical, just want you to succeed

Ace

Barrythe

Obviously this is only personal preference, but I think that staring at that vibrant background would hurt my eyes; I would tone that cyan down to a more realistic blue. But I may be in the minority here. Also agree about the blurring, if anything you want the background to be blurred, with the foreground as sharp as possible so that the eye is drawn to the sharpest parts of the image.

Cool sky texture though.

joshcal

thank you so much for all of your comments so far! i do hope they keep coming!

reading all the great comments on here (even the bad ones xD) has made me more excited about game developing again so i'm gonna get photoshop back open, take into concideration all of the points above, and improve everything i can about the graphics to do even better than what i thought i had done hopefully in a few days time i will have a new screenshot which will hopefully be 10x better than this one!

thanks again!
-josh

DimensionGames

Great to see such enthusiasm josh Looking forward to seeing the new images!

calvin9403 said:
make the thing animate so it will look better

It's a picture...?

mynameisace

PossesiveGaming said:
It's a picture...?

It's Calvin :P

Ace

mynameisace

@joshcal, I hope you didn't take my comments negatively, I really like what you've created, just a few pointers on personal experience. Glad to see you're using criticism the way it is intended, to fire up your ambition and create something better, a lot of people take it bad but I'm really chuffed to see you're taking it the way it should. I think with you're attitude it'll morph in to something great.

Ace