Should I go for pixel art?

[tiagocc0]

if the movement grid is based on the max amount of movement on that very turn, I think it should actually be more prominent around the edges.
View attachment 1119

Great idea, this might take some work, unless if I remove the transparency from the movement tile and put a bigger full green tile underneath, should work! =D

 

[Zed]

if the movement grid is based on the max amount of movement on that very turn, I think it should actually be more prominent around the edges.
View attachment 1119

Great idea, this might take some work, unless if I remove the transparency from the movement tile and put a bigger full green tile underneath, should work! =D

that's a clever way to achieve the effect

 

[tiagocc0]

Thanks guys!

 

[sser]

Looks good. I think pixel art is kind of on an upswing right now. And just, aesthetically speaking, I think the blockiness of pixels really suits the machinery of spaceships. Do you have idle animations? Most pixel-art games have some kind of passive animation, like breathing or hopping on their feet or just kinda shuffling. With ships, you could do the pulse of the engines or maybe have a light or two blinking, etc.

 

[tiagocc0]

Looks good. I think pixel art is kind of on an upswing right now. And just, aesthetically speaking, I think the blockiness of pixels really suits the machinery of spaceships. Do you have idle animations? Most pixel-art games have some kind of passive animation, like breathing or hopping on their feet or just kinda shuffling. With ships, you could do the pulse of the engines or maybe have a light or two blinking, etc.

Thanks, everything there is placeholder graphics, I did most of it and those more complex (background and ships) I bought for very cheap.
We do have however an excellent pixel artist on the team, he's working on the races right now together with my concept artist so it might take a while before I can replace the ships and everything, he will probably change the size and/or format of the grid too.
You can check him out here: www.bugpixel.com

 

[hoverdog]

looking good

will all the ships be one-grid in size or are you going to feature some bigger machinery, like capital ships?

 

[tiagocc0]

looking good

will all the ships be one-grid in size or are you going to feature some bigger machinery, like capital ships?

There will be bigger ships, for now I thought about having them increase considerably, like 1 grid, 7 grids and 19 grids.
So the ship actually expands on all adjacent grids when the size increases.

 

[tiagocc0]

Hey Zed, done!

The Captain is actually a gif I made:

In the screenshot it has a purple scanline over it.

 

[Zed]

ooh, looks nice

 

[Destroid]

Those scanlines on the green are way too intense, but it shows promise.

 

[tiagocc0]

Those scanlines on the green are way too intense, but it shows promise.

Thanks, I will change the color to something less intense.

 

[villain of the story]

could you export the video in an aryan file format, please?
nothing on my computer can play m4v. I tried VLC but it crashes.

I opened the link in new tab and streamed it from within Chrome.

 

[villain of the story]

looking good

will all the ships be one-grid in size or are you going to feature some bigger machinery, like capital ships?

There will be bigger ships, for now I thought about having them increase considerably, like 1 grid, 7 grids and 19 grids.
So the ship actually expands on all adjacent grids when the size increases.

Don't neglect other configurations, like 2, 3 and 4 grid ships. It doesn't need to have hexagonal symmetry.

 

[Absalom]

Do whatever is most comfortable for you. If the game play is solid, graphics only matter in the sense that I can tell what I'm looking at.

 

[tiagocc0]

Don't neglect other configurations, like 2, 3 and 4 grid ships. It doesn't need to have hexagonal symmetry.

The problem is that this is a 4X game, so giving too much options about the ship size without giving an actual meaningful difference between them might be frustrating.
I also have the art constraint, but I will think more about this.

Do whatever is most comfortable for you. If the game play is solid, graphics only matter in the sense that I can tell what I'm looking at.

Thanks!

 

[tiagocc0]

On other news:

Version 0.5 of the Tactical Combat Module is available here.
I will make a PDF document explaining how to play, modify and what was made and will be included later.

 

[tiagocc0]

Here's the PDF document explaning the tactical combat, what's in and what's missing and how to edit it to make your own ships and components!
http://www.purpleorangegames.com/TacticalSpaceCombatModuleAlpha05_LastRevision.pdf

 

[potatojohn]

All fonts should be the same "resolution". Nothing crappier (font-wise) than a game where some fonts pixelated and others smooth.

 

[tiagocc0]

All fonts are pixelated apart from the introduction video and starting menu, which are placeholders.

 

[tiagocc0]

Our pixel artist sent me a preview of what he wants to accomplish so I changed the game accordingly, you can check the result here:
http://purpleorangegames.com/Videos/StarLife_NewCombatUiPreview.mp4

His preview: (He still working on and everything will be improved, this is a very early preview)

 

[hoverdog]

looks great!

 

[tiagocc0]

Thanks!

 

[Zed]

looking very good
dunno how it would look against a dark space background though. probably still good.

 

[tiagocc0]

Yep, a dark background will be a problem with this setup but Jalonso will probably fix this on the next version.

 

[tiagocc0]

Here's the first version of the main screen UI I've worked this weekend, there's much to improve, but this should give you an idea of what I want. It will get a lot better after I code the zoom feature.
http://purpleorangegames.com/Videos/Sttc A2 2013-01-06 23-13-02-45-1.m4v