LASEReyes

A place for your artistic side. Discuss techniques and tools for pixel art on the NES, GBC, or similar platforms.

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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

The black text on white gives me GameBoy vibes. I wanted to do something unique with the HUD, but at the end of the day, I'm going to go with what looks natural.

Also, here's one with bricks and a black bg HUD:
lasereyes_field_a_exit5.png
lasereyes_field_a_exit5.png (6.07 KiB) Viewed 12952 times
...but now I'm just copying Bomberman II's style.

Also I don't like how the left bricks look like they're a level below the border,

Edit: This may look a little jarring, but here's another solution:
lasereyes_field_a_exit6.png
lasereyes_field_a_exit6.png (6.99 KiB) Viewed 12890 times
I might need to make "straight" blocks to go in the middle.

Edit: In this setup, any blocks that fall within the center 3 columns will appear unslanted.
lasereyes_field_a_exit6.png
lasereyes_field_a_exit6.png (7.87 KiB) Viewed 12865 times
I know we can't flip background tiles, so this would triple the amount of tiles needed for blocks.

Also I'm testing out how exits would appear at different column locations.

Edit: This is how wrap-around stages might look like. :twisted:
lasereyes_field_a_exit7.png
lasereyes_field_a_exit7.png (7.26 KiB) Viewed 12826 times
Yet another update:
lasereyes_field_a_exit7.png
lasereyes_field_a_exit7.png (7.12 KiB) Viewed 12806 times
I've allocated five columns for the center and 4 for on the left and right for perspective blocks. I also made the brick patterns match when they're stacked next to eachother no matter where on the screen they are (I hope this saves on bg tile space).
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

Long time no post! :o

Anyway, I made 3 new characters! :)
Ray
Ray
ray_down.png (306 Bytes) Viewed 12750 times
Sun
Sun
sun_down.png (271 Bytes) Viewed 12750 times
Rion
Rion
rion_down.png (291 Bytes) Viewed 12750 times
Okay, more like one new character and two palette swaps. :lol: They're not exact palette swaps, but some tiles are shared.
sprite_palette_battle.png
sprite_palette_battle.png (273 Bytes) Viewed 12750 times
Also, I set us up some bombs:
bomb0.png
bomb0.png (235 Bytes) Viewed 12750 times
Unlike Bomberman, bombs must be ignited first (via LASER) before the fuse starts.
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Drag
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Drag »

This is all pretty neat so far, but you may want to consider making a new post (instead of editing) each time you have new content, because I completely missed the really neat-looking perspective graphics you did. :P
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

I would've, but I didn't think anyone was that interested. :lol: I could do that from now on.

Anyway, I want to do something different than what Bomberman does with explosions. Seeing as I would like to have dynamic stage layouts without pillars pegged on every other 16x16 space (and some movable pillars), I'd need an explosion that also expands diagonally.

I drew out the bomb's max range if no unbreakable objects are in the way:
lasereyes_field_bomb_explosion_vectors.png
lasereyes_field_bomb_explosion_vectors.png (8.1 KiB) Viewed 12646 times
Here's an animation (I'm not quite satisfied with it yet):
explosion.gif
explosion.gif (3.08 KiB) Viewed 12646 times
This all uses bg tiles, so next thing to do is recount all my tiles and hope I'm not going over. :|
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

Having pushable pillars adds another issue:

Here's my sprite palettes: Image
Here's my bg palettes:
bg_palette_w_laser.png
bg_palette_w_laser.png (221 Bytes) Viewed 12582 times
(first two are used for blocks, second two are used for lasers)

I think while the pillars are moving, they should use sprite tiles, and once snapped into grid, go back to being bg tiles. However, there are no sprite subpalettes that match the pillar's bg subpalettes. So I either need to recolor the pillars or do something glitchy like this:
pillar_move.gif
pillar_move.gif (1.39 KiB) Viewed 12582 times
The sprite uses the last subpalette of black and white, while the background tiles shift grey and tan colors during movement.

Or I can just make the pillar monochrome while it's being pushed:
pillar_right_move.png
pillar_right_move.png (175 Bytes) Viewed 12582 times
(not all pillars will be able to be pushed, so maybe I could use this as an excuse to differentiate them?)

Either way, I don't think this is as a big deal as what's going to be coming up. Any suggestions are welcome.
calima
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by calima »

Monochrome pillar would be ok to me. It's very NESy, many games have such where moving things are temporarily slightly different-colored.
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

This color scheme works great! :)
pillar_right_move.png
pillar_right_move.png (193 Bytes) Viewed 12501 times
What do you think? It's the first subpalette, and it gives the block a pinkish tint. Here's how it would look:
pillar_move.gif
pillar_move.gif (2.05 KiB) Viewed 12501 times
(I guess it could "shine" while a player is next to it.)
calima
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by calima »

I think it looks good.
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

I really hate making these small updates, but I didn't like how the center pillars seemed wider than the angled ones.

I found a fix which also helps make them appear taller:
pillar_compare.png
pillar_compare.png (281 Bytes) Viewed 12389 times
All 3 perspectives:
pillars1.png
pillars1.png (357 Bytes) Viewed 12389 times
Edit: Or I could just do this:
pillars3.png
pillars3.png (360 Bytes) Viewed 12352 times
Edit: another small update, I changed the explosion:
explosion.gif
explosion.gif (2.9 KiB) Viewed 12346 times
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

I counted all the tiles I'm using so far:

HUD / 'EXIT' text: 24
Lasers: 53
Stage Elements (bricks, pillars, boundary, bombs): 144! :shock: (the bomb explosion alone takes 48)

This totals 221 and only leaves me with 35 tiles for the cracked/breaking brick walls. I suppose the laser tiles could be loaded only when needed, but since they're changing all the time, would that be feasible?

Now for something a little complicated: how the player and laser will overlap:
laser_up.png
laser_up.png (309 Bytes) Viewed 12342 times
Fortunately, since the player is a sprite and the laser is bg, the player sits atop the laser tiles, which is perfect when facing up or laterally.
laser_right.png
laser_right.png (287 Bytes) Viewed 12342 times
Unfortunately, when the player is looking down, some work will need to be done:
laser_down.png
laser_down.png (346 Bytes) Viewed 12342 times
On the plus side, if the laser were over the player, it would align right under the players' eyes (all players will have the same eye height) when snapped to the grid:
laser_down_ideal.png
laser_down_ideal.png (334 Bytes) Viewed 12342 times
But if the player were to move down, the laser starting point would be janky (moving 8 pixels at a time).

Once I'm done with the rest of the brick tiles, I'll start coming up with solutions for the laser, but any suggestions now are welcome.
calima
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by calima »

No, I don't think the laser tiles could be switched out. Especially with four players running around, every combination could be on screen at once.

For the bottom-facing player sprite, since the laser is always on, draw that sprite with a hole?
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down.png
down.png (216 Bytes) Viewed 12312 times
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

calima wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 11:18 pmFor the bottom-facing player sprite, since the laser is always on, draw that sprite with a hole?
Seems like the best idea.

By the way, I've been implementing all these assets into GameMaker Studio 2, so I haven't been working on graphics... until now.

So I decided to allow the player to walk and turn the character's head independently:
facing_movement_guide.PNG
(this is still incomplete) ['B'=turn head counterclockwise] ['A'=turn head clockwise]

While animating the player walking, I wanted to have separate backwards walking sprites from forward:
reyes_walk_left.gif
reyes_walk_left.gif (384 Bytes) Viewed 11881 times
So I made less exaggerated movements:
reyes_walk_right_reverse.gif
reyes_walk_right_reverse.gif (379 Bytes) Viewed 11881 times
...unintentionally creating a smoother walking animation overall:
reyes_walk_left_smooth.gif
reyes_walk_left_smooth.gif (720 Bytes) Viewed 11881 times
:lol:
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

Since the head now moves independently of the body, I think it'd be better to have overlapping sprites?
reyes_head.gif
reyes_head.gif (406 Bytes) Viewed 11750 times
reyes_body.gif
reyes_body.gif (1.63 KiB) Viewed 11750 times
This would save on tiles, but does this mean I'm using four sprites already on a single scanline?
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tokumaru
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by tokumaru »

Jedi QuestMaster wrote: Tue Sep 13, 2022 10:35 pmThis would save on tiles, but does this mean I'm using four sprites already on a single scanline?
Yes, on those 3 or so scanlines where the bottom of the head overlap the top of the body.
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Re: LaserEyes

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

Darn. :( Then maybe I should just not overlap them and make more tiles.

But for GameMaker, I'm going with the overlapping (2 objects) method.

Edit: If I were to not overlap sprites in GameMaker, I'd have over 120 images! :shock: At least for NES, I can reuse some tiles.

Edit: Chart's done!
facing_movement_guide.PNG
Edit: Even though players won't have the ability to walk diagonally, I made some diagonal walking animations to be used while turning and walking.
reyes_walk_down_left.gif
reyes_walk_down_left.gif (371 Bytes) Viewed 11560 times
reyes_walk_up_left.gif
reyes_walk_up_left.gif (353 Bytes) Viewed 11560 times
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