Art Dump

SLIME! Because SLIME!

It doesn't have a name, but I love it...just the same

basics of a height chart; "toddlers" -> "Nini" -> "Big Brother" -> "Daddy" -> "Momma", everyone else is in there somewhere and monsters can potentially hit the top there.

Potions!

He is the Merchant. He wont tell you his name, you haven't made him enough money yet.

Dumping arts

Not sure if I've posted some of these yet, will go back and check but for now -STUFF

OB sketches

Turn, Granny, turn

Mini size comparison

Some things

Granny - an NPC

Lyra, in her housewear

Sketches!..with color even.

Nini's Mom

Nini’s mom, redesigned again. I need to figure out how to make all of this move, she has a lot of moving bits. And bounce.
At-home costume to come soon, still not sure what she’ll be wearing around the house, but this is her “Hag robe”. Otherwise known as the battle gear.
Father and Brother to come soon as well, once I figure out how to draw the mens.
AND RANDOM NPCS…because I reeeally need to do those at some point. I am neglecting people (and places) in favor of Nini. ><
That stops now.

Boss Mock - Slime

Concept for a boss. Ideally, the camera will pan out to show this scene and the accompanying dialogue. Then zoom back in for the actual battle.


I have little introductory scenes planned for the bosses. Namely because I love bosses and think they should be given some background and screen-time before they're maimed horribly. Also, as many of them will have few hints to suggest their approach, I'm hoping these will give the player time to plan for the battle. A nice full view of the boss should at least get the brain going on how they might fight, or possible weaknesses.

It's mostly a desire to show off the bosses though.

I'll likely attempt more of these, to work some things out. I need to learn scenery and monster design. Probably try to rough out the common areas too, get some of the normal monsters in there and see how things mesh.

I'm still not sure what style I'm using here, but I have been using the same general colors and a lineless approach...so probably stick to that.

Then I will need to learn how to sprite in this style...

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...I'm still working in Construct too. I learned the basics to building a cutscene (which is where I was stuck) but now I have to re-write all of my code to accommodate it, which I've been hesitant to do. Luckily Glimmer is monotone and simple, so once I do get that done I should have little trouble with the rest of it. Then I can move on to something a little more complicated (or at least something with dialogue and a menu) before finally starting on this project.

And that is an update. More to come late.

Arts

Some things. Playing with monster designs. Kind of in a rut, if the lack of updates didn't make that obvious. Wanted to work on monsters designs for Oh, Brother...so here are things. Playing with brush settings, too. Nothing too big.

Remnants Concepts

Quick sketches and colors for some enemies in two of my game worlds. Because I needed a break from learning Construct. ><

The little pink one is the lowest level of them, the green the second and the purple the boss.

Chelestra Family Sketch

Left to Right; Mason, Coren, Lyra, Nini

The Chelestra family. I haven't drawn them in a while and they needed to be redesigned and fit to size with Nini.

Mason Walker is Nini's Big Brother, on the far left. His face is mostly covered as he's meant to remain a mystery for some time. Last Nini saw him, that is how he looked.

Her father, Coren Vladimir, is Arch-mage of the Rune. The only master of Rune magic left in the world, he is also headmaster of Unaia Magic Academy and Mayor of Unai. He is never seen without his robes, but he does have hands and feet under there. 

Lyra Maleficent is Nini's mother, shown in her cleaning wear, she is a housewife. Also a very powerful swamp witch (Hag).

Nini, you know. ^.-

Nini Sketches

Trying something a little taller, with a bit more detail. Longer hair will animate better, trying to get the big buns to bounce properly was driving me nuts anyway.

I have also been informed that little rounded-headed chibis are not terribly relatable.  Hopefully this is better.

Still not sure how she'll jump, but I like the fall up there on the right. Could fix up the hair a bit, but it's a nice start.

Nini Walk Cycle - Pixel Roughs

Still rough, but it's getting there. And Colors! Those are there.

...Now to figure out ...all the other animations. Also, give her a doll.
Still not sure how I'll handle those, I know how she will hold them and whatnot, just not how to get the dolls in her hand to move properly.

Rough Nini Walk

Little better now. Still need to fix the hair and get the head to stop wobbling.

Nini Pixel

Concept for sprite style, and a new outfit

Nini's folks are the wealthy family in town, Father is the Mayor after all. So, I thought she needed a better dress than the plain one I had her in. Things are subject to change, of course, but this is nice and symmetrical. ...I mean pretty. Yes.

Bobble-head Nini - Walk WiP

Quick use of copy-paste makes wobble head

Her legs are the only bit I was paying attention to, which turned out perfect. Now to get her head straight and make those arms/torso sway.

Then I get to start the other movements, and give her a doll to drag around. Just wanted a simple walk so I wasn't staring at a stiff sprite in Construct. ><

Mock-up - Chelestra Household

I'm thinking just Nini's room will be on screen, if that helps for size.

 Chelestra home. Nini is in her room (dressed and headed for the door), Fluffy is in his little bed (he's supposed to be out on a walk, but I wanted to see if the bed looked silly - it does), Nini's Mom is doing dishes (you'd think a powerful witch would be doing something more important, but she is also a housewife), and there is a kitty on the couch (they didn't have one before, but I think it'll add to the witch image if she has a black cat).

In case it is not obvious, the white outlines of doors are there to represent foreground doors.
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Turns out "Kitten Quest" will be the thing I work on when I need a break from this one.

I need to work out how, the Demo at least, content will look and play before I actually fiddle with stuff in Construct. I understand now why some developers prefer to have the graphics done before they work on the code. Place-holders are just not good enough.

A mock-up, however, can be used as a background to work out size, location and maybe even flow.

Title Screen Mock-up

Nini sits in her special place, Fluffy at her side, Diary open and ready

Possible Title Screen.


I'm thinking the title screen will scroll down to this shot, showing a big blue sky and clouds first, then the horizon with the glowing city in the distance, then the big tree and finally down to what you see here.

The menu options haven't changed much from the demo. I still want it to read like a diary entry.

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The background will be made up of many scrolling layers, with this view being the one from the top-most area of the first town map. 

Other areas, further down, will show more of the tree-line and mountains in the distance, without the water or the reflection. Even further down will have a frame of leaves and the tree-line in the distance.

 I'm shooting for something close to the brilliant look of the backgrounds in Iconoclasts. I've never seen such beautiful backgrounds and I honestly didn't know that was even a possibility. So now I'm going to play with that and see what I can do to add more depth to my maps.

More Nini Concepts

Playing with style still

The start of a walk cycle, her hair still need some bounce

Still trying to figure out a style. I need to figure out how she'll hold her dolls, and nail down the look of the varying costumes still.

I think they'll work a bit more like the suits from Metroid now. Instead of equipping them, she'll put them on when she earns them and they will stay on until she gets the next one. This way I'll know around when she'll be wearing what and can plan the areas better. Not to mention a new look for each Chapter, keeps it a little more interesting. And I wont have to worry about the cutscene images being out of place, so I can have her wearing whatever costume she's in for that Chapter without too much hassle.

Will play with monster designs in the side-view next. Also need to do more environments, I have little experience with them so I keep putting it off.

There's also the matter of the dolls. Still not sure if their special abilities should be things she just gets to do when she earns them, or if the doll will do it for her. I've decided how they'll work as weapons, and want the magic to work a bit like Fortune Summoners. Easy changes between spells, and combo buttons to press for some. She'll just have more spells to choose from, being able to switch dolls to access different elements (a bit more like the beam weapon in Metroid).

My goal is to keep everything quick and easy with as little need to go into the menu as I can manage. At least for the combat areas. She'll still need to go into the menu to save, check Star pieces, current quests, map, look at everything she's found and whatnot. But for combat and exploration, I want to make sure there's as little break in the action as possible. And no need to equip things. She'll have a button to switch between dolls and her costumes will merely add abilities and not take any away.

Lots of stuff running through my head. ><

Hopefully it all works out and ends up fun.

Messing around with stuff

The Piggy Head is a Hint Statue

I've been seeing a lot of things in Construct forums that tell me I shouldn't go for the isometric Zelda-like just yet. So, as a test, I'm playing around with the idea of taking it side-scroller. Still very much like Zelda, maybe a little more Metroid. My main inspiration just now is Iconoclasts by Konjak.

Really, as long as it remains action-adventure, I don't think it matters what view it's in. Side-scroller will let me make bigger bosses though, and be a little easier animation-wise. Dunno, still playing with things. I've gone through most of a side-scroller tutorial before though, and have the results of that around. It's playable but has nothing to do with this project. It was for an older one. But it's proof I can do handle a side-scroller, and that they're a bit easier.

Still have to figure out how to get menus and dialogue working, but I believe Konjak is using Construct for Iconoclasts. So that proves it can be done, and that has dialogue and a menu and a lot of what I'm aiming for. We'll see.

If anyone actually looks at this thing, leave a comment and let me know what you think. I'm always up for opinions/criticisms. ^.-

Sprite Tests!

I do not like that tree. That tree is not final.

I cannot make trees. =/

I like the lineless style though, going to go with it. Just have to figure out backgrounds.

Decision, Decisions - seriously..halp.

Lineless, high contrast, bright, cute, simple

Lines, even toned, not as bright, still pretty cute and simple

Ahh. Which one. I like them both...

Maybe I should try it with a monster too. Keep using Nini for tests as she's the most important to nail down. But...now I don't know.

Construct has opened so many doors and I'm pretty overwhelmed with just learning the program. The -design- aspect is amazingly fun but also incredibly frustrating. The chance to design everything myself is exciting, but it's not exactly easy to figure out -how- to do these things.

So. Many. Choices. ><

Concept Times - Map

It's VERY ROUGH

Can you tell I referenced Minish Cap? ><

I'm learning the ways of boxy action map making. This is the world. Sort of. there's obviously a lot missing, but it's meant to be the barebones layout. I've started filling bits in on the bottom left, as that's the starting area. (It is very small to force myself not to get carried away)

Just posting to show I'm not dead, still working on things. Side-tracked a bit by the Monster Girl challenge over here

It's helping me in the way that drawing everyday helps. Also, I'm not big on monsters, haven't drawn them all that much, so it's good practice.

Other than that, I've been playing a lot of the 2D Zelda's and looking for others for ideas/reference and to show me how the hell these things are done. I'll try to get more concepts up soon, going to try and rough out the starting town/houses, and some NPCs. The starting monsters are figured out, and I have a basic idea of how the beginning forest areas will look.

More arts to come while I'm figuring out how to make things work in Construct. Following a nifty tutorial right now, but it's lacking in a lot of the things I want to do. So I have to figure those out myself.