Twitter milestone – 400
Started this robot as a character for my Sub-Luminal project and turned it into a little thank you to my twitter followers.
Expanded C64 palette.
Peter Queckenstedt's Design Blog
Pixel art, industrial design, concept sketches.
Posts Tagged ‘ games ’
Giant Blob Game Mockup
I like games about managing disaster. This mockup is about dealing with a carnivorous expanding blob. You can directly take control of each squad member individually and then leave them with a simple task which they will maintain until you take control of them again. So it would be a mix of puzzle-solving and action.
Temporus Nebula Backdrops Process
Click for big.
I’m building up the background fluff for Temporus. This is a rough series of snapshots of a pair of nebulae that can either be shown together or separately. Trying to paint something in a small number of opaque colours that still appears to be fluid and permeable is challenging. I’m happy with how these two turned out.
The Kelly Engine – Revisiting the Player Token
I have run through all sorts of iterations of the player’s representation and decided to try a new angle over the holidays. I have always attempted to distinguish the player’s sprite/token from enemies through visual language. The player’s sprite receives a broader colour palette, while the enemies use very few colours. Enemy tokens are depicted standing on square bases, and I had tried placing the player token on a large, round base. Again to offer a subtle cue to the player’s eye that helps filter the hierarchy.
An issue I ran into was how to illustrate various equipment mixes that the player would utilize. If the player sprite was a complete standing figure, I was left with less room to illustrate said equipment. I was also left with perhaps a too-literal visual story of the player’s token being largely depicted on too-equal terms with the threats encountered, and that felt as though it would be harder for the player to establish a thematic connection to the character they controlled.
The idea I’m running with now is to depict the player as a token of the character’s bust. Armour would be overlaid like a paper doll, and handheld equipment would simply be shown without regard for realistic limb posing, saving space and allowing for any sprite I like to be placed in front provided it remains within space limitations.
Because the sprite now has a large percentage of its pixels devoted to a face, it immediately takes on a higher importance in the player’s eye. It is obvious at a glance that this token represents a player and cannot be misplaced in a horde of monsters.
I’m going to move away from this iron-age aesthetic for equipment. It made a convenient shorthand for the purposes of this test and mockup.
Skin Tones
Variety is cool. Achieving it with a small palette feels good.
Temporus Heavy Battle Robot Sketches
Erik (@firebellys) asked me to come up with some robust looking robot designs for Temporus. The references were very blocky, utilitarian in appearance, and the sprites will be large so I aimed for slab sides and the look of large metal castings like a tank.
Sub-Luminal Habitat Wrecker
I needed to work on a big pixel piece again and decided revisited Sub-Luminal. My thinking behind this machine is that it could operate in transitional gravity environments, or even walk in corridors lacking gravity or up/down vertical shafts with it’s redundant legs. It would be a good unit for blocking escape avenues.
Mega Man
My nephew asked me to draw him a picture of Mega Man. I used my palette from The Kelly Engine.
Bugout Mockup
Lay down tetris-style floor sections to create an escape path away from nasty critters. Made with an expanded C64 palette in pyxel edit with a couple shadow and lighting layers. I made this both for fun but also to sketch out some ideas I’ve had for a board game.
Temporus Tutorial Brainstorm
A quick, very loose sketch that was part of an afternoon conversation with Erik Umenhofer from Firebelly. We were working out an idea for a tutorial level that carries the player through the platforming controls and basic combat. The player will have to enter a relay tower that has been torn from a planet, and climb to the top in order to access the communications system. Along the way an asteroid will collide, spilling out basic enemies for the player to deal with.
Kelly Engine – Library Tileset
A slightly less ominous setting in this tileset. Wood and stone floors, brass rails, colourful carpets. I kept the top sides of walls and platforms simple in this design because I wanted to add visual candy through several wallpapers as well as the book cases. I’m proud of how the lights worked on the walls.
Kelly Engine Maquette Scratchpad
I’m still pushing pixels when I get a chance. @folmerkelly and I have thought that we would like to represent units in a board game miniature style. One thing I’m pushing for is a clear visual hierarchy between enemy classes, as well as a clear distinction between the player’s token and enemy tokens. I’m drawing the enemies almost like silhouettes with a low number of colours, and assigning a different sized base platform to each general class of enemy. For the player character I feel like higher colour depth makes them pop out against the enemies, and also making the size a bit larger than a ‘medium’ monster helps indicate the player token’s importance. I’m still unsure if I’ve hit upon a template I’m satisfied with but maybe it’s because I don’t have facial expressions and equipment added yet.
