Curator Floor Design - Macabre Mausoleum

[Jake]

mausoleum.png (6.44 KiB) Viewed 14352 times

(I've attached a blown up version of the art you posted, just so others can see it at roughly the scale it would appear in-game)

I think it looks great! I imagine the background wall and statues will be dimmed slightly in-game (the art should remain as you have it), so that there's a little more contrast between the foreground arch and the background. I can definitely re-color the existing braziers to emit green flames, and maybe throw some greenish smoke coming up from them, if you like. I really like the cracks, the recessed statues, side pillars, and the horizontal segment of the wall that you've brought forward. I notice you've gone with an even number of pixels within the arch, so there's some doubling up in places where the art style may typically have a single-pixel thickness (the nose of the skull, the middle prong thing on the upper brazier); I would personally prefer to make the arch an odd number and give one of the side walls an extra pixel, because I that's less noticeable to me, but it's not strictly necessary.

Overall, I think it could go into the game as it is .

The banners look a little out of place, and I think it's a combination of them being lit from above (while your bricks are lit from below) and the outline being so dark (it's the darkest color in the image). Neither of these issues are your concern, just notes for myself to consider; I'll see if they look better once the scene is lit, but I may end up adjusting the banner outlines.

For the liches, dream big--we definitely want them to look bad-ass! I attached a few progression mock-ups that your floor inspired me to do, but they only explore a couple of possible design options. They could have a staff, an ancient tome or orb floating over their hand, a massive enchanted sword that they swing via telekinesis or something. Everything could be on fire or engulfed in mystical soulstuff. I could look into implementing a "ghost" type effect to them, maybe where you see a sort of trail of past frames behind them. The lich is worth investing time in that sort of thing. Crowns? Chains? Bone mantles? Mobility-wise, I made a floaty version, but that's not necessary either; I want to do what you think is awesome .

We can have a few variations on the core lich appearance, so long as the variations don't call for different behavior--meaning, we could have two different staff options, but not a staff and also a sword, because those things require different animation behavior. Also keep in mind that whatever the core lich ends up looking like, we have to add even more embellishment for the champion version !

[nsweeney107]

Good deal, glad you like it and feel like it fits in...I tried to keep the same feel that you had going on!

As for the changes, I can totally fix the split to make them odd again. Which side do you favor for having the extra pixel? It won't change the overall floor that much, so that's a quick fix!

As for the lighting, if it's easier I could make the floor fires hanging lights as well and fix the shading of the bricks outside so you won't have to fix all the banners just for my floor...it'd be no problem at all actually. I don't want my floor to make more of a hassle for you, I want it to be as seemless for you as possible.

As for the lich, the drawings are definitely pretty sweet...I'll have to chew on that one a bit to see what sounds good but I like the prototypes already!

[Jake]

I think we want the extra pixel on the left side, because I believe that's where it falls on most of the floors, but it probably won't be noticeable to most .

I'll see how the banners look once the floor is lit in-game, because maybe it won't look so noticeable then. If the outline is still too stark, I think that's something that will end up looking wrong on other floors as well, so I would want to make that change to the banners, after all.

[ThirdAnguis]

I could look into implementing a "ghost" type effect to them, maybe where you see a sort of trail of past frames behind them.

I vote on working on that effect regardless, even if it doesn't get used for liches, because that is an awesome effect and I'm sure that there are multiple places it could be used.

I'm also really liking the look of the floor in its current draft! I agree with the commends about the banners, but would also like to add that I think one of the reasons it stands out so much is because this is a HEAVILY textured floor with a lot of "up close" background (on the highest layer) and, at least for the default banners used, they're very big, open spaces of blankness.

Come to think of it, the old, decreipt mausoleum coupled with the pristine banners looks a little... off? I wonder if there's some way to make them look aged or tattered like the rest of the mausoleum, like a sprite of random "background" bricks that gets layered "on top" of the intact banner? Something like this.

[nsweeney107]

I like the idea of using the sprites as a layer above the banner, then it'll work no matter what the banner looks like shape-wise...brilliant idea ThirdAnguis!

[nsweeney107]

Ok, tweaked it to be odd instead of even and added tatteredness to the banners a bit...might have overdone it

What's the verdict?

[Jake]

Ok, tweaked it to be odd instead of even and added tatteredness to the banners a bit...might have overdone it

What's the verdict?

The tattering is a good idea. However, you're right that you may have overdone it, but not because it looks bad with this example (it doesn't!); we need to go light on the tatters enforced by the floor, though, because some banners are already tattered (or are unorthodox shapes) to begin with, and it's possible that the extra tatters added by the floor could cut off parts of other banners in ways that would generate bits of floating fabric . I think the "safest" tatters to add are generally vertical ones that occur either high on the banner or at the lower extremity. I can mess with that myself, though; the idea as a whole is an excellent solution, because the banners look much better in the new examples .

If you are happy with where the floor's art is at, I can add it to the full spritesheet (if you have layers with separated elements, that would be helpful, but I can also chop it up myself)!

[nsweeney107]

That makes complete sense, I removed the tatteredness (or at least hid the layer). I've attached the png and the xcf file for you. This has been fun! I'll ponder the lich some more and post on that as well

Macabre Masouleum.png (108.96 KiB) Viewed 14327 times

[nsweeney107]

I had to 7zip the xcf file because IE would crash whenever I would try to upload it, hopefully you use 7zip!

[nsweeney107]

I'm also going to throw this out there, totally in your court. If you would ever need/want some help drawing up future floors so you could focus on other things, I'd be more than glad to help! Just let me know! No big deal if you'd rather handle the rest of it yourself!

Have a good one