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Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:35 pm
by Zolionline
Hi! I'm an amateur pixel artist grown up on the NES games. I really liked the console (we couldn't afford a SNES, so I played it till the late 90's). I saw this NES comminity and I wondered if I could join somebody to make a game on my favorite console? I prefer the sidescroller genre, but rpg's are also good. (I'm not too good with shooters, like Gradius, but I could try it.) I attached some of my NES inspired pieces, others can be found on my ≠ page. We can discuss this here, or you can PM me (as I see there is a feature for that).

I don't know how long will it be available, but here, take a look:

(EDIT: I attached the pic instead of a linked image hosting.)

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:46 pm
by dougeff
I like your portraits.

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:51 pm
by darryl.revok
Hey your work looks really good. It looks like you've been working on these for quite a while. Curious why you're just now getting around to putting your work into a real game. You obviously have a passion for it.

The designs I saw look like SNES. Do you have anything 8-bit style? Although doing SNES graphics is more work, so I wouldn't imagine you'd have much trouble designing for the NES.

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 2:41 pm
by Zolionline
@dougeff: Thanks! :)

@darryl.revok: I'm making games since 2008 (approximately), however only a few went through the whole process (because leaving partners, mostly). But this way I have many tilesets, spritesheets, level plans etc., and I know how to design and make game art, I just need a proper partner who can stay through the development. I'm fed up with minigames for net play and mobiles.
I don't really have 8-bit, because when I made it, programmers begin to say that they want more colorful versions, so I "upgraded" the art. Although the blue dwarf with the faerie were made for a 8-bit like game and has a good design documentation, I even used the NES palette found on the internet. (Ok, not 3 colors + transparency but close to it.)

And yes, I think I can manage with the restriction of the NES, however I would need a little help here and there, the wiki wasn't too informative about this part. (Or maybe it's more simple than I think.)

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 5:27 pm
by darryl.revok
And yes, I think I can manage with the restriction of the NES, however I would need a little help here and there, the wiki wasn't too informative about this part. (Or maybe it's more simple than I think.)
If you stuck to the palette and three colors, I'd imagine the developer would be the one translating your images into actual NES CHR banks, so I doubt you'd need to know too much. There are a few restrictions that are important. The NES can display 64 sprite at one time, so you'd need to design your characters in consideration for that fact. That's usually not an issue, because characters sized 8 tiles would allow 8 characters on screen at a time, but it could be. There's also scanline stuff which I don't think is important to worry about on your end. You can overlap sprites to add more colors but that's taking one out of your 64. You probably know about the tiles, but if not, every image has to be divided into 8x8 pixel tiles. Sometimes that might change the way you'll draw things so you don't end up with an extra tile for one pixel. A lot of the tile adjustment in the NES CHR file though will probably be done by the developer. There are probably some more things I'm not thinking about at this moment.

I sent you a PM.

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:53 am
by Zolionline
Yeah, I know about these restrictions. I made some research in the past. I have only small questions, but I will ask whoever I will work with ;)

But, I also have found one of my NES character. He's a barbarian, and I have a lot bigger spritesheet, it's just an excerpt for showing. (I couldn't decide if I want him to have a sword, but I made the animations. The bowstring and the swing effect of the sword are missing because I wanted to make sure that the animation looks good then adding an effect.
sword.png
sword.png (2.72 KiB) Viewed 21831 times

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:21 am
by tokumaru
Zolionline wrote:I have only small questions, but I will ask whoever I will work with ;)
That's probably a good idea, since in addition to the limitations of the console, the engine will probably impose some as well.

BTW, nice sprites!

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:15 am
by Drew Sebastino
Zolionline wrote:Yeah, I know about these restrictions. I made some research in the past. I have only small questions, but I will ask whoever I will work with
Wow, someone who actually looks up the restrictions of a platform before attempting to make art on it. :shock:
Zolionline wrote:But, I also have found one of my NES character.
I think it looks good, but in my personal opinion, I think it would look better with some shading and outlines to make it feel less flat I guess.
New Barbarian.png
New Barbarian.png (412 Bytes) Viewed 21799 times

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:11 am
by Zolionline
If I have to redraw it, I would do it like this (maybe with that alternate coloring). It's at least a 3 years old sprite, I learned many things since. But I like the simplicity of the character, it remembered me to Super Mario Bros, which I played many-many times.

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:55 am
by tokumaru
The flat style looks like the early NES stuff. I don't particularly like it, but I don't hate it either. I do dislike things like Mario's bent forward knee (that's disturbing!), but I don't think your sprites have any of that. Anyway, I much prefer sprites with volume, and the new version looks pretty cool. The alternate color version reminds me of Chun-li though! :lol:

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:32 am
by Drew Sebastino
I also much prefer the volume sprite.

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 4:43 am
by Rahsennor
Are you still looking for a programmer? I'm looking into making games for the NES myself. The technical aspect looks like it's right up my alley, but I have all the artistic talent of a lump of coal.

Judging by your DA page, you're probably looking for someone that knows what they're doing already, but if you're okay with keeping it simple, at least at first, I'd be more than happy to pitch in.

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 8:56 am
by Zolionline
Thanks for all of your interest! Currently I'm talking with somebody about a game, so I don't like to start another conversation. I really don't like to say no, but I have such a limited free time. I don't know if I can change the name of the topic, or if I could delete it. Maybe I will post some fresh mockups for the fun :)

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 1:05 pm
by tepples
The owner of the first post in a topic can edit its subject.

Re: Pixel artist looking for partner

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 12:40 pm
by M_Tee
I look forward to whatever you're working on.

For the record, both of your Barbarian sprites are solid. The first looks like it's circa '87, the second, its '90 sequel.
I'd love to play both.

I don't much care for espozo's though, pretty lanky and awkward.