If you had the best, most awesome LPC pixel artists in the world and you could choose anything your fancy desired, what would you have them make? I can think of a whole lot of things that don't exist in LPC style but I'm already working to rectify some of those things. What would you make (or have someone with good pixel art talent make) for a potential game?
My big things with non-player stuff right now are flowers, statues, and decorations! There are virtually no statues in LPC style and next to zero decorations that aren't intended to be used in some way like roads or walls or terrain tiles.
My big things with players is there are hardly any weapons! Where's an axe of any kind!? Where's a spear? Where's a crossbow? Where the heck are the improvised weapons? What about slings and war hammers and all the other awesome D&D style weapons that we imagine when we're fighting medieval skeletons and badies?
Share your thoughts on what LPC style pixel art you'd like to see in a game that may or may not exist. If something already exists and you could imagine a variation or different version that counts too.
I would love to see more decor / detail elements. We also lack monsters. Almost nobody extended the monster base (on Source of Tales we simply created lots of skeleton variations thanks to the skeleton spritesheet. But only skeletons turns a bit boring somewhen =)). (So I want to take this situation to thank wushin a lot, who did the skeleton and the training dummy. Also a big thx to Redshrike for his awesome Beetle).
Regards,
Ablu
Agreed completely! I noticed there are almost no new monsters since the LPC contest ended. I don't understand how that works considering this set is supposed to be a full set of graphics to make a game. There are over 170 monsters in the first couple games in the Dragon Warrior series, how can we make good games with less than 20? Something that has to change if people seriously want to use LPC art in their game.
Maybe I should make this discussion a little more clear for those who haven't been watching my other discussions.
I'm commissioning Sharm to make LPC graphics for a game that's still in progress. I have about a million ideas about what's useful and doesn't already exist in LPC style. I'm interested to see what other people would want in LPC games that hasn't been created yet. I have a list of things divided into four categories:
If you have tried to make a game with LPC graphics and said "Darn, I can't say this in my story because X graphic doesn't exist," or "How cool would it be if we had X graphic for this thing over here?" then I want to hear about it!
If you have something you've been wishing for or that you could really benefit from I might just add it to my list of stuff to get made.
This is kind of related so I figured I shouldn't start a new thread to ask this question.
This is my first try at making anything in LPC style. I used the dagger art (contributed by Johannes Sjölund found here: http://opengameart.org/content/lpc-medieval-fantasy-character-sprites ) and turned it into a one-handed short sword. Is this good enough to consider usable or would it need to be touched up more to be useful?
I'm not a graphic artist by any means so I understand if this meets unfavorable reviews. Please be honest even if it's negative. I'm a big boy, I can take criticism without crying.
Thanks.
EDIT
I moved the attached images here:
http://opengameart.org/content/lpc-short-sword
I'm kind of surprised that only one person has responded but somehow it's not surprising. Maybe I should spell it out in a really blunt way so there's absolutely no confusion.
I'm paying to make graphics. I know there are people who visit this site and have made games using LPC graphics. I'm having LPC style graphics made for a game I'm making. If there's something you can benefit from having and it doesn't exist I'm willing to hear your requests. I'm paying for graphics to be made in LPC style and I'm releasing them as CC-BY so anyone in the world can use them.
Is there really only 1 person on this website who uses LPC style graphics? If so, what a pitty. They're so nice and pretty...
I'm betting a lot of the people who would normally respond to this sort of thing just aren't aware of this thread.
Hmm, maybe vehicles and power-ups?
Edit: in general more animated stuff I guess, to make the world more lively?
Huge insect enemies would be cool too.
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I've been meaning to respond to this but have been having trouble thinking of something that I _need_. My own personal project is still very much in the engine stage and I haven't quite got to the point of building content which will show up glaring gaps. Plus I'm able to do some art myself, allowing me to plug some of those gaps.
That said, my vague wish list for new/expanded LPC content is as follows:
For non-human proportion races I do have a plan to code something up to intelligently scale humans into something that looks about right. How well that turns out in the end remains to be seen. (Assuming I decide I want them in the end.)
As far as monsters are concerned, one can look at http://bestiary.ca/beasts.htm as well as http://ancientbeast.com/bestiary/ . All and any monsters in the LPC style welcome :)
ALso, freedink art assests are ZLIB licensed ecept for some sounds under other free licenses so you could look there for inspiration for monsters (the slasher and bonca)
The big things that i see missing are monsters with full animation, world view style tiles, weapons, and races other then humans. Some animated tiles would be nice as well like fountins.
The things I see and hear consistently so far are more full animations for monsters/animals, more gear for the players, and maybe some more tiles for buildings. That sound accurate?
@gnudist
Thanks for the link to Dink Smallwood! I'd never heard of that before. Funny and fun game!
As I said, more animated level-props would be great... stuff like moving flags, flickering lights, running water, wind going across a grass tile, dust devils etc.
It's the small things that make a game alive!
For the characters a "bumping into" animation and other such small nice effects would be good too.
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I do love some animated stuff. How about this, I come up with a bunch of stuff that I pay to have made and post it to OGA, then the people here who can benefit from using and altering it can contribute some additional resources and animations. Sound fair and reasonable?
Well, anyone is grateful for new LPC artwork you fund... no questions asked really ;)
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How about an animated water fountain? Maybe some alternate doors and door frames? How do those sound? Would those be generic and useful enough that you or someone else on here might be able to use?
Are there faceset(48x48 pixels) for LPC? Maybe template based with different eyes, hairs, mouths, noses and chins.
I know Charles Gabriel has a lot of good portraits. Do any of those work for you?
http://opengameart.org/users/charlesgabriel
Hmm, I thought I had seen here potraits. I tried to search them with word face and I got just one template page. These look fine.
I'm all for making new stuff but if it already exists I prefer to work smarter, not harder.
Personally, I'm a fan of these: http://opengameart.org/content/template-portait-half-body The only problem is that if you're not an artist there aren't enough parts.
http://opengameart.org/content/template-portait-half-body
Correct link, somehow your's doesn't work.
But I agree, some cloth and hair for these would be great.
Edit: and the female torso needs some gravity applied to :D
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Ah, I know what happened. I use the old method of double space after a sentance. Thanks, I edited the link and it works now.
Those look great, I didn't know about those. Goes to show, you learn something new every day, especially when you bump ideas against other people and ask for feedback.
I'm still waiting for makrohn to comment about a wolf he mentioned in an email. I want to know if he was thinking a normal wolf or something like this:
http://opengameart.org/content/little-demon-wolf
I'd personally be looking for a wolf that could play the part of either companion or enemy. Something that would primarily attack by biting, though a howling "cast" animation would also be awesome. Probably no ranged or shooting animation needed - just walk/howl/bite. Lower than it is tall - maybe fitting into a cell 48 wide by 32 tall.
As far as someone's Dragon Warrior comment goes, let's not forget that WAS a bestiary full of palette swaps, a technique I tried to make good use of in Polymorphable. By my count, DW had maybe 16 enemies. Our BIGGER problem is that the existing set has no attack animations - my bats, bees, ghosts, etc have, to date, just walked at people. Meanly.
There also ARE spears that Wulax made.
And finally, I'd be happy to incorporate any new weapons and armor into the Universal Sprite Sheet. https://github.com/makrohn/Universal-LPC-spritesheet
Kind of late to the party, but my LPC fantasy would be to get a right-handed attack template. Right now, all the attack bases switch between left and right handed depending on the side they are facing. It's a small thing, but it does appear strange at times.
Other than that, I think the most important missing elements are enemy base templates (with animations), overland map tiles, and portraits.
Character animations that I miss:
- Jumping. It's the one blocker that prevents a true platformer using LPC art.
Also, for an JRPG style game, I find it unplausible that a narrow abyss should
be non-clearable. Plus it adds tactical possibilities if the weight of your
inventory limits the distance you can jump.
- Running (in contrast to walking). Apart from combat games, it could be used in
sport sims.
- Swimming.
- Carrying (overhead, for example). Useful for archaic economy sims (like
Widelands). This one I would directly incorporate into my game Gossip;
the others occured to me while pondering games I'll probably never make.
Of course, jumping and carrying are also good for other games. ARPGs like Zelda use a lot of both, and jumping is a main part of StarTropics puzzles and action.
Adding animations at this point would be a huge undertaking, but there was a list I made during LPC, here it is:
1. Slash (present)
2. Casting (present)
3. Bow aim/fire (present)
4. Throw (dart, stone, granade)
5. Two handed swing
6. Thrust (present)
7. Pick up
8. Carry torch/flag (last frame of slash is suitable)
9. Swim
10. Stair ascend/decend
These are new but some can be don with existing frames:
11. Cannot comply
12. Victory
13. Jump
14. Comfirm
15. Sit (single frame might be enough)
That is a bunch of new actions. Wish there was a quick and easy way to adapt all the existing stuff to all the suggested new actions. Maybe you could pick a smaller set to add to the existing set? I can imagine several of them easily but to animate all of those with all existing equipment would take serious time and resources. Maybe if someone made the base multiple someone elses could adapt existing stuff?
If I have a base set made will someone else adapt?
I agree that adding even a single new animation for all existing layers of the universal sprite sheet is a lot of work. But it takes a lot less in order to be useful. For example carrying. Assuming that the base would share hips and below with the walkcycle, shorts and such could easily be adapted. (Not copied because in the walkcycle some pants pixels are eclipsed by hands.) So could hairstyles. Carriers are workers, they don't need fancy armor. Male ones can be topless, even. So it would only take an arty person to do the base animation and techical/semi-arty people could build upon that to achieve basic usefulness. More stuff can be added later, as needed.
You have a good point caeles, some existing stuff could be adapted directly. Maybe it would be worth the effort.
@Julius and Sharm
Who needs realistic cartoon boobs? They look rather perky but isn't that the point? hahaha. But seriously, they could go either way from my perspective. Maybe we can find someone to make some accessories for that set of avatars and we can all benefit from them.
Regarding the female in http://opengameart.org/content/template-portait-half-body , it's not so much that she needs gravity applied to her, but rather she's looks to be wearing something constrictive around the bust, like a corset or a horizontal strap of cloth.
Consideration for shape might be needed if one is doing less restrictive or supportive clothes.
(CC0 for the new pieces, in case anyone wants to use them.)
corset-and-strap-example.png 6.4 Kb [1 download(s)]
Actually that is totally true and I thought so before. But great illustration of it. How about expanding it to more cloth and uploading it properly to OGA? You seem to be quite skilled, e.g. those examples fit perfectly to the art-style.
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*Yoink*
http://opengameart.org/content/half-body-portrait-female-cloths
That's officially on my to-do list. Making more cloths for those. They work really well as portraits for my game because they're the right dimensions and the right coloring to match LPC stuff.
Who wants to make Sara, Princess, and a roman soldier? XD
pennomi and laetissim made an entry for the LPC contest. Among those things submitted were some arrows marked as UI elements. I was looking at these arrows and realized they would probably make an interesting shield! Anyone else see the same thing?
opengameart.org/content/clothing-facial-features-and-ui-elements
opengameart.org/content/lpc-pennomis-ui-elements
Just throwing it out there...
arrows.png 1.6 Kb [3 download(s)]
shield idea.png 1.6 Kb [2 download(s)]
I might work on doing more clothes for that portrait system as time and inspiration permits. However, that will be curtailed somewhat by the fact I'm working on my own portrait template system.
I just had a thought while driving home through one of the villages here in Germany. Do we have any kind of Heraldry graphics on OGA? Any symbols like crowns, ornate arrows, stylized flowers, crazy looking lions, or anything else that looks like a medieval shield or coat of arms? That's something that may need rectifying if we don't. That's a reasonably simple request and a set of maybe 20 graphics as 32x32, 24x24, and 16x16 icons would be enough to draw tons of different stuff if anyone's interest...
UPDATE
The template half-body graphics have changed license (found here):
http://opengameart.org/content/template-portait-half-body
They're now CC-BY instead of CC-BY-SA! Now the nice example pieces Xenodora made and released as CC0 are legitimate! Free game to make stuff any license you like, rock on!
@Julius-
http://opengameart.org/content/lpc-animated-water-and-fire
I did the best I could.. It's amazing that I haven't seen anyone go through and animate the fire and water on the LPC assets yet... it's pretty essential. I agree we need animated grass, possibly flowers, dust devils, etc. to make the games feel more alive. Right now they are pretty static.
Neat, thanks for those animations!
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Sweet, thanks Curt! I'm going to try to use those in my game.