So, I've been working on a game the past month or so after recently deciding to get back into gamedev. I'm working on a little action game inspired game-wise by Castlevania, Zillion, Metroid, and stuff like that. The story and levels will eventually be inspired by Blade Runner, Cowboy Bebop, and things of that nature. Everything is pretty basic and just redrawn sprites from other games at the moment just as placeholders (I'm not artist just a hobbyist programmer). Below are some screenshots and also a link to some more if you're interested. They're all just me messing around in my debug level. Any criticism or feedback is super welcome as it's just me working on it for fun right now.
https://nothackers.com/engine.o/0.png
https://nothackers.com/engine.o/4.png
https://nothackers.com/engine.o/4.png
This might be something close to what you want:
http://opengameart.org/content/pixel-art-castle-tileset
Also these might help:
http://opengameart.org/content/platformer-castle-tileset
http://opengameart.org/content/platformer-night-tileset
http://opengameart.org/content/platformer-grass-tileset
http://opengameart.org/content/platformer-ice-tileset
The author has some other useful looking things that might work in that style:
http://opengameart.org/users/thomaswp
I'm a fan of this one:
http://opengameart.org/content/castle-platformer
and I think this one could match it:
http://opengameart.org/content/temple-sidescroller-tileset
If you have an artistic starting point it's a little easier for an artit to understand what you're going for and if they can live up to it. Also, artists like art so having a good mockup will draw good artists to you. Personally I think you need some levels worked out, proving you can make a working engine is different than showing you have what it takes to finish a game.
Yeah, I scoured the art yesterday and saved a bunch. I'll definitely be touching up the ones I've found or retooling them from the ground up until I have an actual dedicated artist. :)
Been working on the first level a little bit.
That's looking better already! BTW, the vertical I-beams should be flipped the other direction, the part that sticks out is the part casting the shadow so it would be on the opposite side of where the shadows are on the barrels.
Good call, Sharm. I'll fix that in a little bit. :) I've been basing the art off some I've found here and in other games.
What development platform and source licence(s) are you using?
Red warrior needs caffeine badly.
Hi. I would like to help you redesign your game. Could send me some more information like game engine and maybe a beta?
Right now the beta is being programmed in VB, there's nothing as far as license. Everything in the game I've written from scratch, no borrowed code. I added some more levels and background items. Today I was sent a snippet of music for the game and joined Twitter finally. :P
Techhenk, feel free to holler at me on Twitter or shoot me an email at notkev@ymail.com and you guys can check out my Twitter for more direct updates: https://twitter.com/kevputer