Levels & Items Art

lol I think that's a complaint everyone has at this point.

 

I wish the EHZ art didn't have so many gradients.

 

The truth shall set you free...

 

[Unrelated]
Wait, why there isn't grass inside the loop? It looks just weird to switch from visible grass to a perfect circle imo

 

I remember that coming up a while ago. And I personally feel you should preserve the perfect circle. The grass does try to ease into it, but I'm not sure how much room you have to make it gradual while still maintaining it as a tile set.

 

ALSO, it simply will look better the way it is, it might not make total sense why the grass suddenly changes, but most of the vegetation in the zone sways to the geometric whims of SEGA nature.

 

Yeah.. it just looks good this way.

 

"Laws of physics in fiction are fictive."
- test-object's law.

 

Now I'll admit that I didn't perfectly correct the scale of the platform when I made this, but doesn't the whole scale of this scene seem off? I mean, look how condensed the shadows of the grass on the platform are in contrast to the ground. Look at the spacing of the green lines in the grass too. I might have made the scale way small on that floating platform, but if I hadn't it would have been way too large, ERGO I think the platform is incorrect in its scale. If it becomes bigger the green lines will get thicker, but the shadows will seem less condensed. If the platform becomes smaller, the shadows will be even more condensed, and it is unlikely to alter the green lines anyway. Nonetheless, the grass spikes of the platform and ground appear the same size, which is good?

 

Allow me to post a full resolution version of that mock-up, the other one got scaled down by the site I uploaded it to.



Ignore the somewhat shitty spots, I'll most likely be re-working some places.

 

Thanks for this new background! But I still say the shadows are too condensed on the platform.

 

lol I mentioned a page back or so that I might mess with the shadows more. Not all the shadows are as consistent as I'd like them to be. Some of the lower portions of the grass is pretty meh looking as well, and there really are some places that I'm not happy with at all. The very first block I worked on I think is probably fine, but the second one I worked on I hated. The way I made the grass really evolved a fair bit, so I was kinda experimenting and it didn't always work out.

 

What is left to do on EHZ now? How long is it going to be realistically till EHZ is playable? Also, is HTZ going to be the next level seeing as it shares the same tiles?

Not trying to push things along but I'm looking for a time line to put my mind at rest for a playable first level.

 

Well as you can somewhat see from that image, there's some tiling issues. The tiles in that image fit together fairly well, but there's a lot that don't. I've ranted about this so many times now it feels stale, but the tiles will need to be adjusted and new tiles made and/or existing ones edited. Right now Emerald Hill Zone is more or less playable, but I lack the tools to really go into it and edit things around to fit, figure out what places need new tiles, etc. As for Hill Top Zone, it does share most of the same tiles, but there are still a good number of tiles that are new and will still need to be constructed. For the next release we'll probably only have Emerald Hill Zone playable, but we'll probably finish up Hill Top Zone soon after that. It depends on how things turn out.

As for the things that are needed to finish Emerald Hill Zone and Hill Top Zone, here's a summary. I'm going from memory, so if I forget something, that's why.

EHZ:
1. Wall lights need to be messed with so they fit in with the rest of the checkered underground walls.
2. Waterfalls need to be finished. Exodus is still working on this as far as I know.
3. I believe the palm trees are going to be remastered again, but I think another staff member will be working on that when he has time.
4. Some stage tiles in general, most of which nobody but myself will probably want to even think about doing. :P Figuring out how to make that grass gave me a headache. It was terrible
5. The buzzer needs to be worked on some more. (I believe El is still going to do that.)

HTZ:
1. For at least the alpha release, the blocks will probably only be recolored. No idea if we're going to do anything special with those or not just yet.
2. Lava needs to be remastered.
3. Enemies will need to be brought up to current standards if needed.
4. The teeter totter object needs to be remastered.
5. The trees need to be remastered again. They're really flat as they are now.
6. The S-tunnel needs to be made, but that's more my area, so it'll get taken care of sooner or later.
7. Vines and the platforms that ride along them.
8. Those breakable rocks need to be done.

Other things that need to be worked on yet include:
1. The capsule needs a solid remaster.
2. Bosses for both stages need to be done. (Philosoraptor was still working on that last I heard, but if he vanishes El will most likely work on it.)
3. I don't believe the monitors ever got finished completely, and we still have to get the desired effects for them settled upon.

I think that's about all of it.

 

Cheers Gambit.

 

I'm not sure if anyone ever said anything regarding this, but will the tiling errors in EHZ be fixed?

 

Of course they will. I need to get a couple dev tools to mess around with the stage layout and whatnot, but once I do I plan on going in and place tiles where they fit and marking spots where they don't fit so I can edit or make a new tile to fit there. I'm hoping that part won't take too long, but it'll take a bit of time. That and I still need the tools to do so.

 

Indeed, I think that Phils got the EHZ one, HTZ one is going to be mine =P mwahahaha...

 

Walp, in lieu of that confused post in the other thread about level art direction, I figured I'd just bump this one with something interesting. Below is a metablock from Emerald Hill, obviously, but I've decided to show you how terrible my first go at it was. I was so displeased with it that I recently redid a good portion of it to make it not suck horribly. As for which one is the old and which one is the new, I'm certain that will be blatantly obvious.



Another tidbit for you all. My first take on this block I was sticking to the original tile layout, and it was really causing me trouble. Every place it doesn't match up properly is because the tileset just wasn't allowing it to work out. The extra details don't translate well into the original tileset and as such I now construct everything with as many tiles based off the original as possible, but I also simply create new tiles to fill gaps and errors at will.

 

I'm hoping I misunderstood your quote here, because looking at that image the two bushes look the exact same to me. Am I taking crazy pills? O.o