How is my game looking?

RastaRiseRastaRise Member Posts: 52
edited November -1 in Working with GS (Mac)
How does it look? is it to plain? I want your true opinion... I'm mostly talking about everything but the boxes and pipes

You have to drop the colored boxes into the right grey box. the clouds are for for show and you dont want to click the green pipes. and all the rest of the actors are also for show. the rasta circles are for "walls". everytime you put a box in the right grey box it adds more shaps and pipes

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/3779/50129904.png

Or is this one better

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6095/90343792.png

Or this one

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3859/50114836.png

Comments

  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    It's looking like it's gone 6am here and I should really stop doing (prescription) drugs...

    :D

    QS

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • RastaRiseRastaRise Member Posts: 52
    so it doesnt look good at all?
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    I'm sorry - I was trying to be funny and it didn't work. (again).

    To be honest, I don't know what to say. It's hard to know what's going on.

    If you could maybe explain what's happening, and what things are supposed to be (I get the rainbow clouds, but the rest I'm not sure about) maybe we could give you a better response.

    Cheers,

    QS

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • RastaRiseRastaRise Member Posts: 52
    ok i added more info and the other version of the game but it had bad feedback
  • expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
    Looks pretty cool, but also a bit too complicated. I think that you should really work on the graphics. Look at some really good games from GS such as asplosion!, Star daze, kill the king, max vector, danger cats, and they all have very marketable graphics that are very simple and nice looking. That's what really grabs the buyers attention. Sometimes the graphics may be even more important than the concept of the game.
  • RastaRiseRastaRise Member Posts: 52
    i've learned that in most game designing classes but i'm not the best graphic designer that's why I was wanting some opinions.
  • BarkBarkCoBarkBarkCo Member Posts: 1,400
    I'm sorry to be brutally honest, but they are both really bad. I would start by working on game mechanics, then move on to re-working the graphics.

    - It's not clear by those shots which direction anything is supposed to be traveling.
    - The pieces integral to game-play should stand out, not the other way around (as it is).
    - The smokey shot lacks dimension, and the blue BG does not fit in the other shot. You need a nice happy medium for color scheme.

    Again, I hate to have to be harsh, but that is the only feedback I have for you. If this is about making a game that you enjoy, then do whatever you like. If it is about making money in the App Store, then the game needs some serious work! If it is somewhere in between, you will still need to make something that is appealing to the eye.
  • RastaRiseRastaRise Member Posts: 52
    ok well i tried to make a different background than the blue. I hate the colored circles but i cant think of anything to replace them with
  • synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
    @ Rasta...
    I don't think its an issue of whether its good or bad.

    First I have to ask you...are you building the game to make money or just to have fun and try to build a game (same as Bark)?

    If its just for fun...then graphics aren't too big a deal.
    If its for making money...then graphics are critical.

    If you are trying to make a game that will sell well...I am not sure if the graphics you have there are on the right track. Study the app store and look at successful apps and take cues from those. The screenshots you have shown us are fairly muddy and lacking definition, depth, balance and contrast that draws you in. They also lack any genre specific identity and seem to be VERY experimental...which generally does poorly in sales (unless free).

    The graphics for a game should generally be extremely eye popping and "tell a story". They should have a theme and should be "drawn with the same hand" so to speak.

    Hope these suggestions help...but if you are just devving games for the joy of it...then all "rules" are out the window and exploration and experimentation are the name of the game.
  • RastaRiseRastaRise Member Posts: 52
    it is to sell. I'm just having trouble coming up with a "theme" but ill keep trying. Honestly, absolutely hate the graphics too. I just need to keep think of different ones. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Rasta is short for Rastafarian and it is jamaican.
  • expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
    This is my approach to making a game: before getting graphics, think about the actual concept of the game. If you have a character, just leave it as a square for now and give it all of it's rules first. After you have all that sorted out you should pay someone to get your graphics done and then insert it into all of your actors. Honestly, I think your problem is that your moving too fast. I would recommend deleting all of your images that you have right now, finish the concept part of your game, then hire a graphic designer to make your imgs
  • RastaRiseRastaRise Member Posts: 52
    i did make the game first then the graphics last and there is more to the game then what i said that was just a basic description. about the graphic designer, i have no money. So, ill just have to make them myself.

    thanks for the advice though
  • synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
    My suggestion is this:

    Sit in a comfy chair and write down in 1 sentence the theme/description of your game.
    Then right in one sentence the key selling point of your game.
    Then right in one sentence the most unique thing about your game.

    Then list 20 descriptive words about your game.
    Narrow that list to 10.

    Then at that point...Select 5 key descriptive words that most describe your game experience.

    Rank those 5 words in order of most important to least important.

    Then EVERYTIME you make a graphics decision...give the decision a smell test against those 5 words. Make sure that what you do visually reinforces the principles of the game and its concept completely.

    If the idea doesn't fit within your definitions...then rework the art.
    'The point of all this is to get yourself FOCUSED and then as you proceed through development...make sure every aspect of your game is reinforced by the other aspects of your game. In other words...the sum of the parts makes the whole.

    The more specific you are...the more clear and concise the results...and the more polished it will look. Just make sure that EVERYTHING is from the same idea and grown from the same seed. Keep the "genetics" of the game "PURE".

    Good luck.
  • RastaRiseRastaRise Member Posts: 52
    ill try that thanks. Eventually it will turn out to look good.
  • LogoLogicLogoLogic Member Posts: 51
    I personally would tone the background way down and focus on gameplay. I am grappling with this in my own game development. I make awesome, artistic backgrounds but when I put actors on them the backgrounds swallow them up. The game play and actors come first, background is tertiary unless it contributes to gameplay in some way.
  • scitunesscitunes Member, Sous Chef Posts: 4,047
    Are you really into rasta (as in the religion/culture) or just a pot-head? Either would be fine with me. :)

    If it is the rasta thing you are after you could have the gray boxes be babylon and the "good" boxes could be jerusalem (I think the hard core Rastafarians are always going on about jerusalem vs. babylon, though I think it is metaphorical).

    If the pot-head thing is what you are going for you are going to have to be careful about apple rejecting it. In fact the pipes in their current form might get it rejected. So if this is your plan you may want a back up plan.

    If you are trying to make money the pot-head thing has way more potential than the true rasta thing. But you run a high risk of being rejected.
  • dknelldknell Member Posts: 48
    @RastaRise,
    The most important thing I have learned in building a business, website, games, or whatever is that you need to know your strengths and, most importantly, your weaknesses. Most people are either really good programmers or really good designers - rarely are they both. Same could be said in the business world about business development people and marketing people.

    If you don't think you are a good designer/artist, find someone who is and work closely with that person so they accurately capture your vision of what this game will look like. If you're not sure what this game should look like, take a step back and figure out how it will be played, who will play it, why that person would want to play it, etc.

    If you are not comfortable with your artistic skills, don't think about color, patterns, shapes... You need to think about attitude, feelings, emotions, game logistics, etc. Give that information to the artist and let him/her come up with some sketches.

    There are many great resources on the web to hire or barter artistic talent. One of my favorites is 99designs (http://99designs.com/). I have seen great logos designed for a mere $50 and entire website layouts designed as low as $100. I would start with a couple character designs and try to price it out cheap or offer a cut of your game sales (with a contract, of course). :)

    Once you have awarded the design winner, you can work on the rest of the game design with him/her.

    Until you have a designer/artist, you can work on game logistics and wireframe game-play.

    Just my $.02

    Good luck!

    Dave
Sign In or Register to comment.

© Vanilla Keystone Theme 2024