Are we ever going to get another high detail 2D game ever...

Are we ever going to get another high detail 2D game ever? I always imagined there'd be this Symphony of the Night style game for next gen consoles that was bigger, better looking. But we never got it. Instead we got hand-held sequels, that were nice, but lower resolution, and smaller in scale. I liked the games, but they never felt tlike the "next step", more like smaller versions for handheld. And then we got a real kind of sequel, but it's full 3D.

We have HD 2D games, but they have a very cartoony and flash look with black lines around everything.I havne't seen any of them take on a kind of detailed, darker or more realistic look yet. And the sprites tend to look very flat and set apart from their world as well. Older pixel art 2D games, for whatever reason, seemed to look more coherent.

I've always heard that 3D is cheaper and easier, but I haven't really bought that.

Other urls found in this thread:

theonian.tumblr.com/
kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

People spent a lot of time on those games to make them look that good. A lot of pixel games these days are made by indie developers who don't necessarily have the budget but especially don't take the time to refine their art.

As I understand it, it's much easier to make things and utilize them in games via 3D as opposed to 2D so if that's the case, I can see where people are coming from.

However, I think the future for this kind of stuff rests in 3D rendering a la Guilty Gear Xrd or (hopefully) Bloodstained.

If you're looking for solid pixel work, though, there's always Noaika.

I'm working on one right now (admittedly, limited by what little I have of skill).
Made these tiles yesterday.

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Those aren't bad, user. Very nice job.

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Is it going for a cartoony or serious look? The Skeleton is pretty goofy.

If it's intentional, then that's fine.

very nice work, i especially like Keep going

Thanks!

Eh, semi-goofy? It's a Castlevania-like game, so it's not going to be too serious.

Thanks a lot!

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>Eh, semi-goofy? It's a Castlevania-like game, so it's not going to be too serious.

Castlevanias are pretty dark and serious. In fact, they were some of the first games to be like that. Cartoony silliness was the standard.

Well, I'll stop spamming now.

Chasm might be what you are looking for?

That was awesome, non. Keep it up. l look forward to playing it when it's ready.

I think I remember reading a post on Sup Forums as to why this doesn't happen.

I believe the issue is essentially that there isn't any real way to speed up the process. So yeah you could make absolutely breath taking spritework like pic related, but you need a consistent artist/artists to do it so the more people working on it the more disjointed it will look.

A great example of this is KoFXII and XIII. Different people worked on different characters and it had a single art director, but the end result is that the characters ranged greatly in how they looked, which was jarring as fuck with some characters.

tl;dr it would take way too fucking long to do for basically no benefit unfortunately. these days we can get hand drawn stuff like Wario Land Shake It and Skullgirls, but that doesn't really have the appeal of pixel work

Is that a spider making a human dummy out of a skull and webbing, to lure the player? Because goddamn that's A+, my man.

No, that's breddy gud. Make sure to keep us posted.
And yes, I speak for the whole board.

>agdg samefag obviously shilling his game

Show us your game, fag. At least he's trying.

I'm liking it a lot, since I might never catch you in another thread I'm gonna take this opportunity to request an egyptian themed area

>Older pixel art 2D games, for whatever reason, seemed to look more coherent.
For the SotN at least, a big reason as to why it seems this way is because the backgrounds are very carefully shaded to depict realistic curves.
pic related

Crush this flea who invades my castle!

>because the backgrounds are very carefully shaded to depict realistic curves.

And modern 2D games don't do this? Is that why they all go for the very cartoony look?

Sorry, went afk for a little while

Thanks! Will do my best!

Yes - still haven't animated it properly yet, though. Glad you like the idea!

Will do - and thanks again!

Yeah, I'll probably keep posting until I'm shunned.
Was actually considering some egyptian theme, but we'll see.

I haven't played too many modern 2D games to comment, but I'd presume because getting that level of shading down is a metric fuckton of work for something your average player doesn't conciously notice. Mind you a lot of retro 2D game don't do it either for the same reason my point only really applies to SotN and other similarly super-detailed sprite based games like Street Fighter III.

*so my point
I need to go to bed

Guy making game here.
Main problem with consistent shading is the tiling.
Pic related is a scene i gave light and shading AFTER putting the tiles together. Making a tileset out of it would be impossible, because each tile is uniquely lit.

Do you have a name for it? So l can keep an eye out.

No name yet - Theme is going to be alchemy (the creation of the philosopher's stone), so if you have a good idea for a name I'd be very happy to hear it.

Got a tumblr: theonian.tumblr.com/

Why not just call it The Philosopher's Stone?

/vr/ calls this the "new generic" 2d look.

I want to fuck that dragon.

It's pretty long, not very catchy, and people will just think of Harry Potter these days (though I suppose that's not bad publicity).
It's not a very searchable term, either. All search results will drown in philosopher's stone-stuff and Harry Potter.

It's not even new. It was the "new generic look" even before Braid.

I was thinking you could catch some unsuspecting FMA fans that way but I guess you're right. Didn't even think of Harry Potter because the whole Sorceror's Stone name switcheroo.

Though I think it could still work as a subtitle.

>I've always heard that 3D is cheaper and easier, but I haven't really bought that.
Look into the process that went into KoFXIII's sprites then. It was stupidly expensive and took forever to do, with each character taking months (or was it a year?) each to finish. They had to do multiple sprites at the same time with different artists working on them, too, so quality was inconsistent.

The reason 3D models are cheaper and easier is because you only have to make one model and then animate it. With a sprite you must draw, color, shade etc every single frame of every animation. It takes a lot more time and manpower.

The best you're going to get is indie games, and there's a reason they tend to favor 'retro' NES looks and such. It's easier to do than 'modern' sprites.

Oh, yeah, FMA too.
Yes, could probably work as a subtitle.
Want something short and catchy for the main title, though. Names are hard.

this game looks fucking beautiful.

user I LIKE THIS IS THERE A NAME I CAN REMEMBER TO ONE DAY FIND IT AGAIN?

And the end result wasn't even impressive. 13 looked cheap, with bright anime colors, terrible flame effects.

kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night

this is a thing. I'm a bit hype for it anyways.

>fighting games

apples meets oranges.

Fighting games have a million moves, and a million characters. Standard platformers tend to have much less. Alucard or Richter have really very few animations that they re-use over and over again. Alucard has one swipe and they just replace the weapon. Enemies just usally have one attack.

>Names are hard.
Damn straight. Keep up the good work user, all I have to show for my project are a few extremely crude models and a binder labeled "2D DMC Rip-off".

Thanks, user!
Still far from any release date, but I've got a tumblr where I post graphics progress regularly.
See
Also, no name yet. If you have a good idea for a name, please share.

Thanks - You too! If we just dream hard enough, we can d-do it!

Just get Momodora 4.

Those snowball in the slope look pretty shit, man, fix that shit.

Momodora is pretty, but has very simplified "flat colored" graphics. Not what OP is requesting, I think.

I guess OP wants a very specific kind of pixel art only far higher detail, etc. rather than just "2D but great looking/HD"

I think pixel art was basically at the limit of what the artists could do around the end of the SNES era. They did it because there was no easier way at the time and when tech started to make another way (stuff like DKC's prerendered sprites and bgs) they went with it, especially if they didn't have the pixel artists. For HD level pixel art you need really dedicated people who demand that style and won't settle for easier ways, and there aren't many of them given how time consuming it is

Hmm...

BirthStone?
Nativity Stone?

All l got. Not good with names.
Why not get a Twitter too?

Neat

Thanks for the suggestions.
I was thinking maybe something from the Tabula Smaragdina. Something latin-sounding.

I had a twitter, but it was confusing, and I didn't get followers. It didn't seem to be worth the effort. On tumblr followers just keep trickling in.

Will switch to a proper gamedev page on IndieDB once things are a bit more fleshed out (also probably a devblog on TIGSource).

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Virtus Lapidi

Thanks, user!

Alright, man. l don't have a Tumblr, myself, but l do have Twitter and Facebook. l'll just bookmark your page and keep tabs on it.

Best of luck to you, user. Hope everything goes well.

>Virtus Lapidi
>"power stone"
Not bad. Not sure it's something people will be able to remember, though. I'm afraid "Lapidi" doesn't roll very naturally on an English tongue (not a native speaker myself, though).

Ah, sorry for the inconvenience.
Thanks a lot - Will keep doing my best.
Have actually decided to go full retard and start up a small company, and work full-time on this project for about a year.
W-wish me luck.

Godspeed user, I pray for your success

Thanks again!

Apart from a name, we're also looking for someone who can make Castlevania music.
As it turns out, finding someone who can make pumping Castlevania beats and flowing baroque tunes is really hard.
And it's not like we can afford Michiru Yamane.

I sincerely hope you try to set your game apart and make something special about it instead of it being just Not-Castlevania. Godspeed.

Well, he should just use this to build skills or do it as a hobby. I doubt he is going to make anything ground breaking.

I can possibly hit you up with some midi soundtrack if you give me the general vibe. But I write as a hobby and am lazy as fuck, so can't guarantee anything solid

Odin Sphere remake is coming out soon

I can't do shit for you other than maybe test it when you get that far but I am supporting you. Looks good so far, keep it up!

The whole point is to make Castlevania, just with a different story and setting.
To that end, I'm trying to get the graphics as similar as my abilities allow me.
I hate games which rely on gimmicks - Focus here will be gameplay and visuals similar to the original igavanias, with lots of weapons and abilities, and good enemy variety.

It's been a hobby until now, but I'm going to work full-time on it for about a year, starting next month.
It's probably retarded, but it's literally the only thing I care about accomplishing in my life at this point.

Haha, well, we're going to need someone dependable, but do you have a soundcloud you could link to?
As for wibe: Literallly any of the metroidvania Castlevanias. We're going to have various areas, so we'll want a bit varied music too.

Love the support, user - It's very motivating!

I should get something to eat and then get back to work now.
Thanks for all the kind words and feedback!

You may want to check out Valdis Story: Abyssal City if you haven't. It's a little under par for exploration but the combat and RPG mechanics are superb. Feels like a 2D DMC though you may not be interesting in making combo based combat but it has great responsiveness to it and you can feel yourself "gitting gud" as you play.

>we're going to need someone dependable
That's why I'm not really excited to offer myself. See, my creativity is disturbingly volatile. I can sit idle for months without anything half-decent coming out of my ass, and then all of a sudden I shit 5 10-minute long tracks in three days. The worst part is that however hard I try, however methodical I am with my learning of the thing, I can't fucking control these waves.
So I'll try to get some tunes today when I finish work, see how it goes from here and then let you know if there's anything worthwhile, mkay?

And no, I don't have soundcloud because I write midi shit

>See, my creativity is disturbingly volatile. I can sit idle for months without anything half-decent coming out of my ass, and then all of a sudden I shit 5 10-minute long tracks in three days. The worst part is that however hard I try, however methodical I am with my learning of the thing, I can't fucking control these waves.
I know exactly how you feel.
I can somewhat force myself to try something, if I have some sort of plan, but the results are usually trash when I don't do it "naturally".
Sometimes it leads to fiddling with filters and shit until I've made something completely different which is still nice, so there's that...

Nooo don't let him convince you to make it into something other than Castlevania. The 'perks' upon level up might be okay in addition to stat ups but I just hate combo combat. It just turns into stunlockville

Gamedev here, last post.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I personally don't like combo fighting at all, so we're not going to have that.
We will have a large number of weapons and spells, though.

Nope. Only indies care and they're garbage.

Your best bet is Cuphead or some shit.

I mistyped "you may not be interested in making combo based combat" and I did not want to imply to make it that way.

However, most castlevanias had something new going on with it while keeping many familiar themes, evolving beyond just the chain whip we grew to love. Castlevanias are still known for being responsive in their combat, the suggestion was only to see what mechanics can work in the 2D style that can feel good. If the dev wants variety in combat style in the game then it may be useful to see the extremes in other games and scale it back.

So on and so forth

What's your work flow like? This just looks like you drew a regular image and then downscaled it giving this ugly bilinear smear look that conflicts with your pixel art sprites.

>Older pixel art 2D games, for whatever reason, seemed to look more coherent.

Probably because they're restricted to a lower resolution.

2D animation in video games will never take off because the mass audience believes that it's "cheap". Even on the internet you have people calling games with 2D art Flash shit.

The Dragon's Trap remake

has already been shat on by people, despite its production quality and animation being nowhere near the levels of a shit flash game.

I dare you to find a single flash game that has animation even half as good as Dragon's Trap.

check out vanillaware, OP

>Nope. Only indies care and they're garbage.
It has more to do with that level of quality 2D being pretty expensive than with indie being "garbage".

Don't bother arguing with these morons.

Traditional hand drawn animation is practically dead and there's hardly any sort of schools that teach it or an industry that breeds talent.

A majority of these people think animation is easy as fuck that a single indie dev with no experience should be able to master it.

What's even worse is when the fuckers start dumping gifs from Metal Slug games as if they were a valid comparison. Those games were developed with teams of artist that have years of experience under their belt.

But apparently some complete amateur should already be capable of matching that level of quality all on their own and without a budget.

I do agree with you completely but surely tech has gotten better to make it somewhat easier, right?

>I do agree with you completely but surely tech has gotten better to make it somewhat easier, right?

The only thing tech has done is get rid of cel animation and all of its cost. Editing animations becomes easier due to the fact that you don't have to worry about having to burn through more resources anymore and your frames being organized in a digital space.

That doesn't stop the fact that you still need a person to actually do the animation work for it though.

Oh okay. Thanks for the enlightenment, user.