K-2L Gfx: Version 1.0 Release 6/18/15

[Rimrook]

VERSION 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nnuig9zoyjqllx4/K2L%20Pack%20v1.zip?dl=0







Hope its adequate for the flexibility that might be required of it. I also hope that people put their own creative spin on all of this. There's a bit of extra space in the 8tile set for additional editing if you need it. This is free to use and modify so just have fun with it :)

Enjoy, and good hunting.




======== OLD BLAFF ========

v0.1 Beta - https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjhpxzzlhwngc5i/K-2L%20Docks%20Tileset%20v01.rar?dl=0






- Original Post -

Decided to sign up since I really enjoy playing all the hacks you guys have made on this site. Great work!

Let's start this thing over. Hi everyone, I'm Rimrook, and I like warm hugs.

I'm an artist by occupation and an indie developer by hobby and I love metroid stuff. I tried working with smile but compared to lunar magic it's far more complicated. Honestly it's easier for me to make a fan game from scratch than to hack a rom. Not blaffin you guys, I have my roots deeply grounded in modding and hacking, and those who do it well deserve more praise than the average. Either way much of it is trivialized to me so why even bring this up? Because I can make fresh new things FOR those who are doing it right now and doing it well.

My first task is to provide some tile sets for the community play with. Here's what I have so far and I'll make an update when I finish it.



I want to bring a human element to the sm universe so I've started to play with a set that resembles earth like qualities. Human technologies and familiar trees and building features. All I have right now is the landing site but I own to move on from there. I think there will likely be an exterior, interior, and perhaps forest tile sets.

In the future I want to attempt to make a tool to help people make new Samus sprites. It'll likely be a sort of interactive guide as my app making skills aren't too great, but something is better than nothing. If you know what went where it doesn't seem so bad. Right?

So yeah that's my thing. I plan to lurk around a lot in the forums here. Also, contact me through email if there are any Gfx I can do for you, especially if you need something special or specific.

Happy hacking everyone!

[Jordan5]

I like the designated landing area you designed - I suck with GFX so it's great when someone talented at drawing makes tilesets for everyone :^_^:

I will say, editing Samus' sprites is a huge pain, I don't know if you've looked into it, but if there is a way that you can make it much easier for people then fair play to you.

If you want to chat to people or let them contact you quickly and easily, I'd recommend lurking on IRC [irc.esper.net #MetConst] as thats where most things tend to happen.

Besides that, welcome to MetConst and I'm looking forward to seeing what else you make :^_^:

[begrimed]

Hey, that's really awesome of you. Welcome to the Const! Those're some really nice graphics. It's always exciting to have another artist joining the battle. Also, yeah, even with a better SMILE on the way and more documentation always happening, it's still a lot of time to invest, and a loooot of limits to work within compared to what you're probably used to, haha.

[Rimrook]

Thank you for the warm welcomes!

Hacking and modding taught me a sense of "Creative Deliberation" which nearly doesn't exist in AAA titles these days. It's made the indie project I'm working on much better and me a better designer.

If you move on to full game dev stuff after this, you'll remember these days and probably make some killer stuff. Honestly I can't wait for the next generation of game devs, kinda tired of the blaff out there today.

[RealRed]

Cool stuff. Gonna clue us in on the indie project?

[Rimrook]

uh yeah I sorta don't want to plug things here but I could share this perhaps once.
http://www.indiedb.com/games/super-matt-jordan

[Cpt.Glitch]

Sweet looks awesome! I'm terrible at art in general so anyone who draws their very own stuff is awesome in my book. :D

[begrimed]

Yeah, I feel like I've learned so much more about making something that people will like by doing this than I personally could have by jumping right into advanced programming languages and anything-theory. Picking apart an older game I think gives you more of a look into a development process that *had* to output raw fun, because there wasn't so much processing power and cinematic fluff to fall back on. I like "blaff."

Edit: plugs are fine, if you were worried about coming off as shilly. My sig is full of my own crap.

[RealRed]

Awesome. Nothing wrong with spreading the word. Making your own game is big shit!

Anyway, it's great to see another artist around here.. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[Rimrook]

I think this was a long time coming. These are the only screenshots I have from a project I was doing back in 2009. Old SMW hacking stuff.






Metroid inspired, perhaps a bit ironic. :p

And the first part of this video shows some more in action as well as what it more recently became.
https://youtu.be/AtVVXFWRpCY

[Quietus]

Welcome to the forum.  I always love pixel art, so it's nice to see.  I like the tiles you created around the ship.  I suspect you could really create any tileset that you think would fit somewhere in the Metroid universe, and it'd be appreciated here. :^_^:

[SpoOkyMagician]

Very impressive Rimrook. Keep up the good work. :D

~ SpoOkyMagician

[personitis]

Welcome! I'm quite intrigued by the graphics you've presented in the op and they fall nicely in place for an idea I had waking up this morning... not like I get around to working on any of those though <_<

Enjoy your stay. Always looking forward to new content be it graphics, code, or a new game to play. :^_^:

[FullOfFail]

Very cool! The only problem I have with it is it's not really in the same pixel dimensions as SM. It's a issue that happens more often than not with any custom gfx, and something I struggle with myself. You'll see what I mean eventually, if it's not apparent now.

I see you having the shading down, so that's a major heads-start. In most cases, I think you just need to add one more shade, to smooth the transitions out. Your second picture(s) seems to be much more similar to what you'd find in SM, so just go with that style of pixeling more.

I see major potential in your work, and hope to see more! Keep us updated.

[Rimrook]

Thanks for the feedback. I hadn't noticed until you mentioned, but the ship is really detailed and I count 5 shading levels. I use four with black and white. Right now I'm using 6 colors and I only get 15 solids and I'm still trying to decide scenery for this first set.

SM sets are huge compared to Mario sets so making things stretch with more actual objects and features would be better than an extra color for smoother. If things work out, I'll fix things but for now it'll remain experimental.

[Grimlock]

I like your graphics but what I'm more impressed with is the concept itself.  It demonstrates outside of the box thinking as well as a high level of creativity.  Your landing scene creates a sense of depth and generates player immersion.  I have to say I'm pretty impressed.  If I were to take up SM graphics development I would go with a similar theme for my tiles.  Human, high tech civilization, coupled with some radically alien environments.  It would be a civilization on an alien world.  M1 (and NES) is my thing although I know I would thoroughly enjoy doing some 16-bit work.

So I have to ask, what kind of stuff have you made for Half-Life?  If you've put some time into playing HLDM you've probably played on some of my deathmatch maps.

[Rimrook]

For half life team death match I made the king of the hill and capture point game types. Probably never played them as there are only like four maps in existence of those. Lots of various map like poison garden, sancefar, and maybe a few others. For left4dead 2 I did lets build a rocket and the second one. You can find most of this stuff at twhl where my account can be viewed here. http://twhl.info/user.php?id=1120

I've dabbled here and there but I am developing an indie title which really lets me go all out of the box all over the floor :3

[Grimlock]

What apps are you using for development?  I've been considering putting some time into Unity3D this summer to see if it's holds my interest.

[Rimrook]

Mostly Photoshop and things like Tile Layer Pro and YY-CHR.

Edit: I'm having some confusion about tiles that are in front of the player, behind the player, and in the background. To me I only see two layers. Is this something I need to worry about as an artist or is this a level designer thing to worry about?

[Mon732]

Basically there are 2 layers (not counting the layer for effects like water). By default Layer1 is in front of Samus and Layer2 is behind, however you can set a tile to be behind or in front of Samus. You only really need to worry about that if you're making TileTables (where the 8x8 tiles are put together to make 16x16 tiles).

[Quietus]

Yeah, just make your graphics.  Hackers can choose whether they want them behind or in front.

[Rimrook]

A lot of this is really compressed so I think if I assemble a bunch of stuff beforehand wouldn't be unwelcome.

[Rimrook]

Ok I basically have this first set done. I decided to do "the docks" since the landing site was a huge part of this set. I set it up to be versatile as I can get it. It's a little scrambled but with some clever piecing together, things can look good I hope.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c575nvawqd0v9ai/sm_k2l_docks.bmp?dl=0

Palette swatches
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ixk96xjnafq76d0/sm_k2l_docks_palette.bmp?dl=0

Palette file
https://www.dropbox.com/s/knx84ffgayzt7oo/k2l%20docks%20palette.pal?dl=0

And sort of a reference for some of the more specific features.


There's a bunch of space left over but with some feedback and improvements, should fill up in no time. I want to fit in a human spacecraft of some kind to place in unoccupied landing zones but didn't have the space. I'm also not sure about the background elements.

So yeah make some stuff and see how it fits. Post screens of course so I can study them and make updates.

I added sign making stuff at the bottom for just that personal touch for those who want to label something important in their environment. I think all of the k-2l set will have it.

Have fun.

[RealRed]

Try to make your highlights use warmer colors. Also, it seems the foreground platform Samus is standing on is a large box... makes the circular light setup seem... less circular.
Cool tree, nice thinking make it flipped. It may benefit from a little volume on the inside, but I'm not sure it's necessary. I hope to see some smaller shrubs :D

[SlyPork]

Those are some freakin' nifty graphics you've got there :^_^: I really like how you've somewhat brought in the 2.5D visuals like from Shadow Complex and incorporated it into the 2D world of Super Metroid. Like Grimlock said, it adds a very nice sense of depth.

My only gripes:
Basically what RealRed said, except I think the center of the tree could have a little more volume on the inside.
Also with the tree, it seems quite unnatural. The heavy geometrical shapes (like the triangular base, the very flat rectangular trunk, and the triangular shape of the tree) take away from the organic addition of the tree and don't contrast against the mechanical human-made structures as well as a more-organic-styled tree would.

I'm looking forward to seeing any and all of your work in the future :^_^: