How To Make Game Graphics When You're Bad At Art - Devlog 2

Game design in practice, with the second Devlog episode for my as-yet-unnamed 2D platformer that I'm making just to get something up on Steam!

IN THIS EPISODE: How do graphics work? How do you make good graphics when you can't draw at all? What is contrast? How do you use contrast in game design? Why is Tommy the best Power Ranger?

All of this and more, on Let's Talk Game Design!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTIONS:
Ultralounge & Werq by Kevin MacLeod

[LTGD]

Please leave all comments arguing about the best Power Ranger here.

[jxtv]

You totally CAN do black; late-game level, drop the searchlights, and either use an atmospheric/ambient track or NO MUSIC at all; boom you've got an atmospheric *contrast* (see what I did there? :P ) to the rest of the game.

[michelles.]

The singular issue I have with the background is that the light beams end. If I were doing it I'd probably make them long enough that the player can never see the end, but eh.

[andrewlaloo]

I really love how confident you are with your decisions. Many other dev logs give a sense of uncertainty and willingness to change based on viewers opinions but you seem to trust your own judgement and I think that's a great quality. Love the humor and the game seems great.

[aarushroy]

Dont know why but the gray background looked better that made the scene really simplistic and clean

[sproginator]

I totally liked the black background... It was really stark and contrasting!

[AlexClarkeGame]

Great video, love the humour!

One thing I would say that also really helped Thomas Was Alone's visuals is it's excellent squash and stretch on the rectangles, the animation I think really elevates it beyond "just rectangles" (not disparaging rectangles here though lol). Also the shadows really helped, some shadow casting on the light beams could be really cool in your game!

I'll definitely be following along, best of luck with the game & videos!

[zippa]

I love the concept of this series. Talk about game design concepts using your ongoing project as a template, with some humour thrown in. Hopefully it catches on. :)

[Lonewolf]

Of course, Tommy was my favorite. I was alive in 93 when the show aired. "We're not too old for this shit!" and you should have definitely done that segment.

[SuperDutchrutter]

Great upgrade from the previous appearances for this project. I like the rectangle light backgrounds. I think that some falling dust mote type particles would look neat in it, too.

[Mightyjordy]

Great videos, love the cheeky humor. I’ve never spent a lot of time on my backgrounds and that’s definitely a huge opportunity to make something pop. Thanks!

[Skeffles]

This background with the player trail looks fantastic! Great job.

[Bastraction]

I love this! It’s actually very inspiring, because I was genuinely planning on making a Metroid vania only using simple shapes, since I’m so crap at art!

[aubreyathame]

"But you have to understand, I make games in Clickteam Fusion 2.5, so I'm clearly not interested in using better, more up to date software" is the biggest mood ive ever heard

[SidFish]

New look is awesome, the search light effect really brings the level to life. I'd suggest a bit of squash and stretch on the character to take it to the next level.

[commenturthegreat]

You mentioned contrast as an important tool to achieve clarity in your game. This applies to more than just the background vs the foreground - you can use contrast to differentiate between different level elements as well. In particular, something which causes your game to look a bit flat right now is that everything in it uses a similar thin outline - This causes elements like walls, platforms and bounce pads to blend in together. Ideally you'd want them to contrast and look as different as possible from each other - for instance have everything solid (like the walls) be 100% white, everything you can fall through (like platforms) have an outline, and everything which impacts you (like bounce pads or spikes) be crosshatched. This could greatly increase the clarity (as well as the visual interest) of your game. As a general rule of thumb, always imagine that someone is playing your game without their glasses on, and they should still know exactly what's going on at a glance.

[sac]

<-- my face when you dont really like the colour orange

[georgeperakis]

Wow amazing progress from really simple shapes and technics. One thing i would recommend is making the light beams go through the entire level instead of just being cut before the ceiling.

[cameronmoore]

As Jason David Frank from 1993, I found this to be a huge help. Cheers.

[tauheedgamedev]

Juicy artwork, love the power rangers references and welcome to the doghouse, I'm already a permanent resident 😁👍