Graphics, the most important part of the game (no one likes staring at a black screen). Except, I don’t need to worry about this, my graphics are already the bomb. I’ll be skipping this section. Whoa, hold your horses, just because you have ultra mega graphics that doesn’t mean your game is graphically appealing. Ultra mega graphic man there’s a lot more to graphics then the sprites themself. You’ll have to make sure you included these visual elements if you truly want ultra mega graphics.
What about your lighting? Betcha didn’t think of that. With Game Maker 8's ability to handle transparency you can add lights to your game. Along with flashy lights you can lighten up your game with other transparency effects like smoke, mist, lens flare, shadows (these can make your game seem 3D) and any other effects a smart cookie like you can conjure up. Those transparency effects are fun to make, but stop being a hog. Share that fun. Let the player customize the game’s graphics. The player wants to have fun customizing his characters, backgrounds, and even the music. Gamers will love you for this. Good graphics can still be an eyesore when they don’t like each other. Don’t let your futuristic Jedi looking graphics be ruined by bright, bubbly, Pokemon like graphic, and in case you didn’t know, Pokemon and Jedi’s hate each other. It’s true. You should see how Skywalker and Pikachu battle each other when no one's looking. Anyhow make sure all of your graphics fall under the same theme. And the funnest graphics to make – Particle systems. Just be careful they’re dangerous. To many of them well freeze slow computers. If you overuse your particles, then beware, slower computers won't be able to play your game. You will either have to allow the player to reduce the frequency of particles, or an ever better option, reduce them yourself if the fps(frames per seconds) goes below a certain number. Until these special affects are added to your graphics then, I’m sorry to say it but, you don’t have ultra mega graphics, and as no game on YoYoGames has all of these special effects, you could be the first to break into a new era of 2d graphics, if you make your game has ultra mega graphics, so try to implement as many of these ideas as possible.View other blogs by Mr. Me at http://sites.google.com/site/mrme444/game-maker-tips
Are you really saying that Aria of Sorrow has better graphics? I'm not really fond of the pastel palette and lighter contrast that game has. Plus, none of the sprites and backgrounds are as detailed or fluidly animated.
Oh crap… I'm mixing up games. I was comparing graphics from memory. -_-
And now I remember why I thought AoS was more fun. I was 8 or 9 when I played SotN and sucked at it. I just picked it up again. (Emulator) Way better than I remember.SotN is so ridiculously easy.
It's hard to compare games and say which has better graphics, because (if you're not a moron) you can only really compare two games of the same style. You can say "Yeah, photorealistic graphics look cooler than cel-shading," but you can't really say photorealistic is best for every situation.
I really think graphical style should support the game. WindWaker would've felt a lot different without the cel-shading. Part of the interest in DSG's game is the massive amount of environmental detail to bring the stages to life. Cesque's is simpler, but allows you to focus on the combat instead of details in the background.My style, on the other hand, differs with every game (I haven't seen enough from anyone else to make the same assumption for them). Lixies is fairly bright and colorful with little detail, LODM is dark with a lot of detail, and Terminys is a particularly simple style that resembles a GBA game.If I did the same style with all of my games, how quickly would it get boring? Take a look at even Kirby games. They change seriously every release to give it something different.Team Fortress stands out as a shooter, because it's the very rare cartoon style, as opposed to the hundreds of super-detailed shooters that are really becoming boring and ironically dull.And Touhou doesn't have a whole lot of detail except in the bullet patterns, because obviously they're what you should be focusing on, not the pretty little powerup icon.So to summarize this rant, having the absolute best graphics isn't necessary, and can drastically change the feel of the game, and not always for the better. The reason I don't really complain about graphics is because the style needs to compliment the game, both story and genre, even if it means using only black and white.Here's my guide:
- Keep it consistent (like you said).- Make graphics only as simple/complicated as your skill allows.- Tailor the graphics to the gameplay, not the other way round.- Games without graphics can work too. Look at NetHack and Photopia.- Sometimes, a good overall game can stop the player from noticing bad graphics. Case in point, How They Found Silence (an AGS game; look it up).