Kind of need an opinion on an "art style"

[sleepysealion]

Hello, I'm working on a game, that would involve me drawing a bunch of sprites - and well, I felt like I couldn't match the style right with the program I'm using so I got this weird idea in my head to try drawing the pokemon like this:

I actually do really like how they look, but I feel like they clash with the rest of the game, since I don't feel like I could create all the tiles,items,overworld sprites etc.

So I guess I'm unsure if I should keep trying to draw them like this or not.

 

[Mana1]

They look good! Having unique sprites would be awesome...

Perhaps you could get away with just redoing the battle scene to match?

 

[Disturbed]

Honestly, I love the aesthetic and hope that you continue with that. You'll have to change a lot more of the game to match it though to keep things graphically consistent, however. Especially the entire in-game battle UI

 

[WhisperGhost]

If you're willing to make all those sprites, I'd say it's worth it. Art styles in fangames that differ from the original games is one of the main pushes I have when deciding on whether to play a game or not, but that's probably just bias, since I love seeing unique art syles, haha. And the lineless style is really cool, and it's something new for a fangame.

 

[ASDBUDDY]

OMG that design is really good! I am actually loving those cute designs!
I mean if you can make all pokemon sprites then go for it, then try and find tiles and OW that u know resembles your art style or like goes with it(with creators permission ofcourse) you dont need to make the tiles and OWs and such since those in battle sprites would itself become a huge feature for your game, If u ever release an alpha or beta do hmu :)

 

[sleepysealion]

Ok, well if you guys think it looks good - I wouldn't mind attempting to at least do the Pokemon I need (since I feel like trying to do everyone would kill me - and I'm still iffy on the story).
But I think limiting things might be better for me so I can keep the game management stuff simple.

Ok, I set up a hud that hopefully goes well with the lineless style:

 

[Bela]

It's beautiful! This is exactly the kind of ingenuity I look for in a fan game/hack! I can't wait to see more of this! What would the art style of the overworld be? Would it be more colorful and minimalist as well?

 

[Disturbed]

Ok, well if you guys think it looks good - I wouldn't mind attempting to at least do the Pokemon I need (since I feel like trying to do everyone would kill me - and I'm still iffy on the story).
But I think limiting things might be better for me so I can keep the game management stuff simple.

Ok, I set up a hud that hopefully goes well with the lineless style:

I think there's a dip in quality between your first screenshot and this one. The Mankey doesn't seem to be in the same... I don't know, vectorized (that's not a word, but whatever) style. The first two Pok?mon you showed off looked really professional, whereas this Mankey looks like it was a bit rushed. I'm not sold on the UI, but I do love the direction you're taking it in.

 

[sleepysealion]

I think there's a dip in quality between your first screenshot and this one. The Mankey doesn't seem to be in the same... I don't know, vectorized (that's not a word, but whatever) style. The first two Pok?mon you showed off looked really professional, whereas this Mankey looks like it was a bit rushed. I'm not sold on the UI, but I do love the direction you're taking it in.

Yeah, I agree about Mankey not looking too good. Here's him all touched up and proper.

 

[Damien.aspiring.fandev]

snip

Oh boy! I had a similar idea about painting the pok?mon instead
of spriting them, and seeing someone do so is quite uplifting!
I was wondering fellow, are the legendaries going to have a special
treatment? Maybe artist's-version like representations or a symbol
in the background? And what about other pok?mon with major roles,
traveling with certain characters? Will they have their own aesthetic
formes a-la Ash hat pikachu? (could be featuring accessories, minor physical differences, a symbol in the background or different postures)

 

[eeveetree9]

I think that the Pokemon look nice, but it kinda doesn't fit with the more pixelated background and menu.

 

[sleepysealion]

Oh boy! I had a similar idea about painting the pok?mon instead
of spriting them, and seeing someone do so is quite uplifting!
I was wondering fellow, are the legendaries going to have a special
treatment? Maybe artist's-version like representations or a symbol
in the background? And what about other pok?mon with major roles,
traveling with certain characters? Will they have their own aesthetic
formes a-la Ash hat pikachu? (could be featuring accessories, minor physical differences, a symbol in the background or different postures)

There are definitely going to be Ash hat- pikachuish guys. Popplio especially is going to get the Pikachu treatment (though I might add other starters depending on how confident I feel about this game stuff)

Originally, I was just going to draw the "unique" pokemon sprites but I had trouble with Pixel art (like in my AV) but somehow I've gone back to trying to draw them so they all match.
And I do agree with eeveetree about the pixelated menu - which is something I'll probably end up redrawing (or tracing to save time) over.

Though I figure, I'm not using every single pokemon (at least for now) - and even if the game doesn't end up happening I'll still get some drawing experience out of it.

Also while I'm still here, I've been playing with making a tile set.
I think I'm just going to end up redrawing all the tchar sprites too on top of making my own tiles.
This project will be the death of me.

edit:
After doing a bit of testing, I think I might have to scrap the idea of doing tilesets, it just feels like way too much - I would hopefully like to at least have a demo out before gen 7 runs its course. And I don't think I'll make it since I'm kind of struggling with it.

One last edit for this:
Well, A nice guy on the forums kind of got me motivated to try working with the tiles again, and I am feeling a bit better about how it looks:


Don't know if there's really anything else to say about this now since I feel like I'm okay with it. Outside of getting the auto tiles to snap better and the giant furnitue. And how to organize the tiles themselves because my sheets right now are all over the place.

 

[sleepysealion]

Well, ok there was one thing I was forgetting - the overworld sprites. I think for the most part to prevent me from breaking the game, I'm going to try to draw over the npc sprites as a base.
Just wish I knew how to make things cleaner. I still need to clean it up a bit too.


edit:
So, I was kind of playing around with the idea that since I'm drawing things, maybe I shouldn't try to make it look exactly like the already made sprites so I could try to experiment with things a bit more.
Something I've kind of decided on is that I'm going to try and make the images bigger, in the hopes I can get more detail in. But right now I was looking at the way the player sprite kind of meshes in with the background, and I was thinking of adding an outline like this:

And I'm just kind of curious if it just kind of stands out too much now or maybe I should just try to make everything have a bit of an outline and make things look kind of cartoonish?

Though I will admit right now I'm kind of struggling with overworld sprites. Wish there was a way I could just take a gif and turn it into a sheet somehow.

 

[Kyepha]

It has a unique personality and charm that makes the Pokemon look quite adorable! I enjoy it, and I think it'd be a nice and refreshing change to the style Fan Games and ROM Hacks typically conform to.

 

[Panamanian]

I think the aesthetic of your game could be low detail graphics. Goofy and low detail sprites is very unique and will make your game stand out.

I love it

 

[Yotes]

Personally, I love the idea. I've always wanted to see a hand drawn 2D Animated kind of style for Pokemon and have half a mind to make one myself one day.

For the style you're showing here, I'd suggest just watching out for characters blending into the background or being hard to see. Try giving them outlines of a darker version of the color inside. Or maybe thick black lines all around

 

[sleepysealion]

Thanks. I had no idea people were interested in this still. Sad to say that I did kind of burn myself out super badly - mainly with the tiles/overworld. And I kind of gave up on the game for awhile - though I've been thinking of coming back to continue this again since I started some other projects in rpg maker ace that made me miss this.

Though I think that to make an entire game with custom art, would need a lot of limiting and people yelling at me to stop me from burning myself out again.

 

[Nissen]

It honestly looks really amazing and unique! As a reply to your half year old post, I think that giving everything an outline would end up detracting from the style. I love the way the Mankey and even the little mushroom in the forest looks!

 

[sleepysealion]

Yeah, I agree about the outline - it does catch your eye too much, but that is a concern about having things bleed into the background both in and out of battle.

Perhaps - if maybe I used lighter colors for either the characters or the background, and then darker for the other?

Though I have picked up a few tricks since then, so maybe I can get things less blurry this time around, though I do need to draw a line in the sand of what I will actually need to draw for a small test game and how much energy I'd put into that.

 

[Yotes]

Even if the game is never finished, at the very least the artwork deserves to be immortalized on the internet somewhere.