I figured i could have one concise thread here and post graphics i do or have done (tile sets, metasprites, whole screens, concepts) for critique and comments. I've learned a lot from those who've been kind to pick apart my work over at NesDev, and thought this may be a good place too. 

Let's start with this background screen. Any thoughts?
Will post more stuff here, eventually. 

(edited out a few errors)

Looks great! Only point is that the pink reflection tells me its dusk, but the color of the sky makes me feel like its a foggy cool morning. But maybe its just me.

Other than that I dig the aesthetic.

Yeah that looks fantastic. Nice job!

Agreed. I am struggling to find something to critique. I'd hang that on my wall

Ok, this is a VERY minor gripe and may not be warranted if this actually runs/displays on hardware but... something about the color pallet seems off in the sense that, to me, this feels like a vintage-y, pixelated image created in a modern tool, intended to look old. I think (and, again, I could be wrong) this could be because the hues of the colors don't perfectly match the limited pallets of older systems I've played games on. Since the pallet doesn't appear to perfectly match, say, an NES pallet, then it doesn't feel like an NES image. This could be an 8-bit pallet, which would work well for old dos games, but I didn't play many of those.

Anyway, that really is a super-knit-picky critique but it is the only thing I noticef. To be honest, I don't even see that as a problem because pixel art is and always will be awesome. Still, if you can find the NES or Atari color swatch and change your colors to match the colors in those pallets this could be practically perfect.

Thanks everybody! Your comments motivates me push this thing forward.   I'll consider that. Thanks! The truth is i haven't yet decided if the sun will be setting (on a misty evening) or the moon will be rising om pale daylight or if it's just going to be morning fog. But i can hint at either of the former just beyond the treeline with a few sprites set to 'behind background' mode.

Thanks! Neat idea. Maybe i can find a suitable wall somewhere around the house. ^^ Would prints be a thing even if there was no clear game/product at this point?

Rest assured, it does in fact adhere to NES palette restrictions and you can run it on the NES. It's just that the exact hues of the export tool is a little bit off the nominal NTSC colours*. I usually check against my PAL unit to see if things hold together. On my laptop, it looks a bit colder than it does on my TV.

I get around most attribute clashes typical of the NES by keeping having several commong colours between the subpalettes, so it's not as colourful as a NES background could potentially be.
I think that (narrow selection of colours + a lot attribute grid avoidance) makes it atypical compared to a commercial NES game screen.
*but honestly any crt tv set will offset hues even more compared the next one, not to mention deviations between NTSC and PAL. That can pose a problem on some tv sets as the 'fog effect' of the far tree line relies on colours $1C and $13 not being all too far apart, but i'm willing to risk it.

=============
Quick update:
It started out as a freeform background piece that had no specific purpose (it could be part of a title screen animation, cinematic sequence, end credits, etc), but then it struck me that with a flat enough level it could actually work as level decoration for a shorter section, even though it occupies nearly all of the background CHR RAM. The flatness of the supposed level would make parallax scrolling a relative breeze. 
​
Here's a start down that road.

Ah, thanks for he response. I'd like to see this on a CRT! My "critique" turns into a compliment!

I think the rules for selling are it has to be video game related. Not sure if that would qualify, you can speak with a more about that. No idea how you'd do sales wise, but who knows  

Sales - probably not a lot, haha    But if it ever become part of a finalized game, prints/postcards of some of the better sceneries might be an idea, mostly for fun. 

Another update: 
WIP on seamless background loop + a GIF:ed parallax scroll demonstration (animated, not programmed). 


rlh: i'll take a picture once i'm home again... which is in two weeks. 

That gif is freaking awesome. Well done.

Nice parallax effect and welcome to NA!

Looks great with that scrolling.

Very cool. Colors are great and graphics are crisp. Keep it coming.

This looks absolutely amazing. Glad you finally found your way to NA  .

Looks great. However, I no games are not recognized (except Immortal). Tell me, do these graphics for any specific game is intended, or is it a gift to the developers of future games?

Thanks for the encouragement, everybody!  

Commendable. I think also to help with the graphics. But I can't draw, only optimize graphics using programs. By the way. You could put T-Rex Runner ROM in this thread? I'm on the phone, I can't assemble ROM, and, I think, others will also be interesting to see.  

Thanks, i appreciate it. But i prefer to do final touches and optimizations myself.   So the best way to help out is probably commenting on pieces i'll post here - what you like/don't like, discuss technical implications and pixel art techniques etc. 

Regardning T-rex. There really isn't much to see when compiled, i'm afraid; the source is much more informative than the resulting ROM (might be some code snips in there to scavenge if you wanted to). You could perhaps use it as a tool to handwrite sprite animation cycles, but you'd still need to build it from source yourself that way.

 

Allright, so these have been shown elsewhere, but i thought i might upload them here too. It's for another project, with the maker of the anguna games, and i'm in the process of refurbishing these three level concepts into more sensible packs of metatiles. The world is built up from nested metatiles, ie 2x2 tiles, then 2x2 metatiles, then 2x2 of those. The challenge is to make them last for reuse while giving each area a unique identity of its own in terms of layout. You may get an idea how i use reuse tiles in these concepts by comparing one of them to its tileset, shown in this blog post. 

Quick note on the game: It's a blaster master-inspired metroidvania which lets you go on vehicular exploration on an alien planet. 

While this transition is a bit of a hurdle in itself and my focal point right now, any comment relating to any aspect at all is welcome.   

Also introducing our hero (idle animation). 

Edit: Deleted attachments and hosted them from my blog instead.



 

Started expanding one of them in order to discern what's what with the current tile sheet. 


Some details here:
https://frankengraphics.com/2017/10/31/short-note-on-sprawli...

Started doodling on an interior scene using bits of the same distant background as the one that started this thread. I'd say it's "halfway there". Any critique so far? 

Its pretty fun too be able too follow the graphic art beeing made for homebrews. From my perspective there is nothing i see which i can point might be better. I really like youre work, keep us posted.

Thanks   So, here's some changes for comparison. Maybe... 75% complete? Most of the rest should be cleaning up some quick and dirty details. 

Latest addition to the gothic platformer. Just testing out some scrolling effects. Keeping the far-field background still would be pretty chr hungry, but i think that's ok if i can cram out enough variation for a tower with this set as it is. 

Woah. This looks awesome.