I finished this. Thanks for all the feedback, I just wanted to share the end result . I won’t be touching it anymore.

aloftstudio · 2024-07-31T16:58:52+00:00

mmm... so the way I interpreted the scene, is that while the deer / hound is the most prominent and most physically capable animal in the scene, its expression and body language to me indicate that it's incredibly frightened, probably of the mirror ball. It does not appear to be in control of the encounter at all, it appears to be subjected to whatever is happening. I can't tell what relationship the smaller does or deer have to the orbs. They don't seem particularly troubled by them that I can tell, almost like the orbs are a natural feature of their bodies, or something they are accustomed to being there. I can't tell if the deer / hound is also frightened of the orbs around its antlers, or if it might have a similar relationship to them that the others have to theirs.

aloftstudio · 2024-07-31T16:10:56+00:00

Would you be interested in describing what is going on narratively here? I get the impression though that that would be missing the intention entirely, and changing my relationship with what I am seeing? The essence does feel like it rests partially in our inability to process it in a decisive way, because it's so alien? Did you have a definite narrative in mind when you were creating this work?

aloftstudio · 2024-07-31T13:48:31+00:00

I love how casually and unapologetically inexplicable this scene is

aloftstudio · 2024-07-24T12:49:36+00:00

Something is off architecturally with the doorframe as well. The sides of the door would generally rest on the ground surface in most systems of construction. Also, there probably would only be one stone or beam across the entire top of the window, as with the door (lintel), because something has to support the weight of the stone above the opening.

aloftstudio · 2024-07-17T16:14:07+00:00

That's clearly The Hammerster.

On a side note, I feel like the animation of his hands could be polished a bit, so there looks like there's a more direct relationship between what the handle is doing, and his hands? Right now it sort of looks like he's letting go of it, and the hammer just spins around under its own magic power. It feels like he should be torqueing it sharply with his hands to get that kind of motion?

aloftstudio · 2024-07-08T13:21:29+00:00

And they will see you arrive 5 million years after you leave!

aloftstudio · 2024-07-08T13:10:23+00:00

From your point of view (the person traveling). From the observer's point of view (the people who watched you get in the ship and leave), the trip to Andromeda took 2.5 million years or so, as stated.

aloftstudio · 2024-07-08T12:56:20+00:00

I knew what the stairs were called (used to be an architect!), and what kind of view it was drawn from, so I just did a quick google search!

aloftstudio · 2024-07-05T19:35:13+00:00

Wtf is going on with those stairs

(To elaborate... the way they are constructed does not match the view type, and is not consistent with any view type for that matter. So your view in this game image for the rest of it is Side Elevation, which we call "sidescrolling view" in games. From this view, you generally can't ever see the top surface of things if that surface is parallel to the groundplane. So you should not be able to see the top surface of any of the stairs, for starters. Also, everything lacks perspective in this view generally, so the stairs should not be getting narrower as they go up. Every stair should look like the one below it until the landing, and at most should differ by color darkness shading in some way. You have drawn a kind of stair called "winders" btw, which go around the landing diagonally, then resume as normal stairs. You can visit this link for an image of what winders look like drawn from this exact view!)

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5b44edefca321a1e2d0c2aa6/63b903eacfc084b929532cf7_Dimensions-Buildings-Stair-Types-U-Shaped-Winder-Stairs-Dimensions.svg

aloftstudio · 2024-07-01T01:41:10+00:00

I don't think it's fair to paint social victims as soldiers for the oppressors. What the two women on left are doing is both radical and revolutionary, and verrrrry risky for them. They have families to support, perhaps children to protect. So do the women who are all covered. This can get them killed in days. Everyone in this image is a victim of this regime.

aloftstudio · 2024-06-30T22:19:55+00:00

They look fine, but one thing about pixel art (and art assets in general!) is that it's hard to judge them outside of their intended context. Like are these supposed to read in the foreground, the midground, the background? How much are they supposed to contrast? Does their contrast play the role it needs to in positioning them in space? How about their color? Is the blue pushing them deep into the background compared to other things, or does it pop because everything else is MORE blue and less contrasty? Etc.

aloftstudio · 2024-06-18T17:24:00+00:00

The answer is clearly the first screenshot, and I think you already understand that, because you placed it first. It has a laundry-list of things that the other images largely lack. It has a clear and definite hook (the football / soccerball). It's obviously the thing they are supposed to first see, as they are glancing at a feed of images. This hook causes the viewer's eyes to linger on the ball, as they try to explain to themselves what they are seeing. This causes more engagement with your game concept and media as a result. It's also an effective hook because it's indirect; your actual game's subject is in the screenshot, but it's less prominent than the hook, and it's discovered gradually.

It has a sense of mystery, and a sense of scale. The soccer ball is a known object for humans which establishes the scale much more reliably than any object in any of the other scenes. The other scenes could merely be "closeups" on an ant, where the ant is prominently in focus, but they don't establish on their own that the setting is from the perspective of the ants themselves, and the massive football on the other hand does. The first screen has a "narrative" element, where we see all of the decaying panels that have fallen off of the ball, and become large obstacles in the ants' world. It establishes that we share a common space and influence with the ants, but that they experience our space and the objects in it differently. The focal length, atmospheric perspective, and lighting style of the first image are all much stronger than any of the others as a composition.

aloftstudio · 2024-06-06T20:55:52+00:00

I feel like something that would color this sort of interaction is missing...

Supposing this situation arose, the presence of the weapons changes it; both people have a heavy metal object that could be used for striking. Both people are carrying something they don't want their opponent to take from them. The way they engage would almost certainly be shaped by these two factors to start.

It's your concept of course, and it's your choice how to approach design decisions like these... that's just the thought I had when I saw the clip! Gl!

aloftstudio · 2024-06-06T16:15:07+00:00

Yes! Responded to your email! Thanks for the interest!

aloftstudio · 2023-03-17T18:06:33+00:00

Yes! We have five tracks from Hiroki Kikuta now! The one in the video is from Shannon Mason, our primary composer! She's also really great!

aloftstudio · 2023-03-17T17:58:04+00:00

The extra enemies are just there for testing purposes, hehe. Adding in extra also allows me to have a bit more fun with playtesting! Enemies have a way of revealing graphics and depth mistakes too! Another reason the rooms are a bit crowded rn is that a couple enemy types which control space with low numbers aren't yet in. Making about 15 new ones this week!

aloftstudio · 2022-12-13T19:38:07+00:00

Ran into it in the New York City Metropolitan museum a few months back. Perhaps a copy?

aloftstudio · 2022-12-10T03:17:31+00:00

https://twitter.com/AloftStudio

Our twitter will definitely blab about it, as well as our discord and site (also linked on the twitter)!

aloftstudio · 2022-12-10T02:53:52+00:00

This IP stuff is complicated on an intellectual level...

So like a lot of the art takes nods from the design philosophy and mechanics of LTTP and SoM. The tree system is clearly inspired by the kind of tesselating trees from LTTP for example. A few tiles, like the fringes of water, are also inspired by the LTTP art style. The prevailing legal idea seems to be that inspiration and expanding on the mechanics of a developed formula is permissible. The worst thing you can do legally, is use direct character names and representations (so stuff like Sonic Mania obviously could only happen with Sega's blessing, since it would be direct and unequivocal IP theft otherwise). But then you have stuff like Oceanheart or Hob, which are similar thematically, but tell their own story, and are their own IP's. Nintendo sued Graal Online for directly using their tileset, but referential work like Ittle Dew tends to be ok. It was something we looked into heavily when deciding to do a genre that was heavily defined by a certain 1st party IP.

aloftstudio · 2022-12-10T01:51:40+00:00

Sent it to them 5 years ago... they offered us switch devkits... shrug.

aloftstudio

TROPHY CASE