THE SCREENSHOT TOPIC RETURNS

Any better?

I'm not sure I understand the screenshots at all, Lotus, but they definitely grab me.

@Liberty - Those are some really, really nice tiles but the fact that the bed in the lower right has the head in the middle of the room would really annoy me in real life, yet it looks fine in your screenshot. :S I guess it's because of the armour at the head of the bed - it's a nice touch, and makes it feel a bit more walled off. As always with VX though, the auto-shadows will be a constant source of annoyance, though I suppose that's not something you can change without parallaxing. Did you make those paintings yourself?

@Lotus - The background and dusty-bits in the first picture add awesome levels of atmosphere, and I really love that screenshot.. In the second I get that they're underwater, but there's not really much else to see going on. I expect that there's more to see in-game?

@UPRC - Damn, that looks great! M only concern is that some of the coast line is very thin and boxy because it's directly next to the grass. I can't decide whether it's off-putting or perfectly fine.. I'm leaning towards fine!

@Caz: Yeah, those paintings were a combination of shrunk-down art I found over the years and minor edits here and there. I think they look pretty decent. ^.^
About the bed, I do see the issue and am currently trying to sprite some other-facing beds. It's taking a while, though. >.<; Auto-shadows are annoying but I'm thinking of either leaving them be or finding a kill-shadow script and adding my own lighting.

@Itaju: Neat! I like the idea. Is there any significance to the colour of the skills? And if so, perhaps you should change the blue spells to a different colour to differentiate them to the menu colours?

finally got this... finalized. i might still do something different with the Ability/Pack box, not sure.



Itaju, I agree about the "dirty" puzzle pieces. Looks great, but those pull the eye away from the text. :<

@Lotus: I really liked the way you draw the first map. Those mountains are neat, pretty realistic, and that may be a problem because it contrasts with the animations that look draws in 2d. The HUD has a good shape too but if you put some texture on it instead of a gradient, it would look much much better. The second screen is very good, I've never seen such a good underwater effect.

@UPRC: I think you should continue drawing your own tiles. They are amazing and very charming. They deliever the nostalgic feeling of retro gaming. And I think that was your goal.

Only one thing about the map drawing. Some trees are too close together, it makes the map look too symmetrical, which is not very good. Try disperse them a bit.

@Itaju: I just loved the way you did those boxes, like pieces of a puzzle. Very fancy, and the system looks very awesome as well. Keep your good work.

@Craze: Man, that windowskins is just beautiful. I'm not a big fan of the first person battle style, but all the elements fit just fine. The battlers, the battleback, the faces and the window. I like it all, very much. :)

Good screenshots, good work everybody.

INYG

@Liberty - Looks great, no complaints here.

@Craze - What liberty said, just while getting rid of the window behind the faces maybe? That's my suggestion anyway.


Does the lighting and tint look good or.. ? First time I've actually tried making lighting specifically for a map.

Lib/Tau: I'll consider killing the window; half-transparent black boxes fit in with all the rest of the menus' aesthetics anyway. As for the face size, it's a little dorky but there are twenty characters - I honestly don't expect everybody to memorize all of their names, especially not upon the initial recruitment. Thus, big, chunky faces are easily noticed and remembered by the player ("Oh, that's the dancer chick that's good at boosting Morale. I could use her right now").

Tau: Godrays could look nice, like Cinderblock suggested. I like it as-is, though.

I like sunrays. it looks flat without them



It's up to you. I think it looks nice both ways, although there are some noticeable tiles missing on the sides of the center and left columns! (I repaired them in this version)