Graphic Variations

[Grizzy]

When it comes to graphic variations what are some key things you look for? I was creating different cities and notices some of them look to similar and it got me thinking. What defines the line for you from something being to repetitive to good enough to amazing. Does every single city need to have unique graphics or is simply laying them out and rendering them different colors enough to make them substantial? I was mainly rendering them different colors and changing the textures from stone to wood, ect ect when I realize I didn't like how they all looked similar... Any thoughts??

[PixelFox]

Too much can just as bad as not enough. But my rule of thumb is. Make things colourful, avoid grays, whites and blacks. (Replace black outlines with dark purple.) Peoples minds need to be stimulated, so if they are exploring in the wilds, or traveling from town to town... I highly recommend moving objects. Like butterflies, swaying grass... Just more life. Once everything stops I start getting bored, and I think people can relate. 

 

As for re-colours, they are fine (in my opinion) but I find most artists will change the colours up and slightly change the graphics depending on the cities location (being in a snowy area for example, or the kinda wood/meterials located in the area) If every town looks the same, its going ruin emersion for someone.

 

I guess in my mind, if I see more then 2 recolours on the same, monster, town, trees, bushes. I start to roll my eyes.

 

Hope this helps.

[WereAlpaca]

< Edit: When it comes to mapping towns, make sure nature plays a significant role. If you're in a mountainous town, have many different elevations. If you're in a forest town, have many trees and rivers. Just helps the world feel natural.  >

 

Varying styles is very important for me as a player. Hopefully this helps  vvvv

 

When it comes to graphical variety, reusing assets is important to keep everything attainable. However, that does not mean you should stop at recolouring and simply reusing! I'd suggest dissecting every detail of tiles that share the same

perspective, then create bases to build upon. Using this technique with recolouring allows many assets to be produced very quickly! 

 

Example:

Wood wall with beams going up the side and a wooden plank base separated = plank tile & beams.

 

Brick wall with corner supports and horizontal beams on the top and the bottom of the tile = plain brick tile, corner supports, & horizontal beams

 

Now you have this list of assets:

Base:

Plank tile

Brick tile

 

Details:

Vertical beams

Horizontal beams

Corner supports

 

Now you can use this small list of assets to layer together several different tiles! You can even take it a step further by using rotation, small detail changes, and several other things! Sometimes it's important to look at art like programming. Hope this helped, cheers!

[Grizzy]

Those were both fantastic answers!! Thank you both. I just needed some secondary input other than my own. And I've been working nonstop to compile graphics for a city for my current project. Tell me do you think these are too similar?? What small things could I do to make them vary a little more? Other than changing the building structure, because I've done that a few times. Take away side building ect ect..

 

[Zetasis]

As for the graphics, personally, I think they look fine and completely different from each other except for the fact they're the same shape. I like to make a lot of recolors myself but I also try and use different textures. I hope my input helps. 

[Grizzy]

No thank you very much!! I was hoping they didn't. I'm not going to be to picky with it, but like QuoteFox said I don't want it to be to repetitive and boring.