7962 replies to this topic

[Twilight-Prince]

I have to agree, Lynker, those are some pretty sweet screens. Maybe you could teach me a thing or two!

[Jared]

Thank you!
^u^
Of course I can! Shoot me a PM and we can discuss!

[Moon]

Lynker, those are some of the best PTUX screens I've ever seen, maybe you could teach me how to make good screens

[Jared]

It's not PTUX, it's pure Remembrance
And sure!

[Old-Skool]

I understand there's been some issues as of late regarding how people handle having their screenshots criticized. This is one of the main reasons I was opposed to limiting the screenshot thread to critiques. But forget about that for a minute.



thoughts?

Old-skool - The screen is a bit empty and there are tiles too close to the end of the screen. Try placing them at least two tiles away from an end.

How dare you claim my screenshot looks like crap! Or mountains of it

Edited by Old-skool, 22 May 2011 - 01:30 PM.

[Jared]

What do you think of this?
Yes, you can fall down into the clouds and sky :O

Edit - Just noticed it's too bare. I gotta add some pillars and candles.

Edited by Lynker, 22 May 2011 - 05:06 PM.

[Ica]

How dare you claim my screenshot looks like crap! Or mountains of it

what? i didnt called it crap. Im sorry if i offended you.

Edited by Ica44, 22 May 2011 - 08:27 PM.

[Moosh]

what? i didnt called it crap. Im sorry if i offended you.

Did not get the joke, lol. Look at those mountains and their general shape...

[Old-Skool]

what? i didnt called it crap. Im sorry if i offended you.

Ica44, you are an accomplice in a joke, regarding something the mods and admins said regarding drama in this very thread. Look very closely at the screenshot and you may realize it is not a serious candidate for critique. Particularly pay attention to the A and B items. The joke continued further than expected actually, when you fell for it the first time. So, I continued onward, hoping you'd figure it out. You didn't, that's ok. I just have to explain to you exactly what happened, now, before you take it too seriously.

[Russ]

What do you think of this?
Yes, you can fall down into the clouds and sky :O

Edit - Just noticed it's too bare. I gotta add some pillars and candles.

You have appealed to my love of floating dungeons. Looks cool, but a bit empty. I don't know the levels' backstory, but if it fits, try adding a statue near the middle, and some candles on the wall. A pillar or two wouldn't hurt either. Or maybe even a tiny (as in 1x1) hole in the middle of the room.

[Schwa]

Ica44, you are an accomplice in a joke, regarding something the mods and admins said regarding drama in this very thread. Look very closely at the screenshot and you may realize it is not a serious candidate for critique. Particularly pay attention to the A and B items. The joke continued further than expected actually, when you fell for it the first time. So, I continued onward, hoping you'd figure it out. You didn't, that's ok. I just have to explain to you exactly what happened, now, before you take it too seriously.

Don't be too hard on the guy, 'cause I don't get it either. It just looks like a typical lackluster screenshot, sorry.

It needs more action than just some randomly spaced-out boulders and a floating chunk of mountains (too close to the south border, might I add), and I know people are tired of hearing this, but it wouldn't hurt to close your corners while you're at it. And PLEASE, tweak that palette a little, you have searingly bright yellow water, I don't know if you noticed that. Is it supposed to be lava? You could make it more lava-like, throw some orange in there, I dunno. Orange lava with yellow speckles if you want to keep classic graphics. That would look a lot better. And said lava does not work well with minty-green ground, believe me. You may want to upgrade your green to a mostly-yellow-very-faint-green-added-in, if not beyond that, so it looks more like a lava-ish landscape and meshes well with the bronze mountains.

I don't know why I have to explain this stuff to you, either; you're the guy who made Technicolor World, aren't you? You should KNOW this stuff!

Edited by Schwa, 23 May 2011 - 02:29 AM.

[Sheik]

Lynker, for a simple walk-through room it might be enough. It's nicely laid out. Well, admitted, something in the middle of that screen might spice it up nicely, but I'm not too sure even. Nice work to say the least.

Edit: Schwa, the water is ment to be pee. The mountains are ment to be poop. The Items are a toilet and toilet paper (or a newspaper rather?) I believe. The design (and palette) of the whole thing is poor to further support the allergory of a "crappy screenshot". At least I understand it that way.

Edited by Sheik91, 23 May 2011 - 03:44 AM.

[NoeL]

What do you think of this?
Yes, you can fall down into the clouds and sky :O

Edit - Just noticed it's too bare. I gotta add some pillars and candles.

Contrary to what others have said, I would advise against cluttering up the middle of the screen with statues or pillars. Where there's the potential to "fall off" and have to work your way back up to where you were, things you'd normally take for granted - namely enemy knockback - really need to be factored into screen design. I'm sure you remember how frustrating it was to fight that moldorm in LttP where it was all too easy to get knocked off the platform and have to start all over again.

In areas like this you need to be more lenient towards the player and give them the freedom to defend themselves against this kind of thing. Taking a hit doesn't just mean losing some health, it potentially means having to go back and replay parts of the dungeon over and over again, which isn't fun at all. The amount of room you have to fight in is fine as it is, and you shouldn't be cluttering it up simply for aesthetics. If you think the middle looks a bit bare, do something with the floor, but keep it walkable.

What I think the main problem with this shot is isn't the bare floor, it's that the screen as a whole makes no sense. There's apparently random floor tile transitions, a random shield on the wall, random patches of no floor... I don't know what to make of it. What kind of architect would design a room like that? I mean, it's not like Zelda dungeons are known for their efficiency - we expect them to be a maze of rooms that appear to have no practical purpose other than as a maze to be solved by the player - but they should at least have some design consistency. There should be a reason why this part of the ground looks different to that part, at the very least simply to convey that it was designed (symmetry and Euclidean geometry are simple and effective ways to convey this).

To really make good screens you have to constantly ask yourself why you're putting things where they are. It's not enough to throw some random elements together, and then keep adding random elements to any areas that look too plain (at least not in dungeons. On the overworld you can get away with this to some degree, as nature tends to be much more chaotic. Buildings are designed and ordered, so your screen design needs to reflect that).

Edited by NoeL, 23 May 2011 - 04:16 AM.

[ShadowTiger]

Aye... In rooms like that, when someone has the potential to be knocked off, I'll always have two types of "sky" combos prepared. One is a direct warp or stair warp to another room of the dungeon, to make it feel as if they fell from, say, F-2 to F-1 or F-1 to B-1, aaaand another type of combo that mimics one of the damage holes from ALTTP, in which if you fell in, you'd see a little "Link Falling" animation, that stupid scream of his, that sparkle, him taking some damage, and then starting back again at the beginning of the room. It's basically walkable water.

[Moosh]

Don't be too hard on the guy, 'cause I don't get it either. It just looks like a typical lackluster screenshot, sorry.

It needs more action than just some randomly spaced-out boulders and a floating chunk of mountains (too close to the south border, might I add), and I know people are tired of hearing this, but it wouldn't hurt to close your corners while you're at it. And PLEASE, tweak that palette a little, you have searingly bright yellow water, I don't know if you noticed that. Is it supposed to be lava? You could make it more lava-like, throw some orange in there, I dunno. Orange lava with yellow speckles if you want to keep classic graphics. That would look a lot better. And said lava does not work well with minty-green ground, believe me. You may want to upgrade your green to a mostly-yellow-very-faint-green-added-in, if not beyond that, so it looks more like a lava-ish landscape and meshes well with the bronze mountains.

I don't know why I have to explain this stuff to you, either; you're the guy who made Technicolor World, aren't you? You should KNOW this stuff!

I know you're being sarcastic, but just so everyone gets the joke, the mountains are poop and Link's items are a toilet and newspaper.
Also: