I'm trying to get into developing mobile games, I'm starting to develop my game on Java for PC and then will port it to Android later. The programming is easy, the part I'm getting stuck with are the graphics. I'd like to have a very polished game, a large portion of that I believe is the graphics. I know a good a graphic designer who is working with me but she's having problems creating 2D (3D could be an option?) sprites(or whatever) that look good when they get down to 40-50 pixels.
Any suggestions on where I can start reading about how to create nice looking graphics? My game is nothing like Candy Crush, but I see that as something to compare against. Are the candies 3D or "2D sprites with nice shading/other visual tricks"? I am not a graphic designer so I don't know what I'm talking about, but hopefully you can see what I'm asking. Or do I need to develop the game in OpenGL to get what I'm looking for?
Thanks
edit: Rather than Candy Crush, maybe Cut the Rope is a better example.
I was in the same situation.
You can give Unity3D a try, they have an asset store with various 2D Starter packs (some paid, some free).
Thanks for the reply, I did see that a month ago when I first started out. I looked again, there wasn't much that I was looking for. A few 3D models that looked good, but I was thinking of staying away from 3D because I don't think it would add much to the game and just hurt the battery life.
The other thing I found this morning was Pixel Art, seems time consuming, but depending on how it turns out, it could look pretty good. Damn I really wish I knew how Cut The Rope was done, those sprites and animations look so fluid and clean. They don't look like Pixel Art either.
Edit: I found this pretty awesome tutorial, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbStqRRSldw. It doesn't really get into the specifics of shrinking the images except that it mentions vector art which may be all that needs to be done.
It is all about shading and lighting. Learning these techniques will allow you to change a flat image into isometric object. There are many tutorials for adobe illustrator/photoshop or inkscape/gimp if you need free software. Snowman tutorial for Inkscape is great example of what I mean. I think it is also important to create graphics as simple as possible. It will look good even in smaller size. Pixel art is also good choice when it comes to mobile games.
tsg. said:
It is all about shading and lighting. Learning these techniques will allow you to change a flat image into isometric object. There are many tutorials for adobe illustrator/photoshop or inkscape/gimp if you need free software. Snowman tutorial for Inkscape is great example of what I mean. I think it is also important to create graphics as simple as possible. It will look good even in smaller size. Pixel art is also good choice when it comes to mobile games.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, the shading and lighting is doable. But I want to create it big in vector art, correct? Then it can be shrunk down while keep it's definition? Obviously, it still has to be kind of simple, it's still going to get more difficult to make out when it's small.
Candy Crush and games like Cut the Rope is most likely created using no other tricks than normal textures made in Photoshop and/or Illustrator. Like most games are.
You should look into tutorials for creating artwork for those programs. Or, you could simply buy some artwork from for example Shutterstock, its not that expensive, and then modify it to your needs using Photoshop. It's always easier to start with something than starting from scratch. Like if you were to make a Candy Crush game, I know you aren't, but as an example, then you might buy a collection of candy vectors from Shutterstock or similar site for a few bucks, and then play around with photoshop, copying and pasting etc, changing colours and sizes so they fit your needs, and voila, you got the base to your candy puzzle game.
Related
Anyone here play Krashlander? IMO it's one of the best games on WP7 or any mobile OS period. If it was out on iPhone I reckon it would have rivaled angry birds by now.
What's your favourite level and which did you find most challenging?
I have managed to get 3 stars on all the levels apart from level 13. I have the skills but no luck lol.
I've recently discovered Krashlander, myself. I love it. It gets a bit tricky very early on, you have to be somewhat sufficiently coordinated, but is still a fun game. This and rest of the simplistic games on WP7 push it over the top for me for being the best system. I have all three major popular systems and find myself drawn to WP7 the most. Maybe it's because these simple games are easier to find on WP7 rather than on iOS or Android, I don't know, but it gives me the distinct impression WP7 is the premium gaming system. Krashlander is such a unique game that helps that impression along.
I think it is fun, but honestly I think the developer should take 90% of his code and release a game similar to this:
Or even a game like he has, but simplify the controls to just be jump or something.
The game is really fun as is, but sometimes frustratingly hard. Luckily, the developer allows you to opt out of a level after your 15th try, which I have had to use once, maybe twice.
Man I wish there were refunds, I pretty much buy every decent Xbox live games that comes out and this has all the potential in the world but the controls made me want to shoot myself in the face... It's just bad. Save yourself some heartache and use the 5 dollar bill as toilet paper. That would be money better spent... I can't even use this crap.
That's why there is an option to test all the XBox live games for free before buying
skycamefalling said:
That's why there is an option to test all the XBox live games for free before buying
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Click to collapse
I'm aware, it offers up the easiest levels that don't show you the games real mechanics at all... No thanks... I always get the full games of any decent looking games.
Actually there are really few decent games on WP7.... Except maybe Ilomilo or Harvest...
They are all very boring, with a very basic gameplay.
The best exemples are certainly Fable Golf or The Blob. Graphics are nice, but how boring these games are.... No variations or challenge at all.
I you buy a game without trying it and it's rubbish, you deserve what happens to you, no sympathy there.
As for the game itself, I agree that it's not good and Who wants to be a Millionaire is just as bad.
We were originally supposed to get Angry Birds today and instead we got two piles of crap.
I just tried the demo of Super Monkey and indeed... It's crap.
How poor the graphics are...! How they dare propose this for the WP7 platform?
Regarding the controls, they are just so bad that they make the whole game unusable.
Where are the good/sophisticated games on WP7 ???
most have to be made, not ported
PES is actually a good game, I love corona
and I absolutely love the harvest
but many games are rubbish
I am holding out on sonic 4 being good because I like the game on the wii, but I'd love a metal gear on this thing
Toss us a bone konami
arturobandini said:
I just tried the demo of Super Monkey and indeed... It's crap.
How poor the graphics are...! How they dare propose this for the WP7 platform?
Regarding the controls, they are just so bad that they make the whole game unusable.
Where are the good/sophisticated games on WP7 ???
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Click to collapse
There just aren't enough users to warrant putting the resources into a massive, complex, graphics-intensive game. Plus people aren't willing to pay - the amount of reviews saying that PES2011 is too expensive at £3.99. This, the most fun, addictive and probably longest replay-value game on the market. Should be 12p apparently.
Well I bought it, and I really like it. I find the controls fine, took a bit of playing to get used to it, but it is good fun. I do think a joystick control might make it a bit easier, but its a good game, the graphics arent that bad either... looks like SMB 1 did to me, other than the 2d monkey.
z33dev33l said:
Man I wish there were refunds, I pretty much buy every decent Xbox live games that comes out and this has all the potential in the world but the controls made me want to shoot myself in the face... It's just bad. Save yourself some heartache and use the 5 dollar bill as toilet paper. That would be money better spent... I can't even use this crap.
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Click to collapse
agreed, the mechanics were not smooth at all.
On a side note, I thought I had wasted money on deer hunter, but it works much better after the nodo update.
arturobandini said:
Actually there are really few decent games on WP7.... Except maybe Ilomilo or Harvest...
They are all very boring, with a very basic gameplay.
The best exemples are certainly Fable Golf or The Blob. Graphics are nice, but how boring these games are.... No variations or challenge at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
huh rocket riot, max and the magic marker, fruit ninja, tiki towers, iblast moki are also gr8 games. for a brand new platform WP7 has a decent amount of good games.
the only thing missing are some gr8 exclusives like the Harvest.
I find a lot of the games great but I came from Android not an iPhone. Earthworm Jim, Fruit Ninja, Hexic Rush, iBlast Moki, Ilomilo, Max and the Magic Marker and Tiki Towers are some of my favourites.
I can see the frustration some people might have with things like Fable Coin Golf but these are really designed to be pick up and play games you can play when you're on the go quickly and easily.
Game plays smoothly on my HTC Arrive.
Two reasons why I didn't buy the game:
1. 2D Monkey Balls - I'm sure they could have done 3D without dropping below 30 fps. Simply lazy programming.
2. No mini games. Monkey Flight is the sole reason why I bought the original games.
Im creating game.
Helicopter shooter. Im looking for any suggestion about what i can implement in game
Here is little preview of what is done now. Give me info what you wanna see next
it look like a really good game
i just remembered desert strike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2eYWZcHbcc
is was a good game try to take some hints from it
good luck
looks like a cool game. In my opinion, people care about the graphics a lot for the initial download. So spend some money and get a designer to make a very nice icon, and some nice textures for inside your game. Will do wonders for your overall downloads / money.
@Gray.Fox
ofcourse im suggested by desert strike
here is first concept from game Desertstrike-style isometric camera
(in second part of this movie at ~0:40 )
Big Games For WP7
Why not try to develop Big Games Like Dungeon Hunter 2,Ethernal Legacy,Green Farm,etc. for WP7.WP7 is not capable of running such big games?Then I think i made a big mistake for buying WP7 phone.Even for old Android OS can play big games and new WP7 OS can't play big games it is a sad story of WP7.???????????????????????????????????????????????????????:
Okay, so I just spent half an hour looking through the Android Market at the top games and apps, and haven't really seen anything that catches my eye!
Now, maybe it's just me, and I'm being a little too fussy, but I really don't seem to be able to find a good, highly addictive long term game.
Current Games - Mark /10:
Doodle Jump - 6
Blood and Glory - 7
Cut the rope - 4
Enchanted Realm - 6
Fieldrunners - 8
Flight Control - 4
Fruit Ninja - 5
Great Little War Game - 6
Gun Bros - 5
Tap Tap 4 - 5
Zynga poker - 2
Unblock Me - 9
As for interesting apps... I can't find anything :/
Any help and advice would be nice?
Thanks in advance!
I have been searching for that game you are looking for for over a year now and haven''t found anything myself yet.
Gun Bros was fun in the beginning, but Glu Mobile only wants to milk your wallet a bit more (that goes for all of their games, mind you!). All fine with me, but the game strats to drag after a few months of play and becomes tedious. It levels too slowly, or, to put it differently, the weapons are too expensive (and the expensive one do not even live up to expectation). I abandoned it after like three months or so.
I like the ""Choice of ..." series very much -- I'm currently playing Broadsides and Romance. I'm not originally into RPGs, but this is kinda fun. It more or less makes the story more interesting if you have influence on the outcomes, even if it sometimes is clear the difference is minor because the story picks up again the same way it did the last few times. Nice time-waster, though.
Random Mahjong for the sleepless hours (I use it with Screen Filter to dampen the screen brightness a bit, primarily to soothe my eyes since I have it plugged it when I''m in bed anyway).
Flight Control: meh. Fun in the first few levels, but tedious after a while.
Plants vs. Zombies: very funny, like the humor. Have played it on the PC -- great fun -- an enjoy it on the Android platform. Wish I could play it on a bigger screen, though: it wouldn't be the first time I scr**ed up on plant placement.
Virtual City: instant buy. Like it very much, but haven't been playing lately due to real life taking over for a bit. Have the Sandbox Edition installed as well, but haven't played it yet for the same reasons.
Age of Wind: likeable, and fun, but the steering mode annoyed me and I was put to the bottom of the sea very fast. I find the economics unclear and " steep".
Apparatus: reputed to be great fun. Installed, but not played yet.
Dead Space: looked like a winner (oh, the visuals! : D ), but the controls annoyed me supremely. Happily uninstalled.
Guerilla Bob: fun, but not for a the long-term you are apparently looking for. I liked it though, but again, way too short.
Robo Defense: immensely fun, and you can keep experimenting on different lay-outs and tower compositions. Achievements provide that little extra oomph of stimulus to go on and on and on. Had to wrestle myself away from this one for sheer terror of social dysfunction.
Stupid Zombies: fun, and a ''thinker'', but very hard on higher levels, which might be a put-off if you're a casual gamer.
Reckless Getaway: fun, but it turns out I'm a crappy virtual driver (luckily not so in real life -- that doesn't really fit with a motorcycle, now, doesn't it ; )
Cut the Rope: quite possibly a killer game for most of us. Thinking fast is key here, I like it very much. (I have to admit though that my 3.5 year-old son is about as good as I am. But he is astonishingly good for a 3 yo, ROFLOL!)
Great Little War Game: hard one, this one. Liked it, but was not 'steadfast' and sometimes was unclear what consequences movement would have. There is only an inconsequential und relatively uninformative tutorial, so you're left to fend for your own.
Not played (extensively): UNO, Siegecraft, Virtual City Sandbox Edition.
Hope that helps a bit.
New_World_Order said:
Okay, so I just spent half an hour looking through the Android Market at the top games and apps, and haven't really seen anything that catches my eye!
Now, maybe it's just me, and I'm being a little too fussy, but I really don't seem to be able to find a good, highly addictive long term game.
Current Games - Mark /10:
Doodle Jump - 6
Blood and Glory - 7
Cut the rope - 4
Enchanted Realm - 6
Fieldrunners - 8
Flight Control - 4
Fruit Ninja - 5
Great Little War Game - 6
Gun Bros - 5
Tap Tap 4 - 5
Zynga poker - 2
Unblock Me - 9
As for interesting apps... I can't find anything :/
Any help and advice would be nice?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MartyHulskemper said:
I have been searching for that game you are looking for for over a year now and haven''t found anything myself yet.
Gun Bros was fun in the beginning, but Glu Mobile only wants to milk your wallet a bit more (that goes for all of their games, mind you!). All fine with me, but the game strats to drag after a few months of play and becomes tedious. It levels too slowly, or, to put it differently, the weapons are too expensive (and the expensive one do not even live up to expectation). I abandoned it after like three months or so.
I like the ""Choice of ..." series very much -- I'm currently playing Broadsides and Romance. I'm not originally into RPGs, but this is kinda fun. It more or less makes the story more interesting if you have influence on the outcomes, even if it sometimes is clear the difference is minor because the story picks up again the same way it did the last few times. Nice time-waster, though.
Random Mahjong for the sleepless hours (I use it with Screen Filter to dampen the screen brightness a bit, primarily to soothe my eyes since I have it plugged it when I''m in bed anyway).
Flight Control: meh. Fun in the first few levels, but tedious after a while.
Plants vs. Zombies: very funny, like the humor. Have played it on the PC -- great fun -- an enjoy it on the Android platform. Wish I could play it on a bigger screen, though: it wouldn't be the first time I scr**ed up on plant placement.
Virtual City: instant buy. Like it very much, but haven't been playing lately due to real life taking over for a bit. Have the Sandbox Edition installed as well, but haven't played it yet for the same reasons.
Age of Wind: likeable, and fun, but the steering mode annoyed me and I was put to the bottom of the sea very fast. I find the economics unclear and " steep".
Apparatus: reputed to be great fun. Installed, but not played yet.
Dead Space: looked like a winner (oh, the visuals! : D ), but the controls annoyed me supremely. Happily uninstalled.
Guerilla Bob: fun, but not for a the long-term you are apparently looking for. I liked it though, but again, way too short.
Robo Defense: immensely fun, and you can keep experimenting on different lay-outs and tower compositions. Achievements provide that little extra oomph of stimulus to go on and on and on. Had to wrestle myself away from this one for sheer terror of social dysfunction.
Stupid Zombies: fun, and a ''thinker'', but very hard on higher levels, which might be a put-off if you're a casual gamer.
Reckless Getaway: fun, but it turns out I'm a crappy virtual driver (luckily not so in real life -- that doesn't really fit with a motorcycle, now, doesn't it ; )
Cut the Rope: quite possibly a killer game for most of us. Thinking fast is key here, I like it very much. (I have to admit though that my 3.5 year-old son is about as good as I am. But he is astonishingly good for a 3 yo, ROFLOL!)
Great Little War Game: hard one, this one. Liked it, but was not 'steadfast' and sometimes was unclear what consequences movement would have. There is only an inconsequential und relatively uninformative tutorial, so you're left to fend for your own.
Not played (extensively): UNO, Siegecraft, Virtual City Sandbox Edition.
Hope that helps a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really couldn't have asked for a better answer!
It seems as if you've taken the time and effort to help me out and share your ideas and opinions, so thanks a lot! I shall hit the like button when I'm next at my laptop!
I think I'll give all the games you've mentioned a go, and hopefully this threads still going in a week or so and I can give some feedback on those games!
Thanks again for taking the time and effort to help!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Tiny tower is addictive
Wind-up Knight is pretty good.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Apparatus is the only game ive ever found remotely interesting on any phone
Best Games
I really enjoy the following games:
Muffin Knight
Where's My Water
Cartoon Wars
Grave Defense
Plant vs Zombies
Sonic CD
Tiny Tower (sadly the iOS version is so much better)
My favorite game is earth and legend and zenonia.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
i'm currently addicted to Where's My Water ... it's really fun to play
If your looking for a long term game to play like op on laptop or pc like fifa or warcraft or aion or need for speed there ar none to few...the gameplay on android device is limited by your own taist ,like marty allready told @ some game's controls ar badass.
Deadspace and Nova2 hd ar the taste for eyes but a hate for controls
Eart and Ledgend and Samurai2 and Third blade free ar for rpg less graphical lust for eyes but controls ar way better
Sleepy Jack and Cordy and sonic4 and windup kight and snowpro ar good/oke but also simple gameplay
And for app's depend on what your using your phone for howe old you ar and where you live
I am a plumber/central heating and work on new and renovation buildingsite's so for my work i use extreme alarm clock to set alarm ,tiny flashlight for in the dark and calculator for..and business calander and fm radio
For fun i use plume for twitter ,friendcaster pro for facebook ,skype and chaton to talk and text with home or friends and some dutch app's.
For practical use a have 1tap cleaner ,documents to go ,advanced task killer ,Dr.web(for security) ,igo8 to not get lost here in europe ,my data manager for 3g ,total recall for sgs2 to record my call's ,tunein radio when i am home over wifi ,weather and toggle widget ,weather pro ,shopsavvy as barcode scanner while shopping ,dish pointer for when i am on grand prix sidecarcross camping and having truble with my satelite reciver to watch tv.
Greats mike
I will end this noooow! Cartoon wars! Its suuuuuuuuuper addictive!! . Please try it.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
A few I like
Windup knight
World of Goo
Backstab
Nova 2
Dungeon hunter 2
Hero of Sparta
They are all battery killer though (especially the gameloft games), so take that into consideration when you still have half a day to go before recharge.
In the last years I more and more saw that games (in general, not only for android) are more succesful if the graphics are cute.
Have you seen such a development too?
What kind of graphics do you prefer?
Cute ones?
Elegant ones?
And how important do you think are the graphics of a game?
Graphics are definitely important. It can make a game with very basic game play look awesome. I dont think it really matters if graphics are cute or not, but there is a genre of people who prefer cute things and plus, kids love it. Anyway, me personally, feel that if you aren't that great of a graphics artist and it takes you a very long time to make some of the graphics for your app...it may be best to just hire a freelancer and have them do the work. There are many graphics artists who make themselves available for work over at deviantart.com and their price isn't bad either.
The UI it's the most important ability of a developer, yes the code will make work the app, but the UI and UX guidelines will sell the app.
I personally prefer the Holo design because gives a very stock/aosp interface to any user, but it's only working with 3.0+ versions and with excellent results in 4.0+. So many of my apps are perfect for 4.0+ but with minimal support (in UI) for older SDK.
Inside the Holo library, I love the tabs, and the use of the ActionBar, also the use of swipes creates a very friendly interface.
See you!
Thank you for your replies, so if I understand you right, then you think graphics are even more important than gameplay. Very interesting opinions
I love a clean, simple look and flat look, but not metro. Metro is too flat, i can't even tell if it's a button or icon Generally i like the holo ui and pure android ui. It's classy,elegant and simply awesome
With android ui do you mean the old one or the new one (for example with 4.0) or both?
In my opinion the ui of android 4.X is awesome, but I am not a friend of the old one...
Talking about games, the first impression is always graphics. Gameplay is equally important, but it's the screenshots that people will see before downloading the game.
Though I prefer elegant graphics over cute ones, but cute ones can attract more kids.
Depends. I think that more serious games should have somewhat serious graphics, but games that are meant to be cartoony and funny should definitely feel that way.
I do feel, though, that every game has to look good within their category: cartoon is alright, but don't have majorly jagged lines .
soumya_digi said:
Talking about games, the first impression is always graphics. Gameplay is equally important, but it's the screenshots that people will see before downloading the game.
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Click to collapse
I absolutely agree, and I have some experience with exactly this. I developed a game which is very basic looking (this was by design), and I can definitely say that it turned off most people simply because of their first impression seeing the screenshots. I should mention that the game is completely free and without ads - so these were not reasons to ignore the game. Those who did give it a go seemed to like it, but good graphics is the way to get people to give it a try in the first place. Even the best game won't do well unless people actually try it
As for the actual look, I think anything works as long as it looks good and appeals to the target audience - cute zombies may NOT always work, and neither will flesh eating kittens .
Photon532 said:
In the last years I more and more saw that games (in general, not only for android) are more succesful if the graphics are cute.
Have you seen such a development too?
What kind of graphics do you prefer?
Cute ones?
Elegant ones?
And how important do you think are the graphics of a game?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also noticed more games featuring 'cute' graphics and just figured the author/publisher was going after a younger demographic. Cute can work. So can elegant. (in games or apps more generally) The important thing to me is that the game/app stay consistent with its own look and feel. Here's an example: I remember a game several years ago on iOS that was one of the first guard the tower from/with stick figure type games. The graphics were hilariously bad, so was the sound... but it was such a consistent and hilarious combination that I killed several hours playing it. It was original (at the time) and entertaining enough that its consistent lack-of-polish-style actually worked quite well.
That said, games the don't emphasize any particular style at all can work, if the gameplay is compelling enough. I'll take gameplay (or utility for non-game apps) over an ultra-polished finish any day, but I'm probably in the minority on this.
Thank you all for your replies and very interesting inputs.
To include everything, you say that cute graphics are especially for kids and the game should also be made for them.
In general the graphics should be good because of marketing, the first thing people see is of course the graphics, if they are horrible, they won't even give the game a chance.
The graphics should represent the game.
In general all who posted on this thread are more for serious graphics.
In the end gameplay is the reason why people play your game again and again.
I am very surpised about quite a lot of things here, I thank you a lot and maybe some others which were in my situation of nescience
i like games with great coloring and clean ui, and for android cartoonish graphics attract many people (like most ios games)
And if we talk about graphic, there's also one small but very important element - icon.
If you search something in market, this is first thing you see, then you read description - bad icon means probably bad software, only few will bother with further checking app represented by trashy icon.
I
combination of both
i think it should be combonation of both it should not be so cute like a little baby nor like a fully filled space elegant i think the mid will be the best:laugh::silly:
testing different graphics by segmenting your user base is a good way to know what works for whom. Use an A/B testing tool for that. (www.appiterate.com, I know, allows segmenting and also has a visual platform)
When I look at the top new apps they are almost exclusively high-res cartoony graphics that I could not make by myself in a decade. But there are still plenty of games with simple clean graphics: quite flat, blocks of colour with the odd shadow and gradient. It seems like the 'modern ui' is going this way which is advantageous to me as it is far, far easier replicate.