I'm drawing ever closer to the release of my first game, Crate Escape. One thing that has bothered me to no end is the fact that I don't think the graphics in my game match up to the typical shareware game.I'm doing the graphics myself, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good.

I was just wondering if some of you could give me your opinion on whether people will buy a game with graphics of this quality.

Here's a few screenshots...

http://www.negative0.no-ip.com/eagle/images/screenshot01.png
^ 32kb PNG picture of one of the levels ^

http://www.negative0.no-ip.com/eagle/images/screenshot02.png
^ 64kb PNG Fullscreen picture of Randomly Generated Level^

http://www.negative0.no-ip.com/eagle/images/screenshot03.png
^Smaller copy of the second one since it's so big^

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps

I've seen worse. But that can be said about pretty much anything. :)

You really need to distinguish, at the very least, crates from walls. (Assuming the gray is wall and not just another kind of crates.) Walls should flow together more solidly than the discrete crates. Better to make different kinds of crates have different patterns as well. Right now when I look at your screens, practically all I see is the same three-bar box repeated everywhere in slightly different colors, and it does not look good.

Look at some RPGs or something to get inspiration for what various kinds of boxes and crates might look like. (No, I'm not saying take, just to see patterns and shadings and ideas.)

The 'item' type graphics (the exclamation points and bombs) look all right in themselves, but they don't match - they don't match each other, they don't match their surroundings, they don't match the player sprite. I'm talking size, coloring style, perspective, and placement - some of those ! discs are being overlapped by crates! That's not good.

So basically, yes, I'm saying you need to work more on your graphics. :)

Having better graphics for your game certainly wouldn't hurt, but they aren't terribly bad either. The little person that walks around is pretty well done, which leads me to believe that you could come up with better crate pictures. Personally I would prioritize on creating better crates and getting rid of as much Windows interface as possible first. The gray buttons make the game look like a school project done in one week in Visual Basic to me. Seeing those buttons take some magic out of the game, and while I can't speak for the average consumer, I do think your game would look more inviting with some custom drawn buttons. At the very least it would add some more color to the game, which in turn could make the game look more fun.

The only two things that really, really bother me are the way you are displaying the time at the bottom and the buttons. I would do custom graphics and place them where you currently have the time so they don't appear over the map. As for the time, I would just make it smaller and nicer looking. (not sure exactly how to do that but download a few demos that people display time in and look how they do it....maybe like Pax Solaris)

The graphics IMHO aren't that terrible. well..it's better than what I could do....like others have said though, you could differentiate the walls/crates more. they kinda look the same which isn't good.

I've been meaning to overhaul the buttons, but I think I'll stick with the pop-up/drop-down menu. It looks better in action.

I've never really noticed that about the crates and walls before, I'll definately want to work on them.

The bomb, ! pads, and this version of the person (I've had 3 :D) were recent additions, and I guess they don't match very well. The player was actually hand-drawn (is that how you say that?) and lost alot of quality when I shrank it down. I think I'll swap something in for the ! pads. 3D models just don't fit in.

I'm not sure what the difference is supposed to be between the different coloured blocks - they all look too similar. Is everything a crate?

I just spent half an hour quickly putting this together using some old graphics I created a while ago, just to illustrate how different it could very easily look. Even this isn't brilliant, but hopefully it will give you some ideas.

http://zoggles.dyndns.org/junk/crates.png

-Z-

If you've got a nearly finished game to show, you might be able to recruit a pixel artist from http://pixelation.swoo.net ... there are quite a few excellent and productive artists there.

Originally posted by Eagle EXE
I was just wondering if some of you could give me your opinion on whether people will buy a game with graphics of this quality.

I think you'd have a better chance if you hired a talented artist to do the graphics.

Well at the end of the day a game will sell if it's fun and not so much because the visuals are nice. Conversely a game with excellent visuals but which isn't fun stands little chance in a try before you buy environment.

I think a better question in your case is not so much, will people buy a game with this quality of graphics, but rather, will people *TRY* a game with this quality of graphics? Basically what I'm saying is that the screenshots will probably turn off many potential downloaders who would have otherwise tried the game, so sales could be low because you're unable to generate enough tries. People sort of equate the quality of the images with the quality of the product, even though that isn't always true in the end.

I agree with those who suggested you'd have a much better chance by hiring an artist.

Originally posted by svero
I think a better question in your case is not so much, will people buy a game with this quality of graphics, but rather, will people *TRY* a game with this quality of graphics? Basically what I'm saying is that the screenshots will probably turn off many potential downloaders who would have otherwise tried the game, so sales could be low because you're unable to generate enough tries. People sort of equate the quality of the images with the quality of the product, even though that isn't always true in the end.

I agree with those who suggested you'd have a much better chance by hiring an artist.

You hit the nail on the head there Steve. That was very well put. I also agree that people would be more likely to "try" the game if the graphics were nicer.

I think another way of looking at it is that your graphics are part of your advertising. You want your advertising to be as good as possible. It may not make a difference to the gameplay if the art is better, but it may attract more people to actually download the demo.

Thanks for the imput, everybody.

I've decided to scuff up the crates a bit. I'll replace the windows buttons and the ! pads. I'd love to hire an artist, but they would have to work for peanuts. I'll definately want one for future projects. I really like the pic zoggles made.

The different colored crates behave exactly alike, except if you step on the ! pad of the same color, it clears them out of the room.

-Edited-

Here's a new screenshot after a few changes, if anybody wants to look at it.
http://www.negative0.no-ip.com/eagle/images/screenshot04.png
^208.5kb PNG image^

hmm... well the screenshot is not as bad as the other one. But your crates could use some work. They look like three buttons lined up. Also, some of them looked like they were stained or something. <a href="http://www.pixeltutorial.cjb.net/">Here</a> is an art tutorial if you want to do the gfx yourself. Also, <a href="http://www.pixelation.swoo.net/">pixelation</a> is a good place to get your work critiqued (RatZiggurat already posted a link). Although the forums seem to be down right now (pixelation forums).

Eagle EXE, I think main problem here is colors. They seem very greyish and remind Windows color palette too much.

Actually, how much art assets do you need? If amount is not too overwhelming, maybe I could help you (for peanuts:) - I happen to be 2D artist myself and for last 6 months I have been doing low-res stuff. You can take a quick look at my works at www.nauris.8m.com (although, no low-res samples are there).

Feel free to drop me an email ( most@parks.lv ). If you decide to do so, I`d like to ask for distinctive subject though. I receive unreasonably much spam mail lately.

And, oh yes, this is my first post here and it would be the right to say "hallo world" to all of you here (and apologise for my English which isnt my native tongue)

Best regards,
Nauris

Even perfect graphix can't help the game with terrible gameplay. Perfect game wth terrible graphix can still be sold and even can become a hit.

Still consider hiring an artist, or ask among your friends who want to help you with it. It is a chance that some players will not even download your game after checking the screenshots the way they are now. :)