{"author_link":"\/users\/flaterectomy","author_name":"Flaterectomy","author_uid":"flaterectomy","comments":[],"epoch":1558264068,"event":"LD44","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":156784,"likes":11,"metadata":{"p_key":"132447","p_author":"Flaterectomy","p_authorkey":"1003398","p_urlkey":"348641","p_title":"Necromarket Graphics Post-Mortem","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD44","p_time":"1558264068","p_likes":"11","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1003398","us_name":"Flaterectomy","us_username":"flaterectomy","event_start":"1556236800","event_key":"75","event_name":"LD 44"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD44","removed_author":false},"_superparent":139254,"_trust":15,"author":3398,"body":"There... at last, the Post Mortem for [Necromarket](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket). Where to begin...\n\n![title.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea4.png)\n\n# Necromarket: A Chronology\nHailing from **The Netherlands** and **England**, Ludum Dare begins at **3:00am** and **2:00am** for us, respectively. We defy this and just sleep whatever sleep we would normally be sleeping. For this jam, this meant we didn't get together on our Discord until **11:00am**. \n\n## Day #1\nAt this point, the first day had started and we began brainstorming. Many ideas passed by, including: \n* You Are a **Pi\u00f1ata** and Have To **Survive Beatings From Children**, with your candy innards being a form of currency that you could spend on upgrades.\n* A **Papers Please** style game where you are **St. Peter at the pearly gates** and you have to **judge incoming souls**.\n* A [**Trolley Problem** game](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trolley_problem) where you have to decide **which group of people to run over** with your little tram, capturing their souls and being paid out and penalized at the end of a level. \n\nEventually, we decided on a **crafting\/trading game** where you would **imbue magical items** with your **own life force** in order to sell them to adventurers. And thus, [Necromarket](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket) was born.\n\nI am the artist of our crew, so I started on figuring out what the perspective our our game would be. The location was to be a store with some kind of magical altar where the player would craft their items. I blocked out some basic ideas to start from.\n\n![blockout.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24a58.png)\n\nWe would be putting together the game space using [Tiled](https:\/\/www.mapeditor.org\/) so my goal was to make a spritesheet with 32x32 pixel tiles to put together the background with. For inspiration and ideas, I had a look at games like [Moonlighter](https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/606150\/Moonlighter\/) and [Graveyard Keeper](https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/599140\/Graveyard_Keeper\/), as well as a memory of a previous jam game by @ellian called [Good Impressions](https:\/\/ellian.itch.io\/good-impression). I used the [AAP-64 palette by Adigun Polack](https:\/\/lospec.com\/palette-list\/aap-64), and at the end of this first day, I had **basic background tiles**, non-animated and forward-facing **player and customer sprites**, and a **bunch of items**.\n\n![tilesday1.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea6.png)\n\nThe items were an **odd problem** to tackle. I was making them as if they were **inventory icons**, but they would be used in the game world instead. This makes them a bit **more abstract** rather than having them be held naturally by the player, but since we have **large objects** like unicorns and imps, as well as **small objects** like potions and boots (compared to the size of the player's feet, the boot sprites are huge) it makes sense to keep them **more conceptual rather than accurately scaled** to the player character.\n\n![tilesday1b.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea7.png)\n\n## Day #2\nThis is where **the \"fun\" began**. It was animation time. Mistake *n\u00famero uno*: **I should really have planned this better**, figuring out how many frames I would need in total beforehand, but instead I just started instinctively. First, the downward walk was a six-frame animation that I made **without reference** and just using previous experience. It came out a little janky, so I looked up a [tutorial by Bandygrass](https:\/\/bandygrass.tumblr.com\/post\/155628151568\/8-directional-sprite-tutorial-part-2-walk) that I had **used as reference before** for the other directions . I made my eight-frame sideways walking animation **without questioning whether it was the right idea** for this project. \n\n![walk-forward_animation.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea8.gif)\n![walk-right_animation.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea9.gif)\n![walk-up_animation.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eaa.gif)\n\nMy **second mistake** was sticking to this eight-framer even when I realized it **would take a lot of time**. You see, our player can use magic to change from an **elderly grampa** to a **middle-aged man**, a **young adult** and a **child**. So this multiplied the total frame-count for the player character by four. We wanted to make them look pretty unique, instead of just replacing the head, so each age category required **a lot of modification**.\n\nObviously, the best way to do this would've been a basic four frame animation for each direction. The character moves pretty quickly across the screen, and eight frames wasn't necessary. I *did* only make four frames for the upward animation, but **I should have reduced the sideways animations** at the same time. All in all I estimate about 75% of my time on day two was spent on animating the player character, resulting in **a total of 104 animation frames**.\n\n![104.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eab.png)\n\n## Day #3\nI had to go to work on Monday. Luckily, @daanvanyperen managed to wrangle his own work schedule so he could have some extra hours on the game. When I came home, he had thrown a number of **temporary sprites** onto the spritesheet that I then **replaced with the final art**. I pretty much directly took his quick sketches as a base for the final art, which sped up the process. After two days of gamejam and a day at work, I **didn't feel super creative** anymore.\n\n![temp.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eac.png)\n\nThen came the realization: **\"Wait, the player needs to have animations where he's holding the items!\"** Arms up in the air. This means 208 animation frames for the player character. I asked myself, \"**Is it necessary to have this variation of the player character?** We could just have the items hover overhead.\" I then answered myself, \"Yes.\" I felt it was of sufficient importance to **clearly show the items are held** and carried by the player this way. I did get a little sloppy with my modifications here and there, but there was leeway there given the movement and pose would **camouflage imperfections** somewhat.\n\n![208.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ead.png)\n\nThen at some point, we had a completed entry. **Sufficiently complete, anyway.** The jam ended, and we submitted somewhere around the one-hour-left mark.\n\n# How 'bout Them Mistakes?\nLike I mentioned above, a **major pitfall** this time was the **amount of animation frames** I ended up having to do due to not planning and not adapting. This was a big time sink. Because the player character took so much time to animate, I **did not make any animations for the other characters** in the game. The hag, Sam the postman, and the single customer all just slide onto the screen. It doesn't bother me much, it kind of has a cool vibe to be honest, but it **makes things less lively**.\n\nSecondly, I **neglected a big lesson** I learned [and even blogged about](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/as-of-yet-unnamed\/the-ol-seven-entry-comparison) (see the last paragraph) from Ludum Dare 43. **I did not go all-in on the core theme**. @daanvanyperen even told me early on, when I only had a single player character sprite done, that the player character didn't look very wizardly. He literally reminded me of this big lesson I had learned, and I **sort of brushed it aside** because I subjectively liked the idea of him looking more like a craftsman. I did make the older variant look more like a necromancer with his little skull for a belt buckle, but that again was a direct result of Daan suggesting we need more skulls. **The game is called *Necro*market, after all!**\n\nAnd with that, the shop should look more like a **magical dungeon** of sorts. I think I let myself be influenced by looking at and Dungeon Keeper a little too much, and the walls just look like a **generic medieval house**. Where even are the magical bookcases?\n\n![walls.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eae.png)\n\nIf I could go back and pause time, I would... \n* **Reduce player frames** to 4 for each direction.\n* Re-theme the player character to be more of a **wizard\/necromancer**.\n* **Animate the other characters** as well (only upward and downward directions necessary).\n* Have **more customer variations**, in-theme with the story.\n* Replace the generic background tiles with a **more suitable magical workshop**.\n* Make the **enchanting altar** more of a focal point and **champion\/landmark visual asset**. \n\n# Jeez, Do You Even Like Anything You Made?\nI do! Lots! Pretty much everything turned out **sufficiently cool-looking** and I am proud of my work. **Lots of room for improvement doesn't mean that the work I *did* do was bad.** I am even happy that I managed to do the number of animation frames, even if I regret doing so many.\n\nBut, looking at the art I did I am quite pleased with the little **chicken coop animation**. Out of everything, that and the little **orb of vitality** you can use instead of your own life force for crafting items are somehow the ones I probably enjoyed animating and now enjoy looking at the most. Oh, and the **dragon heart**. Man I like that dragon heart sprite so much.\n\n![coop_animation2.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eaf.gif)\n![orb_animation.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eb0.gif)\n![heart.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eb1.png)\n\n# That's A Wrap\nI think I more or less ran out of things to say here. I will gladly answer any questions anyone might have, of course. Here in the comments, through [Twitter](https:\/\/twitter.com\/Flaterectomy) or in the [Ludum Dare discord](https:\/\/discord.gg\/9DrcQmg); I am pretty easy to locate. Also, given that this Post Mortem is all about graphics, I will also drop my **Pixelart Timelapse video** here again, seeing as it's particularly relevant. \n\nIf you read all of this, **thank you for reading**! I hope it's been of some use, or at least provided an entertaining insight. Oh, and if you feel like having a go at the game, here's [Necromarket](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket)!\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=roxihAjI8O0\n[Direct link here](https:\/\/bit.ly\/2HmRlEC)\n\n![Small Thumbs_footer_mid-ld44.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea3.png)","comments":2,"comments-timestamp":"2019-05-19T15:01:46Z","created":"2019-05-05T17:25:41Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":156784,"love":11,"love-timestamp":"2019-05-19T15:01:36Z","meta":[],"modified":"2019-05-19T15:01:46Z","name":"Necromarket Graphics Post-Mortem","node-timestamp":"2019-05-19T11:07:48Z","parent":140858,"parents":[1,5,9,139254,140858],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket\/necromarket-graphics-post-mortem","published":"2019-05-19T11:07:48Z","scope":"public","slug":"necromarket-graphics-post-mortem","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":476390},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"156784","n_urlkey":"348641","n_parent":"140858","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket\/necromarket-graphics-post-mortem","n_slug":"necromarket-graphics-post-mortem","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"3398","n_created":"1557077141","n_modified":"1558278106","n_version":"476390","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket\/necromarket-graphics-post-mortem","text":"There... at last, the Post Mortem for [Necromarket](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket). Where to begin...\n\n![title.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea4.png)\n\n# Necromarket: A Chronology\nHailing from **The Netherlands** and **England**, Ludum Dare begins at **3:00am** and **2:00am** for us, respectively. We defy this and just sleep whatever sleep we would normally be sleeping. For this jam, this meant we didn't get together on our Discord until **11:00am**. \n\n## Day #1\nAt this point, the first day had started and we began brainstorming. Many ideas passed by, including: \n* You Are a **Pi\u00f1ata** and Have To **Survive Beatings From Children**, with your candy innards being a form of currency that you could spend on upgrades.\n* A **Papers Please** style game where you are **St. Peter at the pearly gates** and you have to **judge incoming souls**.\n* A [**Trolley Problem** game](https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trolley_problem) where you have to decide **which group of people to run over** with your little tram, capturing their souls and being paid out and penalized at the end of a level. \n\nEventually, we decided on a **crafting\/trading game** where you would **imbue magical items** with your **own life force** in order to sell them to adventurers. And thus, [Necromarket](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket) was born.\n\nI am the artist of our crew, so I started on figuring out what the perspective our our game would be. The location was to be a store with some kind of magical altar where the player would craft their items. I blocked out some basic ideas to start from.\n\n![blockout.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24a58.png)\n\nWe would be putting together the game space using [Tiled](https:\/\/www.mapeditor.org\/) so my goal was to make a spritesheet with 32x32 pixel tiles to put together the background with. For inspiration and ideas, I had a look at games like [Moonlighter](https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/606150\/Moonlighter\/) and [Graveyard Keeper](https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/599140\/Graveyard_Keeper\/), as well as a memory of a previous jam game by @ellian called [Good Impressions](https:\/\/ellian.itch.io\/good-impression). I used the [AAP-64 palette by Adigun Polack](https:\/\/lospec.com\/palette-list\/aap-64), and at the end of this first day, I had **basic background tiles**, non-animated and forward-facing **player and customer sprites**, and a **bunch of items**.\n\n![tilesday1.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea6.png)\n\nThe items were an **odd problem** to tackle. I was making them as if they were **inventory icons**, but they would be used in the game world instead. This makes them a bit **more abstract** rather than having them be held naturally by the player, but since we have **large objects** like unicorns and imps, as well as **small objects** like potions and boots (compared to the size of the player's feet, the boot sprites are huge) it makes sense to keep them **more conceptual rather than accurately scaled** to the player character.\n\n![tilesday1b.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea7.png)\n\n## Day #2\nThis is where **the \"fun\" began**. It was animation time. Mistake *n\u00famero uno*: **I should really have planned this better**, figuring out how many frames I would need in total beforehand, but instead I just started instinctively. First, the downward walk was a six-frame animation that I made **without reference** and just using previous experience. It came out a little janky, so I looked up a [tutorial by Bandygrass](https:\/\/bandygrass.tumblr.com\/post\/155628151568\/8-directional-sprite-tutorial-part-2-walk) that I had **used as reference before** for the other directions . I made my eight-frame sideways walking animation **without questioning whether it was the right idea** for this project. \n\n![walk-forward_animation.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea8.gif)\n![walk-right_animation.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea9.gif)\n![walk-up_animation.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eaa.gif)\n\nMy **second mistake** was sticking to this eight-framer even when I realized it **would take a lot of time**. You see, our player can use magic to change from an **elderly grampa** to a **middle-aged man**, a **young adult** and a **child**. So this multiplied the total frame-count for the player character by four. We wanted to make them look pretty unique, instead of just replacing the head, so each age category required **a lot of modification**.\n\nObviously, the best way to do this would've been a basic four frame animation for each direction. The character moves pretty quickly across the screen, and eight frames wasn't necessary. I *did* only make four frames for the upward animation, but **I should have reduced the sideways animations** at the same time. All in all I estimate about 75% of my time on day two was spent on animating the player character, resulting in **a total of 104 animation frames**.\n\n![104.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eab.png)\n\n## Day #3\nI had to go to work on Monday. Luckily, @daanvanyperen managed to wrangle his own work schedule so he could have some extra hours on the game. When I came home, he had thrown a number of **temporary sprites** onto the spritesheet that I then **replaced with the final art**. I pretty much directly took his quick sketches as a base for the final art, which sped up the process. After two days of gamejam and a day at work, I **didn't feel super creative** anymore.\n\n![temp.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eac.png)\n\nThen came the realization: **\"Wait, the player needs to have animations where he's holding the items!\"** Arms up in the air. This means 208 animation frames for the player character. I asked myself, \"**Is it necessary to have this variation of the player character?** We could just have the items hover overhead.\" I then answered myself, \"Yes.\" I felt it was of sufficient importance to **clearly show the items are held** and carried by the player this way. I did get a little sloppy with my modifications here and there, but there was leeway there given the movement and pose would **camouflage imperfections** somewhat.\n\n![208.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ead.png)\n\nThen at some point, we had a completed entry. **Sufficiently complete, anyway.** The jam ended, and we submitted somewhere around the one-hour-left mark.\n\n# How 'bout Them Mistakes?\nLike I mentioned above, a **major pitfall** this time was the **amount of animation frames** I ended up having to do due to not planning and not adapting. This was a big time sink. Because the player character took so much time to animate, I **did not make any animations for the other characters** in the game. The hag, Sam the postman, and the single customer all just slide onto the screen. It doesn't bother me much, it kind of has a cool vibe to be honest, but it **makes things less lively**.\n\nSecondly, I **neglected a big lesson** I learned [and even blogged about](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/43\/as-of-yet-unnamed\/the-ol-seven-entry-comparison) (see the last paragraph) from Ludum Dare 43. **I did not go all-in on the core theme**. @daanvanyperen even told me early on, when I only had a single player character sprite done, that the player character didn't look very wizardly. He literally reminded me of this big lesson I had learned, and I **sort of brushed it aside** because I subjectively liked the idea of him looking more like a craftsman. I did make the older variant look more like a necromancer with his little skull for a belt buckle, but that again was a direct result of Daan suggesting we need more skulls. **The game is called *Necro*market, after all!**\n\nAnd with that, the shop should look more like a **magical dungeon** of sorts. I think I let myself be influenced by looking at and Dungeon Keeper a little too much, and the walls just look like a **generic medieval house**. Where even are the magical bookcases?\n\n![walls.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eae.png)\n\nIf I could go back and pause time, I would... \n* **Reduce player frames** to 4 for each direction.\n* Re-theme the player character to be more of a **wizard\/necromancer**.\n* **Animate the other characters** as well (only upward and downward directions necessary).\n* Have **more customer variations**, in-theme with the story.\n* Replace the generic background tiles with a **more suitable magical workshop**.\n* Make the **enchanting altar** more of a focal point and **champion\/landmark visual asset**. \n\n# Jeez, Do You Even Like Anything You Made?\nI do! Lots! Pretty much everything turned out **sufficiently cool-looking** and I am proud of my work. **Lots of room for improvement doesn't mean that the work I *did* do was bad.** I am even happy that I managed to do the number of animation frames, even if I regret doing so many.\n\nBut, looking at the art I did I am quite pleased with the little **chicken coop animation**. Out of everything, that and the little **orb of vitality** you can use instead of your own life force for crafting items are somehow the ones I probably enjoyed animating and now enjoy looking at the most. Oh, and the **dragon heart**. Man I like that dragon heart sprite so much.\n\n![coop_animation2.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eaf.gif)\n![orb_animation.gif](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eb0.gif)\n![heart.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24eb1.png)\n\n# That's A Wrap\nI think I more or less ran out of things to say here. I will gladly answer any questions anyone might have, of course. Here in the comments, through [Twitter](https:\/\/twitter.com\/Flaterectomy) or in the [Ludum Dare discord](https:\/\/discord.gg\/9DrcQmg); I am pretty easy to locate. Also, given that this Post Mortem is all about graphics, I will also drop my **Pixelart Timelapse video** here again, seeing as it's particularly relevant. \n\nIf you read all of this, **thank you for reading**! I hope it's been of some use, or at least provided an entertaining insight. Oh, and if you feel like having a go at the game, here's [Necromarket](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/44\/necromarket)!\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=roxihAjI8O0\n[Direct link here](https:\/\/bit.ly\/2HmRlEC)\n\n![Small Thumbs_footer_mid-ld44.png](\/\/\/raw\/64d\/z\/24ea3.png)","title":"Necromarket Graphics Post-Mortem","wayback_source":[]}