I had a game idea of a Wonderboy/Zelda2 styled platform adventure (in that your goal is to go and find dungeons and clear them for the McGuffins; using items you find along the way to power up), game starring a kobold protagonist.
Like with the earlier Zeldas, they’ll gain gear and items (and upgrades for them), on top of being able to gain the powers of different dragons (and their elements) which provides additional boons, which would be reflected by a change of their main palette.
I also considered having a simple job system which how you play the character (like an archer focusing on ranged weaponry).
i like the pixel art! if you wish to make something, there is no better time to try at it than now. if you are looking for an engine to use, i have a personal bias in favor of godot, but something like haxeflixel might be good to consider, too.
I was considering Godot, as I’ve heard good things about it (and its the most friendly to indies). And because it seems similar to the old GameMaker2 from the early '00s. XD
Ohhhhh I love him. This reads excellently already! Even in the different color palettes, the whole design stays readable, and the shapes are really strong. I would absolutely play a game with this little guy in it.
Even if you shifted ideas, hold onto this design. I think you struck gold right away, personally, even if he became an enemy in a different game project or an NPC. 10/10 from me~
Nah, the final design of the sprite may not be the exact same as the concept (might tweak how the shield is held to enable Z2 style passive blocking), but Im committed in making this guy the protag; not too many dragon heroes, and even fewer kobold heroes.
Plus, using dragon power as part of an upgrade system has potential.
Like imagine if the kobold hero could grow wings and gain the ability to double jump (one tiny wing), then triplejump+glide (second wing), to eventually gaining (limited) flight (wings grow bigger)?
These kobolds are so cute! The accessories with them really look good and stand out; I love that the symbol in the middle of the shield matches their colour, and the bandanna around the neck gives me strong Mystery Dungeon vibes.
Thanks, I wanted the character to have a lot of personality, but they arent wearing armor, so I had to reflect that thru the accessories, this also allows for via palette indexing to show upgrades and the like. I might add a belt variant to this
This is using SNES palette limits (15 colors + transparency), so this was quite the fun challenge
looks cool! Lovely kobolds, good color schemes. If you were actually working on a full game, might want to look into palette swapping to save on assets/recoloring the sprites!
That’s largely what color indexing does when making pixel art for game making and mods.
I’ve worked on custom sprite mods for Zelda 3 and have had to follow the mentioned limitations. Thankfully Im not limited in which 15 colors I can use, so I tend to go with the Famicube palette because it works great for 16bit consoles as well as 8bit.
