Metallica's Monster Creation Thread

Metallica · Post by **Metallica** » 04 Aug 2006, 04:18

*It would be helpful if someone gave me the specs for the monsters
and how small or large they can be for the game. Thank you.*
Feel free to give me as many ideas as you can! I will finish
it as soon as other monsters are completed! So far most of the
monsters ive made have only been created in the left walking
position. Its easy for me to come up with ideas and create single
positions, but animating them is a task thats harder for me, so
don't expect them to be done quickly besides the north, south,
east, and western positions.

More Defined LightSource:
Twigleaf:

Drop Suggestions:
1. Sap
2. Tree Branch
3. Rough Wood (refined maybe for Wood to create armor/weapons?)

Mossleaf Mob (Twigs)

Mossleaf Drop suggestions:
1. Sap
2. Tree Branch
3. Rough Wood (refined maybe for Wood to create armor/weapons?)
4. Moss Covered Pike (Two Handed Spear)
Young Twigleafs:
nothing

Specs:
This monster will spin around to attack or wack the player with both
hands or kick them. It will walk really wierd, havnt configured it
yet tho. When it dies it will fall over into pieces.
Abyss Rose

This monster will bend downword, close its eye, and expand its
headspikes to attack players. It wont be able to move and will
stay in one position. When it dies it will lay on the ground.
Skull Head

Taint

Post by **Crush** » 04 Aug 2006, 13:23

currently there is no technical size restriction for monster sprites. just keep the size relations in mind. a player character is about 60 pixels high. also monsters that are so large that they cover a floor area much larger than one tile (32x32 pixels) might cause problems with the current engine and map design because this isn't tested (i'm not talking about crashes or stability issues, just strange overlapping behavior). but don't hesitate to make something like that anyway. we have to solve those problems sooner or later when we want really big boss monsters in the game, so it would be good to have something for testing.

about the tree monster:
i don't think that the tree monster is oversized. it is fine when it is a little bit larger than the player. when you animate both the small brown and the large green one they could be boss monster and minions.

about the plant monster with the eye:
it's a quite nice idea. you have really a good level of detail, but what's maybe missing is a clearly defined light source. when you would improve the shading it would be perfect.

about the skull head:
another really nice idea: but again it misses a light direction when it has to work with the other sprites.

everything together i got to admit that you are really a good artist. you got a very advanced style and a lot of good ideas. you really got the potential to advance the mana world a lot. but when working at a game with other artists it is often necessary to change the personal style preferences to make things fit together. when everyone would pixel in his own style nothing would really fit together. a good example are the current npc graphics that are all in different styles. so they look as if they were stolen from many different games. but i don't think that you have to do much to get your graphics into a consistent style with the other monsters. just add a shading with a clear light source and maybe spend a little less work on the grade of detail in the future and they would fit in perfectly.

Post by **Modanung** » 04 Aug 2006, 15:07

Your art looks pretty good indeed. You have great potential my boy.

Only thing I can point out, which Crush already did, is you should work a bit more on shading. There's no clear consistent light source in your works. Apart from that... very good. I hope you're good at animating as well.

Metallica · Post by **Metallica** » 04 Aug 2006, 16:38

that was my fear. I wasnt sure if the light source for everything is in one direction or if they are entirley different. hmm, but im guessing they are the same as the character's sprites light source, so I'll go check that out and then change some stuff around in a bit.

Post by **Modanung** » 04 Aug 2006, 17:07

TMW Wiki on Monsterset Development:

Light source used for shading south west up (over the left shoulder of the spectator) except for one of the side moving animations (yes, we are lazy and mirror those. please don't hit us!).

You can find quite some info in the wiki.

Post by **Crush** » 04 Aug 2006, 17:10

it may be possible that he hasn't read the guidelines there yet. i just rewrote that article last night.

Metallica · Post by **Metallica** » 04 Aug 2006, 18:59

well right now im beginning and testing moving animations for twig leaf. which will become the same as Mossleaf. And the little baby twig leafs will move the same as the bigger ones. Animating is.... just... so much fun.

Post by **Kineticstorm** » 04 Aug 2006, 19:11

Those are awesome man, Keep it up!

Post by **Modanung** » 04 Aug 2006, 22:20

Ah yes, they have improved quite a bit. Keep it up.

Metallica · Post by **Metallica** » 05 Aug 2006, 00:08

hmm i might change the lighting tho. It looks too bleached in my own opinion... ill go back and check em out

Post by **Modanung** » 05 Aug 2006, 00:23

Metallica wrote:hmm i might change the lighting tho. It looks too bleached in my own opinion... ill go back and check em out

Yea, now you mention it... try to mostly increase the value for the highlights decrease saturation only when you've (almost) reached full value.

Dr Wahl · Post by **Dr Wahl** » 05 Aug 2006, 21:35

currently there is no technical size restriction for monster sprites. just keep the size relations in mind

in Silk Road Online, they have different sizes of monster. There are the standard monster, in TMW, this might be a magot. Then there is the Champion (Champion Maggot in TMW), which is slightly larger than the standard monster. And finally, there is a Giant (Giant Maggot in TMW), which is flippin HUGE!!! It is REALLY fun to run into one if these things. Then, once every 5 hours, there is a "Special Monster" spawn that is amazingly huge.

My point is that the size ratio does matter, but it is possible to use this to our advantage. Running arround killing maggots for an hour can get a little old, but throw in a little variation (in the case of SRO, Champions and Giants), and you have now made it more entertaining to level up

Comments? Questions?

Post by **Crush** » 05 Aug 2006, 23:41

yes, i got a queston. why are you making gameplay suggestions in the graphic development forum?

Dr Wahl · Post by **Dr Wahl** » 06 Aug 2006, 01:26

its not so much a gameplay suggestion as much as a graphical suggestion... I noticed that a response to Metallica says to keep sizes in relation, and i was pointing out that the big monsters can be good for gameplay, which has to do directly with GRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT, which is what this thread is about.

Metallica · Post by **Metallica** » 07 Aug 2006, 04:35

alright, wil get right on animating. and ill try to fit them more into the style. New Monster: Taint