Topic: New 100% fresh artwork for Castlevania: The Rise of Nosferatu.. Need programmer!

[Belmontoya]

I have been creating all new art for a game that is to act as an unofficial prelude to the Castlevania series. You play as the character Enthu Belmondo who lives under the oppressive rule of Vlad the Impaler. Enthu decides to assassinate Vlad to avenge the wrongful murder and impalement of his father. What Enthu does not realize is that Vlad has been favored by the devil, and that destroying his mortal body will only make him stronger.

These few examples of my artwork for the game are just the tip of the ice berg. All of the characters have anywhere from 20 frames of animation to 100 frames. I am hoping for this game to play like a mix of super CV4 and Dracula X Rondo of Blood.
Enthu has all of the standard animation frames as well as multiple directional whipping, crouch walking, rope climbing, stair ascending, horseback riding, and floor slide attacks.

I want the game to play linear like the old school Castlevania's but allow the player to re-visit past levels to unlock secrets and alternate routes.

I know that this art style is different direction for a 2-d Castlevania game, but I think that is what one of the aspects of it that can make it refreshing and unique. I am looking for a programmer or partner to help make this game a reality. I have already created 80% of the artwork needed to complete the game, and about 50% of the sound effects and music, so once I get an enthused programmer on board we can get right to work!

Please contact me if you are interested in bringing a fan made Castlevania game with a fresh look to the community!

[Belmontoya]

Here are some more examples!

[Belmontoya]

Also, I welcome any pixel artists or basically any artists of any kind who would like to contribute to this project. More level art and tiles are needed. Texture effects on existing art would help too.

I should also mention that this game features a female protagonist as well; Enthu's sister Elcin. She stands next to him in the "various characters" pic.

[C Belmont]

I don't want to discourage you or anything, I think it's great that you are making your own art however it looks to me as though it could use a little work. Currently your sprites are very flat and a bit bright for a horror themed game. I'd like to have a go at editing some of them if you could provide a few screens in a lossless file format, but only for the sake of seeing if I can improve them a little and give you some suggestions.

[Belmontoya]

Hey C Belmont! No worries, I'm aware that the art still looks a little flat, that's actually been something I have been trying to address. The brightness is another thing I have been aware of. I already pulled that back a lot with the level tiles, but I agree that it still needs more. I realize trying to create a whole new sprite base for a Castlevania game from the ground up is going to take a lot of trail and error, as well as a healthy amount of input from the CV community, which is why I am reaching out on here. But I also think that it is long over due.

I have been a CV fan my whole life and own every title. I decided to start this project because I started to get sick of all of the Iga games re-using the same art and scaling. Not to mention almost every fan game I have seen uses edited konami sprites or at least mostly edited Konami work.

I understand it's going to take a lot to get it right, and I am happy to except any input or help I can get along the way. My e-mail is jeffreymontoyagraphics@gmail.com. Send me a message from your e-mail and let me know what you would like to see and I will send you the lossless files.

[X]

I should also mention that this game features a female protagonist as well; Enthu's sister Elcin. She stands next to him in the "various characters" pic.

Sweet! But...she's not armed with the whip... There is no God 

On the plus side you're bringing out large characters that when finished, will have a lot of detail. And I especially like the way you did Vlad. True to his real life counterpart, unlike IGA's concept...

[Belmontoya]

I intended Elcin to fight with her crossbow. The idea was to offer some variation in the game play when using Elcin. Something more along the line of Contra. I love how in Hard Core Uprising there was a female character that used a sword. It felt like playing as Alucard in a Contra game. I thought it would be cool to counter that.

But not to worry, I have also constructed whip sprites for her. I am considering having different sub weapons available for her, which would include the cross bow. At this point, I am trying to make sprites for many different options!

[Vampire Killer]

My mom taught me that if you can't say anything nice, to not say anything at all.



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[C Belmont]

Hey MontoyaGraphics I've sent you an email like you asked
on the subject of size I would actually advise you to aim for a smaller resolution, HD sprites are a lot more difficult to make look good than smaller resolution ones even the phenomenal artists working on KOFXIII took (I think) 18 months to create the HD sprites for one character & used 3D models to assist them in maintaining volume and form. You at least wouldn't want your character to be much larger than your average street fighter alpha sprite in my opinion.

[Belmontoya]

This is a serious message board for constructive comments, Vampire Killer. Your sarcasm is not needed, thank you.

C Belmont, I got your e-mail, just been busy all day writing a paper for school. I'll have sprites mailed to you within the next hour!

[Belmontoya]

I have taken in to consideration a lot of the comments made and have started to revise certain parts of the artwork to make it look more true to Castlevania. Here's what I have so far.. Any comments in comparison to what was posted above? Next I'm thinking of scaling down some of the characters.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Large character?  It can be done if you use some kind of marionette engine, like the Odin Sphere and Muramasa titles.
Those are quite beautiful.

Here are some things I noticed:
1. as someone else pointed out, the palette of the game in some of the shots is quite bright.  For a horror-theme game you want to go with stuff similar to that last picture you uploaded.

2. large also means with heavy detail.  Someone mentioned KOFXIII and I agree.  Large sprites will take a lot of work and are under more scrutiny than the smaller sprites used for games, that we're generally accustomed to (the stuff of the PSX and DS Castlevania titles).

3. your artwork has an interesting direction but needs a lot of polish.  Characters look stiff even in the still shots and the main character looks quite slender.  Perhaps you should thicken up your character a tad or make him less tall.  What's the resolution in terms of height vs. width of the character?  The small sprites of the CV titles usually have a 45-48pixel height for a character, and a width of about 24 (though there's some play room in there for slender characters, etc.).  I'm interested in the resolution you're using.  It'd certainly be nice to see some larger detailed sprites...

As a side note, it looks more like concept art than in-game art.  The mockups look huge, haha.  I totally dig the crossbow chick's pose in the concept art, as well as both Vlad and Nosferatu-Vlad.

[Belmontoya]

Thanks for the tips Jorge. I actually started scaling all of my characters down 70% after I posted that last image last night. I also put them through a pixelation filter to give them a more retro Castlevaniash look and the results thus far have been fantastic. I'll be posting more results up here very soon.

The first level or two of the game is meant to be a little brighter because it takes place before Vlad is a vampire and unleashes the undead. After Vlad is confronted at the end of the first or second level, then the game takes a much darker turn.

Even still, have also started the process of darkening everything!

[Corpsecrank]

This is a serious message board for constructive comments, Vampire Killer. Your sarcasm is not needed, thank you.

C Belmont, I got your e-mail, just been busy all day writing a paper for school. I'll have sprites mailed to you within the next hour!

Castlevania is srs bznz!

[Belmontoya]

Right you are Corpsecrank. I have completely re-vamped all of this art and will be posting new shots soon. The game has taken a much more true to Castlevania look, but all of the sprites remain original work; I will not advocate sprite plagiarism in this game as so many other fan Castlevania projects have done in the past. 

I have also completed a lot of the music, and done a new composition of Bloody Tears. Can't wait to showcase the new look!

Meanwhile, I am still looking for a programmer or a partner to help me with this project! Please contact me if you are interested!