individualised images for upgrades

[3plus4i]

Since the total number of Upgrades enormously increased with v1.0.0, both the area for purchased and the one for available Upgrades can get pretty vast. Therefore I'd like to suggest to give them individual images to make them distinguishable and easier to find. Currently it can get a little bit annoying if you look for a specific Upgrade.

Example for the Muffin-Upgrade: I know, it looks rather terrible but i don't have much of a better idea yet. Maybe more like this: Looks better, even though I would have preferred to keep the green arrow. What do you think?

[ErikMcClure]

One approach I had considered for upgrades was one that was similar to Cookie Clicker, where each category of upgrades has an image and then the image color changes based on how powerful it is. This was intended to be implemented as a sprite sheet in upgrades.png but it never happened because I'm not an artist. If someone wants to try to implement this, go ahead.

I should note that originally I also wanted individual images for achievements, too.

[kisatoto]

Is the muffin upgrade the only one you have at the moment? I'd love to collaborate with you and make some more ideas.

[3plus4i]

Since I never played Cookie Clicker I don't know how it looks there. Just tried it out but I couldn't see a change in color (maybe didn't play long enough). Different colors for different levels would be a possible solution but only work well with simple or monochromatic motifs, I think.

I'm not an artist either but I could provide images of the quality I've shown above. If someone else can do better, please say so!

@tonny890h: Actually I already created a Gimp file including most of the images and different text samples. All I did was resizing the images used for the buildings in the game. I don't really have ideas though for booping, global SPS and the mirror pond. If you have any (alternative) ideas, just tell us! Those two images originally were only planed as an example.

[ErikMcClure]

Cookie clicker upgrades

[Abion47]

Any progress on this? I'd like to get in on some of the action.

[ErikMcClure]

I am in the process of resigning from my job so I haven't gotten a chance to work on this.

[Abion47]

Here's a concept for a boop upgrade tile that I threw together before having to leave for work. As it is, I think it needs some reframing, smoothing, and detailing for pass number 2.

[ErikMcClure]

There is too much information in that image. These are very small upgrades and there's going to be a lot of them very close together, so we should favor simplistic iconography. For example, a booping upgrade could be a cursor with a heart. More powerful versions could then be silver, gold, blue, etc.

[Abion47]

Fair enough. Here's attempt 2-3.

[ErikMcClure]

Maybe shrink the heart and put it behind the top of the finger? That makes it more obvious that it's a "boop". Also, don't blur the edges, you want crisp edges for fast recognition.

[Abion47]

Ta-daa?

[ErikMcClure]

I liked your previous cursor better, but other than that it looks good

[Abion47]

It is my understanding that there are 6 boop related upgrades.

[Abion47]

What should the friendship upgrades look like? My initial idea would be something like a handshake, but this being a pony game would make that like a hoof bump... but that's what the art of the building itself is.

[155e55]

I have an idea for rave upgrades. You could use different color glowsicks. And maybe for muffins you could use muffins with different color dots coresponding to what the upgrade says is in them.

[Abion47]

Here's a concept for party and recital upgrades. (Not terribly happy with the party one, but I'm in a bit of a rush. Consider it a "basic idea".)

[155e55]

Ok, I've manned up and gotten over the fact that i can't draw. Here is an idea on what the rave upgrades could look like. I was contemplating on weather I should make the last 2 bronze and silver or just different colors, but I settled with bronze and silver.

[ErikMcClure]

I like the rave sticks but I think the recital should be Vinyl's cutie mark because it's easily recognizable.

A party hat would be nice, but I'd prefer something that was actually vectorized and smoothed.

[Abion47]

I thought that Vinyl's cutie mark would be more appropriate for the concert.

I like the rave sticks as well, though a personal suggestion would be to maybe have more than one in the picture.

Yeah, the party hat was a rush job. The next draft will look better.

[155e55]

I have taken Abion47's suggestion and made multiple glowsticks. I even made different styles because I couldn't decide on what to do.

as a side note, I think octavias' cutie mark would be better for the recital.

[Abion47]

Here's a finalized look for the boops.

[155e55]

I love your design on the booping upgrades. Think you can make mine look better? I could never do it because I'm a lousy drawer.

[Abion47]

Sure. (Extra text because I feel bad about making one word responses.)

[ErikMcClure]

Maybe make octavia's cutie mark for the recital and vinyl's cutie mark for the concert?

Also, I think it'd be better to have one more detailed rave stick instead of multiple rave sticks.

[155e55]

Well actually, I was thinking that you could actually use both. The pattern i'm thinking of goes; one green, 2 green, 1 blue, 2 blue and so on. Orteil does the same sorta thing with the early curser upgrades.

[ErikMcClure]

That might work but it seems unnecessary unless we have a gazillion upgrades. We should have plenty of colors to choose from.

[155e55]

I don't know, you could probably put atleast 12. 2 for each color made by Abion47.

[Abion47]

Alright, next batch of concepts: party pass 2, recital pass 2, and my go at the glowsticks.

[155e55]

nice glowsticks. An idea I would like to suggest is making a faint glow coming off of them sience they are... you know... glowsticks.

[Abion47]

That's part of the plan for the finalization process. Just want to get the basic design approved before I spend time on making it shiny.

[155e55]

ah, makes sence

[kisatoto]

Here's my shot at it.

[155e55]

woah there. Blackhole12 said NOT to make it to detaild

[Abion47]

woah there. Blackhole12 said NOT to make it to detaild

What he means by that is that the reason our art so far is so small is because that is the size they will actually be when implemented - 50 pixels by 50 pixels. Using such a large image is detrimental to a web game for two reasons. First, when the image is rendered, it would be downsized so harshly that how it would end up looking is unpredictable and probably wont look very good. Second is because such a large image would take up quite a lot of bandwidth, which would lead to both longer loading times for players and increased bandwidth overall for the server (which effects server cost).

Your glowsticks look good as they are: clean, simple, and precise. However, vector art by itself isn't very effective when making tiny resolution pixel art because the way the lines are rendered are usually not the clearest way to actually depict what you are trying to make. Also, rasterized vectors tend to use aliasing techniques to make the lines look clearer, which is fine for large resolutions, but in small resolutions actually tend to make them look blurred and muddy.

[ErikMcClure]

This is known as the raster tragedy. However, you can still use vector graphics for small images if you make those vectors at a 50x50 scale and properly snap each line to the pixel that you want it in. This allows you to make sharp images while still having smooth, antialiased curves.

[Abion47]

Today's poison: concert, festival, and rave 2.0.

Also two options for the parade.

[155e55]

awsome. What program do you use?

[Abion47]

Photoshop.

[ErikMcClure]

FYI I'm trying to get a few more updates in fixing lingering bugs from v1.0 and then i'll implement a spritesheet for upgrades.

[3plus4i]

I see we already have some quite nice suggestions. I'd still like to show you another idea the Cookie Clicker upgrades gave me. It's just a rough concept, the result of messing around a bit with Gimp and sundry filters: The basic idea is to use simple, monochromatic line art with one motive for a specific type of upgrade and different colors for each level, as I have mentioned before. I didn't find a way to make it clearer, brighter and add more of a glow effect. That's beyond my capabilities, I fear.