[32bpp/EZ]BRIX!!!

[V453000 :)]

Heyooo,

it has been a long while since I actually released something, and there is one candidate coming to life lately.

BRIX is a project aiming to replace all game sprites, much like my earlier project RAWR. But this time I am trying to make the ground look super simple, where the niceness/randomness is provided by rough/rocky tiles (work in progress there), and mainly - trees. By making trees a lot smaller than in any other base set so far, it makes them much less disturbing so players might not tend to use X as much.

Other than that, the idea is to make everything mostly monochrome, with some saturated bits.

What do you say?

[3iff]

It's a bit pale, except for the lumberjacks...

It does look gorgeous though.

[Zuu]

I think it looks very nice. I like the touch of a slightly dark background and lighten up details like the tunnel lights.

[V453000 :)]

Game-critical parts like vehicles, industries and buildings will be colourful That is the concept, to make the game nice, but easy to orientate in.

A lot of color corrections needs to be done at this stage, but yeah just showing what is coming soon (tm)

[lukasz1985]

I dont like it. It makes me feel like the land was covered with some kind of vulcanic powder. Pretty much looks like everything is dead.

[Transportman]

I think the ground looks a bit too simple, but maybe that is just because it is some early work?

[Brumi]

Are you making this as a base graphics set?
The concept reminds me of the comic pak set in simutrans.

[V453000 :)]

I dont like it. It makes me feel like the land was covered with some kind of vulcanic powder. Pretty much looks like everything is dead.

It is obvious not everybody can like it the idea kind of that. Making things rather uninteresting on their own, and making stations/buildings/industries/vehicles colourful, so it is a joy to make the land "alive" by building there - by playing the game. (: Thank you for taking the time to express what you think even if it is not directly positive, it makes me think about it more and I appreciate that. Thanks!

I think the ground looks a bit too simple, but maybe that is just because it is some early work?

It does, on purpose. I might add at least some form of deformation eventually, not sure about that yet. I kind of like it being simple but anything can happen.

Are you making this as a base graphics set?
The concept reminds me of the comic pak set in simutrans.

Maybe eventually it could be turned into a base set, I will not do anything else than use replace and replacenew blocks, so it will be possible at any point. For now it will just be a NewGRF for as long as necessary


Thank you all for your feedback, I greatly appreciate it!

[Transportman]

I think the ground looks a bit too simple, but maybe that is just because it is some early work?

It does, on purpose. I might add at least some form of deformation eventually, not sure about that yet. I kind of like it being simple but anything can happen.

I do like it, but I also think a little bit of roughness makes it a bit clearer, I have some trouble seeing the heights and hills nicely, even when the screenshot is zoomed in. So maybe you can make some changes there.

[V453000 :)]

That I absolutely agree with, the hills are very unclear atm

[Eddi]

so. how do you plan to distinguish snow/desert/grass?

[bokkie]

BRIX made me expect Lego! Curious to see how this works out.

[oftcrash]

Ooh, its like the basis for an original Tron landscape!

[Phreeze]

he could develop mars gfx too

[Eddi]

that sounds like a terrible idea.

[V453000 :)]

It is a great idea, especially if you consider that "he" could be substituted with anybody else including ie Phreeze

[Phreeze]

except that i have NO drawing skills (or even a program to do such 3d gfx) And I'm not into building coding, I first must master train programming

[Eddi]

It is a great idea

well i didn't REALLY think that you would agree with me

[TossIB]

Very interesting look. Reminds me of an older thread, Concept Theme "Metro" - for the hardcore transport managers by Alltaken in 2012. Sadly, nothing came out of it. I pushed an idea there, I'd like to recycle now.

I like your graphics, because they have a distinct and consistent look and feel: Cute, silly and dare I say sluggish. This set, for now, seems to aim for abstraction and detachment.

Here is how I envision it to be:

• abstract world
• retro symbolism
• infographic style
• color for emphasis

Everything in the game world should look like a styrofoam or paper model, a symbolic, reduced representation of the real thing, but still enough detail to look cute. Trees are sticks with spheres and cones. Factories have a saw-tooth roof and a chimney. A farm has a windmill and a barn. Basically what you would expect a childrens book illustrator to come up with (minus the color). Color is used for game specific information (and some for ambience). Transportable goods should be color coded and visible on the buildings. A house providing/accepting mail may have a colorful mailbox, for every passenger a colorful door or window. These colors also appear on the station platforms and on the corresponding carriages. The lower part of the carriages along with the engine are boldly (but not in whole) company-colored. Fast engines should look fast (arrows), strong engines should look strong (bulky). The railtrack is highly simplified, maybe just one flat bold company-colored line, definately no gravel or sleepers. Signals don't need poles, they are lights on the ground. No fences and probably also no overhead electrical wire since they are much to delicate. Electric rail may be drawn differently on the ground, e.g. old regular rail is two thin parallel lines with a dashed line in between and electrical rail is one flat line of the same width, or has a different dash distance. Last part of the story, the ground. Sloped ground should be replaced by nearly vertical elevation steps. So it looks like a styrofoam model made from stacked boards. Also it looks like contour lines. And it is a good excuse for the very steap slopes and flat tunnel entrances.

I hope I could give you some inspiration. I'm excited to see what you will make.

[V453000 :)]

I would like to let you humans know that I am continuing work on this project now.

To better see what is necessary to be done to have a nicely working set of graphics, I even made a trello board for myself.

If you would like to monitor my progress, you are welcome to do so. No pictures though; I might post a picture update here once in a while.

https://trello.com/b/weoRI73h/openttd-brix

Let's hope this time I can bring this project to a first release of 0.0.1 which I would like to include:

* fully working terrain sprites, including rough/rocks/water/shores/snow/desert/city tiles
* all farm stage terrain sprites
* final-state roads in 3 types - normal, city, snow
* final-state of rail/monorail/maglev tracks
* rail/monorail/maglev/road bridges and tunnels
* trees for temperate/arctic/tropic climate

Maybe also (probably left for 0.0.2):

* terrain foundations
* beacon/radio transmitter
* rail/monorail/maglev/road depots and stations
* train signals and catenary