Facesets or not?

[Kristina]

I'm debating with myself whether I should find a pixel artist and have facesets made for three characters in 'Aryen - a tale of a hero' or not.

For anyone who chose not to have facesets in their games, what made you pick that choice?

 

[estriole]

seeing your game 'retro' style... i think faceset is not mandatory...
just make sure the player know who's talking...

facesets usually used to let the player easier to know who's currently speaking.
and if you do want to use faceset... you must make it retro style...
maybe something like NES era style
something like this maybe

hope this help.

 

[Kristina]

Thanks! I will use names and if no name is mentioned then I will use something else like citizen or fisherman.

I can't see the picture, unfortunately. However, if I will use facesets then it will be in retro style.

 

[Dutchmountain]

@Kristina : What you could try is to use the faces (and part of body perhaps) of the SV battler sprites. They already have a 'pixel look' and if you resize them a bit even more. Maybe it will match up with your game style in a way... (example picture from my own try).

 

[Kristina]

@Dutchmountain I got no SV battler sprites, but it was a really good idea!

 

[Andar]

Take one step back, especially since this is a general discussion and not entirely project-specific.

Faces are there to help the player identify with the actors, and see them for themselves.
And it depends on the type of game to decide if such an identification is needed or not.

You need to identify actors if each actor has its own story and sidequest etc. If the actors are not as important as the entire party, then you can simply skip faces for them.

another option would be if the face was simply a background where actor info (like states) is displayed - if you menu uses listings of values (as many old games did), then there is no need to fill some space with a face.

if on the other hand the game story invovles lots of discussions between actors, then it would help a lot to have faces during the discussions, simply to prevent walls of text.

 

[Kristina]

Thanks, your answer really makes me think.

While names surely helps identify the actors, faces does help a lot...especially if the game involves a lot of dialogue.

 

[TheoAllen]

what made you pick that choice?

I use faces, complete with facial expressions. But hypothetically if I don't. It probably because of these scenarios
- I can't draw to save my life (either lack of skill, no time, or no money for asking commission)
- It's a non-important NPC
- I want to evoke a certain storytelling emotion (disclaimer: I'm not a great storyteller).

The third point is interesting. Because an absence of something might trigger your imagination. A comic with no text becomes a silent comic. Novels are different than manga due to the absence of visuals. A silent protagonist style of storytelling also has a unique feeling.

The more "helper" element that you put to tell your story, the more "guided" it becomes. For example, voiced lines help the reader know what kind of emotion the creator wants to tell. If executed well, it executed well. But if not, it will fail spectacularly. While having an absence of voice, the reader has to rely on their imagination on what kind of voice they would produce.

Now, change the "voice" to "faces", that basically the same.

 

[Kristina]

I really like your thoughts on this, thank you. Never thought of it that way but it totally make sense.

 

[Dopan]

well i think face imgs help to give more personality to a charackter..

because you had no battler ect..
i used schlangans generator to make these 2 examples for free.
(for the 2 main chars ,i had no other refferences)
-> for the male i made different colored chars to get a better hair color that matches..
(but i forgot to add eyebrows on the male default Face_IMGs)

Link to zip File with all used assets, incase they are needed..

Gofile

Gofile is a free and anonymous file-sharing platform. You can store and share data of all types (files, images, music, videos etc...). There is no limit, you download at the maximum speed of your connection and everything is free.

gofile.io

(battler/walk/face sprites ect)


All this is NOT handmade pixel sprite art, only Generator_usage and resizing.. so i guess you can do that for all your chars/npcs if you want..
(in a few cases i edited it a bit, to put a smile on the male battler face, and to change the female battler hair a bit..)

i preffer the Battler faces like @Dutchmountain mentioned ..

 

[Kristina]

I agree, it helps giving more personality.

I don't mind paying for it, I just need to find an artist that can make it for me. I won't use faces for NPCs, only three characters where two are playable and the third is not but still quite important and in the game a lot.

The graphics in the generator just don't match my game, so I will have to find a pixel artist.

Yours look really great!

 

[Dopan]

I agree, it helps giving more personality.

I don't mind paying for it, I just need to find an artist that can make it for me. I won't use faces for NPCs, only three characters where two are playable and the third is not but still quite important and in the game a lot.

The graphics in the generator just don't match my game, so I will have to find a pixel artist.

Yours look really great!

what kind of face style are you looking for? do you have any refferences?

 

[Kristina]

No, not at the moment. I’m looking but haven’t fond any.

But a retro kind of style.

 

[Elissiaro]

If the main reason for the faces is to make the character speaking more recognizable, you can always just have the sprite as the face.
Either the whole sprite, or the head/torso zoomed in. You can rezise by 200% or 400% without blurring or distorting. (Just turn off interpolation, or whatever it's called in non-GIMP programs)

 

[Kristina]

@Elissiaro I did think of that, but I think I'm gonna find a pixel artist to make facesets.