In Progress Night Stalkers by danno

The project is currently under development.
EUUlu8i.gif


I really struggled with this one, I have different plans for dracula in Night Stalkers so I wanted to give him a more classic look, many frames of animations were missing (him laughing for instance) and his palette was messed up, I decided to rip all his sprites again from the arcade version but even that palette was messed up too.

I had to piece him together from two crappy palettes and even when I re-painted the sprites some of my tones were slightly darker in some sprites than others because I was using two crappy palettes originally to start with, as you can see the last frame of the laugh has a slightly darker tone, it's really hard to detect this with your eye unless you start to animate the sprites.

at first my indexed palette looked like this so I had double the amount of colours in some areas without realising

ZM8wyTr.png


but then I was able to redo everything and get all the sprites indexed down to a much more simpler palette

ZNyphyE.png


It's such a pain when even the original arcade sprites are messed up but I got there in the end.
 
danno said:
It's such a pain when even the original arcade sprites are messed up but I got there in the end.
Click to expand...

Isn't it funny how we expect the pros to do everything right. Yet more often than not, you find odd artifacts, color errors, and other little issues. That's before you factor in just plain lazy or cheap stuff.

Turns out, it's still humans on the other end. :)

DC
 
@danno
Is the flickering seen on the boots and cloak from the waist down intentional on Dracula?
Loving the darker tone, with the fangs added he now look like a vampire!
The arcade version had him looking like a zombie to me with that skin tone!
How different will this be to the original?
 
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Grit said:
Is the flickering seen on the boots and cloak from the waist down intentional on Dracula?
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Nope I made a mistake because I was using two palettes instead of one, imagine an artist palette used for oil painting, imagine a duplicate of that palette but the colours of the duplicate were slightly darker, I used both palettes and messed up the final result :cautious: It's fixed now though.

Grit said:
The arcade version had him looking like a zombie to me with that skin tone!
How different with this be to the original?
Click to expand...

He's going to be a bit more of a protagonist in Night Stalkers, I don't want to spoil too much but Dracula will have a more active role against the hero's, I have a thing for cohesion, for example

3R7L45p.png


In the Arcade version Jake says his line and then they ram the hospital with the van. well actually I assume it's Jake saying the line, it could be Hong Hua or Chris but that's kinda my point.
 
I agree with @Grit, the darker tone works well. So why not go all the way? I mean:

If you're going to make Dracula one of the main antagonist, why not color him like Count Dracula from Castlevania Symphony of the Night?
This sprite sheet is a good base. I thought about this since in Night Slashers they were already 2 Bosses reminiscent of Castlevania: Dracula and Death.

Edit: about your coloring of Dracula, I must confess your work on the Cape is magnificent.
 
danno said:
I thought I already did 😭 I mean I didn't want it to be exactly the same but it resembles the count at least.
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Well it worked since I just made the link with Dracula! :p I just forgot to add:

why not color him like totally like Count Dracula. I was thinking about the Cardigan (brown) and the Trousers (light blue):
these bright colors don't go well with the beautiful black cape. That's why I mentioned my preference for a darker tone.
 
danno said:
In the Arcade version Jake says his line and then they ram the hospital with the van. well actually I assume it's Jake saying the line, it could be Hong Hua or Chris but that's kinda my point.
Click to expand...
Looking at that image and the way the fonts are layout
It's like it could be used to offer the player a choice with consequences!
Like with regards to the hospital.
1.Enter and fight the zombies.
2.Wait!
3.Leave.
Then the player portrait is used to move between the choices.
danno said:
Dracula will have a more active role against the hero's, I have a thing for cohesion
Click to expand...
I agree with you on that.
Everything must be coherent and have a reason for being in the story.
 
Whackadoo said:
why not color him like totally like Count Dracula. I was thinking about the Cardigan (brown) and the Trousers (light blue):
these bright colors don't go well with the beaufitful black cape. That's why I mentioned my prefrence for a darker tone.
Click to expand...

I understand, the reason I'm using colour the way I do is because I'm trying to give the illusion of depth using gradient, so the sprites pop more, if you look at my dracula and stare at it abit you can see he looks a bit more solid. If I was to go too dark with colours it would lose that illusion. colour theory is really beautiful when applied properly.

Some of the zombies I've made look flat and dusty looking like they've compressed in their coffins and been there a long time. In the old days to create a sense of depth in sprites black was used and white was used as contrast because they had limited palettes, we don't have that problem with this engine so you can really go to town if you want when it comes to colours.
 
Using colors to give a sense of depth? Wow, this is fascinating stuff!
You know, I can't wait to see your final version of Dracula in action.
Because in the original Night Slashers, he was already an impressive boss.
 
Frankenstein was the first palette I started working on, I came back to it today and was thinking to separate parts of his body almost as if it's made up of different body parts, He's quite a boring looking character and wanted to change him up a bit.

any suggestions?

aYVPGy8.png
 
Yeah! Adding stitches is a brilliant idea.
The Boris Karloff movie added elements that were not in the book (bolts, stitches green skin,...)
Why not ripping his "trousers" to make him stand out? In the book he fled and wore rags if I recollect.

What about giving him a "jacket" to make him thicker? In the Marvel Frankenstein comics he had one.
Edit: how funny, he fought Dracula in Issue 9 ^^:
 

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danno said:
EUUlu8i.gif


I really struggled with this one, I have different plans for dracula in Night Stalkers so I wanted to give him a more classic look, many frames of animations were missing (him laughing for instance) and his palette was messed up, I decided to rip all his sprites again from the arcade version but even that palette was messed up too.

I had to piece him together from two crappy palettes and even when I re-painted the sprites some of my tones were slightly darker in some sprites than others because I was using two crappy palettes originally to start with, as you can see the last frame of the laugh has a slightly darker tone, it's really hard to detect this with your eye unless you start to animate the sprites.

at first my indexed palette looked like this so I had double the amount of colours in some areas without realising

ZM8wyTr.png


but then I was able to redo everything and get all the sprites indexed down to a much more simpler palette

ZNyphyE.png


It's such a pain when even the original arcade sprites are messed up but I got there in the end.
Click to expand...

There's still something a little off about Dracula, but it's not really your fault.

I think you've done about as well as can be done with it. Data East really didn’t have a talented art department IMO. Everything they did always had a kind of cheap look to it.

I almost wonder if you might consider Demitri. Either SNK or Capcom's. Yeah, it would be huge and stick out, but that might actually be a good thing in this case. He's supposed to this otherworldly, large and in charge figure compared to everything else, right?

DC
 
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Whackadoo said:
Why not ripping his "trousers" to make him stand out? In the book he fled and wore rags if I recollect.

What about giving him a "jacket" to make him thicker
Click to expand...

decided to turn him into a pimp, FrankenPimp

oPGU65V.png


DCurrent said:
Data East really didn’t have a talented art department
Click to expand...

The one thing that really bugged me about the game is the original sprites themselves lack cohesion, I mean just look at these, looks like they belong in 3 different games

JdWKqun.png


DCurrent said:
you might consider Demitri
Click to expand...

If I hadn't already spent months redoing all the sprites to look the part I might of, however you have given me an idea :devilish:
 
Just to show the overall vibe I'm going for


I've spent the last week moving everything over to version 4 of the engine so I've had to update most of the scripts, also started repainting the stages as I've finished the characters now but I still need to correct how entities are spawned so there is still some palette issues with spawning.

I'm in two minds about releasing a demo, on one hand I feel like I want you guys to play it and give me more feedback and find problems I've overlooked but on the other hand I feel like if I release a demo I'll lose my drive to complete the whole game.
 
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