Rune catcher

Hi, I'm working with two artists in a "2d/3d" and "point and click/rpg game".
The game is in the earlier stages, so at this point I can only show to the community some artworks.

The generic gameplay will be a clasic monkey island gameplay, with 2d backgrounds and 3d characters. Also we will use 3d and 2d objects.
In addition, we will have combats in rpg/puzzle stile.

At this point I can not talk more about the gameplay, but I promise more news in the future .

Our objective is to relese the game for wii ware, if we find a publisher and we convince nintendo to become a Nintendo Authorized Developer (we have experience in profesional videogames sector, but this is our first game as "indies", so is very difficult), if not, we will deploy the game for pc, mac, and iphone.

That's all, I can not tell more at this point, but I promise more news in the future.

Ah, and sorry for my bad english!

Thks

PD: the images are, in this order:
1- The village, an example of a background in correct resolution (640x359, 16:9). This is a standard resolution for wii games, also it has not big problems in higuer resolutions, I tried the game in 1080p and unity scales the image with great quality ^^
2- The main character.
3- The main character with the cristal of power (^^).

 

not my type of game but the art work looks great.

 

It is one of my types of games (Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is the best I have played), and I like what I see a lot.

However, where is that extra pixel going? 9/16 * 640 = 360, not 359. If you are targeting all territories, isn't it best to paint at 720 * 576, with "fat" pixels (width/height = 1.42 ), for PAL, and then adjust the image size to slightly "taller" pixels (720 x 480, width/height = 1.185) for NTSC? I don't have any experience making Wii games, so maybe the 640 x 359 approach is just a way to keep file size low. Still, even with NTSC, you're only utilizing 66% of the available resolution for a widescreen set, and 88.6% for a 4:3 SDTV.

It is true that with NTSC on SDTVs, due to the pixels themselves having a 8/9 aspect ratio, that the most pixels you can utilize for height is 360. However, if that was your target, the pixel width to use would be 720, not 640. Otherwise, the 640 pixels would need to be stretched sideways. When stretched vertically on an NTSC set, 360 pixels become 405 virtual square pixels. 720/405 = 16/9.

 

Wow, it's true! we lost one pixel... thks, we must change this

About the resolutions, also thks for the info, the resolutions that you suggest are much more versatile, I will comment them with the rest of the team.

The issue is that one of the objectives of this low resolution is, first, save memory (wiiare space is really low, and 2d images are big), and save time. We are working in others jobs, so a slow resolution help the artists to do more work in less time.
640 * 360 = 230 400
720 * 576 = 414 720
It's a big difference in disk space (also compressed), and also in quality. The images will look more better, but it will increase artist working time.

With all, what you say is a good idea and a really good suggestion, I will discuss it with the rest of the team. Thks!

 

720 * 360 = 259,200. If the Wii allows you to "anamorphicize" background graphics without having to do that to everything else, then that's my recommendation. If that is not possible, then I'd stick with 640 * 360, or 720 x 405 (291,600), depending on how the Wii outputs graphics. I have no idea what actually happens there, but I'm sure you didn't pull the 640 x 360 figure out of nowhere. Choosing the most appropriate of these will get you the most you can out of an SDTV, anyway, and that's going to be what a lot of people are using, including me!

If you do use 720 x 360, here's the way to go about it in Photoshop:

* Create an image at 720 x 405.
* In the Image Size dialog, uncheck "Constrain Proportions".
* Change the size to 720 * 360.

Here's what not to do:
* Create a new document at 720 x 360.
* Under "Advanced", choose D1/DV NTSC (0.9).

That might initially sound like a good idea, but the way Photoshop handles this is not ideal. At 100%, you will actually be working at 640 x 360, instead of 720 x 405, so you can't actually use all the detail available. It's better practice to change the image size after the fact. Good luck!