Wanted: 2D Artist for replicating the mood of an old game classic

[AxelF]

For an upcoming game of us (similar to Legend of Grimrock - a screenshot of our current prototype is attached) we are looking for an outstanding 2D artist (freelancer) with exceptional skills in creating beautiful fantasy environments, characters and some game GUI's.

The current job is just for making our current game prototype a little bit more presentable. The budget for this job is 500$ (payment via PayPal) - and this needs to be done:

- a game starting screen in 1920x1080 and 2048x1536
- a game main menu screen in 1920x1080 and 2048x1536
- the ingame GUI screen with a rotatable compass in 1920x1080 and 2048x1536 (similar to the look of the attached, second image)
- an inventory menu, fitting into the ingame GUI on the right side (you will get a rough template for the basic setup of this GUI, similar to the look of the attached, third image)
- a beautiful screen for presentation purposes in 1920x1080 and 2048x1536
- 4 different character portrait icons in 512x512

This is only the first step. Currently the game's storyline and dialogues are being developed by a professional writer. After the story is final a roadmap will be created with all the images that needs to be done for visualizing the storyline and all the ingame events. So, if your artstyle is in line with our expectations, the follow up job will be a lot more work.



Interested? Then please send a mail to: axel [at] fancy-factory [dot] com with some details about you, your recent work and maybe a link to your portfolio.

Thanks in advance!

Regards, Axel

[electronicStar]

I think the look on the "story panels" is due to digitizing hand painted images and then lowering the colors to a small palette (it looks like 16 colors) without dithering.A lot other graphic elements look also digitized, everything mixed with a helping of pixel work

[AxelF]

I think the look on the "story panels" is due to digitizing hand painted images and then lowering the colors to a small palette (it looks like 16 colors) without dithering.A lot other graphic elements look also digitized, everything mixed with a helping of pixel work

Yes, this may be the way how they did it. The PC version uses a 32 colour palette, the Amiga version a 16 colour palette.
The challenge is to reproduce a similar look with more colours in high definition. I wish I had an idea. Compared to other games from that era the look of Westwood's games still differs and got it own style. But I cant catch it in detail. Lands of Lore, e.g., is a game that looks very similar but uses a 256 colour palette. So it is not only the low colour count I think:



Axel

[electronicStar]

one thing I noticed for many old games, especially arcade games, is that many sprites and backgrounds seem to have been made by first digitizing paintings to grayscale and then replacing those grayscales values by different color ramps.
Anyway, a real graphic artist will probably be able to give you more useful insight

[bard]

And now I'm interested to see where this project goes. :-)

[lennard]

Some of those games would use 16 color ranges, each containing 16 variations on a single color, ordered light to dark, so that you could take objects in pseudo-3d and darken them into the distance relatively quickly by doing some masking off the high bits (color family), shifting the low bits down 0-15 values (clamped, of course) and then adding the high bits back in.

Cheap shading for objects in a pseudo 3d maze that are further into the distance.

[AxelF]

Some of those games would use 16 color ranges, each containing 16 variations on a single color, ordered light to dark, so that you could take objects in pseudo-3d and darken them into the distance relatively quickly by doing some masking off the high bits (color family), shifting the low bits down 0-15 values (clamped, of course) and then adding the high bits back in.

Cheap shading for objects in a pseudo 3d maze that are further into the distance.

It seems we have a professional here. The game I'm developing is using latest tech 3D, so throwing stuff into pseudo 3D dungeons won't we necessary. But the entire stuff around the viewport will be 100% oldschool. Mmhh, now I still need the right artist who can realize my "vision". Where are all the professionals from the good, old days back then?

Axel

[AxelF]

By the way...some more information about the art style...all these nice images were created by an Westwood employee named Rick Parks. Sadly he passed away 1996 so we cannot ask him how he did it. But this guy was absolute amazing. Would you believe that THIS image was hand painted (!) 1991 on an Amiga? Absolute amazing...
If you want to know more about this outstanding artist THIS is the place to go.

Axel

[janwinnicki]

The PC version uses a 32 colour palette, the Amiga version a 16 colour palette.

Wasn't it EHB mode on Amiga?

[AxelF]

Still looking...by the way, its 500$ now. And this is only a start. Feel addressed? Let me know!

Axel

[electronicStar]

By the way...some more information about the art style...all these nice images were created by an Westwood employee named Rick Parks. Sadly he passed away 1996 so we cannot ask him how he did it. But this guy was absolute amazing. Would you believe that THIS image was hand painted (!) 1991 on an Amiga? Absolute amazing...
If you want to know more about this outstanding artist THIS is the place to go.

Axel

If you like this style you should also check out the art of James D sachs

[AxelF]

I revised the description in my first posting. After browsing hundreds of portfolios and some interesting discussions with artists I now have a good idea what I'm looking for and what will suite the game best.