Where could I discuss an asset pack I'm creating? (feedback needed)

Patriick · May 22, 2019

I've been struggling to find a bit of paid work lately, so I have been working on a set of assets that I intend on packing up into an asset pack, the character is in the style of a project that I am currently working on in Phaser 3 titled: "Karzak The Slayer" where you play as a barbarian that has had his victory feast stolen by some mischievous goblins. The tile are nothing alike that project's tiles but any way, I was hoping to supplement the income I have from the days or work I find labouring here and there or odd contracts and this was the best way I could come up with.

I started thee project when I was homeless which wasn't too long ago, and a friendly donation from a member of a game development community helped me out of that situation, where I am now under a roof and attempting to get things back up and running, struggling to find work is quite stressful and having my laptop stolen recently, I lost much of the work I would have used for my portfolio, so I decided to start this as a new portfolio piece and as a potential trickle of funds that I would divert to things like my Karzak project IF it gets anywhere.

I started this post because I don't quite know of anywhere to post about it, collect feedback or opinions and the like, being an artist I struggle to think of what a programmer or non-creative would consider when looking for a pack of assets for use in any kind of development. I have tried many places like the itch.io devlogs, facebook and other sources to attempt to get some feedback, but people just like or share and rarely read the posts on facebook, which doesn't help when you're seeking information!

So if any of you have some time (I apologize in advance if this isn't a good place for this kind of post) I do have some questions not only regarding where would be best for this kind of discussion but about the pack itself (I will share links below)

To consider purchasing an asset pack, what do you consider essential?
When looking at a character's animation set for a project's prototype asset or final asset, what animations are rarely there when you're developing your prototypes and have bought an asset to use?
Do you prefer to get a whole set of assets intended to be used together or do you mix and match?
... I do have more questions but I have a doctors appointment that I cannot miss and time is getting on, I will add more later.

Asset Pack Previews:

Album link - https://imgur.com/a/r4qs6Dy

The above link contains animation previews of both the character and a handful of the enemies, UI previews and some basic tiles I've made. All of the tiles are at 16x16.

Monkey Boy Character Asset:

I genuinely struggled when it came to the character, I had no idea of what to create, my mind was completely blank, but I didn't want to sit around doing nothing and I hit a creative block in the level design for my project Karzak, so I felt that I needed a little break... Anyway, a random thought came to me about Monkeys and so I decided to make a Monkey-like-Man or as it turned out, boy, and that's how the character was spawned into existence. The style of Karzak was well received and that was just with the prototype art so I decided to use a similar style with these assets and I hope that is instilled in the character, these previews above are not finished though and will get a lot of polish before they are released, but that style will remain the same throughout. Hopefully you can tell that the run style is intended to be a man/boy mimicking a monkey's run.

The animations that caused most issue where the jump which there isn't a preview for yet, and the death, I couldn't figure out how I wanted it to look, there will likely be multiple death animations eventually though as I intend on updating the pack a little even once the baseline set is polished and released.

At first I wasn't quite sure about the character, I was really unsure in fact about how it looked but it grew on me and now I quite like it!

The Snail Enemies:

The idea is that these enemies would be able to transition to a vertical climb obstructing the player at times or causing the player to have to get hurt to avoid a greater or stronger enemy, but these blue ones can only move in one direction, whereas another coloured variant would be able to turn around and move the other way, following the direction of the player but sticking to whichever surface they are still on. There is intent on adding an enemy that does this but can hop to local tiles in pursuit of the player.

There is a slime enemy that is not yet finished, A giant fish that leaps out of water to get to the player across certain deep water gaps, plant based enemies that are ranged and melee that can leap out of the background to strike the player based on many variations in mechanics or triggers.

Conclusion:

There is still a great deal of work left to finish on these assets, and it is at this point, taking some time away from my project Karzak, but I am having fun and hopefully it helps a little in the long run with supplementing a little trickle of funds towards it. In any event, it will help me update a new and fresh portfolio with some content that is consistent. I hope to get some feedback from potential users or people that have used assets in the past.

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Karzak The Slayer:

Title Screen Logo - https://imgur.com/8jLPwa0

Character & Enemies - https://imgur.com/l8yYjHY

Old Phaser 3 Demo Screenshot - https://imgur.com/S0fseQt

Karzak Animations - https://imgur.com/wIcLPmz

Updated Tiles (Style) - https://imgur.com/g4jROEN - https://imgur.com/ruoXbVn

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Random animation samples:

Goblins - https://imgur.com/a/BwZS3

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I hope you're all having a good day and developing some awesome projects!