Player character sprites are... not great.

This is perhaps a mean bit of criticism, but it's honest, so I hope you'll forgive me.


I like all the environment art. The buildings, the animals, the plants and so on. Love all that stuff. I was impressed by the dancers in town, too. Great work there.


Most of the other PC and NPC sprites in this game are hideous. Not 'a little odd'. Freakin ugly. A few are normal. None stand out as attractive or appealing. And in terms of visiting the town, I think I can look past about half of them because it's a distinctive art style. It's fine, at least somewhat.


But seriously. Look at the kid I'm supposed to play. Why does he have enormous Martin Scorsese eyebrows? WTF is going on with his hair? Why is he the ugliest kid imaginable? Was that deliberate? He looks like a serial killer with facial paralysis and a poorly-tamed bird-nest afro. Has the artist ever met a 12-year-old? Did he look anything like this?

Attachment 178Attachment 179

And the girl isn't much better. Why are her eyes on the side of her head like a fish? They're wider apart than her mouth. She looks like her nose got taken off with an axe and they didn't bother with facial reconstruction.

Attachment 180


Any chance we can dispense with the nightmarish abominations above and play as these characters:

Attachment 181

Thanks for the feedback. We have to disagree sadly about the NPC's...we love them, and the overwhelming consensus has been that player's love them too.
It would also be a huge amount of work and expense to replace them, which will never happen thankfully.
As for the player character, you will be able to cusotomise to an extent and there will be different heads for lineage.
Plus, they are just teens...you will get to adulthood at some point.
Anyway, we welcome your views, even if they could have been a tad more diplomatic ;)
Cheers!

I love the sprites. They remind me of old 90s Sierra-type adventure games. I thought they were spot on.

I have to say I agree. But I do like the characters we play, but the people in town are hideous. I can't imagine finding one that is actually non-offensive enough the marry. There is one guy, he said his family has the rights to chop wood in town (forgive me I'm having trouble remembering names) and he was good looking, but he was 35 when I was a child so not an option for marriage. It seems half the towns people have googly eyes, or giant noses, or that old naked man in the robe with the horrifying spider legs who let me through the North Gate, I'm sorry but they are all terrifying! Love the game, love the backgrounds and buildings, and everything else. But the NPCs are really ugly :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gruevy

WTF is going on with his hair?

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You should have seen the 80's, man, it was crazy

That last comment cracked me up :awesome:
I have to disagree with gruevy as well here, I think the sprites perfectly fit into the quirky Kynseed world, especially the NPC characters, which are so original and amazingly detailed. Also, look around you, in real life you don't run into a supermodel every second. It's so nice to finally see developers go for a more 'realistic' point of view; it makes the gameworld so much more alive and interesting. Characters with perfect facial features usually look boring and predictable. I think most gamers are past that now :)

totally agree with you.

You're right about the fish eyes but overall I think the young girl looks fine. The boy does look a little caveman-like. But my real woe is with the female adult. I suddenly aged 8 years (had to pay Mr. Fairweather) and now look really angry and bitter and much older than 24, look like a spindly mean old spinster. That particular look I am very desperately hoping will get a much-needed makeover. Also, since you're a kid for such a brief time, even if their look is a little off it's bearable. I imagine you end up playing as an adult that doesn't change much for quite a while though, so gonna be really sad if I have to keep running around looking like a bitter old bat.