Micro title screens

Mitsukara · Post by **Mitsukara** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:04

So, I was messing around with sprites and figured I'd try to make a whole set like my avatar: little micro versions of each game's title card using in-game graphics/sprites. I decided to make up Galaxy-style ones for the Vorticons trilogy, since the title screens for those were really pretty plain, and I figured it'd be neat to have them make a matching set.

Of course, there's one game that's just a mockup placeholder... for now

(if the above images are broken, try here)

You're welcome to use these any way you like, if you have a use for them

Also, Boobus Tuber is way too huge. Sorry!

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:12

Those are all pretty awesome, Mitsukara.

My favorite is the KMD! one.

Post by **KeenRush** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:02

Agree, totally awesome! My favourite is AAMB!

Good work.

Grimson · Post by **Grimson** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:56

I think the BotB one is the best

Obviously I'm kidding

DaVince · Post by **DaVince** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:31

Very nicely done. I think the black pixels around his face could use some work to look better. I do understand you're trying to make Keen look here as they do in the original title screens, but right now they look a bit like black smudge on his face or something.

VikingBoyBilly · Post by **VikingBoyBilly** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 14:05

DaVince wrote:Very nicely done. I think the black pixels around his face could use some work to look better. I do understand you're trying to make Keen look here as they do in the original title screens, but right now they look a bit like black smudge on his face or something.

His faces look pretty good to me

Post by **tulip** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 14:47

Wow.

They could be used for a dosbox frontend like boxer, where you could put them in instead of the package cover.
The Keen3 one seems a little stuffed for me.

I could imagine a nice tiled menu with them for the episode selection of CG.

Mink · Post by **Mink** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 14:55

You're really talented, Mitsukara! The Keen 6 one is my favorite.

DaVince · Post by **DaVince** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 15:43

VikingBoyBilly wrote:
DaVince wrote:Very nicely done. I think the black pixels around his face could use some work to look better. I do understand you're trying to make Keen look here as they do in the original title screens, but right now they look a bit like black smudge on his face or something.
His faces look pretty good to me

Most of them do, but Secret/Aliens look kinda weird. One is almost like Keen's wearing an eye patch, probably because the eye colors mismatch.

Post by **Ceilick** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 19:29

Wow, these are awesome! The keen 6 one consistently makes me laugh, and I really like the design of the keen 3 one, the gran intellect and his hordes.

Hehe, the Battle of the Brains one is great too

Also nice job on designing and shading the text for each episode.

I agree with DaVince on the black pixels on the faces of some of them, I suggest making keen's eyebrows use dark grey instead of black (k3, k4, k6, k8 ), and in the cases where he's wide eyed (K2, K5, K7) mix in some dark grey to the outline, but keep some black in it too; I think that'll make his eyes look like they're part of his face and not on top of his face

Really like Tulip's idea for using these in commander genius as a visual option for episode selection.

Mitsukara · Post by **Mitsukara** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 22:30

Slightly altered version based on suggestions:

The eyebrows are a little tricky to recognize as such because the Keen sprite never really had eyebrows. The O_O type faces are really hard to actually fit in a way that looks face-like though (Keys of Krodacia and Armageddon Machine were the hardest to do!). I tried to base them off the way the death sprites look, the primary one of which is seen in it's unedited glory in the Battle of the Brains mock-up.

Also possibly adding to the weirdness was that, for accurateness' sake, I decided to give him the grill on his football helmet for 1-3: close attention to the sprites, not to mention how visible it is in all the bigger art, shows that he seemed to always have it on back then, but ditched it starting in Keen Dreams/4. Also, the goofy looking Grand Intellect shadow is supposed to be a combination of the poster found in 3 in various houses combined with the arms from the Mangling Machine. Dunno if that worked as intended though

Zooming in probably helps these make a little more sense, but as that might not be convenient, here's a blownup version:
Zoomed In version

After I made them it did dawn on me that Keen 1, 2, and 3 looked a little packed, especially the latter two; there's a striking simplicity to what's going on in Keen 4-8s titles, since the real screen just shows a giant picture of Keen with one enemy in the background (or no enemies and just the BWB, in Keen 4's case). But I figured it was a chance to pair Keen Galaxy style sprites with Vorticons stuff, so I said, "what the heck, go for it!" XD I also wanted, especially with Keen Must Die!, to create a sense of "they're totally gonna kill him in that picture" (Keen has no chance in that Keen 2 one! He's being shot at, falling onto fire, and there's a baby vorticon blocking his way even if he'd jumped correctly!).

...that would have nothing to do with how good I actually am at those games...

I think Marooned on Mars came out a lot smoother than the other two though. ^^' That, and Dead in the Desert are the only two I feel very satisfied with (although Aliens Ate my Babysitter was pretty simple and fun to do, I don't really like what's going on with the background, it seems too plain).

One other slight problem is that I don't really have a convenient space to host these, so they're all on imageshack and might go down after a while. Sorry!

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 23:23

Interesting designs. Amusing to see the title screens translated into in-game scenes.

In the Keen 6 one, his arms look too buff and it seems like he should be standing instead of trying to walk.

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 4:09

I thought when I had looked at the Grand Intellect shadow that he was holding two staffs, not raised arms... though now that I look at it I can see how they could be Mangling Machine arms.

DaVince · Post by **DaVince** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:53

The fixes are great. These are really neat now.

I vote for them being available as emotikeens!

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 15:59

Great work! The only complain is that the titles are hard to read.