Update #48: The Village By The Castle

Yes, and there's also the Retro Level that we tend to overlook.

Update 2
Now that you have the Crystal Lens, you can see that coming up at $2.25 million is… a Retro Level! Here’s an explanation from the developers:

One section of the castle will feature an area that Miriam can traverse in beautiful retro graphics. We've been referring to this section as the “8-bit Level” internally, although it may be closer to 16+ bit depending on how we mix it with the full game. While a full-blown 8-bit game doesn't fit into the game's budget, backer support will allow us to have fun with the development and create a little retro magic in our game.

You've got it straight. We don't know quite enough about Classic Mode to answer your last question, but if they decide to use the Retro Level assets for part of Classic Mode, I imagine they will look the same as they do in the main game. Classic is more or less a "remix" of the main game into a linear stage-based game. The Retro Level is just graphically 2D/pixelated, and I imagine similar (if not the same) in style to the prequel mini-game.

No matter how you look at it, we're getting spoiled here. We have the Igavana, Classicvania, Roguevanaia, Pixelvania, Boss Rush even Boss Revenge. Even some of our community gets to pitch in with weapons and the likes.

I remember Hearing Ben Judd saying in a BCB episode that this is serendipity at work... and I agree.

A project so wast like this.. I wonder if Mana and Iga with the rest of the team actually dreams portions of the game. Like how you can see the sun even after taken your eyes from it after a while, burnt into the eyes.

I know, playing Diablo II for like 1-2 days, I actually saw the bottom left and right globes of red and blue, slowly drain as I were going by a car. I guess I needed more food and beverages to keep them up (or sleep perhaps?).

So yeah, THEY are working like mad, I am sure of it. They even made sure to give us updates less frequent, and if that ain't a good gesture towards the actual development.. I do not know what is!

Put also a side, the private lives, and the part where they are looking for inspiration, and what WE write here.

Oh boy, they need the full team in full force. And they are given it 200.6%!

Art is subjective and not everyone appreciates the same things, so it isn't so much saying it's ugly just not what I had anticipated, and not what I would have supported. 

I backed Bloodstained because I saw it as a revival of classic gameplay and visuals that fell out of favor following the SNES/PSX era.  For the past two decades, 3D games have dominated the gaming landscape, with most 2D games relegated to handheld devices.  After 2010, indie developers began to fill the neglected niches, and I viewed Bloodstained as the pursuit of a classic sidescrolling metroidvania gameplay with the audiovisuals that contemporary machines can produce/handle.  The concept art appeared to be what I would be interested in, a stylized appearance without the attempts at photorealism that push games into the uncanny valley.  Ori and the Blind Forest handled this very well, and I was thinking Bloodstained would be able to pull it off as well.  Ori wasn't perfect, but I would consider them to be the measuring post of contemporary 2.5D games, and from what is available so far, I am not holding my breath for Bloodstained.

I pledged $28 for the digital copy of the game.




The pillars of their designs are in place, and the materials are ~80% complete.  The photorealistic environmental textures are throughout the work.  they have also opted to use 3D models throughout, which could be fine, but it is difficult for them to look as visually appealing as 2D layers.

3D models have never appealed to me as much as what can be accomplished in 2D, and while 3D models have come a long way, they have still lagged behind 2D assets. Using 3D meshes and models do have distinct advantages, especially when it comes to character animations, and can be integrated well into 2.5D when using an orthographic camera. Without an orthographic camera, the perspective of platforms varies as the character moves, and highlights the models rigid low poly shapes that, in many instances such as this, contrast with the level of detail in the textures. 

Could they still change to an orthographic camera, and change the textures on the objects, in an effort to make them more stylized and less photorealistic?  It is possible, but at 80% in, I don't expect them to scrap the design pillars that led them to the style of textures they consistently applied to the environmental models/backgrounds; and having not used the UE4 engine myself, I don't know how much of a hassle it would be to shift the camera to orthographic and still get parallax scrolling of the backgrounds of various depths that they have already blocked in without that style of camera in mind.



I know you/everyone here has seen the concept art, but just for readily available access-
assets.vg247.com/current//2015/05/bloodstained_ritual_of_the_night_concept_1.jpg

The painterly style is clear in the background and enemies, while Miriam herself is much more crisp, as you said 'illustrative/cartoony'.  And even that would have been fine, if done consistently.

cgcookie.com/exercise/exercise-18-painterly-style/ this is what I am generally referring to when I said painterly, it is digital art that doesn't hide the brush strokes, doesn't rely on heavy line work to define the shapes, and doesn't try to push in as much detail as possible.

I am aware that it was concept art, and subject to change, but it was all we had to go on, and I had hoped that they would continue forward with the more stylized approach, but they have instead chosen a different path.  I don't expect them to change their direction in response to my uncanny valley concerns, but the alternative is to not provide any feedback (/insight?) and just accept whatever they end up producing.


TLDR: Excessive level of detail on textures pushes the visuals into the uncanny valley, orthographic camera may have helped with the character-depth objects not looking as awkward, but may be too late to implement a satisfactory solution, given the 80% level of completion of the environments. 

Warm regards,
Moo

Yes, 2.5D was the direction from the start. The textures and visual style, however, were not immediately depicted as it currently is.

A prototype/demo is more precise to grasp the artistic direction, mechanics and so on.
Nothing is final until it goes gold, though.

As for myself, I got tired of 3D games (esp' when it comes to controls) and something different than pixels is fine, if it's not glitchy or causes slowdown. 2.5D is perfect for me... as long as parallax, dynamics and lighting are satisfactory enough.
I would favor stability, playability, plot, general ambience, music, then graphics, in that order (as long as nothing is broken and ruins the rest).

Sincerely, just try the final version when it is available. Plenty of time left. Just trust it a little.

Thanks for the kind words. I have studied design for about 5 years, and using 3D assets in 2D/2.5D games is something of a passion of mine. In case it is of interest, here are a couple GDC presentations on the topic that I particularly enjoyed-




I suggest viewing GDC talks at 2x speed.

I suspect the devs already know of these things, and if they weren't too keen to listen to someone like Thomas Happ, I can't see my feedback having an impact.

Best,
Moo