Pumpkin Noir

Official devblog for the indie RPG Maker game, Pumpkin Noir! Free demo now available!

[pumpkin-noir]

Are you still working on this or has it gone on hiatus?

PN has been moving in and out of hiatus for a while now because of college and various life events on my part. So, kind of both? Thank you to everyone who has been patient, I know it can be hard waiting on indie projects.

[rpgmconfessions-deactivated2021]

Seeing games like Pumpkin Noir get so little love or fandom despite good writing n adorable characters hurts my lil soul. If you know an obscure ass RPGmaker game, give that shiz some Love today. The devs will appreciate it n you might get more people into it too!

09/02/18

[pumpkin-noir]

Aw, thank you for the support! Highly appreciated!

[allsketchesnononsense]

the adorable detective duo from @pumpkin-noir!

[pumpkin-noir]

here’s a peek at how I make character busts that call for multiple expressions. Basically, the faces are on separate layers and can be swapped onto the body base. Some of these didn’t make it into the final.

[pumpkin-noir]

various miscellaneous PN sketches from the past. Rem was originally going to have some sort of.... pyrokinetic fire power? I eventually dropped that idea, but it still looks pretty cool.

[pumpkin-noir]

who’s this spooky character? Well, you’ll have to wait to find out!

[pumpkin-noir]

here’s a couple concepts for some NPCs you’ll meet in the game. 

[pumpkin-noir]

Here’s some concept art for Irene. I knew I wanted to go for a calavera-inspired design, but the limitations of pixel art kept me from making her tattoos too intricate. 

[pumpkin-noir]

Next up, here’s a mockup and final pixel art of an area that was intended to play a much larger role in the game. This restaurant’s encounter was cut for pacing reasons, but you’ll still be seeing it in the final game, serving a different function. Salvaged!

[pumpkin-noir]

here’s some various NPC bust sketches. Typically I create NPCs in batches of 10, then import the sketches into my bust template file and pixel right over them.

[pumpkin-noir]

various eyecatch screens from the demo

[pumpkin-noir]

Alright, I promised concept art so here it is! I’ve got quite a bit to post, so let’s start with Rem and Wednesday. The first picture is my very first attempt at their designs! They’ve changed a lot.

You may recognize the final picture from the title screen-- this is the sketch I converted over to make the pixel art! 

[pumpkin-noir]

Hey is been a long time since whe heard about PN, soo is the game cancelled? Or is still in developing?

nope, not cancelled! still in development. I’m refraining from making major announcements for a bit longer, but I will be posting some concept art here shortly!

Progress-wise, most of the art assets are complete. The written script is completely outlined and almost halfway written. The eventing is a work in progress, but it goes quick if I plan everything out ahead of time in the scripting phase.

 A release within the year is a bit optimistic, but it really depends on how much I can get down to brass tacks and put in dev time. Right now I’m balancing college and a job, so going is a bit slow. Still, thank you for the continued interest in the project!

[pumpkin-noir]

Hey! Could you show is the concept art for pumpkin noir? I would die for seeing some sketchs of this game,

Thank you for your support! There’s plenty of concept art and sketches for the game, I’ll look into digging some up and posting it when I have time. In the meantime, you can check out my personal art on my main blog here!

[pumpkin-noir]

Hey I know I'm really late to the party with all of this but I just found out about this game today, despite the demo being out for at least six months now, probably more. However, I noticed that you haven't posted any updates since then, so i was just wondering if you were planning on continuing it? I dunno its just I have been seeing a lot of games I'm really excited to be fully developed just vanish and I was worried that's happening here, because I really like what I've seen so far!

The game will still be completed! I’m in college right now so development has been on hiatus. This has always been kinda an on-again, off-again project. I actually have another side project I want to finish up before resuming on PN, but the scope on that one is much much smaller. Expect dev updates this summer though!

[pumpkin-noir]

RPG Maker Pixel Art/Mapping Tips

Disclaimer: I’m far from an expert on this! All of these tips are just things I’ve figured out along the way, so they may or may not work for your game. Try them out and see!

BIG TIP #1: If at all possible, work with low-res tiles!

The difference in difficulty between making a 16x16 tile and a 32x32 tile is big. It’s harder to get repeating patterns right, and 32x32 tiles will look pixelated anyways unless you use anti-aliasing, which is its own separate nightmare. Do yourself a favor and go low-res if you can!

That aside, let’s get into my personal strategy for making maps. One of the biggest obstacles for me is planning and making sure the tiles look good in the end-- how do you know if the tiles you’re working on individually will work as a group? There’s nothing worse than working hard on a tileset that winds up looking bad once you put it in engine, or winding up with extra things that you didn’t actually need. How do I avoid this?

Put simply, I do a lot of planning. I usually start with a simple floor plan sketch-- let’s take the Beretta mansion as an example.

A simple top down perspective is fine. This is the phase where I figure out what props I’ll need for any plot or gameplay scenes. It’s a good idea to think about tile size/location at this stage-- how many tiles should a couch be, where doors are, how much free space you need for characters to move, etc.

Now you know exactly how many tiles you’ll need to make for your tileset, and you have a rough idea of how it will all fit together in the end. This is also a good way to make sure your areas feel unique-- instead of the same old table and chair interior, you can plan to make interiors look more lived in. I decided to add a hearth and some fountains, to add to the feeling of an opulent mansion.

I love pokemon, but… don’t do this if you can help it! This is the result of a one size fits all interior tileset. Does this really feel like somebody’s house? It’s close enough, but it doesn’t really afford a sense of place. This is only really good for expansive rpgs that need a lot of generic houses.

Now that you know how many tiles you’ll need for your room, how do you make sure the tiles will actually look good and work together? What about your prop design and color? I take care of that in the next step.

First, I take the floor plan I drew up and use the transform tool to give it some perspective.

Then, I add lines and really plan what I want the furniture to look like. I basically adapted the strategies used in this tutorial.

As you can see, I skipped the hallway since I knew I could reuse tiles from the other rooms. Take shortcuts where you can!

Even here, the designs for the furniture are pretty rough. But, we’re getting into the ballpark! Next, let’s add some color to get a finished comp. Once again, I save some time by only coloring in one room. I can use the same palette for the office.

These colors still aren’t perfect-- I cringe looking at that green/red rug-- but it’s close enough to what I’m going for that I can start working on the actual tiles. It’s a good idea to spend some time here workshopping your palette, adding in overlays to see how it looks, etc. It will pay big dividends in the final map.

NOTE-- put your character sprites on or near it to make sure they look good with that color scheme!

Now I get to work on the final tiles. I typically start with the wallpaper and flooring, then move on to furniture and props, color picking from the comp. After the tiles are done, it’s just a matter of putting it together in-engine and finaggling some details.

And here’s the final map! As you can see, there are quite a few things I decided to change as I tiled it-- the couch designs, the rug, etc. But all in all, it is pretty close to the comp! This way you know exactly what you need to make and have an idea of what it will look like once it’s done. It isn’t the best strategy for all maps, but I’ve found it to be pretty good for interiors.

And, that’s all the tips I have for now! As a bonus, here are a few samples of Pumpkin Noir maps next to their comps! And a special map preview? :o As a side note, if this tutorial was helpful and you would like to see more, let me know!

[pumpkin-noir]

Hey everybody! I’ve had a lot of questions about the game’s development since the demo. Since college has started back up again, I’ve had to take a break from work. Rest assured, the game will get done! Pumpkin Noir has always been a bit of an on again/off again passion project, so it may take a while. And if you want more content from me, why not take a look at my art blog here?

In the meantime, stay tuned for updates/previews! Just curious-- would anyone be interested in a tileset/pixel art tutorial?