New Original Art - "Isometric Stone Age Hut"

I've recently been mulling over the thought of someday making an RTS. I've always loved the little huts from the original Age of Empires. Something about them just resonates with me...

Stone Age Huts from the original Age of Empires (1997, Ensemble Studios)

As a proof of concept (by which I meant, proof for myself that it was plausible) I decided to try and draw an isometric style hut of my own. Seems simple enough, except that before you can even begin you must first consider the plane upon which you will draw.

So step one wasn't actually, 'sketch out a hut', but rather, 'create a convincing isometric tile-set'.

It's not a lot to look at, but to create a repeatable texture that doesn't leave obvious seams is quite the task. The above could still be improved a great deal, but for this exercise I decided it was good enough.

On to the hut itself:

Mimicking it's use in AoE, I designed this tile as a stand alone 1x1, "house". It is supposed to be cheap and easy to build at the start of the game, so you don't want it to be too big since it is likely to be repeated all over the map.

Similar to AoE's hut, I've included a couple items around the hut proper, including the obligatory fire pit, a tanning rack to the left, and some very small and hard to distinguish tools laying about.

Next came the animation.

A simple little hut is nice, but if you want to bring a world to life it needs to be in motion. Luckily, it was pretty straightforward doing this with the hut. As in Age of Empires, I've animated the fire pit. Someone lives there, and without spending too much effort, we can convey that fact with some twinkling orange pixels and a smoke trail bending in the wind.

Unlike the AoE hut, my hut is done in a pixel art style since that is what I'm familiar with. It definitely gives it a more cartoonish appearance, opposed to the semi-photo-real look of AoE.

I'm not sure this is what I would go with if I were to do an RTS for real, but it's a possibility. It certainly makes it stand out quite a bit when compared to its inspiration.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have something else cool to show off soon!

Catching up on the last week (Sep. 30 - Oct. 7)

Hello all. Sorry again for not posting on schedule, but school is straining my abilities to keep up on everything. So to catch up, here is an all-in-one post for last week.

First the Song of the Week:

This gem of a track comes from one of my personal favorite games, Earthworm Jim. This is the Sega Genesis version of this song, "Use your head", by esteemed composer of many games, and the brain trust behind the concert series Video Games Live, Tommy Tallarico.

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Next up, the Art of the Week:

This is a little different from art I've previously showcased here, as this a direct copy of the Age Of Empires box art. I selected this piece because one, it has a really wonderful sense of balance and color, and two, the original Age of Empires doesn't get nearly the love it deserves. I understand why, since AoEII was a RTS masterpiece, but still the original deserves some love.

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Finally, we have last Saturday's (Oct. 6th) Replay!

In this Replay! we get to hear an intriguing debate about the merits of Banjo Kazooie vs. Mario 64, Ben Hanson declares his favorite N64 game is one he never played half of, and Tim Turi faces off with an obscure Japanese computer adaptation of Super Mario in a new installment of Stress Test.

This is one of the best Replay episodes we've gotten in recent months. ENJOY IT.

Replay Rating: 9.5