Graphic [Legacy] Fakémon Feedback

[Aki]

Welcome to Fakémon Feedback!

The concept of this thread is simple: post any kind of fakemon or original pokemon design that you're working on. This can mean spritework, hand drawn sketches, or just written ideas. Things like custom mega evolutions or regional variations fit in here too.

Please keep the following in mind while using this thread:

• If you notice something that has been posted but hasn't received any feedback, please consider providing the poster with some form of feedback before you move onto later posts.
• Put some thought and effort into your feedback. While not all short feedback is bad, generally you want to make sure you're offering something worthwhile to the person requesting feedback.
• Try not to focus too much on style choices, unless the poster mentions they're trying to imitate a particular one. It's pretty rude to only comment on how someone's work "would look nicer" if it were done differently (typically a more modern style, like saying gen 4 over gen 3 would look better).
• Be respectful and civil. This thread isn't an excuse to be rude to another person or to tell them their artwork is bad, be helpful instead.

Think this isn't the right thread for your post? Try looking at these feedback threads too:

• Project Sandbox
• Screenshot Showcase
• Map Showcase
• Pixel Art Lounge

 

[Fontbane]

-snip-

This one has a strong connection to Airquilla and is based on Zeus, Squirrels, the three musketeers, and the analagous structure of a hawk (An animal Zeus is accociated with). it is Grass/Normal.
And is known for flying around the region in the past.
It lacks a name for it however.

So any critiques? (I am unsure what to fix).

The first thing that pops out to me is that it really feels like an Electric-type, with its basis on Zeus and the lightning bolts around it. Remember not all members of a trio need to share a common type- the weather trio, the golems, the mortality trio all have members with different types. So it's okay to not have it be Normal-type.

In terms of design, it seems good as it is. The only aspect of its design that sticks out to me is that one leg has more stuff on it than the other. This makes it look a little asymmetrical, which is usually a trait reserved for "unnatural" Pokémon (see: Black/White Kyurem).

 

[Taq]

Snippidy Snip!

I know about about sharing types, it's mostly because the trio members are meant to be a "spectrum" or that they share cors with each other. So basically this thing technically have traits of various other types, but thanks for telling me.

As for the Legs, that was meant to be the tail, I think I will fix it so they are more easy to distinguish. Thanks for pointing that out!

 

[Hematite]

I really like that design, and I think it works really well on its own, but I'm afraid that it is definitely too similar to Airquilla, to the point that before you edited into your post that they had a connection, I actually thought that you had removed Airquilla as a starter and were repurposing its design. XP Basically, the problem I see... while it's genuinely really well-designed, perhaps even more so than Airquilla (which is awesome, and I think if you change this at all, you should carry over some of the altered design elements like its head to Airquilla rather than getting rid of them!), it just feels like a redesigned Airquilla rather than something distinct with a connection to it. If anything, it brings to mind a regional variant like an Alola Form, looking like you retyped Airquilla but like it's still an Airquilla, maybe a different kind of Airquilla, rather than a different species.

In the fifth Pixel Slam Jam thread, I think Atomic Reactor and Aki put this well:

"[...] I was looking for a specific concept to be implemented. The idea is that the Johto trio were reborn from already existing Pokemon, the Eeveelutions is a common theory. What I was looking for was a huge contrast in design when compared to the source Pokemon. I think both artists did a good job of taking the basic concept of their Pokemon [...] and added enough of a twist to them to make it it's own original design. Some of our other entries, though well made, looked more to me like mega evolutions or variants." - AR

"[...] great legendary designs [...] stand on their won without even knowing the lore or that they're inspired by a certain pokemon. At the same time, when you know that they are inspired by an existing pokemon, it's easy to see the traits that carried over!" - Aki

Basically, what you should probably be doing with this is take the basic concept of Airquilla (flying squirrel, musketeers) and design your Legendary off of that concept, but without necessarily keeping Airquilla itself in mind. Then, go back and add more direct/explicit similarities after you have a reasonably distinct design, for that "connection" you want - the important thing is doing it in that order, starting with a visually distinct design and then going back to add similarities rather than starting with a similar design and trying to work from it to add contrast! For example, both Mewtwo and Mew are psychic cats, Mewtwo based on Mew, but they have totally different stances, proportions and details - hardly a thing in common at first glance, but you look closer and notice things like their similar tails and the connection in designs becomes apparent but not on-the-nose, regardless of their lore and names. Similarly, Diancie is based on Carbink, but Diancie is like a pixie or princess and is more anthropomorphic. Carbink looks like a small boulder with a ruff of white; Diancie looks like a fairy princess. Diancie was then made to look like Carbink with things like its lower body being a boulder like Carbink, its shirt being equivalent to Carbink's ruff, their similar colors and their connection with diamonds, but it's a different design that was then tied backwards to Carbink, not a Carbink that was built upon.

Another tip is to keep their heads as distinct as possible, since that's usually how Pokémon are distinguished (especially Legendary Pokémon with similarities to other species - compare Diancie to Carbink, or Mewtwo to Mew, or I guess the Legendary Beasts to the Eeveelutions if you subscribe to that theory... notice how completely and utterly unrelated their head shapes are!). Usually, if you want Pokémon "connected" and "similar" but still distinct, giving them totally different heads is the best way to do that! Edit: I looked back and actually its head is quite different from Airquilla, so I think this part is fine!

Last thing (very minor) - if you don't mind my asking, why did you keep the Grass part and not the Flying part? Airquilla has both types; if you want them to share a type, you might as well pick the one that fits this better even if you don't go so far as to add Electric! Echidnire ends up as a Fire/Ground-type, and Ground works pretty well for Hades as well, leaving only Thundeer's Poseidon really making more sense as a Normal/Water than Normal/Electric (and hey, you could still do Normal/Water for Poseidon - I would say that making sense is more important than being consistent about something as arbitrary as primary vs secondary types! for instance, Decidueye and Incineroar have signature moves of their second types, but Primarina's Sparkling Aria is Water because it makes more sense).

 

[Taq]

I really like that design, and I think it works really well on its own, but I'm afraid that it is definitely too similar to Airquilla, to the point that before you edited into your post that they had a connection, I actually thought that you had removed Airquilla as a starter and were repurposing its design. XP Basically, the problem I see... while it's genuinely really well-designed, perhaps even more so than Airquilla (which is awesome, and I think if you change this at all, you should carry over some of the altered design elements like its head to Airquilla rather than getting rid of them!), it just feels like a redesigned Airquilla rather than something distinct with a connection to it. If anything, it brings to mind a regional variant like an Alola Form, looking like you retyped Airquilla but like it's still an Airquilla, maybe a different kind of Airquilla, rather than a different species.

In the fifth Pixel Slam Jam thread, I think Atomic Reactor and Aki put this well:

"[...] I was looking for a specific concept to be implemented. The idea is that the Johto trio were reborn from already existing Pokemon, the Eeveelutions is a common theory. What I was looking for was a huge contrast in design when compared to the source Pokemon. I think both artists did a good job of taking the basic concept of their Pokemon [...] and added enough of a twist to them to make it it's own original design. Some of our other entries, though well made, looked more to me like mega evolutions or variants." - AR

"[...] great legendary designs [...] stand on their won without even knowing the lore or that they're inspired by a certain pokemon. At the same time, when you know that they are inspired by an existing pokemon, it's easy to see the traits that carried over!" - Aki

Basically, what you should probably be doing with this is take the basic concept of Airquilla (flying squirrel, musketeers) and design your Legendary off of that concept, but without necessarily keeping Airquilla itself in mind. Then, go back and add more direct/explicit similarities after you have a reasonably distinct design, for that "connection" you want - the important thing is doing it in that order, starting with a visually distinct design and then going back to add similarities rather than starting with a similar design and trying to work from it to add contrast! For example, both Mewtwo and Mew are psychic cats, Mewtwo based on Mew, but they have totally different stances, proportions and details - hardly a thing in common at first glance, but you look closer and notice things like their similar tails and the connection in designs becomes apparent but not on-the-nose, regardless of their lore and names. Similarly, Diancie is based on Carbink, but Diancie is like a pixie or princess and is more anthropomorphic. Carbink looks like a small boulder with a ruff of white; Diancie looks like a fairy princess. Diancie was then made to look like Carbink with things like its lower body being a boulder like Carbink, its shirt being equivalent to Carbink's ruff, their similar colors and their connection with diamonds, but it's a different design that was then tied backwards to Carbink, not a Carbink that was built upon.

Another tip is to keep their heads as distinct as possible, since that's usually how Pokémon are distinguished (especially Legendary Pokémon with similarities to other species - compare Diancie to Carbink, or Mewtwo to Mew, or I guess the Legendary Beasts to the Eeveelutions if you subscribe to that theory... notice how completely and utterly unrelated their head shapes are!). Usually, if you want Pokémon "connected" and "similar" but still distinct, giving them totally different heads is the best way to do that! Edit: I looked back and actually its head is quite different from Airquilla, so I think this part is fine!

Last thing (very minor) - if you don't mind my asking, why did you keep the Grass part and not the Flying part? Airquilla has both types; if you want them to share a type, you might as well pick the one that fits this better even if you don't go so far as to add Electric! Echidnire ends up as a Fire/Ground-type, and Ground works pretty well for Hades as well, leaving only Thundeer's Poseidon really making more sense as a Normal/Water than Normal/Electric (and hey, you could still do Normal/Water for Poseidon - I would say that making sense is more important than being consistent about something as arbitrary as primary vs secondary types! for instance, Decidueye and Incineroar have signature moves of their second types, but Primarina's Sparkling Aria is Water because it makes more sense).

Wow, that was a very Impressive critique, I have no words except appreciation and care from it, but I will explain somethings and how I will change some of them based on what you said.

For Airquilla and "Zeus" I am pretty sure you know why they are extremely similar, however I will do some modifications, maybe of I make the wings more bird like to help incorporate the analagous structures more and make them more different.

For what you said of designing in reverse I will try to do that better with the rest. They really need more modifications.

The head thing I will maybe solve but only with the eyes, they are the only thing I think I can change.

Finally the last one with the types, while "Thundeer" issue is one reasons for it, the other issues we're because their primary types would be removed. The other is because their "Normal" type is meant to be more or less a "Rainbow" type, meaning they have a more neutral elemental power, so while "Zeus" may look like an electric type, it is actually not that large of a level of elements as the other types.
And the last and weakest reason is because it's a trio of types I never seen on Legendaries.

Anyway, thank you for the critiques, I hope this explained some reasons but I will modify them anyway.

 

[Hematite]

This is a little bit unrelated, but I posted these designs near the end of August last year and got some good feedback on them. But although August is when I posted them, they were originally designed for last year's Game Jam (unfortunately, my computer was broken the entire freaking time so I was not able so much as to start actually working on an entry aside from sketching some concepts |D), and as it turns out, if my timestamps are accurate, their birthdays were yesterday, July 5th!

In honor of this, I finally got around to redesigning Kaimos, which got excellent criticisms on which I never actually followed through! I'm quite satisfied with it right now. (I haven't redone Meirio at all - I should probably at least update its tails to match those of Kaimos, but is there anything else you notice about it that should change? I'm definitely not leaving it as is; I think it looks a bit awkward, and even for a Psychic-type that's meant to comprise many floating bits, I think it takes that a bit needlessly far and doesn't really look like anything. XP)

I added some lines in the background to show off its translucency, since it's not as easy to notice on a white background. (Of course I messed that up and there's nothing behind its head-and-neck area, which is also white, so I should clarify that that part actually is opaque and not transparent!)

Kaimos is the pure Fighting-type Purifying Pokémon. However, it's intentionally designed not to be visually indicative of any particular type! Make of that what you will! C:

(Since I mentioned in the old Fakemon Feedback thread that I wasn't sure if I was going to use them, I should clarify that I actually do now have a role that's perfect for Kaimos and Meirio and they're not going unused! Of course, I would hardly have reason to bother going through three iterations of Kaimos's design if I wasn't planning on using it, haha.)

 

[DarKnighT_0_9]

This is a little bit unrelated, but I posted these designs near the end of August last year and got some good feedback on them. But although August is when I posted them, they were originally designed for last year's Game Jam (unfortunately, my computer was broken the entire freaking time so I was not able so much as to start actually working on an entry aside from sketching some concepts |D), and as it turns out, if my timestamps are accurate, their birthdays were yesterday, July 5th!

In honor of this, I finally got around to redesigning Kaimos, which got excellent criticisms on which I never actually followed through! I'm quite satisfied with it right now. (I haven't redone Meirio at all - I should probably at least update its tails to match those of Kaimos, but is there anything else you notice about it that should change? I'm definitely not leaving it as is; I think it looks a bit awkward, and even for a Psychic-type that's meant to comprise many floating bits, I think it takes that a bit needlessly far and doesn't really look like anything. XP)

I added some lines in the background to show off its translucency, since it's not as easy to notice on a white background. (Of course I messed that up and there's nothing behind its head-and-neck area, which is also white, so I should clarify that that part actually is opaque and not transparent!)

Kaimos is the pure Fighting-type Purifying Pokémon. However, it's intentionally designed not to be visually indicative of any particular type! Make of that what you will! C:

(Since I mentioned in the old Fakemon Feedback thread that I wasn't sure if I was going to use them, I should clarify that I actually do now have a role that's perfect for Kaimos and Meirio and they're not going unused! Of course, I would hardly have reason to bother going through three iterations of Kaimos's design if I wasn't planning on using it, haha.)

I'm not sure I'm a good person to judge this as I'm not even confident in my own sense of design but here goes: I think this looks really good. There are a few parts that just seem a little off to me. The biggest part is the legs. I really liked them at first but each time I look at them now something doesn't feel right. I can't give a solid reason why but that's the feeling I get when looking at it. The front left leg also kind of looks like it's disconnected from the body. I think at least a little of the mane should hang over it. The final thing is I wonder if the body would benefit from us being able to see it fading from the way the head looks into being transparent. Maybe just a quarter of the body having that fading effect would work. Even without those changes I do still really like this design.

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(Sorry for all the text but I thought I would give some context to this edit I did.)
I think I've finally decided on the fan game idea I want to make. I kind of like the idea of getting to choose another set of starters at a later point in the game even if it's not until after the main game is finished. I don't know what it's been but these last 2 generations of Pokemon have just not hit with me. I liked mega evolution for a while but then I didn't. I've also had a hard time getting into a lot of the new Pokemon and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be making this game as though gen 6 and 7 never happened. That being said, there are some of the new Pokemon that I really like. I love Greninja and Decidueye. With that in mind I thought they would be perfect to have as the Grass and Water type second set of starters. I don't like either of the fire starters from the last 2 gens (3 actually) all that much so I looked for another 3 member fire line and was really surprised to find that besides the starters and Magmar line there isn't a single 3 member fire line in all the 802 creatures we've gotten. Fletchling line is close but still only 2 are fire. I wanted this second set of starters to pull from gen 6 and 7 and thus and I had to do some editing. I decided to insert a middle evolution into the Pyroar line and I stole Torracat to accomplish this. Of course it wouldn't fit in with its default look so I opened up Photoshop and this was the result.

I also have a group image which I'll put in a spoiler to save space:

Spoiler: Group

 

[Taq]

This is a little bit unrelated, but I posted these designs near the end of August last year and got some good feedback on them. But although August is when I posted them, they were originally designed for last year's Game Jam (unfortunately, my computer was broken the entire freaking time so I was not able so much as to start actually working on an entry aside from sketching some concepts |D), and as it turns out, if my timestamps are accurate, their birthdays were yesterday, July 5th!

In honor of this, I finally got around to redesigning Kaimos, which got excellent criticisms on which I never actually followed through! I'm quite satisfied with it right now. (I haven't redone Meirio at all - I should probably at least update its tails to match those of Kaimos, but is there anything else you notice about it that should change? I'm definitely not leaving it as is; I think it looks a bit awkward, and even for a Psychic-type that's meant to comprise many floating bits, I think it takes that a bit needlessly far and doesn't really look like anything. XP)

I added some lines in the background to show off its translucency, since it's not as easy to notice on a white background. (Of course I messed that up and there's nothing behind its head-and-neck area, which is also white, so I should clarify that that part actually is opaque and not transparent!)

Kaimos is the pure Fighting-type Purifying Pokémon. However, it's intentionally designed not to be visually indicative of any particular type! Make of that what you will! C:

(Since I mentioned in the old Fakemon Feedback thread that I wasn't sure if I was going to use them, I should clarify that I actually do now have a role that's perfect for Kaimos and Meirio and they're not going unused! Of course, I would hardly have reason to bother going through three iterations of Kaimos's design if I wasn't planning on using it, haha.)

The image you made for Kaimos is pretty neat, it has this angelic pose that I find quite appealing when used right.
Now my opinions...
I think the Appendage on the hidden side is a bit too long, I think it should be more closer to the head.
another thing I think is the glass, while its interesting to have a glass Pokémon, I think you might to find a way so then you can tell its glass but not make too "clear" and more translucent, it's because it doesn't look natural biologically, For example, While Nihilego has some Translucent locations, those are not used much and it's also because it's a jellyfish. If you want to it too be more glass like, I recommend make it more Translucent purple or use an opaque white (or combine the two) to make it more natural.
Other then those it's pretty neat.


One thing I do recommend is more for its type, Fighting, it it's meant to be a Pokémon that isn't any type then wouldn't normal work more? This would allow it to also behave like glass type wise (because cooled down glass is breakable). Unless there is a reason with its counterpart then I guess it's fine.

Now for the next!

I'm not sure I'm a good person to judge this as I'm not even confident in my own sense of design but here goes: I think this looks really good. There are a few parts that just seem a little off to me. The biggest part is the legs. I really liked them at first but each time I look at them now something doesn't feel right. I can't give a solid reason why but that's the feeling I get when looking at it. The front left leg also kind of looks like it's disconnected from the body. I think at least a little of the mane should hang over it. The final thing is I wonder if the body would benefit from us being able to see it fading from the way the head looks into being transparent. Maybe just a quarter of the body having that fading effect would work. Even without those changes I do still really like this design.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Sorry for all the text but I thought I would give some context to this edit I did.)
I think I've finally decided on the fan game idea I want to make. I kind of like the idea of getting to choose another set of starters at a later point in the game even if it's not until after the main game is finished. I don't know what it's been but these last 2 generations of Pokemon have just not hit with me. I liked mega evolution for a while but then I didn't. I've also had a hard time getting into a lot of the new Pokemon and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be making this game as though gen 6 and 7 never happened. That being said, there are some of the new Pokemon that I really like. I love Greninja and Decidueye. With that in mind I thought they would be perfect to have as the Grass and Water type second set of starters. I don't like either of the fire starters from the last 2 gens (3 actually) all that much so I looked for another 3 member fire line and was really surprised to find that besides the starters and Magmar line there isn't a single 3 member fire line in all the 802 creatures we've gotten. Fletchling line is close but still only 2 are fire. I wanted this second set of starters to pull from gen 6 and 7 and thus and I had to do some editing. I decided to insert a middle evolution into the Pyroar line and I stole Torracat to accomplish this. Of course it wouldn't fit in with its default look so I opened up Photoshop and this was the result.

I also have a group image which I'll put in a spoiler to save space:

Spoiler: Group

Now thats some some nice editing, Making Fakémon by Photoshopping various sugimori isn't something new too me, but how you made it was pretty nice, however I think some things I should warn you and also some modifications.

1. Starting with SM sugimori stepped down as the main artist for the first time, so Pokémon from SM have their outline drawn differently in case you haven't noticed.

2. Don't be afraid to make more splices to fix up anatomy, some people who do it right can make impressive works that require you to study to figure out what it's made from.

thats for just the future, here my crtiques.
"Tyroar" is a neat Fakémon that does look like they are between, the main issue is that you made it more Litleo and not enough Pyroar.
One thing I think you should maybe raise the Tan to go higher up their hind legs to make it more similar to Pyroar and give more hints. Another thing you can do is give it more hints of the yellow on the red hair to help show that connection as well.
Going along with the red, I think you should remove the second red spike pair because the Litleo line lacks one, also maybe lengthen the eyebrow ones a bit more to help it look like a growing mane/hair.

I think that's it, I hope this helps.

 

[Hematite]

Ah, thanks for all of the feedback, both of you!!

• The legs definitely do look like they're bent weirdly, I think, especially its front left and back right legs - if that's what you meant, that was more me messing up the lineart than an intended part of the design. OTL Meanwhile, the disconnect of the front left leg was more to show the angle than anything, but I see your point! I'll try to represent that differently in, like, its battle sprite and stuff so that isn't repeated! Thanks!!

• A fade effect is definitely a good idea to consider! The reason I avoided that is because it's quite difficult to represent an opaque-to-transparent fade in a sprite as well as a color-to-color fade; even though there is already some translucency in the design, I was careful to make sure there would be ways to cheat around the translucency I did include. For example, look up a back reference of Pheromosa and see how it's rendered in-game: you can see the rest of its body through it, but with no outlines. Something like this can be used in a sprite for something like Kaimos's... tendrils? tails? (even I'm not sure what to call them XP) so that they can be fully opaque but still look like you can see through them. (To Taquilla, this is also why it's totally transparent rather than translucent purple or white!)

• The back appendage definitely does look too long, actually, yeah. Definitely have to watch out for that! Limbs that are supposed to be equal in length but start from different places trip me up all the time - one would think I'd have stopped designing things with them by now...

• Believe it or not, the glass is actually supposed to look biologically unnatural! A lot of the information about Kaimos is fraught with rather significant spoilers, so it's kind of hard to justify this until you meet it in-game and uncover this stuff for yourself, but I would sum it up with... a) it's a very strange Pokémon that is intentionally unnatural-looking, and b) there's a somewhat good reason that its body is "empty" and you can see all the way through it; it's actually not meant to function with the same organs as most Pokémon. The transparency and being void of internal features goes double as a way of representing it as the Purifying Pokémon - in addition to looking whimsical and strange, it's also apparent that it's untarnished, empty and clear, which is what one might associate with purity.

• Sorry, I explained its type quite badly! What I meant was that it was visually untethered to any one type; its connection to Fighting is more behavioral or based on its abilities than its appearance. I meant that more like "I know it doesn't look like a Fighting-type, but don't worry - it works in non-aesthetic ways" than "it may not look like a Fighting-type, but that's okay because it also doesn't have any other connection to the Fighting-type!" Haha.

Anyway, thank you both!! I hope this clears up some of the thought process behind your concerns and hopefully justifies them!

-----

Now for DarKnighT_0_9 here are my thoughts on that!

I hope this doesn't upset you too much, but it's... pretty blatant that it's still a Torracat. Your small edits and color changes certainly make it fit in better aesthetically with Litleo and Pyroar, and your comparison image of the line all together looks really nice, but that does little to alleviate the fact that Litleo, Pyroar and Torracat are all canon Pokémon and the vast majority of your players are already familiar with all three. I guarantee that evolving Litleo into Torracat and then Torracat into Pyroar is going to be a lot more jarring to players than you seem to realize - if you're really set on using Litleo (which I don't really understand in itself, because you've already decided that it fits in so poorly you need to add a new stage in the middle of its line that is also a canon Pokémon with its own canon gamily), then I would honestly just leave it with two stages (it hardly matters if it matches the others because you said this is postgame anyway) or add a Fakemon, not try to repurpose another canon Pokémon.

As an alternative, why not just... use one of the other canon Fire starters? If you don't like Fennekin and Litten, that's fine, but there are five other Generations to choose from, and not only is Litleo not a starter, but even you don't think it fits in with starters to the point that you feel a need to change its line like this, which is a red flag about using it as one. Unless you have all five Generations of canon starters at the beginning of your game like Reborn does, surely your favorite of the ones you didn't use would make more sense?

Sorry if this comes off as overly negative. >.< I just don't really think this works, and hey, I'm just one person, not your entire potential playerbase, so you don't have to listen to me at all! I just thought I should say this so you were aware of the other perspective on what you're doing.

Edit: Horizontal rules break things now, so I just caught that part of this was invisible and replaced it with a few hyphens!

 

[artcanary]

In addition to @DarKnighT_0_9 and @Hematite 's discussion;

- Perhaps try designing a fakemon to boost the Pyroar line to three stages, or

- perhaps make a set of starters of two-stage lines? For example, Pyroar, Gogoat, and Clauncher would make a decent final lineup. (If the issue was "really liking pyroar and wanting it as a starter" rather than "I don't like any of the alternatives")

 

[TheLightSword]

back to reveal another fakemon
this time it's a cloud

 

[Hematite]

Aah, I really like those!! Again, really good job distinguishing the evolution line - color focus, proportions and avoidance of plain addition are all perfect here!!

The only thing I would say to change: the little one's face is really small, and its eyes suffer for it. I think you should maybe give it a bigger window to see its face, and maybe move its eyes a little bit higher so they're not directly touching the outline there and can be made out a little better!

This is more about spriting than design, but I also noticed that the little one doesn't have any black on its outline, and the evolution has about seven pixels of black spread out in different places. It might be a good idea to use a little bit more black and make the lightest parts of the outline a little bit darker (I guess just shuffle every part of the outline down a shade? XP) to make them stand out better against non-white backgrounds and fit in a bit more with the other Pokémon sprites!

That aside, I love them both!! I have a soft spot for fluffy Pokémon. And I love the evolved cloud's moustache!! XP

 

[Taq]

back to reveal another fakemon
this time it's a cloud

That's pretty cute!

I think the only thing is that the little one's eyes are too small, other then that, pretty neat.

 

[DarKnighT_0_9]

Ah, thanks for all of the feedback, both of you!!​

• The legs definitely do look like they're bent weirdly, I think, especially its front left and back right legs - if that's what you meant, that was more me messing up the lineart than an intended part of the design. OTL Meanwhile, the disconnect of the front left leg was more to show the angle than anything, but I see your point! I'll try to represent that differently in, like, its battle sprite and stuff so that isn't repeated! Thanks!!

• A fade effect is definitely a good idea to consider! The reason I avoided that is because it's quite difficult to represent an opaque-to-transparent fade in a sprite as well as a color-to-color fade; even though there is already some translucency in the design, I was careful to make sure there would be ways to cheat around the translucency I did include. For example, look up a back reference of Pheromosa and see how it's rendered in-game: you can see the rest of its body through it, but with no outlines. Something like this can be used in a sprite for something like Kaimos's... tendrils? tails? (even I'm not sure what to call them XP) so that they can be fully opaque but still look like you can see through them. (To Taquilla, this is also why it's totally transparent rather than translucent purple or white!)

• The back appendage definitely does look too long, actually, yeah. Definitely have to watch out for that! Limbs that are supposed to be equal in length but start from different places trip me up all the time - one would think I'd have stopped designing things with them by now...

• Believe it or not, the glass is actually supposed to look biologically unnatural! A lot of the information about Kaimos is fraught with rather significant spoilers, so it's kind of hard to justify this until you meet it in-game and uncover this stuff for yourself, but I would sum it up with... a) it's a very strange Pokémon that is intentionally unnatural-looking, and b) there's a somewhat good reason that its body is "empty" and you can see all the way through it; it's actually not meant to function with the same organs as most Pokémon. The transparency and being void of internal features goes double as a way of representing it as the Purifying Pokémon - in addition to looking whimsical and strange, it's also apparent that it's untarnished, empty and clear, which is what one might associate with purity.

• Sorry, I explained its type quite badly! What I meant was that it was visually untethered to any one type; its connection to Fighting is more behavioral or based on its abilities than its appearance. I meant that more like "I know it doesn't look like a Fighting-type, but don't worry - it works in non-aesthetic ways" than "it may not look like a Fighting-type, but that's okay because it also doesn't have any other connection to the Fighting-type!" Haha.

Anyway, thank you both!! I hope this clears up some of the thought process behind your concerns and hopefully justifies them!

---

Thank you for your feedback. I do understand that this is going to be jarring for a lot of people but that's kind of intentional. I'm making a lot of changes in other areas as well (for example, Weepinbell + Sun Stone = Carnivine) that will be equally if not more jarring. I feel like fan games have this unwritten set of rules and I want to break them. I do think this design still needs more work to make it fit better but I'm happy with it so far as it fits in with what I'm going for. I know Pokemon fans can be finicky about things but if this makes people made then they really shouldn't play my game. I understand that different people have different tastes and the great thing is even if we don't agree on things we can still be friends :) Thanks again for your feedback.------------------------

In addition to @DarKnighT_0_9 and @Hematite 's discussion;

- Perhaps try designing a fakemon to boost the Pyroar line to three stages, or

- perhaps make a set of starters of two-stage lines? For example, Pyroar, Gogoat, and Clauncher would make a decent final lineup. (If the issue was "really liking pyroar and wanting it as a starter" rather than "I don't like any of the alternatives")

I think that splicing in a middle evolution, regardless of if it's official or not, will still yield that same reaction. I'm fine with this though. I plan on throwing some more abnormal ideas into the mix as well so this change I feel fits right in with my goals. I don't know that you'll read my other reply so I'll say it again here. I plan on doing things like making Weepinbell evolve into Carnivine with a Sun Stone. The two stage starter idea is a good one but it doesn't solve my original problem (which I may have forgot to even mention) which is that I want to have Rowlet as the second grass starter and Froakie as the second water starter. The Pokedex between Bulbasaur and Genesect is unchanged in terms of numbering so that leaves essentially no options other than making Fletchling part fire type but then I end up with two bird starters. Besides that I think that this is a little more fun. I don't want to just take the mold and pour my ideas into it. I'm okay with making a bit of a mess of things if it means I'll have more fun along the way.

 

[Taq]

Some designs I haven't shared in months...
Please note that they aren't counterparts in any way.

The first two are Ottery (Otter + Watery) and Kuwasher (Kawauso + Wash/Washer) they are the main "rodents" of the region and they both are Normal/Water types.
Ottery are usually know to be full of water and try their best to get rid of it all, while it's evolution is known for being in every town because they are capable of working in offices, however when they see cups of water they seem to reveal that their Waterholics.
They are based on Otters and Kuwasher specifically is based Office workers and the Kawauso (a Yokai that sometimes disguise themselves as humans and like alcohol).

The next two are Skura (Scurry + Skua) and Veegull (V-formation + Gull/Seagull who are more like the "Wingull" of the region. (Can't decide between Normal or Water and are /Flying).
Skura are known to cause mischief in the region and are know to harass many people by throwing pebbles or steal your lunch. Veegull are the opposite as they are loyal and friendly, they usually work with coast guards and they are usually used to handle with Skura.

Skura are based on brats (mean children) and Skua (birds in Antarctica that are usually shown to steal penguin eggs. Not nice.)
Veegull is based on an Albatross and a Coast guard.

So may I have critiques?

 

[DarKnighT_0_9]

Some designs I haven't shared in months...
Please note that they aren't counterparts in any way.

The first two are Ottery (Otter + Watery) and Kuwasher (Kawauso + Wash/Washer) they are the main "rodents" of the region and they both are Normal/Water types.
Ottery are usually know to be full of water and try their best to get rid of it all, while it's evolution is known for being in every town because they are capable of working in offices, however when they see cups of water they seem to reveal that their Waterholics.
They are based on Otters and Kuwasher specifically is based Office workers and the Kawauso (a Yokai that sometimes disguise themselves as humans and like alcohol).

The next two are Skura (Scurry + Skua) and Veegull (V-formation + Gull/Seagull who are more like the "Wingull" of the region. (Can't decide between Normal or Water and are /Flying).
Skura are known to cause mischief in the region and are know to harass many people by throwing pebbles or steal your lunch. Veegull are the opposite as they are loyal and friendly, they usually work with coast guards and they are usually used to handle with Skura.

Skura are based on brats (mean children) and Skua (birds in Antarctica that are usually shown to steal penguin eggs. Not nice.)
Veegull is based on an Albatross and a Coast guard.

So may I have critiques?

I especially like these birds. There's something about them that reminds me of Disney characters, in a good way. I usually don't like when Pokemon have human-like features like clothes or facial hair (not that yours have facial hair) but it doesn't bother me here. The otters are well designed but they remind me of Oshawott and Chespin, who are two of my least favorite Pokemon, so it's hard for me to be fair towards them. As for the info you gave on all of them, that's some pretty good work. I personally am really bad at that. These four Pokemon all have very distinct characteristics and personalities and I think they're designs show that really well.

 

[Nic]

Some fakemon animations i made today, the first route bug, and the starters

 

[Blue]

Some fakemon animations i made today, the first route bug, and the starters

I love the green starters animation, it's full of character

 

[Taq]

Some fakemon animations i made today, the first route bug, and the starters

Neat animations!
Also I noticed you replaced your old water starter, I like the new replacement. Anyways, while I like they do slight movement, I think they should do what their behavior is. Like maybe have the rabbit jump.
But those are my two cents.

 

[Nic]

I love the green starters animation, it's full of character

i know, it looks like its ready to do a musical number on how great its life is haha

Neat animations!
Also I noticed you replaced your old water starter, I like the new replacement. Anyways, while I like they do slight movement, I think they should do what their behavior is. Like maybe have the rabbit jump.
But those are my two cents.

i mean, the rabbit is kinda already bouncing up and down on one foot already, maybe i should make it so it actually ascends? I dont know, im trying to make these as efficiently and as fast as possible because lord knows my patience isnt good haha

 

[AnonymousHominus]

These are the starters for the game I've been working on for a while now.

Spriting is what I struggle most with in game creation, so I would appreciate some good direction on how to improve the sprites and improving my spriting in general.

Some fakemon animations i made today, the first route bug, and the starters

Also, these animations look really smooth, especially the grass one. Very nice work.