If you put 3 existing art styles into vanilla cave story...

Mar 3, 2019 at 6:20 PM
The TideWalker
Modding Community Discord Founder
"That dog!"
Join Date: Apr 5, 2013
Location: In my mind and of my body.
Posts: 1640
Age: 26
There are some great art styles that might fit vanilla Cave Story. If you were tasked with adding one of these from existing games to the next official version of Cave Story, what would they be?
It could be a pixel, vector, hand drawn, paper craft, ect. (3D and 2D are both allowed!)

Also, how, would you change parts of Cave Story to match your new graphics overhaul if you have an idea?
Please post some videos and screenshots if you have them so people can see your full vision!
 
Mar 3, 2019 at 8:07 PM
Stoned Member
"All your forum are belong to us!"
Join Date: Sep 22, 2012
Location: Hell
Posts: 557
An interesting continuation thread, to say the least. I would shill my own stuff but Mugeneko's artstyle is just Cave Story with more anti aliasing taped onto it.

1.Castlevania - Symphony of the Night
This game's player animations are smooth, there's no better way to put it. Alucard's walking animation alone has 15 frames just for when the player starts moving, and 16 for the rest of the player's walk cycle.
p368671-0-castlevaniasymphonyofthenight2528psx252919.gif

p368671-1-qcpt9kv.gif

p368671-2-gvwuuiv.gif
2. Super Metroid
This game utilizes the SNES very well, namely through the use of blend modes for liquids and mode 7 for huge bosses such as Ridley, and the few areas that utilize gradients to give the scene some ominous lighting can really make it feel all the more real.
p368671-3-sczte3s.gif

p368671-4-2dp6qxz.gif

p368671-5-6qeacjl.gif
3. Cave Story 3D
Reccomending Cave Story's graphics for Cave Story? Hear me out. With a merge of some of the techniques used by the two games I mentioned, Cave Story 3D is notable for its environments (The character models are a different story though) To me, the environments are really well made, the only major issues is that they're too dark at times and that sometimes you don't know where you actually are.
T0uErYZ.jpg

GeWEJ57.jpg

p368671-8-5hhtngl.png

p368671-9-vpnmgm2.png

Merging the smooth animations, visual effects, and environments of these three would probably make the game look much more impressive to put it simply.
 
Mar 4, 2019 at 11:59 PM
Indie game enthusiast
"What is a man!? A miserable pile of secrets! But enough talk, have at you!"
Join Date: Apr 18, 2006
Location: Forever wandering the tower...!
Posts: 1787
...This topic sounds familiar...
Anyway, I grew up playing games like Ys which were remade over and over again. But each new version changed the look and added more, as well as introduced the game to a new audience (sounds like Cave Story a bit right?). Though, it did retain the core mechanics until the 200x releases...
ys1

ys3 (originally 2d side scrolling, ended up a 3d space, fixed camera game)

That said, Cave Story is in pretty good shape. Multiple modern releases and the community mods.
But, addressing the topic... if there was a new artistic representation of Cave Story I'd like to see...

It would be using the credit images as screenshots for a AAA indie credit art style remake. I'm thinking, turn the 2D game we love into a cinematic 3d game, probably not a side-scroller.
... I'm having trouble thinking of an existing game as a comparison to what I have in mind exactly. But, you know, there may come a day when deep learning AI can ease the burden of creating this type of currently expensive project. Not kidding. Until then, seems unlikely...

So, if I were to try to match my idea to existing games... Well, maybe a modern Final Fantasy level of cinematic cutscenes/world detail, with the art/graphics style of Pixel's credit images, so maybe it'd look something like a recent Dragon Quest game for the anime style art (but in Pixel's style).
And lastly and most importantly, figure out how this changes the gameplay. Trying to create a fully 3d game that keeps what a 2d platformer like Cave Story has, but adds another dimension. So a 3D platformer with a focus on blasting things and swiftly moving along. I can think of games like A Hat in Time, which captures some of the platforming I might expect from a true 3D Cave Story.
I'd also like to add a little bit of realism to traversing the 3d environments. Something like Mirror's Edge or Tomb Raider, with climbing and acrobatic feats, and a bit less reliant on huge jumps.

But stays mostly true to Cave Story's combat model. Dodging and shooting enemies. But would that mean auto-aim/lock-on targeting? Or is there a way to have accuracy like a FPS, without it being a FPS?
Well, how about a 3rd person view that utilizes some kind of extremely intelligent camera. With a focus on some accuracy, but not to the degree of a FPS, but not an auto-lock 3d game.

It would depend on how much camera movement would be too much, and I don't have an answer to that without trying it. For instance, the camera floats around to give you the best vantage of your surroundings or any immediate threats, which Quote would look towards if they catch his attention in time. Existing in a fully 3d space, the floating camera would have to always have a clear view to the player, so no drawing of any objects between the player's view and Quote. Now say, an enemy is ahead, so you can either rely on the general surroundings view to fire broadly like Cave Story in the general direction, or aim your weapon precisely, by switching to a behind Quote weapon's view (with a danger sense of what is not on camera, or even an enhanced live or pulse based map system with enemy detection?). It might be fun to even entertain multiple perspective types into the game, almost like mini-game sections, where you might revert to a side-scrolling tight corridor or maybe even a twin stick shooter overhead view when in a certain section of Hell to aim Curly. Well, dunno... Anyway, playing around with an experimental vision of Cave Story does sound fun to me.

It would be basically reinventing Cave Story, but that follows other remake models like Ys had. After all, Cave Story is in pretty good shape as the game we know and enjoyed. Though, there is plenty of room to expand into the world or retell the game with other modern formats, to exist along side the original and continue to promote the story to future players.

Graphics:
- cinematic details
- the art style but using pixel's credit style

These would serve as my screenshots of actual in-game footage:
p368659-7-e2522e29160ea7a335e6f64bf706a88bcavestorygameinfo.jpg


And for gameplay:
- 3d platforming
- advanced climbing and environment effects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvQp4qqw6Js - speed and use of terrain
As for the fighting... not sure of which existing game captures my idea, or if it would even play well.
 
Mar 20, 2019 at 11:48 PM
Junior Member
"Fresh from the Bakery"
Join Date: Mar 5, 2019
Location:
Posts: 18
Contributing to spammy posting (off-topic, lack of content, etc)
32 Bit
 
Apr 11, 2019 at 3:31 PM
Junior Member
"Wow! The more I drink of this magical beverage, the more games I can play! Wheee!"
Join Date: Jan 11, 2019
Location: In lower norfair fighting ridley
Posts: 28
I'd say Sonic Mania's artstyle because it just screams bright, smooth, and colorful. Cave Story's graphics in some places look a bit flat (Core/Undead Core) and having bright shaded graphics combined with smooth animation would really be a great artstyle.
Besides that, I'd also like there to be a few 3D models for stuff like huge bosses or backgrounds. Not completely 3D modeled like CS3D, but mostly just 3D modeled in a few places. And yes, even tho it's not a game, the Geobox engine demo would also be a nice candidate, for the amazing lighting and shading, just looking absolutely marvelous.
 
Last edited:
Apr 13, 2019 at 12:55 AM
Junior Member
"Fresh from the Bakery"
Join Date: Jan 6, 2019
Location: somewhere
Posts: 19
I'd say Sonic Mania's artstyle because it just screams bright, smooth, and colorful. Cave Story's graphics in some places look a bit flat (Core/Undead Core) and having bright shaded graphics combined with smooth animation would really be a great artstyle.
Besides that, I'd also like there to be a few 3D models for stuff like huge bosses or backgrounds. Not completely 3D modeled like CS3D, but mostly just 3D modeled in a few places. And yes, even tho it's not a game, the Geobox engine demo would also be a nice candidate, for the amazing lighting and shading, just looking absolutely marvelous.
I remember running across the Geobox demo vid like a year ago and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world.

A cool art style for Cave Story could be cel-shaded graphics, like Viewtiful Joe, Jet Set Radio or Okami. I think it'd look better in a 3D environment, but it would be really neat if someone could get it to work in 2D.
 
Apr 13, 2019 at 6:31 AM
Neophyte Member
"Fresh from the Bakery"
Join Date: Mar 27, 2019
Location: Italy
Posts: 4
A cool art style for Cave Story could be cel-shaded graphics, like Viewtiful Joe, Jet Set Radio or Okami. I think it'd look better in a 3D environment, but it would be really neat if someone could get it to work in 2D.

I like you.

Art-wise, I think it would be neat if a new game used the art style of the guy who did the Cave Story 3D JP cover (and the Cafe Touhou images).
 
Apr 13, 2019 at 6:43 AM
Junior Member
"Fresh from the Bakery"
Join Date: Mar 5, 2019
Location:
Posts: 18
Severe lack of cohesion
I'd say Sonic Mania's artstyle because it just screams bright, smooth, and colorful. Cave Story's graphics in some places look a bit flat (Core/Undead Core) and having bright shaded graphics combined with smooth animation would really be a great artstyle.
Besides that, I'd also like there to be a few 3D models for stuff like huge bosses or backgrounds. Not completely 3D modeled like CS3D, but mostly just 3D modeled in a few places. And yes, even tho it's not a game, the Geobox engine demo would also be a nice candidate, for the amazing lighting and shading, just looking absolutely marvelous.
My Counterpart Fight Me
 
Top