Art - RedPillStudios/Last-Resort-Project GitHub Wiki
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Mood analysis and Concept Art
Last Resort is a pixel art game. His art reproduces a far away future where technology has advanced significantly, this can be seen in all the enemies robots, humans, turrets and spaceships, that have a futuristic appearance, most of them a metallic facade. The machines shoot laser beams, rockets, and some other creative projectiles.
It can be guessed that it might be inspired, apart from other games, in a social trend for science fiction that was at the time (movies such as Star Wars, series, books...) of the 80s and 90s, and it's reflected in the artistic appearence.
Covers
The next images are two covers for the Neo-Geo CD console. One of them is japanese and the other one should be the cover for the USA and Europe versions. In both we can see how should be in the reality a ship as the one in the game.
We also have found the cover of Last Resort for the Neo Geo AES and an international arcade flyer of the game.
Neo Geo AES cover and an International Flyer respectively
Game Manual
We could find a Last Resort manual version with one problem: is in Japanese, so we couldn't understand anything (beyond the rare translations of various translators). But one interesting thing that we have seen here is that there are some drawings that could be perfectly part of the Conceptual Art of the game development process. Let's see them:
Starting by the front page, we can see an image like the cover of the game, and in the next page, a space drawing with some asteroids.
Then, in the next pages, we can see another drawing of the space in black and white with the story explained. Also, we will see in other pages drawings of the enemies with names and some concept art:
Finally, is not concept art but is interesting to put it here, the instructions of the game are accompanied by some drawings or image:
Cameos
We also have found two funny cameos of the game in other works. Is not concept art, but we found it interesting to put it here.
This one is a cameo in the Neo Geo Battle Colisseum game for Atomiswave arcade and then ported to PlayStation 2 developed by SNK.
And the other one is a cameo of the game in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash game for Neo Geo Pocket, also developed by SNK but together with Capcom.
How we did it?
After a lot of hours searching documentation on the internet, we found the better way to get all the sprites. The program we have used Winkawaks, an emulator that let us separate the layer layout between all the sprites was the better option. Let's begin!
A little recommendation is to try to get the cheats for the game we are preparing, if not, it will be so difficult achieve all the positions that we need to get the sprites.
The first step is to disable the HUD layer, in order to not interfere with the getting sprites process. We have to select in Video option "Disable" and then select 8x8 Layer.
Now we can see that we have all sprites on top so its tons of times easier to get all those sprites!.
The second step consists in searching the position of the sprite we want to get and use the most powerful tool that Winkawaks is able to give us. Go to Tools option, select Shoot Factory and a window will appear with some layers, search the one that you need and disable the other layers. Once we have prepared we have to choose the "ScreenShoot" options (it doesn't matter if it's Unfiltered or Filtered") and if we want to get more frames from that object, select the option "Step Frame" and repeat all the process.
Then when we have some images like this, it's time to get our sprites separately!
Now we have to prepare a PSD where we will put and order all our sprites. Once we have created and closed this PSD, open one of the captures, which we took, and create an action: 0-> Get the Action windows and press rec button then assign a name to it. 1-> Selection/ColorsGamma/ and choose the magenta option. 2->Selection/invert. 3->Control+X(cut), 4-> Then we have to close the sprite which we are working with, then remember to not save and finally open the Sprites.PSD. 5-> Press Control+V. 6-> Close the document saving it. And that's all with the action.
The next step take is an automatize. So in archive, go to automatize and select lote.
Choose the same options we selected to not overwrite the odd files.
This will be the last step. Once we have all sprites in that Sprite.psd Draw a rectangle of 128x128, 256x256 or 512x512 and here is where we start with the puzzle!. Draw rectangles or squares fitting all the sprites you can and use the max space to prevent Memory dump!. This one is a little example and if you take a look, now we can know the size and the position of the x and y to make easy the set up for later programming steps.
This is all Our process to get the sprites, wish this will help you.
Sprites
Our Spritesheets are separated by Stages, Common&Ship, Sequences and the UI(user interface).
Sequences
We divided the sections Sequences in the sprites of the intro of NEO GEO, the Main Title Screen of the game, the Tutorial that is spammed at the beginning and the intro that is showed at the start of the gameplay.
Click Here to see the Intro of NeoGeo sprites.
Click Here to see the Main title screen sprites.
Click Here to see the Tutorial sprites.
Click Here to see the Intro of the gameplay Sprites.
Common and Ship
In the Common&ship we can find all the sprites from the ship and the HOU together in a 512x512, the enemies that appear in almost all stages, the explosion that appears everywhere and the powerUps.
Click Here to see the Common&Ship sprites.
UI
In the UI we can find all the Sprites that shape the interface of the game, the menu selection mode, the HUD from the main game, the game over sprites and the letters used for the high score.
Click Here to see the continue and game over Sprites.
Click Here to see the Menu selection mode sprites.
Click Here to see the HUD from the game and the letters.
Stages
The stages folder is divided into the stages and the backgrounds. The backgrounds are separated in different sprite sheets because we have different levels of parallax and some have little animations so it's not possible to do an entire tilemap, but we have done one simulation how will be each level.
Stage 1
Click Here to see Stage 1 Sprites.
Click Here to see Stage 1 Backgrounds.
Click here to see Stage 1 Tilemap.
Stage 2
Click Here to see Stage 2 sprites.
Click Here to see Stage 2 Background.
Click Here to see Stage 2 Tilemap.
Stage 3
Click Here too see Stage 3 Sprites.
Click Here to see Stage 3 Backgrounds.
Click Here to see Stage 3 Tilemap.
Stage 4
Click Here too see Stage 4 Sprites.
Click Here to see Stage 4 Backgrounds.
Click Here to see Stage 4 Tilemap.
Stage 5
Click Here too see Stage 5 Sprites.
Click Here to see Stage 5 Backgrounds.
Click Here to see Stage 5 Tilemap.
Level art
The art of the game, and so, of each level, it has to be related to the narrative structure of the game in order to successfully express what the game is saying, so we will see how both have a logical connection and how the art is made in order to achieve a good implementation to represent the story that follows the same line during all the game.
Before starting level by level, it must be said that, generally, the contrast between the background and the foreground sprites it's well achieved either by the difference in luminosity or saturation and by the difference in colors.
Stage 1
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The game starts in the middle of the action, just when the Earth's invaders are raiding a city, the player appears with its ship, showing everyone that there's still hope, over a highway full of cars (that ironically can be hit by the player) and destroying all enemies coming. A city in the background can be seen with no apparent damage.
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Then the ship enters to a tunnel where it faces more difficult enemies, to see that is not going to be the easiest battle, that the worst is not here yet. But he won't see a destroyed background until he's not outside the tunnel, where the highway starts to have sinkholes, just before facing the first boss. Until now, everything in the background had a reddish and orange tone, two colors related to fire, to some form of present or imminent destruction.
Then, when the ship leaves the tunnel, everything has a black and grey tone, is when, after surviving some enemies, the boss cames out from a crater (the summum of the destruction expression in this level) and is a half-destroyed terminator-like robot (with a form of metal skeleton), to embody the machines invasion. In the background, around the crater, destroyed buildings.
You can see the level tilemap here LINK
Stage 2
The player stands now in a rainy scenario with blue and grey tones, the expression of desolation and no hope. In the background, there's a city (we also assume that's the same city than in the 1st level) totally destroyed and it seems that flooded.
The ship travels through some kind of ruins or headquarters and has to survive to a difficult long corridor to finally face a boss that is a saturated yellow enemy ship that throws fire with a weak point: a red bulb in its front that opens and closes.
You can see the level tilemap here LINK
Stage 3
This level, at first sight, seems to have two or three different locations, but after analyzing it, it's easy to see that it's some kind of dock or an important operations center for the invading machines in the Earth.
This first part, remembers to a cave with water in the bottom part and with some kind of metallic construction inside the water (but also in the cave's walls). We can observe blue and green tones, imitating a sea cave and hinting that the player's ship is in a wet place. It has to fight against a moldy warship and, when he wins, the deepest part of the background fades black to fade in again a bit later into a more metallic building that reminds to some industrial building. At this point, the player has entered somewhere that looks like a work zone (that's because we deduce that the scenario is a dock). Now the tones are yellowish, brownish and orange to put the user inside the environment.
In the image, we can appreciate what is stated in the paragraph above. We can relate the elements of this place to a factory or an industrial building (what it seems a railroad, industrial machines...) and the color also helps. After this part, the deepest part of the background, again, fades black and the ship is flying over a train track, like if it's leaving the site.
But again, from black, it appears another background, with a reddish tone and it's still related to an industrial area, as we can see more buildings related to factories. We're close to the end of the level now, the boss appears. First, appears two giant robotic legs with a giant eye that blinks as a knee, his weak point. We can guess that is a giant enemy robot.
This guess it's confirmed when this leg is destroyed because a robotic giant body appears with another eye that blinks as a head. After killing this machine, the level is cleared.
You can see the level tilemap here LINK
Stage 4
In this level, it seems that the player's ship has gone deeper into the Earth, to an important headquarter of the invaders. Let's go step by step. The background of the first part of the level is like a huge trench of lava, and in the foreground, we see something similar to a headquarter wall with its cables and typicall yellow marks. Obviously reddish and orange tones are appreciated behind this grey-white walls.
After surviving this stifling phase, the player goes to what looks like the inside of the base we're talking about. A huge amount of cables, circuits and metallic facade is forming the wall with a greenish and brownish tone.
Then the boss makes his appearance inside of a strange room filled with some sort of placenta or brownish substance to make more realistic that we face an alien boss that needs some material to live unintelligible for the humans.
About this boss, is a strip that occupies the top of the room and is a mix between alien and machine with green parts and with two eyes (weak points) in the center of each side. It locks you against the wall and sometimes it closes in on itself like a ball to protect his eyes.
You can see the level tilemap here LINK
Stage 5
And finally, we arrive to the last level. We appear in the space, ready to definitely finish with the human's enemies in its own house. As we're in space, obviously the background is all black with bluish and greenish stars.
This level has to centers of action. The first one is that we have to face a huge enemy ship (we can see a little part in the image, we deduce that's where the cargo enters). It seems a huge machine ready to anihilate but with a little ship, the player will destroy the enemies that wrap it, some of its parts (or all of them) and/or scape from him.
The next image is a reconstruction of the whole ship with the destructible parts destroyed made by us:
This one is an image of the ship with the entire ship with no destroyed parts, made by Hardcore Gaming 101: Last Resort page:
As it can be seen, is a grey big ship and, as a cow, has brown spots all over its outside and small windows from which a yellow light comes out. The weapons of the ship are part of the own ship, with the same style. Then the player goes inside the ship to a room full of enemy machines on the walls and some enemy aliens that fire against the player. Inside the ship, everything is electronic-like (full of wires, lights, industrial objects...).
After this part, the player gets out of the ship and goes to the propulsors area. Not a lot to explain, all the style of the ship follows the same futuristic line with a mix of alien-human.
Finally, in order to arrive to the boss, the player's ship goes through a corridor with some enemies that impede the passage (as they occupy all the corridor from bottom to top). They have a green eye in the middle and they are formed by big grey brownish wires and, ironically, two of those wires are thin and blue and red (might be a reference to human arteries and veins or just two simple cables).
They have three canons that shoot an orange-reddish big fireball.
Then, we face the final boss, the supreme leader of those who are attacking humanity. It can be said that is zoomorphous as it's a big robotic head with some kind of animal form; we can see a nose-cone, big teeth and, inside the jaw, there are the gums with more teeth (those are more similar to an animal teeth), and everything with a machine appearance.
If there was any doubt, it seems more like a predator than a prey and is surrounded by futuristic yellow and grey walls (also filled with wires) with turrets, with reddish, bluish and orange tones, protecting the boss.
You can see the level tilemap here LINK
We don't own any of the information or images of this wiki. Last Resort and all of the content used for the wiki is a property of SNK. Every piece of content is used and can be used by anyone for non-commercial projects.