So I went through the image gallery and checked all the stuff I've been doing. These will be all just text links to the full images or videos. Now it would be better if ModDB showed the whole link text... they all look like the same link, uh-huh. There's some kind of Conclusion at the bottom (so, read that at least).
Style 01 - Highres:
Here's where it all started. Highres textures, 8 pixels = 1 game unit, and "highpoly" models.. trying too much. Resulting in a sort of boring and plain look.
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Style 02 - Medium/High:
Then I tried a bit simpler stuff with 4 pixels = 1 game unit, which worked a bit better and created something more interesting to look at..
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Style 03 - Lowres:
Next was lowres textures without filtering, 1 pixel = 1 game unit. This was pretty fun and did a more functional texture set, which I continued to use for a while. Not really sure what made me abandon this stuff.
Indiedb.com - was pretty excited when I got this stuff/video done, although sound fx were a bit awful
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Style 04 - Abstract:
Same textures as before (with filtering), but trying some semi-abstract modeling. Really low poly characters with floating or detached arms/legs/bodies. Their textures AO bakes, color and lots of shine effect. Looked sort of cool, but eventually it felt a bit like little kids running around with guns (and that's just wrong).
Indiedb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Style 05 - Sprites:
Decided to try something even simpler, and changed the engine from Doomsday to Chocolate-Doom with some source code modifying. Still the earlier textures plus some sprites. Drawing items was fun, but drawing characters was a bit complicated. None of the characters were animated. Eventually tried some earlier model rendered as a sprite.
Indiedb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Style 06 - Topdown:
Trying to code my own engine. Was able to get a user controllable triangle that could shoot squares in a shotgun spread pattern.
Media.moddb.com
Koti.mbnet.fi
Koti.mbnet.fi (if you try it, press S to spawn the triangle, arrow keys to move, ctrl to shoot, space to jump)
Style 07 - Medium:
Went back to Doomsday. Trying 2 pixels = 1 game unit. It went well for a while. But then it just didn't feel like working. Did 4 weapon models, 1 animated character and 2 unanimated characters (one of them was the player).
Indiedb.com
Media.moddb.com - actually shows the player model
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com - liked this shotgun
Media.moddb.com
Style 08 - More Lowres:
Wasn't really sure what engine to use, did some more lowres textures anyway, which were pretty good. Used some of the old lowres textures too. Didn't make any new models or sprites really. Well, not completely true, I started working on the newest player character model, which I tried as a sprite.
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Style 09 - Lowres with Bump:
Thought to try how my previous lowres textures looked with bump maps in DarkPlaces. The bump maps were just the base textures and specular was the same with every texture. It worked fine for the experiment, just to show me if lowres textures could look ok with these effects. Also tried some early version of the player model ingame.
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Style 10 - Simple:
Continued with DarkPlaces with AO bakes + color textures for models, but used more normal models. Only did a few level textures, but got 3 animated monsters and animated the player too. Did 3 or 4 weapons. Made some 5 levels that were quite simple and small. Quake type level editing just doesn't feel like my thing.
Indiedb.com
Indiedb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Media.moddb.com
Style 11 - Even Simpler:
Switching back to Doomsday and trying the models with just color in the textures, and let all shading done by the engine. Level textures were just color, shapes/shading, but no material definition (or done with detail textures). Looks sort of cartoony and probably the models should have had some black outlines around them.
Media.moddb.com
Conclusion:
Style 03 - Lowres and Doom type level editing has been the most fun to do. The semi-abstract models were quite fun to do, but the end result wasn't as satisfying as the not-so-abstract models. Alien type characters for player has been fun, but I never seem to be able to make any alien type weapons. Though conventional/practical looking weapons are nice, at least everyone knows what the weapon does.
What will Style 12 be? Style 03 again with Doomsday? Maybe add the bump/specular/etc maps when/if Doomsday gets the feature. Previous modeling style is more or less ok, just their textures need to be updated...
Damn that Style 10 is awesome...
Style 10 or nothing. I gave the styles a serious look and the other styles feel stale and used. Its your game.
I might get back to DarkPlaces.. QuakeC is much simpler than C. Think I'd get more trouble with C than with Quake type level editing...
But I'll probably use my lowres textures, so something like the Style 09, but have better bump/specular maps. And draw some amount of detail into the model textures too, so they would be more than just AO + Color.
My current plan is to go through the lowres textures I have, tweak if necessary and do the bump and specular maps. Then improve the model UV maps and textures, and maybe a few tweaks on the models.