Making night blue instead of just darker, that is smart. Not sure why I didn't think of this.

Currently I am defining a color pallet. Based on the feedback from RenzoCoppolla, it seems logic to go back to the basics and define a color pallet before going forward. I think to create a better visual style, I should not start with technical solutions like lighting and shadows, but start with a design vision. I have some ideas. In my mind it's all starting to form.

@TedEH: My goal is to learn howto create and market a game. I already released this game for mobile a while ago. Its not 'viral', but it is played. I rewrote, rebalanced and updated the game for desktop platforms (windows/linux/mac) to create a real desktop experience. Ofcourse I already knew the graphics are weak, but as a creator it's sometimes hard to see the flaws. I think I got used to the current visuals, after many hours of testing.

IMO, if you're thinking of it as a learning experience, then I wouldn't stress too much about it. Part of the lesson learned I guess is that the visual bits of your game are a huge part of it's marketing. The visuals you have so far aren't "bad" in the sense that they're functional (from a gameplay perspective). They work on a gameplay level, but don't really work on a marketing level, or as a hook.

What you should do, is find some reference material - games, films, comics, or pictures - that represents the style you want to use. Try to understand what makes it distinctive. Then work out how to recreate that. Pro studios do exactly this with moodboards and concept art even when they have professional artists on board, so you doubly need to do this as you won't have any trained feeling for different styles yet.

I created some rough prototypes to experiment with color. Most textures are disabled and there is just one enemy type. I just focussed on colors. What do you think?

I created some rough prototypes to experiment with color. Most textures are disabled and there is just one enemy type. I just focussed on colors. What do you think?

Wow, that's looking nice! Much more professional. I like how the turquoise of the army units sets them apart from the rest of game elements and the subdued palette lets the rocket trails and explosions stand out more. Could make the explosions brighter still for some more visual impact. And maybe brighten up the background grass layer a bit, though that depends on if you're going for an army-olive overall palette or not. I figure the game is a bit more lighthearted than that what with the sheep theme so it seems appropriate to make the world a bit brighter and more joyful.

Thanks! In more chaotic levels the contrast of the blue against the background really helps. Next step is to define a palette for the towers. I want to avoid blue and green. I think I like the red from the rocket towers, with the red glow. Not sure if it is allowed to make the enemy blue, and the players units red....

I might replace the 'sheep' theme with something more fitting. The gameplay is pretty hardcore.

I started an attempt to create the desert biome. I attached a low-level image, seems that I hit the upload size limit..:) Again, really rough graphics. Just trying out colors.

In-game graphics are well-drawn but flat. The main reason for flatness is the strict top-down perspective, which doesn't allow you to show the sides and the height of your objects.

To reduce flatness without abandoning the top-down view for a more standard axonometric view I would try adding harsher, possibly exaggerated shadows. Currently, trees, guns, sheep etc. have faint and close shadows that

• are effectively invisible, or unrecognizable as shadows
• suggest lighting from above, wasting any opportunity for meaningful shading

Regarding the menus, the main problem is tasteless layout; you don't seem to care for spacing (e.g. above and below text) and positioning (e.g. the randomly placed medal).

Font choice is also painful, with blatantly stretched (and, as already noted, badly outlined) renderings of random built-in Windows typefaces like Arial and Impact. A game should have tasteful and distinctive fonts: they don't need to be special, but they should look like you chose them.

I started reworking the menu's. In the background the game plays random replay files from games played by the player. This is blurred and played in slow motion to make it not too distracting. The menu's animate and use colors from the palette. I also changed the font. Not sure if I like it enough, but I will continue to search alternatives.

I uploaded a low res screenshot from the main menu. I cannot post more screenshots, since I reached the upload limit.

You don't need to hate Arial, Arial hates you.

While the menu layout in the new screenshot is tasteful and balanced, it looks like it has been rendered with a fallback default font instead of the intended one.

Suggestion: bold fonts with unusually rounded serifs, like Cooper Black or Souvenir, to suggest sheep, or display fonts with pointed shapes, like Serpentine, to suggest war. .