Knytt Stories: Ideas for Collectable Items

In the Knytt Stories mod I'm working on I intend to include 7 types of artifacts. These will be collectible items that can be spread throughout a level for players to find. Each type will have 7 instances making 49 artifacts in total. But, I've run into a problem. I don't know what they should look like. At first I was going to make spinning gemstones, but I couldn't make a convincing pixel art version that looked fitting in the Knytt Stories visual style. The two images below are my current train of thought. They are based on those floaty things that kill you if you don't have the hologram, 2:18 and 2:19.

Anyway, I'd like to see what the community thinks. If anyone has ideas for what the artifacts should be or look like, I'd like to hear them. Or, if you could tell me how to improve these images, then please do.

the only immediate thought I got, is that the animations you have there look a bit hectic/too fast.

They were much slower in Windows picture viewer. Let me try to remake them...
OK, now they're running at a speed closer to the one seen in game. One problem I have with these is the yellow one appears to turn 90 degrees and then turn back. It should appear to turn 180 degrees like the red one. I'm not sure what to do about it. The light source is top-left and slightly in front of the screen.

The yellow one looks just fine to me. No matter how hard I look at it, I can't fool myself into seeing it turn 90 degrees then snap back.

I like them both. They're pretty cool!

I like 'em. The red one's pretty sexual, though.

I like 'em. The red one's pretty sexual, though.

lol xD

yeah, they look nice~ I can't wait to try it out

I like 'em. The red one's pretty sexual, though.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees it that way.

Wow! It never crossed my mind that the red one was suggestive of anything but mystical/high technology. I'm thinking I should change it now. Once you see it as a phallic symbol, you can never go back. Although, that does invoke a since of ancientness. Primitive art is full of phalli and fertility gods.

Wow! It never crossed my mind that the red one was suggestive of anything but mystical/high technology. I'm thinking I should change it now. Once you see it as a phallic symbol, you can never go back. Although, that does invoke a since of ancientness. Primitive art is full of phalli and fertility gods.

Personally I had thought that it looked like a "T" connecting with a "U" but yeah it does indeed look rather suggestive. Maybe instead if one prong, you could use two? Like having the pi symbol or an up side down "U" connect with a sideways "E"?

Of course, maybe having one object slide into another is just something to avoid all together? Up to you.

[mod]fixed quote[/mod]

I took another stab at it. The new artifacts are posted above next to the old ones. I split the red one in to 3 parts to make it less suggestive. The yellow one is sporting new highlighting on a few frames to improve the illusion of rotation. Both have reduced speed. Both have increased pauses when they're whole.

@ Marzog: I'm afraid the Pi/E combo would be to large.

I was thinking maybe getting the animation to be smoother but I don't know if it is too hard. I mean, the yellow one, right now, is like 2 separate animations, the top part moves, then waits for the bottom part to move, and then the bottom part waits for the top part to finish it's movement as well. Is it impossible to make both of those parts to move non-stop and sync them correctly?

I was thinking maybe getting the animation to be smoother but I don't know if it is too hard. I mean, the yellow one, right now, is like 2 separate animations, the top part moves, then waits for the bottom part to move, and then the bottom part waits for the top part to finish it's movement as well. Is it impossible to make both of those parts to move non-stop and sync them correctly?

I like how that "un-synched" animation looks in the 2^nd attachment. (I think it's supposed to look rather robotic)  But with the current velocity it may look slightly disjointed. Anyways, i attached what i think Rai meant for comparison.

PS: Nice shading skills ego.

Yes, taht's what I meant, but it doesn't need that pause when they touch. Or does it?

I'm going for a casual robotic feel. I've asked my self whether the parts should overlap their movements or not. The yellow artifact certainly seems unhindered from the beginning, but the red one's sliding parts are still in the way. It's imperative that all artifacts have the same behavior so the player will recognize them as collectibles after learning it once with one type of artifact.

I think the artifacts should stay together for a moment to emphasize that the parts make up a whole. I'm considering programming them to animate at random intervals. My hope is this will give them a more mystical/intelligent appearance.

@ Firecat: Thanks for the work and the praise. These are so tiny and complex, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. That's mainly why I opened this thread.

I'm afraid I don't have any constructive criticism to put forward, I just wanted to say I'm really impressed with both examples. In particular, the newest version of the red artifact is wonderful; I really like the separated central section dropping down first, almost like the top piece is an electromagnet.