I tried looking up Smurfs games and most of them don't have that nice of a scale that I expected (a lot are probably cheap skins of previous games)
This one is the best image I could find. I kinda like the ground having images inside of it.
This one is a flying version and we only see a little bit of the sky.Nitrome.com is my favourite game site with free flash games. The syles and games are so great. I've played and clocked quite a few of them.
One of my favourites that has a smaller kind of scale with a small character you play is Parasite.
http://www.nitrome.com/games/parasite/#.W1vU6NL-haQ
Maybe it's the kid of big flowers around that make the character feel the same scale. The butterflies are a similar size to it also.
Sky Serpents came to mind because it's all set in the sky flying around. But the scale is huge and very high up. Not quite what I want. But the art is super nice anyway.
Sprite animation references from this website: https://www.spriters-resource.com/
When looking at game backgrounds it seems that a theme is to see the ground underneath the grass, like the soil/earth. Is this something that's been conditioned because of popular previous games? Or does it actually help with grounding that character and knowing what can be stood on or not? Is this something I'll need for a flying game? Should the character slow down or die when they hit the ground or not be effected?
I think it will probably be good to include a little bit and not have it effect the character negatively. I guess for a UI perspective, it means that text can go there and buttons like a pause. Or where the flag timeline is.
I've been looking at Pintrest:
https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/290060032241015206/?lp=true
https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/686236061942906207/
https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/326229566745061456/
All the pictures and content is surprisingly handy! Lots of inspiration and styles and layouts.
