This post-mortem deals with the graphics of our entry for LD43, AS OF YET UNNAMED. This is a more in-depth follow-up on my Narrated Pixelart Timelapse video. There's a lot to say, so I separated it into three parts.

Part 3: Conclusions

• Go to Part 1: The Process
• Go to Part 2: Out-Of-Game Graphics

The Good

Looking back, I am quite happy with how everything turned out. My initial idea for the graphics was based on Broforce, but I pretty quickly managed to move away from just copying a style when I made the initial bobblehead characters. And I feel we managed to visually capture the over-the-top patriotism we wanted to achieve.

I had hoped we'd come up with a concept where I could do a bunch of pixelart animation again, like I had done previously with Artax for Ludum Dare 39, and this certainly fit that specific bill. I try to not think ahead before the theme is known too much, but the itch to animate was definitely there.

The Bad (And The Ugly)

Contrast! Particularly the missiles can be hard to see against the background. The time-slow mechanic does make the background art slightly transparent so the foreground stands out more, but when there are multiple missiles on screen it's hard to keep track of everything. I added something of an outline as it was even worse before, but there's a lot of room for improvement. We had thought to add a particle smoke trail to the missiles, but time ran out for that.

Comparing this title to Artax again, the main culprit for having these contrast issues is the bright background. Artax had a similar style of pixelart with no outlines, but it had much darker backgrounds. In all honesty, it didn't really register in my mind that this would be an issue until all the backgrounds were done already. Looking back, perhaps an outlined style similar to our Mini Ludum Dare 50 entry Naturally Selected 2D would have been a better choice.

The Cutting Room Floor

Various assets are on my tile sheet that unfortunately did not make it into the game. I had completed a helicopter, but the next day our fresh eyes revealed how its oval shape did not suit the otherwise square and diagonal aesthetic of the game. Now this is not really a cutting room floor victim, as I iterated on its look and came up with a more suitable version of it, but it does represent time spent that doesn't directly end up in a used asset.

We had considered a pickup for bodyguards to collect that adds an extra bodyguard to your squad, so I made a shiny secret service badge for that purpose. A lack of time combined with automated additions of guards meant it had no use.

We had wanted spectators to dress up the background art from the start, as this was meant to be a parade of sorts, but time also prevented them from attending. In the end, however, it's probably a good thing as more characters on screen would probably make for some visual overload.

I think that about wraps up everything I wanted to say. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions feel free to contact me!