nesdev.org

progress on this game is coming along nicely. Heres a recent shot, "NES" is widescreen and uses 8x8 palettes.

Looks pretty good, actually. However, I'm going to guess that the random skulls on the floor would be rendered as 'sprites' since there doesn't appear to be a background palette for those. Of course since this isn't designed to be made for the NES in the first place, it's not an issue, but a key reason why so many NES games looked liked the way they did was due to the dreaded sprite flicker (8 tiles per line may be drawn, anything over will either not be drawn/cause others to not be drawn or cause flicker, depending on the algorithm programmed), and given how detailed the pirate is (who likely has several sprites layered on him), this would cause extreme flicker. Again, this assuming this was an NES game (which it isn't), and this is a detail that many artists choose to ignore that has a huge impact on game aesthetics, or even level design.

That said, it looks highly plausible to be converted to the NES, albeit with a few changes. Good job!

Background looking better than ever, though I preferred bushy-bearded version of pirate. 16-px-wide feels mildly disappointing by comparison. (Or is this just "a different status level"?)

OneCrudeDude wrote:However, I'm going to guess that the random skulls on the floor would be rendered as 'sprites' since there doesn't appear to be a background palette for those.

Considering the skeleton at the right (which has the same colors), I wouldn't be surprised if those skulls are just idling skeletons.

Thanks for the feedback guys, very much appreciated. Yes the skulls are sprites.

My NES restrictions don't include scanline sprite number, and 2x2 tile colour grouping (I'm shooting for per tile MMC5 color assignment)

Bit more work on some other locations, 18th century London work in progress:

Man, those are some sweet pixels! The bigger horizontal resolution really adds an incredible sense of scale to this. And your dither texturing? Pretty sweet! No real complaints here.

Yeah, that night scene is very snazzy, with very good usage of the 8x8 attributes.

Thanks for the feedback.

Thinking of some ways to do a multicoloured title screen using tiles and the same NES restrictions without too much colour bleeding...

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(press start would be sprites)

Maybe I'm just biased, but I would avoid any mentions of "retro" or "8 bits" in a game's title. My main reason for that is because it usually means "I'm an indie game with pixel stick figure syndrome and sfxr". I really like your title screen otherwise, this is just me being a retro-snob.

Very cool title screen!

Drag wrote:Maybe I'm just biased, but I would avoid any mentions of "retro" or "8 bits" in a game's title. My main reason for that is because it usually means "I'm an indie game with pixel stick figure syndrome and sfxr". I really like your title screen otherwise, this is just me being a retro-snob.

I feel the same way. I think pixel graphics and design styles can be enjoyed for what they are without being thrust in front.

Drag wrote:Maybe I'm just biased, but I would avoid any mentions of "retro" or "8 bits" in a game's title. My main reason for that is because it usually means "I'm an indie game with pixel stick figure syndrome and sfxr". I really like your title screen otherwise, this is just me being a retro-snob.

Not just that, "Pixel Pirate" is basically implying that using pixelart is the main point of the game... which basically means the game has nothing interesting to go for it (especially given how overused pixelart is these days, especially pixelart that tries to look NES-like).

I actually think "bits of eight" is a good pun.

Unless there's some in-game justification, such as being able to produce unauthorized copies of weapons. In-game, "pixels" are the distinctive appearance aspects of a weapon, and a "pirate" is someone who trades in counterfeit items. Thus a "pixel pirate" is a specific type of counterfeiter.

tepples wrote:In-game, "pixels" are the distinctive appearance aspects of a weapon

What?