Our retro pixel art dungeon crawler

[jalcazo]

Hello,

We are making a retro pixel art crpg dungeon crawler.

Maybe you would like to take a look at it:

- here https://www.facebook.com/morganadungeon ... 746357023/
- or here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXQ-a8ZHGaI

The site of the project is https://www.facebook.com/morganadungeoncrawler/

I hope you like it.
Best regards

[Isaac]

It's inconsistent with its visual effects. The game is intentionally pixelated (to appear retro-ish), but it has visual effects that belie the need of being pixelated. They didn't pixelate the early games on purpose, they designed them for presentation on limited hardware... yet you have very smooth alpha fades on the floating texts, and other intensive screen effects, but the door sprites disappear (rather than slide) when opened.

If they could've managed those intensive effects on an 8088 IBM XT, they would have put them to use on the doors, and other core engine graphics.

I liked the destructible chest. The game seems fine as it is, and I liked the demonstration, but it lacks any sense of authenticity. It's retro, in the case of [faked] retrofit limitations, rather than retro as being of the past. This game wouldn't have existed.

An interesting read: http://www.dinofarmgames.com/a-pixel-ar ... pixel-art/

An interesting set of videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niKblgZupOc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfh0ytz8S0k
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rsycfDliZU

[minmay]

somehow i think they might know that already

[Isaac]

somehow i think they might know that already

I don't believe that everyone does actually know that. I have seen people astounded by the graphics of Cobra Command (for not understanding what they see), and I have traded posts with people who cannot distinguish between sprites and 3D models. I think it is very possible to become proficient in using a game engine not know what came before, or why it looks the way it did.

*Cobra Command [originally] came out in '84.

I think that this is akin to being able to play violin or clarinet sounds on a keyboard synth... but not able to sound convincing, for not playing within the limits of the instrument—for not knowing those limits.

[Sir Tawmis]

I liked it...

[Komag]

I don't mind the inconsistency - a game can evoke a retro look while still using some modern aspects. Shovel Knight, for example, could never really be done on the NES, but looks NES style, and that's totally fine. I get where you're coming from, but in this case I didn't see anything that bothered me.

[Isaac]

I'm not bothered by it; there is nothing wrong with it—per se. It depends on the intention. MineCraft's graphics don't have to look the way they do; it's an intentional style. So is this... but is the intention to look blocky (because old games do?), or is it the intention to look retro? (...or perhaps to look retrofit?)

It seemed similar to me [just a bit] to the way Sandra Bullock's character in Demolition Man had decorated her 80's themed apartment with assumptions of the 20th century that made it look like a themed restaurant, rather than an 80's apartment—as seemed her intention.

(Of course... the character might have intended the latter in earnest, yet preferred the former... in the way people might romanticise pirates on the high Seas.)