Posted August 30, 2020 by MGD MillsGameDev
Started the update to break out of the 64x64 limits of the game jam. This means stepping out from the square screen shape to fit whatever target we are making the game for. 16:9 for most monitors/devices, 4:3 for iPads. Talking with my artist, we are going to double the resolution for a bit more detail in the sprites without losing the LowRez feel of the game. At a low rez we had to exaggerate the artwork to help define the objects from their backgrounds. Now we can be a bit more subtle. This is also giving us a chance to update the buildings and other things.
One thing that we worked on this week was the Text. Since we had to write a custom text screen for the bitmap fonts at low res, we worked on the code a bit more to make it scale to the different aspect ratios, and we upgraded the font to the classic Atari Int font. It will be much more readable than the 3x5 font we had before.
We have updates a few screens in the game. The Title screen, player picker, state picker and the flight. We are taking advantage of the extra screen size to add more detail, and to make it look a bit cooler.
This week has been focusing on the artwork for ground tiles, Walls, etc. Next week is going to be all about the Character Sprites. All the citizens use lots of sprites for the body, hair, clothes, etc. We are going to be busy with just that!