Posted April 12, 2023 by guv_bubbs
#Playdate SDK Development
Small update to share what I've been working on.
Over the past few weeks I've been able to get a lot of time to work on tile art and I think It's going well.
At least in adapting from references, I'm getting a lot better.
---
Buildings
When I started making Comet I used an asset pack on itch that was made for Pulp where the tiles were 8x8.
At the time I didn't think I could get very good looking buildings so I felt they were good enough.
This building for example was flat but it did the job.
Many of the assets from the pulp build of Comet got adapted for the SDK build just so we could get it off the ground.
Now on the SDK, I have layers and 10x10 tiles. (And much better tile management to boot)
So I felt like I could come back to and see what could be done to make them look better.
First I started working on new roofs.
Which turned out really well I think.
Then these little triangle sections so I could square them off and use my current building fronts.
All of this looked good in isolation but when attached to a building felt really busy.
So with some feedback from the team, I started trying to design some building fronts that were more plain
I think these look great but at this stage they're unique for each width (8-4).
These will be iterated on again in the future but for now they work
---
Cliff shadows
Before & after
Parts of the map that didn't make logical sense so I've worked to fix them up.
Land heights
Before & after
Likely not noticed by the player but it keeps things consistent world.
Cliffs connections
Special transition between tiles
As I build out new areas I'm trying to balance using the tiles I have vs making new ones.
But in this area here I needed to merge how corners blended in with the wider cliff face.
All in all, things are looking a lot better.
Just wait until you see the new sprites!