E.T. Returns Postmortem(ish) Part 2: Visual Design

If you haven't read it yet, I recommend checking out Part 1 of my E.T. Returns Postmortem(ish) first.

WHAT WORKED AND DIDN'T WORK WITH MY VISUAL DESIGN CHOICES?

However, I didn't take the time to dig back into the other attacks and give them a makeover with additional visual effects.  Honestly, I think I should have embraced a juicier approach for E.T.'s attack.  After abandoning the other design constraints, I stubbornly stuck to this one at the expense of visual flair and impact.  Some of the attacks lack the sort of OOMPH that really would have helped them stand out - especially at the later stages of the game where the odds are overwhelming and the attacks are quite powerful.  I've watched Juice It Or Lose It and The Art of Screenshake enough times to know better!  This was really a missed opportunity that, if time permits, I might circle back and address in a future version of the game.

Overall I'm happy with the visuals of E.T. Returns.  Obviously, as with all short development periods, there are things I wish I had done better.  In the part 3 I'll talk about one of the trickiest part of the game: enemy attack patterns.  Onward!

TL;DR: I'm happy that I used a widescreen layout and recolored and reworked sprites.  I wish I would have used uniform sprite scaling and leaned more into visual effects - especially on the attacks.