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Hi, thanks for the reply!

When I think about dungeon design, I tend to reference older arcade style games like The Legend of Zelda. That’s the kind of feeling I wanted to recreate, just with a bit more color. Although fitting all the necessary information into an 8×8 space is definitely a challenge.

I used Unity as the engine and did all the art in Aseprite. The style turned out to be quite easy to reproduce. Оnce you get used to working in 8×8, it takes significantly less time than creating 3D assets or more detailed 2D art.

Choosing the color palette wasn’t easy. Initially, the game used warmer tones, but I eventually switched to a darker, more blue-ish palette, as it better conveys a cave or dungeon atmosphere. That said, it’s very much a matter of taste  (some like it, some don’t). Otherwise, I was inspired by simple pixel games, like game jam projects, where there is clean pixel art together with shaders to stand out visually.

For level creation, I use a modified Rule Tile system to store data. And yes, as you mentioned, all levels are handcrafted with overall balance and difficulty in mind, which has both advantages and drawbacks, especially when it comes to scaling the game. 

As for level structure: the first two levels serve as a tutorial. Initially, I wanted to fit everything into one, but splitting it into two felt more natural and less overwhelming for the player. After that, levels are built around a simple pattern: introduce a new mechanic -> let the player experiment with it -> then start combining it with previous mechanics, gradually increasing complexity and the number of interactions within the system. At the same time, I wanted to follow the example of Plants vs. Zombies,  where besides the main gameplay in the campaign there are additional mini-games. So for each block of levels, I also add separate events and a boss fight - this helps break up the core gameplay loop and keeps things engaging.

There is not much space to work with, so I constantly have to find workarounds. This is probably one of the downsides. Hope I didn’t tire you with such a detailed analysis. For the full release, I plan to expand the camera to give the player more freedom.