Crucially, the game is minimalist in very specific ways that, to be frank, let me cut corners. I suck at picking colours, so there's a hard limit of 4 colours per environment texture. For some, a palette this restrictive would make picking colours harder, but I find this much easier. 5/11

"Quick" thread and other lies I tell myself before sitting down to write this for like an hour 💀

Not using AI also helps lol. Fuck that noise. 11/11

Anyway, all of this isn't to say that I don't care about the game's art style, or that it came about completely by accident. But it should be clear that the art style is shaped by the things that I can't do or don't want to do, my brand of "laziness", as much as it's shaped by things I can do. 10/11

The filter on backgrounds during battles is based on a failed attempt to replicate the look of Critters For Sale, which I mentioned earlier. This kind of morphed and mutated into something more akin to the Earthbound battle backgrounds. I still have no idea how it was implemented in CFS lol. 9/11

I'm not an animator, so 2D animation is extremely limited. I use shaders to do simple idle animations and give battles a little bit of bounce, and I can reuse them between enemies. 8/11

Likewise, for the art assets and character designs that I contract out to other artists (such as Bifrons and Scox), the restrictive use of colours makes them fit in without introducing byzantine style guidelines. 7/11

This has the side effect of helping me to indulge in the use of mixed media. Restricting colours through indexing makes incompatible assets and different art styles fit together. Introducing novelty has been a big factor in motivating me to continue making the game. 6/11

Crucially, the game is minimalist in very specific ways that, to be frank, let me cut corners. I suck at picking colours, so there's a hard limit of 4 colours per environment texture. For some, a palette this restrictive would make picking colours harder, but I find this much easier. 5/11

To me, I often look at the game's art style and find myself seeing it as too simple, or even derivative, but I try to remind myself that this is because I'm steeping in the game and its influences, and the things I enjoy, every day. 4/11

A lot of elements of things I like slipped into the art, without me thinking about it. Baroque, Morrowind, old fantasy artwork, Undertale/Deltarune, Shin Megami Tensei, The Dark Crystal. I haven't actively read Bleach since I was 14, but you can even see echoes of it in the game. 3/11

Visually, I took on a lot of intentional influence from 90s DOS action-DRPGs like Daggerfall and Ultima Underworld, RPG maker games like Middens and Gingiva, and the monochrome visuals of Critters For Sale. Some elements are inspired by the illustrations from the Dictionnaire Infernal. 2/11

👁️👁️