I've been replaying the Gurk games recently, and got inspired to design something similar. Started with EGA, but then switched to the C64 colors. Here is what I have now. Right now I am still motivated to try and make a game out of it.


I introduced some new variations of the already existing tiles for the overland map, some new overlays for roads and multiple tile elements.
I am not sure about the water tiles. Any ideas to make them look better?


For the encounters, I thought that small vignettes would look much more interesting then the simple icons of a creature. Originally went with free drawings but then stumbled upon a screenshot of the Wolf Rock encouter in Magic Candle and fell in love with the concept.


I placed the combats on full pic maps instead of tiled ones. Added some new elements like dynamic starting positions, combat area limitations and map assets.

You might be right, though I think the trippiness is more due to the blue clashing with the red, maybe even the chromostereopsis effect caused by them.

I still think that desaturation deemphasizes and could be used to shift the focus.

How about true grayscale:


I also lifted the drider to tilt the left side ambushers and break the horizontal composition a bit.

Thank you for your reply!

-w/e the purple and metal loop in the foreground is, it's unreadable and hard to interpret

It is supposed to be a shortsword, with the purple part being its crossguard. I recolored the guard to brown, but I guess it does not enhance readablity.

-the male protagonist's hat is a bit rounded
*if it's a medieval helmet with chain mail underneath, it needs better indications
*if it's a Victorian era (?) bloodborne/hellsing style, the hat needs a wider brim

Your first guess gets it right. Added some visual clues to give it a bit more definition.

-the male protagonist's front leg is also broken

I am not seeing what you mean. Could you specify where?

the sword and female look quite nice far as i can tell. but much of the other objects such as the cave background still looks very rough in draft so it's hard to give much more thoughts on it

Made some cleanup on the left side, what do you think about it now?



I am not sure I should indicate chainmail on the drows far away with dithering. Any thoughts about it?

It has probably been stated by others, but the stiff pose of the demoness takes much of her femininity away. I still don't know if this is intended, but based on your description I guess it isn't.

You could probably do this way better than I, but here is a quick suggestion:

Here's another quick edit. I tried not to change the design and the style that much.



I cannot say more to it as Pix3M, just another take on it. Yours looks as if a 2x1 sprite were edited with some 1x1 pixels. The C64y colourscheme enhances this feeling as well.

I don't know your system limitations, so the yoyo thing might need some more thought with this version though.