[WIP] Curse of the Caves (EGA DOS game)

[Arachne]

Latest versions edit:

Title screen


Mockups


Screenshot



I was feeling nostalgic and played with the default EGA palette for a bit.



The two squares at the top show items in use. Red is the weapon currently in use and blue is for power-ups, keys, etc.



The uncut crystals serve as ammo, and you can combine different colors of crystals for different effects. There's also a diary for gathering notes and other pieces of information left by others.

I'm not really sure what I want to do next. Maybe add the remains of an ancient civilization or something like that. Those giant gold coins have to come from somewhere.

(One of these days, I'll actually finish something! )

[AdamAtomic]

great start!  all the crystals look phenomenal.  it took me almost a full minute to figure out what was going on with the background though!

[Sherman Gill]

Welcome back.

The coins look more like natural hunks of metal then coins, to me.
And yeah, the background is very jarring. Less contrast, perhaps?

[TrevoriuS]

The Coins I did not recognize as coins, I had no clue what they were at all, but figured they'd be one of the gems in the first place.
You might want to lighten up the black and dark blue part of the background a bit, so we can still see the outline on the coins and other items floating aroudn that area.

[Helm]

That's wonderful. I'd drop the values in the background as much as possible. It's better if you HINT at stalagtite-shape things with a blue dither on black than what you have going on right now.

[madPXL]

maybe for the background you should make it in pure black and put some sorts of cavities on it with blue dither,lighting etc...
I think that it should be better for visibility.

[Arachne]

The background still needs work, but something more like this, then? I changed the coins, added some spiky crystals and made a death animation for my mud man.

[Helm]

This is much better. What I'd do, further is break up the background to discrete tile clusters that can be arranged in different stalagtite combinations. Don't be afraid of large chunks of pure black for this, the background should not be continuous. Make the one side lit with the dither (as you have) and experiment with no outline on the other side. Let the brain try to interpret the gaps.



Here I made a bunch of stalagtites as 'tiles' and then I arranged them liberally below in pleasing constructions. This is possible in-game by a smart coder since the black is treated as transparency.

[Jad]

Haha, you're really obsessed with the 'single pixel' as of lately, heh?

It's looking unexpectedly(wordhelpplz) good though. The brain adds a LOT of new hues that aren't there :O Interesting.

[Helm]

quite. Especially in limited palettes the POWAH of the pixel is to be taken seriously