Damrem Games

a series of composition tips i’d been sharing on twitter!

and since some people had asked, i’ve put up a pdf version of this on gumroad along with a layered psd of one of the example images too

ISOcalypse by Pixel Joint

Another traditional isometric collaboration is complete as 42 members of the pixel art community Pixel Joint (you can read about the history and the present of the site in Retronator Magazine) turned in all 92 pieces of the puzzle.

These artworks are created by setting a theme and some ground rules (palette, scale), and then subdividing the big canvas into diamond-shaped tiles. Each artist only sees the edges of the neighboring tiles and adds their own continuity into the image. As the title suggests, it was all about the apocalypse this time.

This is how I cut corners in Ludum Dare and other jams:

non-modal interaction

no overworld

no menu-based combat

no world map between levels

simple graphics

stay in 2D unless gameplay is in 3D

keep animations to 2-4 frames

no scrolling,

orthogonal perspective

no alpha blending, only color key

keep the color palette small (5 per sprite, 16 per screen, 32 total)

no realism, take inspiration from cartoons

no fancy AI algorithms

no A* search

no learning

no constraints solving

simple mob behaviour

human-vs-human multiplayer for intelligent enemies

no online multiplayer

turn-based multiplayer can be played with only one keyboard

local co-op is tricky

simple game tools

bfxr for sound

autotracker for music

gimp for environment art (backgrounds/tilesheets)

aseprite for characters/animations

if you do a 3D game, use 2D tools and put the sprites on billboards

port to Microsoft Windows after the jam has ended

design the game with a lowest playable resolution in mind

only 5 minutes of content

players are slower than you anyway

This is what I always try to put in:

animation

sound effects

a title screen

a game over screen

a shortcut to take you to the LD rating page

colorblind mode if necessary

This stuff is easy to do and nice to have:

a main menu

gamepad support (if applicable)

music

screenshake

tweet your high score function