For my 2D game prototype, the player can control a cat wandering around to a handful of areas, and find their kittens. There a few pieces that are rough currently- the walk animation doesn’t mirror when facing to the right, collisions are a little funky, and the void is visible in many places. But you can walk around as a cat and experience my rudimentary pixel art! Hooray!
The next steps will hopefully make the game look and feel much better. I plan on improving the things mentioned above, as well as adding some polish elements here and there; some camera post-processing effects, kittens being sent to the home when collected, and cameras dedicated to each area, transitioning between them as you cross the threshold rather than always following the player.
UPDATE!
The final version of the game is available on itch.io!
Collisions feel much better, the camera system feels nice, collected kittens appear in the home, and the walk directions are much better.
Josiah, your sense of color is phenomenal. I am blown away with what you did with the trees. And, picking an orange cat was inspired. I think your animations work well with the art style. What was your inspiration for the colors you used? I am not sure if you mentioned it. How are you planning on implementing the camera post processing effects? What are you thinking?
Thanks, Karen! My initial idea for the color scheme was a limited color palette, with cool colors outdoors and warm colors indoors. I wanted the cat to stand out from the environment, as she’s a part of the cozy home and the main character working to return everyone to that comfort. I was actually planning on a white cat at first, but I had a sprite for this cat that I liked and decided to work off of that for the animations.
The post-processing effects are actually already in the game! There’s a vignette effect, and I think maybe a film grain and one or two other things. I used a global post-process volume in Unity’s universal render pipeline.