There’s always more to game development than just designing characters, attack patterns, and enemy behavior. Creating the backgrounds takes just as much careful planning and execution!
Detailing from the Original Cartoon
There’s no question that we had to take inspiration directly from the original Toxic Crusaders cartoon! Here’s one of the reference sheets our art director made that breaks down some of the Tromaville environments from the first episode!
We wanted fans of the cartoon to notice our not-so-secret nods to scenes that may look all too familiar in-game!
Concept Art
After pointing out what references will be used, our art director then communicates what we need to Jeff Delgado, another artist on the team, and he provides concept art of what the final design could look like.
Initial Renditions
Following this, we then have our pixel artists build out the assets for the level based on the artwork. Something to note here: it isn’t 1-to-1 with the concept art, but it serves as a critical guide to fleshing out the actual level. This is also the stage where we implement a player-character sprite–like Toxie!--into the level rendition to get an idea of how they would look against the background.
Final Design and Implementation
Lastly, once theartists complete the background, and after it’s been checked over by our art director, the entire piece is implemented into the game and ready for playtesting–and, ya know, regular playing!
We’re excited to share more as we continue along with development!
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