NEXIFY has been a part of my life for almost 2 years now. Since coming in 3rd place in the 2024 Kenney Game Jam, I’ve wanted to do something more with it from day one. But it has been stuck in somewhat of a limbo for me. I have a lot of things going on with this game. Firstly, I’m using mostly chopped up Kenney assets for the game, once because I want to be true to the nature of what the game jam was about, and because I really think these assets are awesome. Lastly, because it really focuses my scope. If I didn’t have this 1-bit Kenney limitation on graphics, I would never get the game done, because with art I just tend to never like anything I do.
Much like the boss gameplay, I’ve been staring at the Slime Factory level for the last 48 hours or so, just knowing it needed more, but not really knowing what it needs. I had some depth in there, but not the depth I really wanted. It felt flat and just didn’t have the dynamic look I wanted.
My sorta eureka moment came when I put a drop shadow on one of the slime pipes. I wasn’t initially trying to do a drop shadow because I wanted to stay true to the 1-bit look, but the more and more I looked at the shadow, I thought it really worked. My game doesn’t use pixel perfect integer scaling for the pixels. It’s more like a hybrid of 1-bit pixels blown up to 4K. I think it looks really neat with the chunky 1-bit pixels, then the nice even look of the shadows. It gives it an almost pixel diorama look that I really like a lot. I like how the different elements pop out. The little chains for the blocks fit between the foreground and background and look as if they are coming out of the recesses of some dark place that only Morty could imagine.
I’m honestly 98% there with the artwork. The only thing I have to figure out is the chroma shifting for the things that will be the obstacles. Once I figure that out, I’ll be very happy.
