So, Mere Anarchy, at least the core of what I wanted to put out, is mostly done in its raw (I say raw here because the formatting and design is minimal - although it is not truly raw) but accessible form. The game is available for free here and at this point is available in multiple languages, at least the core rules (however, all of the Mere Anarchy books have been translated to Portuguese).
Over the last few days I have been thinking about the aesthetic of the game, the black and white simplified layout and art, the do it yourself feel, and while I think it works fine (and that was the intial goal, to get the work out and get it into hands), I am wanting to go in a new direction that I feel is a bit more fitting for the game. What I have decided on is a retro gaming look, sort of like the old Nintendo Power Magazines from the '80s and '90s, or the manuals that came with NES games.
While I didn't have a subscription to
Nintendo Power as a kid, it was on my radar and somehow I was able to read and keep up with what was going on. I know I had friends who brought their magazines to school and somehow I had issues (usually random) laying around. Looking in those pages was this sense of awe, discovering how to beat a boss or looking at a map from The Legend of Zelda or Metroid and seeing that world from a bird's eye view was just awesome. Seeing all of the hidden areas and secrets in those ultra colorful pages was inspiration to my young mind and sent it running in so many directions. Reading one of those magazines was like gaining entry into this secret and exclusive world of kids in the know. And seeing pixel art and pixel maps and characters and sprite sheets still creates this sense of joy and inspiration in me today. There is an elegance in pixel art, where everything is as it should be. There is also this sense in leaving so much up to the viewer's imagination that I really love. Let the viewer fill in the empty pixels. So, with that inspiration and all of that nostalgia being said. I am putting together an 8-bit inspired version of Mere Anarchy.
I wanted to post a teaser as a sort of proof of concept of what the finished thing would look like. The idea is to effectively emote that retro (at this point is it even retro?) 8-bit sense which feels incredibly fitting for Mere Anarchy. All of the artwork, characters, monsters, weapons, maps, dungeons, etc. will be pixel art. In future posts I will take a look at some of the tools I am using to make this process a bit easier and more effective as pixel art can be an incredibly tedious and timely affair. For now there is this page to give a sense of what the game will ultimately look like.
This is a project I am ridiculously excited about as it is pulling so many different things I love together. More coming soon!
