PiN the Guardian Spirit

[lZebl]

Hi everyone!
I’ve been tinkering away on Godot since November 2023; and I thought I should start getting involved with the community a bit.

Here’s my little passion project:

PiN is a hand-drawn, 2D platformer with light combat elements.
Currently, I’m working on it solo (definitely not for the entire thing).
I don’t have a build for you to try out just yet, so I will attach some screenshots.

But I’m hoping to have something playable soon - and I would love your feedback on that!

Stills:

Making sure he looks expressive:

Spine_Mini Reel

Quick look at combat:

Short Combat Example

[qaqelol]

This is very cute !! I love the UI and the game aesthetics !

[lZebl]

Thank you!

[redflare]

Hey!

Just wanted to say, this looks really charming. The art style gives me some Rayman vibes (from the stills), and I mean that as a big compliment.

You’ve clearly put a lot of heart into it already.

Great job so far, and definitely keep going.. I’ll be looking forward to see more.. Keep us posted!

[lZebl]

Hey redflare,

Thanks so much for that! Rayman is definitely an inspiration here.
I actually changed the death animation to this last week as a sort of homage:

[ComicallyUnfunny]

The art is gorgeous, but i’m worried about visual clarity.. while i thoroughly loved how everything looked, foreground, background, and even characters and items seemed to blend. you might need some more lighting or something to distinguish them from the background.
edit: to clarify, everything’s there if you look closely, but eh lines between them are a bit unclear.

[lZebl]

Thanks a lot ComicallyUnfunny, really appreciate your honest feedback here.
Maybe I could add outlines to characters which turn on if there’s too much background noise behind them? Same with the items. That could at least help with reading the screen a bit better.

I have optional lights on the characters too, which I could switch on. Although for this particular level, I’m trying to find a balance between visibility and a convincing sunset behind everyone. It’s a bit tricky but I’ll definitely keep working on it.

[ComicallyUnfunny]

I totally see what you’re saying. As a very cartoony 2D game dev, I have the option of adding nice outlines to everything, but of course, your style doesn’t fit that.
I’ll see if i can find a good example of something that is clear to reccomend.
edit: maybe some small outlines, if you think it would fit.

[Luova_Labs]

Hello!

If the background is a sunset, couldn’t you darken the foreground and sprites (silhouettes, basically) to improve visual clarity? (Would coding that be difficult? I am not sure…)

Edit 2: I just realized that you’ve already done that in some of your images…

[lZebl]

For sure, I could try small outlines - I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for having a look! Lmk if you find something (but no stress if not).

[lZebl]

Hey Luova_Labs!

Yeah definitely. and it’s not too hard to do. I just darken the canvas modulate node and it darkens everything. In some of the screenshots you can see, it works really well. But in other areas, it might hide enemies and items you need to keep an eye on. So I’m starting to lean into having an outline atm

[willthoven]

This looks amazing—I love the aesthetic and the art style you’ve created. I look forward to seeing how this progresses!

[lZebl]

Very kind of you! Thanks for the support willthoven, and I hope future updates wont disappoint!