A Way Out? Or Further Down...?

Submission to GB Pixel Art Jam 2024, made using Aseprite.

Update: the ROM is now a thing, and can be found here!

The theme for this jam was Color, specifically the selection of palettes which would be announced at the start of the jam. I already had an idea for an image, so for me it was a case of seeing what palettes would become available and in turn what vibe each would create.

As you can see from the "screenshots", I went ahead and tested all four palettes, and they're all evocative in their own ways:

• Forgotten Swamp has wrecked ship interior at the bottom of the ocean vibes
• Homework, along with the classic Game Boy DMG palette conveys a sense of the calm before the storm (or ship before the wreck) - a sense of the unknown without necessarily a sense of foreboding... yet...
• Mangavania looks like a still from a late '80s PC adventure game displayed in glorious CGA

I settled on Blood Tide as its three lightest colours work well as different shades of a single object (like an ominous looking metal door, for instance...), but with that dark red adding a sinister twist - it's a low-HP warning, emergency lighting, a heads-up alert that the enemy is patrolling...

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