A Way Out? Or Further Down...?

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

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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