[DEV] Preserving Visuals in the Changes Screen
Hey Dungeoneers,
With a bunch of spritework improvements starting in v4.0.0, I decided to spend a little time looking at historical stuff in the changes scene this week. Currently if a visual asset is updated in the main game it's updated in the changes scene too. It doesn't really feel right for something like a v0.1.0 change to use item sprites from v4.0 though, so I've decided to change that!
I've now converted the changes screen to use its own dedicated icons file, so that icons can be accurate to when a particular update was released. I've even decided to add the original release notes for Pixel Dungeon for good measure, going all the way back to v0.1 in December 2012! This ended up being a lot of work, the changes scene currently has almost 275 unique icons!
Here's how that looks on the oldest set of changes from 0.2 and prior. Current on left and new on right:
How will this impact download and installed sizes? Not gonna change much for me, but might for some.
The entire asset file for this is 31kb currently, so it's a drop in the bucket. In general pixel art assets take up very little space versus stuff like splash arts (~200kb each after lossy compression) or audio (~400kb per minute after lossy compression)
Thanks
Really drives home what a downgrade the new blurry and distorted consumable icons are.
Nah, the new sprites are objectively better, genuine advice, get new glasses or lenses
This is art, its all subjective.
These aren't the new sprites either, the actual new sprites will probably be revealed in v4
I agree that increasing visual detail has to be carefully considered in the context of the game, it's something we've always been aware of and will probably be the number 1 thing we pay attention to as these visuals are implemented and refined. I don't think exaggerating like that helps your argument much though, it ends up sounding like "new thing bad because new", which unfortunately isn't helpful feedback.
I'm sorry you felt like that was an exaggeration for effect. It is my honest opinion stated as clearly and concisely as possible.
Agreed. Feedback need to be on a per-sprite basis.
Note: on the screenshot, v0.1x, left, both scrolls are the same, but not on right
Yeah while I was scanning over all the icons I made a few tweaks here and there too. You can see that I also changed the horn to use a variant that's partly full.