After announcing Project ZATO, myself and Chris met up over the weekend to discuss and plan a few things around the project.
One of the first things we discussed was around the graphical style of Project ZATO. The view is going to be top down and the style is going to be pixel art, however there are options on how we approach both of those choices. Do we go for a strict top down view along the lines of Hotline Miami or do we go for the illusion of an angle like Nuclear Throne. Also should we go for a low detail pixel art look with 16×16 pixel sprites or do we go for a more detailed 64×64 look? There’s pros an cons to both sides and it’s largely a balance between extra effort and detail. In the end we went for the style we both aesthetically prefer and that’s top down with the illusion of an angle using 64×64 pixel sprites. This is open to change as we go through some initial draft designs but as it stands we’re both happy with the decision.
The other talking point and arguably more difficult choice is how we break up the story. The story that was initially penned for the comic is pretty vast in scope. It will make an amazing computer game story but is that best told in one game or over a series? At first I had envisioned just one game but the more talked about it, the more is made sense to split it up. Just how we split it up we’re not sure yet. From a strict story telling point of view it’s easy to make that call, but when you include game play into that it becomes a bit more fuzzy. We will start to get an idea after we have a prototype for the first world/mission/act. Then we will know how the game feels and how long it takes to explore the story.
As of today we have some early sprite work and a basic mechanics prototype that we’re working with and it’s looking great! Really excited to see how this all plays out!