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[Droqen]

I was planning on doing the art myself, but, um, I don't think I'm capable. I would like to add more detail than I am able to do as well but I need to make, at the very least, a few variations of the main character with a pair of attacking animations and blah blah blah blah. You don't really care about all that, so I'll get onto what you might care about.

Reverse Metroidvania?
Yeah. It's pretty simple when you think about it!
You start out with a bunch of abilities.
As you progress, you lose abilities.
Congratulations. You now understand the basics of a reverse metroidvania :D
And of course this is gonna be a platformer.

So what's it about?
There's actually a bit of a story, but I'm still working on that -- plus I wouldn't want to spoil things in case I finish this (and damn it, I am going to finish this). We'd have to talk a bit and then I could let you in on the majority of the "story". It's important but perhaps textless.

Art style?
If it looks good and is neutral or meshes well with the theme I've got in mind you're good. Again, I guess we'd just have to talk some more.

Back to the basic request
Can you make pixel art for a platformer that looks good? That'd be making, say, everything? ;_; If possibly, contact me and ask me what the hell this is all about to see if you're interested.

For now, I'll be working on it myself and maybe it'll improve my pixel art skills to the point where I never have to come here again o:

'Til that day, I hope to hear from you, interested and talent-filled art makers!

(This is not a strictly unpaid collab since I might be going to flashgamelicense in which case a chunk of the money will be going your way :D)

[John Nesky]

Not a pixel artist, but I'm curious... The primary reason why MetroidVanias involve collecting abilities is to gradually unlock parts of the map so as not to overwhelm the player at the beginning with a wide open map. I imagine you have a plan to circumvent this problem?

[Droqen]

This is a good point to bring up, so I'm glad you did so!

I believe I do have a plan, although I will have to convince myself of its validity.

Essentially there will be three areas, each increasing in size.

The first area will serve as somewhat of a 'tutorial' and contain one easy boss.
The second area will serve as a 'get used to stuff' and contain maybe one to two bosses (whose order may be fixed or free)
The third area will be the largest (unless I add a fourth area) and contain two to four bosses; it will also contain the largest amount of explorable area, of course.

You'll probably be able to move relatively freely between the three areas once you've... made it to all of them, I guess.

Something like that.

Numbers subject to change.


( other things are in mind, such as an ability somehow actually preventing you from getting somewhere, but I'm still puzzling those details out )

[John Nesky]

You could, of course, use scripted events to unlock areas, or stuff like the color-coded locked doors in Metroid Fusion. It's frowned on in Metroidvanias, but you're not making one.

[Noyb]

( other things are in mind, such as an ability somehow actually preventing you from getting somewhere, but I'm still puzzling those details out )

Awesome concept! You can do some neat stuff with level design if you go this route. Like, maybe you always jump a set height, so losing a high jump will let you platform through a corridor with low hanging spikes on the ceiling. Or maybe a powerful weapon that shoots through multiple blocks at a time prevents you from making a staircase out of those blocks to reach a higher area.

[Medevenx]

You might wanna tell us the theme of the game, the characters, stuff.