Escape pod concepts

I wanted to figure out how the robot's crashed escape pod should look so I did these sketches.  Ended up picking the lower left one.

A timeline of mock-ups

 This was the first mock-up of the game that I did.  None of the designs were finalized, but I liked the colors.

 This was some early placeholder art.  I really didn't like the colors so I made sure to use the colors from the initial sketch when working on the final assets.  I told myself I'd never show anyone this one, but I want this design process to be pretty transparent.

 I've been experimenting with a middle layer.  This was testing the values of the robot and the middle layer and making sure that they read in the light and in the dark.

This is a test of some of the level elements that we might have.

Level color schemes

We're still tweaking a lot of major aspects of the plot, levels, and mechanics.  Isaac is doing a re-write of the code which is briefly setting us back but should save us a lot of time in the long-run.  We recently had a long discussion about adding jumping to the game.  In the end, I think we came up with a great compromise that will add a lot to the game while maintaining a uniquely robotic feel.

David was wondering what the mood of the game would be as it progresses so I did some small color studies of some of the areas that I've got firmly envisioned.

Early robot concepts

Robot in the Dark mock-up

Mock-up

Here's a mock-up that's pretty close to how I hope the finished product will look.  That is the actual robot sprite and background.

Early color rough for Solar Reboot