Same Great Taste, More Pixels!

I have mentioned on this site that I've been working on an art/game project.  Well, it is nearing release and i figured I could post about it.

A programmer who had developed a sprite based library for Mac approached me in 2001 (that's 10 years ago!!) to do some art for at-the-time-untitled game project.In 2005, it was finally released and called Midnight Mansion, and it receieved very good success in the Mac shareware market.

In 2010, Midnight Mansion 2 was released, which largely used the same assets but added some new elements and enemies.  But, by 2010, Midnight Mansion, which is already an "old school" game was really showing its age.

Vern, the programmer for Midnight Mansion, was porting his engine to Intel and taking advantage of OpenGL for graphics acceleration.  This, among other things, let him more easily embrace much higher resolutions than the 640x480 that Midnight Mansion and Midnight Mansion 2 run at.

What starte dout as a 4-6 week endeavor has taken almost 6 months.  I have re-drawn 90% of the graphics and sprites from scratch, and the result of comparing the old screenshot side-by-side to its new counterpart is astounding.

click me to see the original MM art (left) compared to the new MM art (right)

I sort of cringe to look at the old artwork, and frankly that's my motivation for kicking all kinds of butt with the updated version.  Not only am I increasing detail, contrast and vibrancy of the sprites and tiles, Vern has added some dynamic shadows and glows that really bring the game up to modern standards.

Check out the below images to compare some screenshots side by side.  On the left is the original Midnight Mansion screenshot, and on the right is a screenshot from the new Midnight Mansion.  Click to view the large version!

 

 

 

 

This new project will be released under the name "Midnight Mansion HD" in two parts sometime in the new couple of months, I'd imagine.  It'll be released at a price that will be impossible to turn down on the Mac App store, and then eventually to iPad, iPhone and Windows.  For more information, stick to this blog or head to http://www.actionsoft.com.  I'm excited to see some new life breathed into the world of Midnight Mansion!

Comments

[Andy Vann]

Can't wait to download this and play it again. I never got very far the first time, so this'll be a treat. I hope you get paid again.

[Jacob Vann]

Haha, yes, definitely getting paid. Shame on you for not finishing it the first time. It's a fantastic game and I'm proud to be a part of it.

[Riley A Vann]

There are actually remarkably few games I've played through to completion. A 3-4 of the Mario games, 2-3 of the Zelda games and a few of the Final Fantasy games and that's about it.