Once the theme "loop" was announced, we quickly brainstormed concepts and landed on a space tower defense game that incorporated both a time loop mechanic and visual loop gameplay. We settled on a narrative where the player had to escape a planet by building solar panels to harvest energy and turrets to defend against enemy ships before the sun exploded into a black hole, with the sun serving as a visible timer creating urgency. The core loop mechanic allowed players to rewind time before the sun's explosion to gain more attempts, but with increasing difficulty each cycle to maintain challenge and prevent infinite replays.

We researched vintage sci-fi pixel art styles from classic games like R-Type, Gradius, and Armored Core to establish our visual direction, then explored space-themed pixel art through Google search and Lospec to refine our aesthetic. We selected Lospec's Twilight 5 color palette for its moody, space-appropriate tones that would provide enough contrast for gameplay clarity while maintaining atmospheric cohesion. I also researched pixel art fonts that could inspire our title treatment and UI typography, ensuring readability at small sizes while matching the retro sci-fi aesthetic.

I created a user flow diagram mapping all necessary game screens including main menu, story introduction, instructions, settings, credits, and win/lose states to ensure we had a complete experience beyond just core gameplay. This documentation helped the team understand the full scope of what needed to be designed and developed within our 96-hour constraint, allowing us to prioritize which screens were essential for submission versus nice-to-have polish elements. The flow also established clear navigation pathways so players could move intuitively between menus and gameplay without confusion.

I created low fidelity storyboards for all critical screens including the main menu, story panels, game UI, build menu, settings, credits, and win/lose states to establish layout and information hierarchy before moving into pixel art production. By this stage we had named the game "Dying Revolution" and developed a narrative about the last members of a rebellion escaping their doomed planet, which informed the visual tone and text content across all screens. These sketches served as blueprints for me and the other artist to work from, ensuring visual consistency even as we divided sprite and UI work to maximize our limited timeline.

I developed concept sketches for enemy ships, the player's escape vessel, and planetary backgrounds to establish the visual language and proportions before moving into final pixel art production. These quick sketches ensured the other artist and I maintained consistent style and scale across all game assets despite working on different elements simultaneously.

We successfully submitted Dying Revolution before the deadline with polished pixel art assets, original music and sound effects, custom lettering, and smooth animations that brought the time loop mechanics to life. The final game is available to play for free in browser at the link below, where players can experience the full tower defense loop and narrative we built in just 96 hours.

Dying Revolution game

• Designed clear visual feedback for all player actions including building placement, enemy damage, and resource collection to ensure players could understand cause and effect without relying solely on audio cues.
• Implemented intuitive keyboard and mouse controls with a simple point-and-click interface for building placement that minimized the learning curve and didn't require complex key combinations or fast reflexes.
• Used high-contrast UI elements and readable pixel fonts to ensure critical information like resource counts, health bars, and timer displays remained legible against the space background, even for players with visual impairments.
• Provided clear visual indicators for the time loop mechanic so players could understand when the sun timer was critical and when they had successfully rewound time, making the core gameplay loop comprehensible without requiring audio.
• Created a brief tutorial system that introduced mechanics gradually through on-screen text prompts, allowing players to learn at their own pace without overwhelming them with information or requiring previous tower defense experience.
• Designed colorblind-friendly visual distinctions by varying sprite shapes and sizes for different enemy types and buildings rather than relying solely on color to communicate function or threat level.