Of Mice and Pen: Pirate Art - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 238

Phase 3: Art Integration
The Integration phase, as the title suggests, is when the environment and character art can finally
be seen working in the game. This does not mean that the job of the artist is over, however, for
although the art puts flesh on the bones of the game concept, the very act of doing so will reveal
any problems with how that art works within the game, and any such problems that might arise
will need to be rectified.
Art Therapy
When a level is constructed using the art assets, previously static graphics come to life as the first
living, breathing version of the game is born. Although it is undeniably exciting to be able to
glimpse how the game might look when completed, it is while playing this “first skinned” version
of the game that any problems with the art assets will need to be identified and solved. (Objects
might need redesigning, or further objects might be required). The artist must therefore be on call
to help with the troubleshooting, making amendments to the art where required, as many times
as necessary until each issue is resolved satisfactorily.
Shades of Grey
During the initial level construction, one of the first problems to arise involved the backgrounds.
Because the objects that made up the background were black, they threatened to obscure the
characters, and in turn became obscured where different background layers were positioned over
one another. Also, there was a more fundamental problem in that it was impossible to
differentiate interactive objects such as platforms from non-interactive elements (see Figure 10-
18).
The solution involved changing the default color of all background level components to 50%
grey. These could then be altered to a lighter shade if they were to be in deep background, or
darker if they were closer to the foreground, but they would never be true black to ensure the
characters were well-defined against them.
In the case of the interactive platforms, they too needed to be clearly separate from the non-
interactive elements of the levels, and so were all colored black, making it clear to the player on
which areas they could walk.
The resulting level environments have a depth and clarity they previously lacked, and won't
obscure the characters in front of them.