It's time for my second annual 24 hour Itch Birthday sale. I've discounted all asset packs by a % equal to my age! Thank you for all the support, and I hope you're all having as good a summer as possible this year! 🙇♂️🎂
I've been working on a godot plugin for controlling how pixel art behaves with lighting, and I'm almost done with a really basic version! (more info under the cut)
this plugin is based on some techniques I have been developing over the years, featured most prominently in silt spawn.
it's a huge step forward though, since it requires no setup whatsoever, and it works with any normal light sources in the engine. the way it works is by generating an encoded sprite and a bespoke shader that can really quickly pick the exact color to show for each pixel based on how well-lit it is. as this gif shows, the plugin works with existing light sources and sprites, so you can really use these pixel-picky sprites as much or as little as you need!
now that the main feature is done, all I need to do is finish the UI in the editor, and then I'll feel comfortable releasing a bare-bones version of this plugin. I'm really proud of how it's coming along, and this quick little gif is just the beginning! :D
(don't worry, there won't be a random square patch of grass on the beach, this is just The Test Grass)
Before, I was using the Game Boy Zelda game trick: grass is a tile, and then I just throw a grass sprite on top of the player to make it look like they're inside it. Clever, and it's surprisingly convincing!
But now, this uses the sprite tilting method, which I've been using heavily throughout, to create "3D" grass, and it works so much better than I expected. Also more consistent with the perspective I'm going with!
After watching like a billion timelapses of plants growing, I think I'm happy with the amount of plants, so I'll aim for this weekend for uploading the spritesheet :)
You will find it on Ko-Fi, for pay-what-you-want or for free