After sharing the story behind our game in the last article, this time we want to take a closer look at the game’s highlight: the pixel art.

Michael drew all the artwork for Ghost Chase on our tablet. And because the process is just as important to us as the final result, today we’re giving you a few behind-the-scenes glimpses.

The Ghost Animations

Our little ghost got multiple facial expressions – from happy, teasing with a stuck-out tongue, joyful (when caught) to crying.
Fun fact: The crying face was inspired by the original concept, but it didn’t make it into the game 😉

The Castle Scenes

Each level of Ghost Chase takes place in a different part of a castle. Here’s an overview:

• Castle Bridge
  
  

• Castle Courtyard
  
  
  

• Dungeon
  
  
  

• Spiral Staircase (inspired by the famous spiral staircase in Albrechtsburg, Meißen)
  
  

• Throne Room
  
  
  
  

All scenes were drawn layer by layer by hand. We recorded the process as animated GIFs so you can see how the final images came together.

Text Assets

Not everything that was drawn made it into the final game. The “Thanks for Playing” text is pulled onto the screen by the ghost at the end of the last level, while the rest of the texts didn’t fit:

• One “Thanks for Playing” text
  

• Two credits texts
  
  

This also shows just how tiny the elements actually are in the 64×64 px UI!

Splash and Title Screen

Besides the levels, we also paid attention to the surrounding elements:

• Title Screen (yes, the castle is on a single layer for practical reasons)
  
  

• Our Logo for the Splash Screen, also in beautiful 64×64 px 💙

  
  

   

Conclusion

You can really see how much time even a small game takes to create! Even though everything was drawn in tiny 64×64 pixels, the images still look gorgeous at 512×512.

We hope you enjoy this little behind-the-scenes look as much as we enjoyed creating it.

 💙