Lost secrets of the pixel art masters

The old Heroes games developed by New World Computing. Please specify which game you are referring to in your post.
User avatar
Darmani
Blood Fury
Blood Fury
Posts: 479
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Location: Cambridge, MA

Lost secrets of the pixel art masters

Unread postby Darmani » 31 Oct 2020, 06:55

It's been said for a while "NWC never managed to hire decent artists," "their games looked old when they came up," blah blah.

But recently I had the need to look closely at some HoMM II art when working on Ironfist. And what I saw impressed me.

For instance, if you're look me, you probably understood the Death Ripple spell as this: a wave travels across the battlefield, perverting light, and then the living creatures it touches are consumed with fire.

But actually, if you look closely, that's not what happens: that "fire" is actually an evil spirit attacking the creature (or its soul being ripped out, or something.

Image

Image



And here's a freeze frame of a dragon killing some vampires. Notice the 3D depth and conical shape of the flame, the soot inside it, the hands of the vampire begging for mercy as it dissolves.

Image


Looking so closely at the art makes me wonder: What else have I been missing all these years?
Last edited by Darmani on 31 Oct 2020, 06:55, edited 1 time in total.

Return to “Heroes I-IV”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests