I spent a good chunk of this week crafting little sprites for the critters that populate the underworld in Unearthed. Both RS and myself thought it’d be neat to have normal animals help the player out during his or her adventure, so I decided to rework some of the animals found in the original game into a sort of “underworld alliance.”
Up first we have a few variations on the basic mole. Moles are fairly small, so the easiest change I can make to their sprites is head-wear. Their choice of hat reflects their job, such as the viking helmets for warrior moles and construction caps for the workers. All moles wear green as a display of unity (and EarthBound’s limited colour palettes).
Next up we have some mice variations. The first set consists of colour-swaps of the EarthBound’s rodent sprites, while the second set are riffs on the exit mice that were dispensed as items in the original game. RS seems convinced that the pink mice look like naked mole rats, but I like them anyways.
Finally, we have a couple of new species that weren’t found in EarthBound. The frog sprites were appropriated from Mother 3, while the “excitable turtle” is an original creation. Both these creatures will have important roles within Unearthed… although I haven’t exactly sorted out what they are yet!
As always, I will be spriting throughout the week and showing off the results next Monday. I hope you’ve all been enjoying the progress so far!
