I’m Going to Hell

I’m Going to Hell is a surreal, 8-bit, Point and Click adventure game full of hand-drawn art.

The game is focused on the surreal visuals, atmosphere, and storytelling. Pixel hunting and complicated item-based puzzle solving is kept to a minimum.

Visually, it’s strongly inspired by classic 8-Bit NES games.

I’m Going to Hell runs on a with a custom-built engine using Unity3D as a platform, and is written in C#.

This hand rolled engine lets me work with some specific NES limitations in order to create a fairly authentic 8-bit feel.

  • Every image is created from 8×8 tile elements
  • Each individual tile can only use a maximum of 4 colors (3 unique, and 1 background color)
  • There are 8 separate 4 color palettes available for use at one time. 4 for use by the background, 4 for use by sprites
  • Only the 64 (56 unique) colors from the original NES hardware are available for use in those palettes
  • Backgrounds share palettes in 2×2 tile chunks, similar to original hardware

These rules keep me honest about the 8-bit look, and let I’m Going to Hell use a number of cool palette swapping tricks that would be impossible, were it designed with assets that only looked 8-bit.

There are a few concessions to modern hardware, though:

  • The screen size is wider than the original 4:3 aspect ratio, so less of our 16:9 screen space is wasted
  • There are no limits put on the number of sprites per line. The NES only allowed for 8 per line, which led to workarounds like flickering. Any number of sprites can be displayed without flickering in I’m Going to Hell
  • There are no memory limits on the number of unique tiles or sprites loaded at once
  • Mouse input is supported (It is a Point-and-Click game, after all!)

Soundtrack

I’ve been joined by Alex Palm as composer on I’m Going to Hell. You can find him on Twitter at @alexwilliampalm.

Here’s an in-progress example of his awesome title track:

Release

There will be more information on that as we get closer to release!

Looking forward to meeting you… in hell!