I was bored and dying from thinking up code and the likes for 'The Crawl' so I decided to take a break from it and have a little fun with GM.

I started up a short project that will be entirely Game Maker Made. This basicly means no external programs to make any art, all art being made in the provided (kind-a-crappy) pixel painter that it comes with.

So far I've made a small tilemap about 512x96 with tiles 16x16 ( but most in 32x32 chunks )

Heres a double snapshot that shows the tiles being used in a room. I'm stuck between choosing 512x384 or 320x240. The latter is more console-esque, but 512x384 although a weird size offers slightly sharper look. Why so small a screen? Well because the player will be no taller then 28 pixels high, and on any resolution he'd look minute.

The game will be called 'Black Shadow', following the story of a once great knight cursed by a magician into a living shadow. Abilities will be obtained throughout the game to unlock shadow-morphing powers. Opponents will be the shadows of soldiers and warlords you've killed in your past, some altered from their hate and shadow powers into crazy and bizarre sillouttes.

I got the idea of shadows since it requires little detail on the sprite, but opens up the door for easier and more fluid animation.