Blockout Aesthetics

Blockout Art Strategy

Blocks can be animated (when set as liquid) and have a degree of transparency. This allows for a lot of variation in your Experience in addition to texturing used to make each block in your experience.

Game Maker 0.9 introduced an updated animation for liquid blocks and adds a shine to the surface of blocks with transparency, which varies depending on block colours.

Click to expand

Biomes

You can create different biomes with attractive variation using a few simple colours per biome.

Desert Biome

C_Yellow_Sand_01 C_Yellow_Sand_02 C_Yellow_Sand_03

C_Blue_05 C_Blue_06 C_Blue_07

C_Green_01 C_Green_02 C_Green_03

Underwater Colours

Add meaning to underwater ground and tint or change the look of water by changing solid blocks under the surface.

Begin with basic colour variation and then add textured blocks if desired.

C_Brown_04 C_Brown_05 C_Brown_06 Myrtle Green

Other Basic Colours & Uses

Stone

C_Grey_01 C_Grey_02 C_Grey_03

Lava or Asphalt

C_Black_01 C_Black_02

Bone

C_White_01 C_White_02 C_White_03 C_White_04

Design Tips

1. Avoid repetitive textures if it’s not man-made. This results in visual confusion, and is too close to a Minecraft look that we want to avoid on our own experiences.

2. Instead of tiny spaced dots of grass, place grass in packs at the base of existing assets or blocks. Turn off collisions on grass where players will walk.

3. Avoid repetitive textures if it’s not man-made even in flat colours. Add variation.

Use squares of various sizes on large flat surfaces to add subtle noise that doesn't distract players.

Make edges lighter on the border of land platforms to draw the player's attention, but darker when it's in contact with the ground.