Behind the scenes
Drawing forty neighbors in 12 pixels
How we gave every neighbor in Hopwick a readable face, a hat and a mood with a sprite smaller than your thumbnail.
Every letter in Hopwick goes to a real neighbor, and each one needed to be recognizable at a glance, in the rain, at night, while you are mid-jump.
We gave ourselves 12 pixels of height. That leaves room for a hat, two eyes and one detail that tells you who someone is: the baker’s flour smudge, the lighthouse keeper’s scarf, the twins’ matching boots.
Three rules we kept
One strong color per neighbor, so you can find them on a crowded street.
Silhouettes first. If it does not read in solid black, it does not ship.
No neighbor shares a hat. It sounds silly, and it works.
Next time: how the storm decides which streets to flood first.