Arches Ruin

This piece was made with the idea of trying myself at higher resolution pixel-art. The whole picture is limited in the amount of colors used.

I was inspired by games such as Rain World, Dead Cells and Hyper Light Drifter. But it follows my own style by taking on a somewhat painted form instead of clean surfaces. As I limited my palette, I also didn’t use similar post effects as seen in the previously mentioned games.

The scene itself was developed from an assortment of rough sketches of various environments and depicts one of my favourite self imagined places. Albeit only a very small glimpse.

The place is a steep cliff side that has an integrated ruin chiseled and built up from the rocks of the cliff. It has a building structure similar to a gothic church in regards to the arches' shapes and the general building structure without as much ornamentation and instead long hallways with reliefs as seen in Angkor Wat. The reliefs are likely proof of past tradition and religion but the size and division into different areas for different purposes suggests that the place served as a city in the past. It had a river flowing through it and off the steep cliff to which the structure served as a dam forming a lake next to it. It was likely used to provide food and enable easy trade. The river later claimed much of the structure as it fell into ruin and caused many plants and moss to cover it.

Historians, after researching the reliefs, claim that many of the arches were covered by colorful curtains and strands of cloth in the past. And that the arches themselves likely were seen as a gateway to enable the spirits of nature passage through the city bringing luck and abundance with them, just as the river did. The curtains were hung so some of the luck and abundance would be filtered by them and left behind. Just as they could not over-fish the river, they could not take too much from the spirits by closing off the windows since this would not sustain them in the long run.

It remains unknown why the city was abandoned and fell into ruin, now attracting many curious visitors to the place in search of answers or simply to enjoy the breathtaking view and mysterious atmosphere.

The picture was mostly drawn in Photoshop CS6 and partially in Aseprite where it was then animated.