Wild Wild West Theme and Art Style

I've been trying to decide on the art style for the game for a while. In previous posts you can see that the art has a flat vector look. Recently I tried changing it up. At first I was going for a crayon style but it morphed more into a crayon/pencil crayon/chalk style. This is inline with how I used to paint. I haven't painted in years so it was fun to revisit some techniques from the past. I like to lay down a bunch of different colors and then go over that with the final color while letting a little of the under painting show through. I really like how this looks for the game. It gives it more character and charm, plus it's a lot more fun for me to create the graphics this way. Flat color was getting kind of boring.

So this is the Wild Wild West theme. The player is a Sheriff Bee and he collects answers from the bank robber bees. They look so funny flying around the screen, I think kids will get a kick out of it. I plan to change the graphic in the top right to be a jail. So when the player collides with the small bees, they will fly to the jail. That tumbleweed rolls across the screen.

I'm seeing a trend that the majority of my theme ideas would appeal more to boys. I'm not sure why I've gone this route, maybe because I was a bit of a tom boy when I was a kid. I'll have to be careful here because I want the game to appeal equally to both boys and girls.

Here's a look at the Goodie Garden level in the new art style.

Thanks for stopping by!
Melissa