Bad Hombres — Art & Audio Brief ¶
Bad Hombres is a side-scrolling roguelite about two escaped prisoners chained together — you play the small quick one, using your giant amnesiac partner as boost, projectile, and pendulum — fighting from the edge of a surveillance colony to the tower of the man who owns it. The whole game renders inside the owner's CRT monitor: he watches his colony through drones, and you are the picture.
The game is fully playable in greybox today. This document is the complete manifest of art, audio, and video we're looking to commission — pitch on any section or the whole. A small amount of custom art already exists (a city building kit, one guard sprite sheet, the CRT screen effect) and is noted where relevant; everything else is open.
Tone references: colonial-administrative dystopia, composite culture (evoke every empire, depict none), Dead Cells pace, DKC duo physics.
Global constraints (read before drawing anything) ¶
- World cell is 40px. Terrain tiles are stretched to 40px at draw time, so target 40px or a clean multiple.
- Characters are horizontal strip sheets of square frames, drawn facing right (the engine flips them). We'll agree one frame-size convention for the whole cast at the start.
- Enemies get tinted hotter with depth — sprites must read correctly under heavy red/orange modulation. Keep base palettes neutral-to-cool with good value contrast.
- Everything renders through a CRT filter (the owner's monitor). Fine 1px detail will shimmer; favor chunky silhouettes and strong value reads. Art must also hold up with the filter off (it's a setting).
- No aim input — characters never point weapons at arbitrary angles, so weapon-in-hand art only needs the facing pose; projectiles rotate freely.
- Telegraph language is sacred: every attack has a windup readable at a glance (glow, flare, rings, aim line) and the parry window is always a gold ring. Enemy designs must leave room for these tells.
1. Characters ¶
1.1 The hero (the small hombre) ¶
The lead. Small, fast, armed. The largest animation set in the game:
| anim | notes |
|---|---|
| idle, run, jump, fall | the base locomotion set |
| roll / dodge | grounded roll; also the duo-roll lead pose |
| air dash | midair dash — a flattened lunge, distinct from roll |
| wall kick | pose for the away-and-up kick off contact |
| climb (ladder) | 2–4 frame cycle + static hang |
| carried | riding in the oaf's arms (steering pose) |
| thrown / ballistic | tucked flight pose — doubles as the "hero is a weapon" read |
| swing (pinned to ring) | hanging from a latched anchor ring |
| self-swing (solo) | hurling the severed chain stub, then hanging from it |
| hit / knockback | plus ~1s invulnerability blink (handled in engine) |
| death | run-ending; feeds the recap freeze |
| fire / swing overlays | one generic "attack" upper-body accent is enough — the shared swing arcs and muzzle flashes carry the rest |
| shackle detail | ankle shackle + chain stub must be visible when solo (the severed-chain fiction) |
1.2 The oaf ¶
The co-lead and the game's thesis in one body: "the people" as one person. Visibly ~2× the hero's mass. Set:
| anim | notes |
|---|---|
| idle, run, jump, fall | follower locomotion (replays the hero's jumps) |
| curl / ball roll | the conditioned flinch AND the duo-roll — his signature |
| duo-roll | the pair as battering ram (can be curl + speed lines) |
| carry | holding the hero; walk cycle while carrying |
| throw | wind-up + release (the high-lob variant can share frames) |
| pendulum swing | hanging weight below the ring; pumped poses L/R |
| wrecking-ball | the high-speed swing pose — heavier, streaking |
| parry swat | the big bat-it-away swing; the gold ring lives on this |
| leg-up boost | crouch-and-launch under the hero |
| flinch / beaten | batons raining down — the opening scene and every capture |
| netted / hauled | drones dragging him to a cage |
| caged | slumped behind bars (idle loop) |
| ghost-float | translucent drift for the chain-drag rescue (engine does the alpha — a dedicated limp pose sells it) |
| memory glow | faint gold burn inside memory rooms (aura frame + modulate) |
The iron mask — load-bearing for the story (world-fiction.md §Endings):
- mask on his face at all times, with hollow sockets that hold memory icons — the story-progress readout lives on his face. Needed at sprite scale AND as a large close-up for the finale.
- per-chapter memory icons (roll, the catch, the barn, the vow, the rising, the slam) — used on the mask, in memory-room reveals, and the end-of-run recap.
- mask shatter sequence (close-up) + full-colour unmasked face.
- berserker oaf — the post-shatter fight form.
1.3 The chain ¶
Physically simulated at runtime; needs one good link sprite (it must tile along a curve as it drapes, sags, and hangs), plus the severed stub end for solo play.
1.4 The Proprietor / the watcher ¶
The absent owner who experiences his colony only through screens.
- the silhouette reflected in the CRT glass at dark transitions: one figure at a monitor bank, loopable, near-black (short video clip).
- full-body silhouette → final boss: stands, leaves the post, steps through the door, fights (the game's one sequence outside the CRT filter). Attack set to be designed with the fight.
- the functionary mini-boss: a killable suit whose death changes nothing — one sprite + a replacement walking in.
1.5 The people (NPCs) ¶
The lower lane of the world is "the people as a place", and the refugee camps are the final image of both endings — these are not optional dressing:
- displaced civilians, 4–6 silhouette-distinct variants (sit / stand / huddle / tend-fire loops) — camp density grows across runs
- the displaced father + kid (a memory scene — the toss loop)
- the oaf's son and wife for the memory chapters, in a gold/ghost "memory" treatment
- barter-stall keeper (one seated figure behind the table)
- the model citizen — the cities' breakable propaganda statue; intact + damage stages + a satisfying break
1.6 Tagalongs (followers) ¶
Three small hover-companions: hacked watcher (a downed drone, repainted), camp stray (a dog), signal lamp (turret salvage). Tiny idle/bob loops.
2. The hunters (enemies) ¶
All need: base anim set (idle/patrol, alert, windup/telegraph, attack, hit, death) + room for the gold parry ring and their specific tell.
| enemy | design brief |
|---|---|
| patrol drone | hover bob, rear-up (swelling eye + closing red rings), lunge. It's the owner's eye — the lens IS the character. Death = a blip of static (ties to the CRT fiction) |
| sentry turret | bolted base + tracking barrel, brightening glow windup, muzzle flash, suppressed/smashed states |
| brute | heavy walker: plant, windup flare, flat-out charge, staggered-cold (parried), tumble |
| warden (baton) | the "!" plant-and-square-up beat, baton raise → blow; the prison's basic muscle |
| riot warden | armored, rising aim line, 3-round volley, reload, backpedal |
| shield warden | riot shield front (hits spark off the plate), naked back, shield-rear windup shove |
| bomber warden | crouched aim (fuse glow + dashed arc), lob, reload stand; the grenade shell itself |
| sweeper | terrain-crawling spike that walks floors, walls, and ceilings — needs a 4-orientation or rotation-safe design |
| prison guard | a custom 3×3 sheet exists (idle/run/beat) — polish pass to match the final cast style |
| police (city 2) | the second city swaps drones for men — a police reskin of the warden family (cruder, flag-era kit) sells the "mask off" tier |
Plus a corroded/rusty variant pass (drone + warden) for the underworld's obsolete patrols — the regime doesn't waste good drones down there.
3. Environments ¶
Per biome, the full kit is: terrain tiles (walkable-top caps + seamless fill), background/parallax layers, set-dressing props, and the biome's holding cells + door dressing. Every biome needs a real parallax backdrop (currently flat color).
The regime lane (periphery → core) ¶
| biome | setting | needs |
|---|---|---|
| Stockade | penal colony — every run starts here | cell blocks, bars, watchtowers, floodlights, razor wire, the intro cell (cracked outer wall, balcony), baton-rack props. Seen every single run — highest polish priority |
| Mission | the registry, where names are taken and masks put on | administrative interior: ledgers, stamp desks, filing walls, the mask-fitting apparatus, queue barriers, prisoner-number signage motif |
| Estates | occupied farmland replanted as monoculture | hedgerows, fences, farmhouse/barn exteriors, settler manors; the barn interior and the field as staged memory rooms |
| Plantation | monoculture at scale, worked by the taken | cane rows, drying racks, overseer posts; reuse the estates palette, industrialized |
| The Line | the extraction railway — prisoners shipped as freight | rolling stock exteriors (freight cars, couplings, animated wheels), prisoner-freight dressing, a moving parallax countryside, rooftop staging |
| City 1 | the metropole's pinkwashed face — drone-dense, watched | a custom building kit exists (walls/windows/props, 4 material families); this is a civic-face variant pass: banners, clean plazas, drone docks, camera clusters |
| City 2 | the mask off — flags, vulgar, police instead of drones | same kit, second variant family: flags everywhere, boarded windows, cruder posters, police dressing |
| Spire | the owner's control room | monitor banks (a wall of CRTs), server/cable mass, vertical ascent architecture, the final arena + its cave-in states, the cage close-up set |
The Warrens (the lower lane — where the displaced actually live) ¶
| biome | setting | needs |
|---|---|---|
| Tunnels | his own root cellars and irrigation, under the stolen fields | root-cellar timber, irrigation channels, hedgerow roots overhead |
| Camp | the refugee camp, the people's heart | tents, cookfires, strung laundry, crowd dressing in 3+ density tiers (the camp visibly swells across runs) |
| Works | the mine dug where his fields were | shaft timber, ore carts, drill heads, a vault door |
| Drains 1 | the clean sewers under city 1 — maintained and watched | power-washed concrete, service lighting, camera nests |
| Drains 2 | the moldy sewers under city 2 — neglected, unwatched | the same kit rotted: mold, standing water, collapsed sections, zero cameras. Build as one kit with a decay variant — the inversion is the point |
Shared environment set ¶
- holding cells — per-biome skin of the same breakable cage; intact / sprung / broken states
- exit door (a humming service door) + the gold branch door — the shortcut door needs a visibly aspirational look
- memory-room dressing — the room "announces itself": gold light shafts, a backdrop panel for the biography line
- anchor rings, ladders, cracked-wall decals, collapsing platforms, spikes, 2-tile cover slabs, teleporter beacon pads (tuned/untuned)
- barter stall — table, awning, contraband display
- weapon cache crate, drop crate, contraband crate (color-coded identity)
4. Weapons (15) ¶
Each needs: pickup/HUD icon, in-hand sprite (single facing), and its effect art (projectile / swing arc). The fiction sorts them: labor tools turned resistance weapons, and captured regime tech.
| weapon | kind | effect art |
|---|---|---|
| pistol (the hero's own) | ranged | tracer + muzzle flash |
| SMG | ranged | tracer spray |
| shotgun | ranged | pellet fan |
| marksman rifle | ranged | piercing bolt |
| launcher | ranged | rocket + blast |
| ricochet gun | ranged | bouncing round (needs a visible bounce identity) |
| arc caster | ranged | chain-lightning |
| grenade lobber | ranged | shell arc + blast |
| slingshot | ranged | pebble lob |
| machete | melee | swing arc |
| sledgehammer | melee | heavy windup arc + impact |
| spear | melee | thrust |
| bat | melee | swing + bullet-reflect flash |
| chain flail | melee | orbiting head + chain |
| shiv | melee | backstab jab + crit flash |
Plus hostile fire — turret tracer, warden volley, grenade shell — visually distinct from friendly fire at a glance.
Gadgets (active items): transfer papers, tin whistle (+ its decoy noise effect), stim ration, smoke tin (+ cloud) — icon + use-flash each.
5. VFX ¶
- dust (landing/run), screen transition wipe
- the telegraph set: drone red rings, turret dashed aim line, brute flare, bomber's dashed arc + fuse glow, warden "!"
- the gold parry ring (the universal parry-window read) + parry impact
- duo-roll battering-ram trail; thrown-hero streak; wrecking-ball streak
- cage-break burst; wall rubble; prop debris (per breakable prop)
- memory-room gold aura, icon-seating sparkle, biography-line fade-in treatment; mask-shatter shards
- capture net (drones netting the oaf), ghost-float trail
- smoke cloud, decoy shimmer, stim flash
- hit feedback per faction (people bleed, drones spark)
- arena cave-in debris (the true-ending kill)
- (the CRT overlay + channel-change burst already exist in-engine)
6. UI ¶
- title screen key art + the "BAD HOMBRES" logo treatment
- the mask readout — memory icons seating into the mask on the HUD: THE core UI element of the game
- HUD: hearts, equipped-weapon chip, sector/seed line, gadget slot + recharge, tagalong indicator
- run recap screen (depth, kills, unlocks, arsenal progress, ★ NEW BEST ★ banner)
- teleport-network menu, barter prompt, pause + settings panels
- ending cards: the camps as the final image (two sizes of the same shot — grown for the true ending, smaller-but-more-of-them for the false one)
- fonts: one chunky CRT-safe pixel face for HUD + a ledger/typewriter face for biography lines and the registry fiction
- icons: 15 weapons, 7 gadgets/followers, 6 memory chapters, settings glyphs
7. Audio (the project currently ships silent) ¶
Music — per-tier beds with lane identity: regime lane (imperial, brass, surveillance hum) vs. the Warrens (human, hand-drums, warmth). Minimum viable: stockade, cities (2 variants), Warrens shared bed, the line (rhythm = train), spire/finale, title, recap sting, the two ending pieces.
SFX, by family:
- movement: footsteps (per terrain family), jump, land, roll, air dash, wall kick, ladder, constant physics-driven chain rattle, leash snap
- duo verbs: leg-up launch, carry/throw, ring latch, swing whoosh, duo-roll rumble, parry CLANG (the most-heard sound in the game — get it right)
- combat: 15 weapon fires/swings, impacts per surface, enemy telegraphs (drone rear-up whine, turret charge, brute snort, wardens' gear), deaths (drone = static burst), hostile tracers
- world: cage break, wall crumble, collapsing platform groan, exit-door hum, teleporter, cache open, pickup, barter chime
- fiction: CRT channel-change burst, the watcher's room tone, memory-room swell + icon seat, mask shatter, biography-line whisper/type
- UI: menu moves, recap tallies, NEW BEST fanfare
8. Video / cinematic ¶
- the watcher clip (see §1.4) — the silhouette at the monitor bank
- finale sequence: CRT switch-off (stays off), the door opening, the cage-beat close-ups (graduated: nothing / a bar bends / it breaks), the camps shot
- optional: an intro beat for the opening cell (can stay in-engine)
Scope & priorities ¶
- The pair — hero + oaf full sets + the mask and its icons. On screen 100% of the time; the mask carries the story.
- Stockade + camp environments — every run opens in the stockade; the camp is both the first memory and the endings' final image.
- The enemy cast — drone, turret, brute, the warden family.
- City variant families — the building kit exists; these are variant passes, not new kits.
- Remaining biomes (estates, plantation, the line, works, tunnels, the drains pair), shared props, weapon icons.
- Spire + endings package (arena, functionary, the owner, cage close-up, mask shatter, camps shots) — last, but scoped now.
- Audio throughout — parry clang, chain rattle, and CRT burst first.
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