Art Inspiration: Day of the Tentacle

7 March 2024

This post was originally made on Cohost.

I got this question multiple times, which is great because it means i can link to lots of really good art. So what I'm going to do is focus on one particular favorite work here, and each subsequent ask of this question will get me to gush about a different piece!

I think it is probably to some degree evident that LucasArts mid-90s house style was a humongous influence to me. Back when I first started pixel art, Day of the Tentacle was my biggest influence. It has all the vibes of an american saturday morning cartoon, with a mix of very smooth bouncy backgrounds and animate goofy sprites. The game is an absolute delight, and I could gush about that for hours, but I want to focus on the art here especially.

I've chosen this opening shot because it's something that was burned into my mind. We have our three protagonists front and center, each with their own unique slouches and blank expressions which describe so much about their characters without any of them having to say anything. Bernard's failed attempt at standing up straight, Lavern's off-center rigidity with her knees barely keeping her from swaying, and Hoagie's firm stance which could withstand even a horse kicking him in the chest. We instantly know what these characters are like, and their dynamic is clear just from their standing. Bernard clearly tries to lead the other two, who reliably follow orders but maybe have their own ways of not quite following through.

And the scenery here is gorgeous. The misaligned WELCOME! sign that has been firmly tacked up against the uneven ceiling. A fake barf that somehow got stuck to the ceiling. Blinds that scatter this way and that as if they've been hastily opened and closed for forty years without even once fixing them. The pristine payphone with a crumpled "out of order" sign and a quarter stuck in the slot - a phone that perhaps never once even worked, if the hotelliers even hooked it up in the first place. The faint green and brown stains on the double doors, where conventioneers have clearly propped it open with their muddy shoes over a decade or two of third-rate niche organizations. A single warning sign which can only be read to say "NO" from afar. No what? No fun? That seems appropriate.

The scene oozes so much character both of our protagonists and also the run-down mansion-turned-hotel that they now have entered. And every scene in the game is like this.

Double Fine has put out a remastered version of the game, and... I have opinions about it. Mostly that it's an excellent way to play the game! And that you should not turn on the updated art at all. They attempted to update the old pixel art into more modern cartoonish art, and although they managed to maintain the style very well, they also made some rather obvious flubs in places which were immensely disappointing to me. (Things like forgetting to draw shadows behind objects, which were in the original scene.) It's a small criticism though, as the game lets you play through it with all the original art, and I one-hundred-percent recommend doing that. It's fantastic art and one of my biggest influences.