(Written by Yukishi pixel artist at Caldera Games)
I worked on the forge, an important element during the player's progression in the game as it is the first hub he will encounter on his way.
First I must explain the functionality of the normal bonfires that you can find at some places of the map. If you light a bonfire with a bloody wood, a consumable item that you gather, it activates a re-spawn point for when you die and other functionalities. This is a strategic exploration aspect of the game where it is up to you to spend the limited resources in order establish your camp at a bonfire.

In summary, the forge acts like a bonfire but of greater importance and functionalities.
It is a zone that will unlock one by one functionalities all around. For example, the neutral goblins that you can unlock which propose all sort of services, access to fast travel (mine carts on rails) to travel more easily to far places that you already unlocked.
And finally the possibility to magically forge the runes on your axe to obtain bonuses, you can find the runes in the dungeons, but that will be for an other devlog.

Here is the beast :

(This is just a mock-up, in game it will have more depth and elements as well as a bunch of particles)

It took me about 20 hours to complete it.
You can notice the fantasy shape that reference the head of a dwarf with his metal helmet and stone beard, the forge is in bad shape because the mine has been abandoned for a long time, left at the mercy of the local monsters.
Generally, for pixel art I just use the mouse with photoshop and rarely use a graphic tablet since the elements are small and more or less rectilinear. But here it was impossible without drawing a sketch on paper before, to define the structure.
Don't mine this ugly thing, I then drew over it digitally with photoshop.

See you next time for more updates !

~ Yukishi