Trixel art is a very interesting and innovative art style. I believe everyone is familiar with pixel art — those little square graphics from 2D games that are quite popular. What sets trixel art apart is that it’s created using triangles and hexagons instead of squares, like in pixel art. 

This unique style gives players the nostalgic feeling of retro games while also pleasing the eye with a more modern and geometric look. We chose this style precisely to make it a core element of Espada’s visual identity, enhancing the immersive experience. 

To achieve that, we use the best software on the market: Marmoset Hexels 3, a tool with a simple and intuitive interface that allows us to create almost all the game’s assets. Even the environments are made with it — we build them in 2D with an isometric view, creating a sense of depth without having to model in 3D.  

(from the game's early version, just a test) 

Since nearly all design in Espada is constructed using trixel blocks, every element has a unique visual rhythm, with precise angles and elegant compositions. This results in a consistent aesthetic that blends the nostalgia of old-school RPGs with the energy of modern productions.

The characters are also designed using the same geometric principles, but with a focus on visual identity and clarity. Even with simple shapes, the characters are easy to recognize, control, and animate. The aesthetic contributes to the game's tone: charming, accessible, and with a handcrafted feel.  

During the creative process, we faced some challenges, such as adapting shadows, showing character expressions, or simulating depth with limited color palettes. However, these challenges made the process interesting and rewarding. We believe that this will reflect positively in the final quality, since the visual style isn’t just “pretty” — it actively contributes to the gameplay’s pacing and readability.  

Visual elements are used to guide the player through the story, highlighting contrasts between safe zones and danger zones, for example. The style also helps set the emotional tone for each moment in the game — whether nostalgic, adventurous, mysterious, or cozy. 

In short, Espada is being built in trixel art because we want to connect tradition and innovation. Hexels 3 reinforces our artistic vision, blending visual accessibility with geometric sophistication. It invites players to pay attention to the details — every triangle, line, and shadow is part of an enchanting visual narrative in the world of Espada. 

2D art is very important for conveying emotions, defining the visual identity, and telling the story in games. In the Espada project, we use 2D digital illustrations virtually everywhere. For that, we had several software options for illustration and chose one that reflects the project’s core values—accessibility, collaboration, and purpose. 

So we chose Krita. Why? Krita is a tool made by artists for artists. It has an intuitive interface, is free, and open-source, making it accessible for small teams like ours and for social projects. The program includes various tools for layered art, even frame-by-frame animation, and it supports formats used in game engines. 

In the Espada Project, we emphasize our commitment to democratic access to technology, and a free, professional-grade tool greatly helps us maintain a high level of production. Some time ago, Photoshop—the most used software for illustration and design—was boycotted by the artistic community. Adobe had openly admitted to collecting data from work created with their software to train their AI, which we consider outrageous! That was one of the reasons we chose not to use it—besides its already inaccessible pricing. 

In this production phase, our junior artist Ramon had the opportunity to be trained and mentored by the senior artist and leader of the Adas Team, following the game's style. This way, we applied everything we believe to be healthy for the game development industry and nurtured our ideals with a team that always supports one another—and Krita, with its simplicity, makes that possible. 

Throughout the planning and production stages, we realized we can strengthen the independent cultural production ecosystem not only by creating but also by talking about the tools and steps of the process. We make a point of promoting Krita, and that’s part of our mission. We encourage other developers and artists to explore powerful and accessible tools like this one. 

So, ready to give Krita a try?  

Created in a moment of chaos, when Adas Oliveira da Silva was either going to live his dream or sink deeper into a hole. When creativity becomes something professional and the very thing you rely on to survive, it takes on a life of its own. 

Espada came to life through dreams—and above all, hope. 

To better understand who the character Espada is, it’s important to understand her creation process. In the game industry, we often see formulas based on archetypes and other theories that are sometimes best left behind. Espada emerged through a unique process—we believe that those who truly live it, don’t need to explain it. It’s about existing. 

She exists. The main girl gradually took shape with each attempt along the game development journey. Every step contributed to who she became. Although Adas is the primary author, he borrowed some ideas from Ohanna, which helped bring extra charm to the character. 

During the pandemic, Espada took on her initial form, as many doors were closing for both Adas and Ohanna. At a critical moment in their lives, they decided: “Let’s fight for our dream—a game.” That’s when Espada’s universe began to form. The character’s adventure and greatest challenge were defined: to overcome and escape the Hole. 

Her color palette carries a message about the fight against depression—a condition that affects Adas and inspired many of Espada’s actions in the game. After a series of rejections in grant applications, waves of sadness became more frequent. But hope was always found in the dawn, and the project kept being submitted to other calls.  

When she puts on her hood, Espada regains her strength—just a moment to think and recharge. Many people need this kind of pause but don’t recognize it. Each time the project was rejected, there was sadness. But soon after, with a short break, they’d rise again and keep fighting—revising, understanding the feedback, and moving forward.  

The personality of the main character stands out even more in this adventure as she wields a weapon that symbolizes her strength: a sword. The journey won’t be easy. She must face challenges and hardships with kindness and faith. She’s willing to help friends and loved ones, but her greatest determination is to find a way out. 

Her bag is filled with items and dreams. Along the way, she chooses to surround herself with good people who will help her reach her goal. Even while dealing with conditions like depression and anxiety, she’s fortunate to find people who treat her with love and care—just as she does with others.  

Now that you know a little about Espada and her creation, are you excited to become part of her story and help her escape the Hole? We’ll dive deeper into her world in future blog posts—after all, we discover something new about her every day. 

Hi, I’m Dayvis, and I’d like to talk about why plain language is important for the game Espada.  

Since the beginning of Espada’s development, our team has worked hard to create something fun while also sharing positive messages that carry real meaning for the player. And when I say meaning, I mean we hope our game becomes a special memory—something that touches the hearts of everyone who plays.  

We’ve put a lot of effort into making the fun come from innovative elements, like a combat system full of possibilities, and into delivering a positive message through a story focused on hope, willpower, and support. We believe in the heart of every player and we know each of them has something wonderful and unique to offer the world. Everyone is special in their own way, and everyone is capable of achieving their dreams and reaching their goals.  

Our message could be shared in many ways, but plain language is important because it allows us to express our ideas and encouragement clearly, without leaving anyone out. As has already been said, plain language is made so that everyone can understand and absorb the ideas we want to share. In fact, you could say plain language is inclusive—and I like to think that by using it, we can explain our ideas in a way even a child could understand.  

I’d like to share something personal: I have ADHD, and as you can imagine, I face certain challenges with focus and sometimes struggle with details. My memory is often unreliable, and I tend to get lost in simple tasks. As I grew up, I learned how to manage these challenges by taking notes, doing focus exercises, and seeking professional help. But in recent months, I discovered plain language, and it really surprised me. The feeling of reading something written using this technique is incredible. It’s been a special and enjoyable experience to read, study, and write this way—though I admit it’s still a challenge! And just like the entire Espada team, I want to give my best to our players.  

But if you’re still unsure about plain language, I prepared an example to help: 

Original text: 
“Hope is the feeling that drives us to move forward, even in the face of life’s adversities.” 

Plain language: 
“Hope is what keeps us going, even when things are hard.” 

By using plain language, I’m sure we can bring that wonderful feeling of “understanding without difficulty” to all players.  

Know that including everyone is our main goal, and we’ve been working hard to make that happen.  

Warm regards, 
Dayvis 

In digital games, we see a diversity of players and spectators, each with their own differences. That’s why we need to make gameplay increasingly accessible for everyone. For our game Espada, we also need to work on accessibility—it’s a very important part, but it comes with its own challenges to implement. 

Although technology helps in many cases, there is still a lot we need to learn about how to apply it effectively. Adding and working with accessibility presents challenges, not only because of the knowledge required to make something accessible but also due to the cost of implementing each feature. 

Regarding accessibility in the Espada project, we have had extensive discussions with the management team, brainstorming, planning, and validating ideas. We analyzed various aspects, trying to determine what would be ideal to implement in the game. We found many interesting features that could make the game more enjoyable to play, but everything needs to be carefully studied—some elements require more technical expertise, while others demand more financial resources. In the end, we identified solutions that we can feasibly apply to the game. At this stage, it is not possible to make a game that is fully accessible to everyone, but we hope that many of our ideas will help various players enjoy the adventure in Espada more fully. 

I won’t list all the accessibility features we plan to implement; instead, I’ll highlight a few to make this blog post a smoother read. To start, let’s mention one of the most well-known tools since the early days of cinema: subtitles. This feature was strongly validated for our game because it is both highly important and relatively easy to implement. Subtitles are widely used, not only as an alternative to foreign dubbing but also to provide descriptions during distinct dialogues and to caption interactive actions throughout the game. This greatly helps players understand situations and/or make decisions after reading the subtitles, whether for translation or descriptive purposes. As a person with a disability (I have a hearing impairment) who constantly relies on subtitles in all accessible media, I know how crucial this feature is—not just for me but for anyone who wants to benefit from it, whether for interest in reading or for understanding translations even with audio. That’s why it’s so valuable to have it in Espada. 

Among the other possible accessibility features, some require special attention since there is still limited research and understanding on how best to provide support—for example, for people with dyslexia. In our game, one feature we plan to implement to assist with this is audio description, which will narrate in-game content to players, making comprehension easier and reducing difficulties in playing. Additionally, we will incorporate simplified language, which we know helps not only in this regard but also in many other aspects. A simple and direct text is important and practical for everyone, without exception. 

There are several other features and ideas we aim to implement to address different accessibility needs. Even though we are still in the early stages of the game’s development, we strive to use solutions that simplify the creation and development process or can be included in future updates. What matters most is not giving up on making the game accessible to all. 

And may the Sword of faith rise to strengthen us!!! 

The Espada universe was co-created with a creative director who’s passionate about games. When she was younger, she often heard that video games were “for boys.” But she went beyond that and discovered a passion: diving deep into the worlds of games.  

When a woman decides to step into a universe, she brings her femininity with her — in the details, in the colors, in the care she puts into everything. One of the main ideas behind Espada is that the player encounters female characters and, through them, gains a new perspective on this universe and the actions within it.  

In the game, Espada is the first character you’ll meet. She’s a strong and courageous girl who must go through a dangerous journey in order to grow. Many women face similar paths and become survivors, mothers, leaders, entrepreneurs, dreamers... Together with other incredible people, they write life stories full of meaningful memories.  

Today, the gaming world is full of women making their mark — like game developers, for example. Check out this talk about initiatives that are paving the way for women to create amazing games:  

In addition to these initiatives, many amazing women generously share their knowledge to help others create games. Our team drew a lot of inspiration from the work of Miriam Bellard, who has a background in Architecture. She creates incredible worlds for Rockstar Games and works as an art director and visual developer. Here are two videos where you can learn more about her work:  

For animation, check out the art of Mariel Kinuko Cartwright:  

Do you have a woman who inspires you in game development? Tell us in the comments of this post!  

Oh — and this post was written by a woman too! Our creative director, Ohanna. 

Cheers to all women who dare to dream beyond! 

Hi, I’m Dayvis, and my role in the development of the game Espada is that of a lore designer. But what does that mean? The lore designer is the professional responsible for creating stories and content related to the world, characters, and even objects in the game. I like to think of myself as the one who explains the whys of everything — for example: Why is a certain character older or younger? Why are the monsters pink? Why do they look like elephants, and so on?  

How do you explain a "why"?  

First, I have a meeting with the creative direction team and receive basic information about a specific item or character, usually in a document that looks a lot like a tabletop RPG character sheet. This information gives me a “direction” that I follow to create the content. During these meetings, I like to take notes on paper (this helps me retain the information better), and I use those notes while building the lore.   

Second, I carefully reread both the information I received and my notes. Then, I write a rough draft — a relatively short text that follows the flow of ideas that come to mind. This draft already has a beginning, middle, and end, but it's still a rough stone, as I like to say, full of grammar mistakes and sometimes even logic errors. After finishing this first draft, I like to take a break and do something else — especially studying (reading, watching, or listening to things related to the theme I’m writing about). After a few minutes, hours, or even a day, I return to the text, rereading it and correcting mistakes. Then I move on to polishing: choosing better words and comparisons, aligning the text more closely with the theme of Hope, which is the core of Espada. I try to include the best references possible based on what I’ve studied. If I’m satisfied, I move on to the third step. If not, I keep working until I feel the text meets the standards of the project.  

Third, I submit the text to the direction team. If it’s approved, we move on to the next text. If adjustments are needed, we make them together until everything aligns with the project’s expectations.  

This role in the development is both wonderful and challenging, as it requires attention to detail and consistency with the game’s logic. After all, when we create a story, we’re weaving a whole web of events that must be properly connected — otherwise, the player might feel lost and lose immersion in the game.  

Espada is definitely one of the most beautiful ideas I’ve ever seen, and it will absolutely be worth every second of your time. It’s a project about Hope in a turbulent and sometimes agonizing world. Our goal is to bring light and fun into every pixel.  

Enjoy the game! 

The game Espada is an exclusively digital project. It features tactical, turn-based gameplay in which the player uses cards to perform actions and progress through the adventure. 

Game mechanics are essential—especially in Espada, where everything the player can do is directly tied to them. That’s why our first step was to test what had been developed so far. However, we couldn’t run any tests at that point because there was nothing concrete programmed yet—only design concepts and artwork.  

The project has a deadline and limited resources, so we chose to carry out a general test in a much simpler and faster way. This approach would still allow us to visualize the mechanics and elements, helping us validate whether we’re on the right track.  

We decided to create a board game-style test, as the tactical mechanics we want to explore fit well in this format. This kind of early testing is very important and helps validate many aspects of what we plan to include in the game.   

And this doesn’t apply just to our case—initial testing on paper, whether as a board game, RPG, or any other form, is an excellent way to ensure that the idea is heading in an interesting direction. In general, there’s no need to worry about polish at this stage; using whatever is sufficient for testing—imagination, paper, pencils, markers, or dice—is more than enough! The goal is to test as much as possible for now, even if it means simplifying some mechanics to make them easier to reproduce manually.  

After a few meetings, we were able to test many of the elements we wanted. The results were very interesting for the team—we were able to identify issues we hadn’t noticed before regarding the use of cards as actions. Overall, we validated that the game works and has genuinely fun aspects, especially when considering the possible synergies. Some details were a bit vague, raising questions such as whether or not certain mechanics should be removed, since they didn’t provide a clear positive or negative impact. Unfortunately, there were certain features we weren’t able to test effectively in a board game format. However, these are simpler elements, and we believe they won’t be a problem during the programming phase. They will be tested later on, and then we’ll decide whether to keep them or not.  

The entire project will continue to undergo testing, even if only within the team, because it’s crucial to ensure that the path we’ve chosen is as solid as possible. There’s no way to guarantee with absolute certainty that the game’s concept and mechanics are excellent, so we aim to reach at least a satisfying level. True certainty will only come once players can experience Espada in an immersive and fun way! 

When we analyze a painting, it is possible to feel everything that composes it—the choice of colors, shapes, elements, characters, and especially the focal point, which guides the viewer’s attention. All of this is done by the artist, in this case, the painter, who decides whether a particular color should be used or discarded, which techniques to employ, and much more, shaping the composition of the artwork until it is ready to be appreciated.  

In the case of games, the same level of work and care exists, and in many development studios, this is called Creative Direction. It is the role of a creative director to shape the game, defining and limiting what it will be—whether by mixing, composing, or adding personality to its elements. Everything that happens in a game is either defined by this direction or implemented through it.  

In our game, the creative direction is led by Ohanna Martins Pagani, a dedicated professional with a passion for games—a passion she expresses and wishes to share. Like many other professionals, she understands that the key aspect is to establish the project's focal points and understand its constraints.  

In Espada, several elements serve as focal points for the viewer (player). Some are temporary, others appear more frequently, but hope is the main theme. There are many constraints as well, but rather than seeing them as negative, we embrace them, as they help shape the project. Constraints also enhance creativity, as it is often easier for us, as humans, to solve problems rather than create something from a blank slate.  

One particularly interesting and enjoyable creative constraint in our game is the decision, made by the creative director, that all playable characters should be women. Drawing from her experience and personal preferences—always choosing to play or work with female protagonists—she saw an opportunity to showcase the diversity of women and their importance in the gaming world.  

Creative constraints in our project are not limited to characters. For instance, we also use simplified language as a form of accessibility. While this was initially a limitation, it opened up many new possibilities, such as adding narration to make the game even more accessible to players. Many ideas have emerged from this limitation, and after careful analysis, the best ones will be implemented.  

Directing creativity in a multidisciplinary project like a game is not just about coming up with ideas—it also involves supporting the team, understanding each member’s personal limitations, and making the best use of available resources in production. Once again, limitations are everywhere, and the final creation is what stands out in this process—overcoming challenges to create something fun and, hopefully, memorable for the player.   

Lastly, player feedback is extremely important for development. With today’s communication channels, it is possible to monitor and analyze what players say about the project. This information helps refine and improve the game while working within the established constraints and creative vision.  

We hope that Espada will be enjoyed by many players—not just veterans, but also newcomers looking to embark on their first gaming adventures. 

Welcome to the development blog for Project Espada! I believe I can now call it the Espada game.  

We are extremely happy to have reached this milestone. It took a lot of rejection, challenges, and struggles to bring this project to life, but now we can say that the journey will continue. We officially started production on December 20, 2024. We are deeply grateful to God, Jesus, our families, and friends who have supported us, as well as the PNAB cultural program, the City Hall, and the Department of Culture of São José do Rio Preto for providing the resources that made our dream possible.  

The Espada game is about hope in difficult times, delivering an engaging narrative that emphasizes the importance of never giving up and taking action to move forward, endure hardships, and strive for victory. Blending tactical RPG elements with roguelike mechanics, the game follows the story of Espada, a character who must find her way out of a land called Buraco — a place of stagnation where many get lost, and few find themselves.  

She is not alone. Throughout the adventure, Espada will meet people with different dreams, yet all fighting together to overcome obstacles. One of the game's most interesting aspects is how it is inspired by real people and situations. We know that life is not easy and is full of challenges, but it is possible to believe, to help and be helped, and to conquer even the toughest levels.   

We invite you to join us on this journey by following our development blog. There is still so much we want to share about the game, its production, ideas, inspirations, tips, and our experiences.  

See you soon, and remember: Have hope and fight for your dreams!