Hear hear! Don't knock it if you haven't tried it, every ugly duckling can turn into a beautifull swan. Zapper may be using tilesets that look like they've been made with Paint, but that what gives it it's charm. Remember Biohazard's "Bilsy's Revenge?", which used tilesets that look the same?

The most important thing with eye-candy is not how good or bad it is: it's mostly how it stands out, how it's used in creative ways. You can fill a field with all kinds of flowers and trees or just leave it empty; neither stands out. One quick look at Violet's screenshots shows it: some tiles are used in a non-standard way, but they still look good; in a style unique to the author. It makes you think: "wow, why haven't I thought of that?", and thus makes it memorable. However, stand-alone eye-candy does nothing except draw your eye to the level, as a level's rating is mostly determined by the way it's played. A nice example is WACKO!!!, a puzzling maze using only standard one-tile blocks.

The fault here is that people think eye-candy equals gameplay. By standard eye candy is merely decoration, nothing else, unless the player can interact with it, like destroying it or hiding behind it; only then is it part of the gameplay. Want an example? Turn on low-detail on JJ2

I'm working on and off on my episode myself, focussing on the way it's played and not on how it looks (untill I actually finish all levels). Maybe when I have a nice area to capture I'll post some shots if there's enough demand.

- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3