Thanks for the feedback! I handle sourcing and making the art for the MGWU games. Although I didn't directly work on the art for this game (I was recently hired), it is on the top of my list to redo the rocket icons/text. The "patterny" area you are seeing is lava and if you download the game you will probably find that it's slight deficiencies are not as noticeable in actual gameplay - some procedural generation could be great though.
We are into shipping product asap here; The Deeps is an awesome game (really!) and future versions are going to be even better.
> The "patterny" area you are seeing is lava and if you download the game you will probably find that it's slight deficiencies are not as noticeable in actual gameplay
I suppose per your description that it looks better in movement than statically, hence not the best thing to show in the screenshots.
Right, but particle effects and all the other scenery look better in motion too...
You're right though. It would certainly be better to show only the edges of it so it looks less like a pattern.
Possible design improvements (all can be seen in the last screenshot):
* the color of the text in the top left corner is uncanny, doesn't blend with the rest of the screen, and doesn't provide good readability.
* huge areas like the right side look too patterny. Using something like procedural generation would make it feel much better (see e.g Tiny Wings)