Escape from the Twilight Castle

At the beginning of the year, my friend Miguel Ángel Tejedor (Miguetelo) asked me to create a new illustration for his latest ZX Spectrum game, Escape from the Twilight Castle, which he would present in July at YRGB 2025 https://es.yrgb.org/, the international retro game development competition for the legendary ZX Spectrum, organized under the sponsorship of Yandex.

For this project — just like I did for the Cyclus cover — I started from the original loading screen and drew some inspiration from the visual style of iconic titles such as Ghosts ’n Goblins and Castlevania to capture the gothic and mysterious horror atmosphere of those classic games from the eighties.

On August 30, 2025, the contest results were announced, and Miguel’s game received excellent scores, ranking fourth in the Gameplay, Graphics, and Audience Choice categories — a well-deserved recognition for the care, creativity, and dedication he poured into this project.

Although I completed the illustration in late June 2025, its physical edition will soon be released through Matranet https://www.matranet.net/boutique/zx/zx.php. Still, I wanted to share the cover in advance, taking advantage of the Halloween season, since its aesthetic — with a mysterious castle and a graveyard filled with pumpkins and skulls — fits perfectly with this time of year.

If you enjoy fiendishly challenging puzzle games with the flavor of true modern retro, you’ll love Escape from the Twilight Castle as much as I enjoyed playing it and creating its cover art. https://itch.io/profile/miguetelo