My background is now re-made, however after trying to add it Rachel suggested I isolate the items into sprites and build it that way instead of the single image. Ultimately this made for a nicer background and got rid of the black box I had initially.
The original idea was as shown here, using grey to darken the parts of the house that were not the current scene.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Xbhkxm9Mr6uxE67Lyt6__dxIeVJGJV93HOkXWSE31UX7NX4n0Ne5lxxp5Gd4s4W4ofDZt7Z22V4rC7U4g_dWjVpiA3XCj4w-B5KFv1-mLChJL0_ooQ7S2U6RDL61Aiea5hTO8R9dBdE/s320/Blue.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpnp3-o8P3c4J6DVfr8JdCwBEDGbFevYaItZhbpl-JRHQUCQyylWrPo35s9GzMSXvcxQ1vNqk0BatAjxb6Pr9mluu3NAJnQIRqxO7pps-MYhQt_Koy4RvtGvLWihi1VwiLZOQYSp3pwvI/s320/Yellow.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs0KowgRujAjnKy5Yk7y4xPwtgMy6-v_VqlPP-TvGArmFBo1QKvp1lm7tR6QAGiuvnEJWUtJ7Z3QWNeIHYh_LdRY6woklaXi-1SV2pDAsUwKGUuNWoVLi9eewxbeL-PA_nJYdT7yGt-r4/s320/Green.png)
This was the sprite sheet I came up with. Turning the skybox into a sky blue colour meant i didnt need a sprite for that.
Final level background