Mudtato
Yes, it’s new game
Making a fully hand animated, claymation/stop motion platformer is a lot of work. While I was making good progress on the pre-production side of things, the reality was that I just don’t have the capacity to complete that project.
Cliche as it may be, it was in the shower where I had an idea for a relatively simple, systems heavy, graphics light game that I could get out of the door within a much shorter amount of time. So that’s what I’m doing now, and I’ll return to the platformer when I can. After all, I’ve already invested in all of the clay, silicone, armatures, rigs, camera and so on!
I don’t want to give too much away about the new game yet, but it’s a 2D space game.
Progress is slow
I want to quit my job to work on my game.
The problem is… I’m self employed.
(10/548)
Game Asset Workflow
Here’s the current workflow/planned workflow for all major game assets.
Pre-Production
- Sketch out a ton of ideas
- Combine best ideas
- Build a clay maquette
- Create a 2D model sheet
Prototyping
- Create rough 2D animations
- Import animations into game to test
Production
- Sculpt clay model
If it’s an animated character (or needs to be silicone for some other reason):
- Create mould from sculpt
- Build armature
- Create silicone model
- Finish model (assemble parts, paint)
- Animate model
It’s a lot…
I’m currently on step 4 for one of the main characters, and step 1 & 2 for the other character and a bunch of enemy characters. Unfortunately deciding on a main character design is really hard… I’ve gone through so many iterations, but I need to just commit to something or I’ll never be able to progress.
I was skipping ahead to the 2D animation stage, but as I wasn’t 100% on the character design I was hitting a wall. It’s important to stick to the process, so hopefully writing it down will help.
4 pre-prod days gone.
Work officially begins!
Planning for a 1.5 year development time, broken down into the following stages:
Pre-Prod ~3 months (15%)
Prototyping ~5 months (25%)
Production ~10 months (55%)
Post-Production ~1 month (5%)
Prototyping will include 2D animating placeholders and working out most of the game mechanics and some level design.
Production will be modelling and animating assets, constructing levels and polishing the game mechanics.
Post-prod and subsequent work will probably take longer, but we’re off!
It works out to around 550 days, which I’m considering non-consecutive, as they need to fit around my other responsibilities, but I’ve at least planned out how much time I should spend on each stage in order to get this project to completion.
Wish me luck!
It’s been so long…
But I’m back on the game.
I’m still flip flopping back and forward on exactly what the game is, but it’s getting less and less blurry each time.