Mudtato
A New Direction
I’ve spent some time thinking and researching to figure out where I want to go with this project.
Part of me feels like if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve invested in a bunch of physical materials and tools for claymation/stop motion I’d consider just not working on it anymore. Solo, indie game dev is really hard, especially when there are countless other things vying for my time and attention.
But the reality is that I would regret not pursuing it, and would inevitably pick it up again, so my best bet is to just charge on.
I recently watched another talk by Lorne Lanning, creator of Abe’s Oddysee. I’ve always admired their pre-production work on world building and concept art and in his talk he said that they would design everything first before starting to build the game, and that’s what I’m going to do too.
It’s too easy to get something and rush to start working on it, and then somewhere down the line get stuck because other things weren’t considered. So this time I’m planning everything.
It’s so much faster and easier to build a Lego model when you’ve got instructions to work from!
So there’s a lot of planning and concepting to do, and hopefully it won’t take too long to have a solid game design I can start working from.
It’ll be a different world to the one I was creating before - more realistic, more sci-fi, more to come!
Design Dilemma!
Ugh, it was inevitable, but I’m having another “I’m not sure about the whole design and style of the game” moment…
It was brought on this time after I created this wall:
Now, I think that’s a pretty nice wall, but then when it was sitting next to some other models I had the unfortunate realisation that the styles weren’t really consistent. Especially if I was to add further detail and weathering to it.
The concept art I have looks amazing and would make a great game, but maybe it’s just not the game I want to make at this time.
The issue is that I generally prefer a more detailed, realistic style, both to work on and look at.
Or maybe it doesn’t look too bad? (Ignoring the inconsistent lighting, depth etc! I just smashed it together in Photoshop)
However, I still lean towards a more realistic style, and other assets, especially the creatures, really don’t align with that.
Below is an example of two similar enemy designs, one from my game and one from Abe’s Oddysee. Both can work in different games, but one of them I personally find much, much more appealing.
So my dilemma is - do I redesign everything in line with what I’m truly interested in? If I do, then how much will I need to change, e.g. can I still work with the same main characters? If not, then I’m basically starting from scratch.
This is a big project that requires a lot of work over a long period of time. If I’m not 100% into it then it’s not going to make it.
If I want to be creating a claymation Abe’s Oddysee but am working on something that looks like a Saturday morning cartoon then will I have the motivation to see it through? I don’t think so.
My other big concerns are around originality. As much as I love Abe’s Oddysee, I can’t just go copying it. The themes and setting of my game were already heavily inspired by it, so if the designs were also similar then it might be getting a bit too close for comfort.
Maybe that’s fine. I’ve heard Lorne Lanning say both that he likes to see creations inspired by Oddworld and that he likes claymation games, and people love to have more of what they like.
When it comes to art, though, you want it to feel sincere and not like you’re just copying off someone else. If I can find that balance then I’ll be very happy.
So work continues, but as usual it’s two steps forward, one back.
I’m not upset about “wasting” stuff I’ve already made, or work I’ve already paid others for. It’s more important to be on the right track. It’s also all practice, and the next things I make will be even better.
Somehow another two months have passed
I have nothing new to report on the game. I’ve been busy with real work 🤮
Fingers crossed I can get back into it within the next month.
I set a goal at the start of the year to have a playable demo by the end of the year. I’d better get a move on.
Lights, Camera and… that’s about it
I finally got the camera back out so I could take some photos of things I’ve been working on recently, so here some examples below.
I’m currently working on a lot of miscellaneous environment doodads and decoration, as I enjoy environment art and I want the levels to look full and interesting.
Pinni is lost
I’ve been following an indie game project for a while called Pinni and the Lost Voice, which looked amazing and had some a couple of really passionate guys behind it.
It seems as though they’ve (had to?) pull the plug on the project (for now?) which is a real shame. It’s not exactly encouraging for other indie devs like myself.
Hopefully they can work on it again someday.
Always Tweaking
The basics are always so much work to get just right.
I ended up spending a fair bit of time revisiting movement and camera related code to improve it, as there were a few things that just didn’t feel right, or were outright wrong.
When it comes to developing a game it’s got to at least feel great, especially when I’m influenced by DKC2, which is at the pinnacle of 2D platformers.
I also realised that my zoom was too low, which meant the player was smaller on the screen, and the screen was showing a lot at a time. I took some screenshots and compared them with Skullmonkeys and DKC2, and updated the zoom to be more in line with them.
It’s a bit more claustrophobic, but means that various values can be scaled down (speed, jump height etc), and it will also make level design easier as not as much screen real estate needs to be filled and decorated.
The image below compares the character heights relative to the screen height.
I’ve also got to work out my image sizes, as I’ve been working with all different resolutions, mostly huge.