As I struggle to type these words out, I have come to the staggering realization that with less than 24 available hours left, with still no clear end in sight, I am struggling to complete a project that in the end won't even turn out. After struggling for hours on multiple critical failures, I have realized just how out of time I really am. I had begun writing this post on Wednesday night, and I am only now sitting down able to finish it now. I'm not even sure why I'm still writing this, especially with a timeframe so short. Maybe it's because I just want to desperately give up and I won't let myself, maybe it's because I already have. In any event, I have nearly cried forfeit. My critical failures refuse to be solved. This experience has rocked my to my core, and I am uncertain if I can get back up in time. Even now as I type with shaking fingers and red eyes I still consider throwing in the towel, and yet I know that despite it all I will continue to at least attempt to single out my problems and confront them head on. Is it determination and perseverance? Perhaps, but it's most likely apathy and defeat that fuel me the most at this point. I have given up on giving up, so I guess pushing foreword at this point is my only option. I cannot describe my current setback, as with every fix comes another problem that is left for me to solve, and I am running out of the strength to solve problems. I will be left with what I can conjure up in this limited time, and the thought of leaving this all behind is my only solace.
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In order to hopefully further myself in my endeavors, I have begun the process of reaching out to other popular content creators on the web, most notably ones whom I've seen are open to collaboration. I'm starting off small since I'm currently bogged down with my end of year projects, but hopefully I can build some relations over the summer and begin extensive collaboration. I am also looking foreword to the possibility of taking commissions once I get a payment system in place, and I hope working in this way can prepare me for the possibility of working freelance part time. Working in this manner may also help me with time management and meeting deadlines since I'm currently struggling with these issues now, however this is mostly caused by the volume of the work I have on my hands, not the content, and with the ability to control my workflow I believe I would have a better handle on my progress than I do now. So far I have only gotten responses from a small few, most notably those who associate themselves more within the digital art community. However, I am confident that work like this may help to boost my standing within online creator communities, and I presume this would reflect well in my portfolio. I have also considered tapping into graphic design for items such as stickers, buttons and clothing, as it seems like a fun and worthwhile opportunity to consider, especially with sites like redbubble becoming more common. In any event, becoming more recognized in the digital marketplace is a must if one seeks to make their endeavors profitable, and I may have to get into the habit of advertising myself on more platforms, as recently with my spike of work I have fallen out of it.
To put things into perspective, I have been solidly working on developing and programming my end of year game project since the beginning of April, and I am only about 20% done with the coding and that's being generous. That is coding alone, not even accounting for individual art assets and 3D models, nor any sort of particle effects or camera animations. Even if I were to work an extra 2-3 hours every night and during my AGAD period, not accounting for issues in code and other projects in different subjects I have been assigned, nor studying for both upcoming tests and finals, it is still very likely that I will not finish this project in its entirety. Adding insult to injury, to complete the majority of my work assigned starting from the second half of third quarter, I have had to sacrifice most of my free time and related activities, or to put it bluntly, my work schedule has reduced my ability to digitally draw and paint freely to the point where I have not produced nor finished a new piece in its entirety since January. To ask that I now create in detail fully colored and customized UI and sprite assets for this project is simply asking the impossible given the time I need produce said assets and my current time frame. It is disappointing to see all the plans for this project I had started with, as it now seems impossible to bring even the most rudimentary foundation to fruition. If I could describe my current state, I would refer to myself as desperate, either for more time or a way to escape it all. I am going through the crunch before I should have to.
With the end of the third quarter already here, I must brace myself for the oncoming project that I have due at the end of the year. For starters, I'm turning my attention to my awaiting GDD, and what I hope to accomplish with that. Currently I do not believe I have a solid enough Idea to prepare a GDD at the time but I am getting closer to having a more solid idea of what I want my final project to look like. For starters, I'm thinking of creating a card game/rpg style game leaning towards the simpler side when it comes to mechanics. I'm trying to focus mostly on the gameplay aspects and programming for a change, not the art and aesthetics. At most, I'll create a simple battle scene without an overworld, as this is mostly an exercise in what I can program, I already know what I can produce artistically. As for the cards/characters themselves, I'm planning to have all characters to be based on cryptids/urban legends/mythos/folklore etc. Basically any fictional creature that’s semi mainstream and isn’t copyrighted (For instance I won't/can't use any characters or monsters from creepypasta, or anything originating from a recent work of fiction.) In the actual game scene itself during play, the creatures will be represented by low poly figures in the scene resting on top of their respective game cards. And by low poly, I'm leaning towards N64 Styled graphics, I'm not looking for any super advanced 3D models, especially when my primary focus will only be the battling system and programming that lies ahead. I already have a few creatures in consideration for possible use, and I've created a few stylized sketches so that when It finally comes time to model their simple figures, I have a better idea of their body movement and fluidity,
If you had to ask me why I prefer working with 2D, I'd probably give a simple yet vague answer. Something ambiguous along the lines of "Oh well its not as complicated" or "Oh well 2D assets are so much easier to make than 3D ones". Truth be told, while that statement about asset creation still holds true, I'm beginning to see the appeal in 3D production. Sculpting 3D terrain, while not as fun as working with tilemaps, is still wildly appealing and rather enjoyable. Sure, floating islands and nostalgic 16 bit landscapes are impossible, but perhaps there is a compromise. Say for example in the case of the original Mario RPG for the SNES, while technically a 2D game, the isometric view gives it an appearance of being 3D, all in 16 bit glory. In a sense, combining these two polar opposites of detailed sculpted 3D landscapes and meticulously plotted 16 bit fantastical scenes can exist in harmony, albeit with a bit of programming and camera magic. (and presumably a grid based map to account for the simple spritework) In any event, I'm slowly running out of excuses to not peruse 3D work, outside of personal preference and experience with creating 2D assets opposed to their 3D counterparts. Especially with my newfound experience with 3D game development. At this point, I firmly believe that the only thing holding me back from full 3D development is just my nostalgia for 2D pixelized handheld systems, and my inability to 3D model as well as I can create 2D spritework. The more I program these 3D games the more I realize they have just as much versatility, especially with isometric settings. They can be just the same as any 2D game minus the 16 bit graphics.
Well I have just decided to venture into the world of animation, beyond that of which I have currently been doing, which has been short animatics and storyboards in Flipnote Studio 3D. Besides not being able to have the time to work on it in school, it's somewhat difficult to learn at home, or rather just tedious. I've always been a slow detailed oriented sketcher, and an even slower line artist, just in general my process does not tend to be the fastest. When working in programs like FireAlpaca, it seems almost impossible attempting to work at the 24fps industry standard. Just 5 sketched frames alone took me approximately two hours, and that was the sketch itself, no outline or anything more complicated than a simple sketch. (I'm not even going to detail the soreness of my wrist and hand.) While I'd love actually animating something of length, no amount of copying and pasting will help me reach my goal as quickly as I want to, especially considering the multitude of unfinished digital pieces I still currently have in development. I know lots about key framing, inbetweens, body movement, onion skinning, the whole nine yards, don't get me wrong! I just need to practice more on my delivery and output times, as I feel that's my true handicap, especially considering I only have about 4-6 hours of energy left after any given school day before I completely collapse in exhaustion. Unfortunately, it almost feels as If my progress is stagnating, and that before long I'll cease improvement all together. I just wish I had more time to develop my skills further than what I'm already doing. The good news is, I've already been following some extremely popular animators within the digital art community, and while it's no college course, watching animation development streams and given tutorials has already begun to help me immensely. I'm tempted to try my hand at keyframing animations, as it seems more and more online creators are shifting to automatic animation rather than frame by frame, but it's still pretty mixed as is and I should aim to learn both methods just so I can have some versatility at my disposal.
I first came across this game during Nintendo's seasonal sales advert. Usually I'm not too keen on browsing digital catalogs, but this time around I figured I have some spare cash, why not take a look? I'm about 5 pages down, looking through page after page of discounted games that all seemed to have the same premise, color pallet, or the same 3 anime characters posing in the same 4 stances each and every time. Then, I spotted this one, instantly drawn in by the psychedelic color schemes and the dazzling visuals, and the short demo videos provided clips of interesting gameplay and a unique visual style. Now let's dive into this review and see if it lives up to it's dazzling name. Gameplay and ControlsThe game starts off simple enough, giving the user a basic tutorial and instructing them to chose their preferred play style, i.e. would they rather play as a carnivore (tighter controls, faster base speed), a herbivore (slower less responsive play style, but faster eating) or an omnivore, a mix of both. As you play around and explore the levels in a fashion similar to Spore's cellular stage, you advance and level up by consuming materials of a certain type, red for carnivore, green for herbivore, and blue for omnivore. Simple enough right? The goal of each level is to simply devour all materials of a type and end up consuming more so than the CPU. The controls play very well, and do in fact feel like you're navigating a creature underwater in the sense that you're not steering the whole body, rather just the head and the rest of the creature follows. There's also an interesting little mechanic where you can delve beneath the different layers of the void/the waters, to explore new previously invisible scenery. There also is a nice touch where flashes of red green or blue will alert you to unclaimed collectible materials so that you're not just aimlessly wandering around the landscape. Overall the game is fairly simple, not too challenging, and makes for a great leisurely way to kill time without getting super invested in any extensive story or complex side quest. There's also a decent amount of levels packed in too, not too many but nothing to scoff at either, all in all making for at the very least a solid 5-6 hours of game play. It also provides you with a multitude of save states as well, allowing you to replay the game pretty much as many times as you'd like. Visual Style and AtmosphereThe visual style is extremely unique, the bright flashy colors against sometimes colorful and cheery other times dark and foreboding backgrounds feels like something I'd see in a dream about mathematical equations. It's strangely biological, yet oddly mechanical, and all so very captivating. I especially love the creature designs, and it's fun to see and point out which deep sea creatures inspired which designs, as someone who's always been a fan of deep sea marine biology that is. The player characters are also eye catching, almost hypnotic in the way they move, each suiting the feel for their respective game play styles. From the carnivore build, a sleek, sea serpent with sheering mandibles, the almost grasshopper or locust like fish design of the herbivore, and the geometric eel build of the omnivore. The music too is also very fitting for the game, soft piano overlaid upon a baseline of harmonious synths, creating almost a randomized, dreamlike yet calming melody that compliments the game play very well, definitely enriching the general atmosphere of the overall game. It creates a near seamless immersive experience that draws you in deeper without a doubt. The levels are also nicely designed and usually have a unique spin to each one, especially during the later stages. CriticismsNow while in my mind this is a good game, it is by no means a perfect game and there are most definitely a few hang ups and bang ups that in my mind keep it from being a great game. For starters, at the beginning, it felt like that great decision of finding your play style was something great and important that you could never change later, and I was disappointed to find that you can actually change you play style quite easily by simply collecting enough of a separate material, killing some potential replayability. A part of me in this way wishes that you could choose your base species, and by collecting different materials you could make it so that you could end up with different types of your base build (e.g. a more tanky carnivore vs a lightweight minmax one) instead of only switching between carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore throughout your entire journey. Another issue is that the omnivore and herbivore play styles are only marginally different, you're still defeating the same prey the same way just with different colors, which is fine I suppose but it's still a bit of a letdown that there wasn't anything more to it. There's also a few enemies that appear far too commonly or not often enough at all which isn't anything major but it would be nice to see some more variety. There are a few boss fight stages here and there that while visually impressive, didn't add much to the overall experience, usually consisting of "wait your turn then widdle away" style game play that without anything to spice it up just drags on and on. The CPU at times can be a little too easy to beat and despite being able to take damage, I'm not sure if you can game over from excessive damage so it seems a little pointless to include. There's also a few visual and audio issues, such as slightly jerky camera movement in a few levels, issues with being able to properly see color flashes depending on the background, and audio occasionally restarting but without a solid loop so the extension is very audible, however these are minimal concerns. Final thoughts: Is it worth it?Well, for a $2.50 pick I got off of the Nintendo E shop after some Christmas bliss, I'd say it's well worth it, however it will only really be a satisfying play if you're like me in the sense that you either love interesting creature design, have a thing for games with similar mechanics to spore, or have an eye for colorful almost psychedelic artwork. Otherwise, I'm not so sure you'd take to it, particularly if you're a fan of fast paced and more exiting game play, since this is a casual and leisurely game that basically works as a beautiful time killer. However, if fantastical art styles and slow building game play is something you particularly enjoy, then this might turn out to be one of your new favorites. Game play and mechanics: 3/5 Visuals and Atmosphere: 4.5/5 Replayability: 2.5/5 Overall Score: 3.5/5 Reflecting on my current hyperfixiation of the week, I've become obsessed with a film "Annihilation" and what makes it such a good example of turning an impossible narrative into a film. What I've come to find is that most video game to film adaptations fall short because they try to rely too heavily on the source material, creating a fixed story line of a game where no matter how linear the game play is, there is still player choice to be accounted for, and film takes that away which is arguably one of the most important aspects of video games as a whole; interactivity. Why mention Annihilation? Well simple, the director knew that it would be impossible to make a film revolving around characters whose names are never mentioned, and where 80% of any description takes place in the character's mind, or in a journal reflection. As such, instead of trying to keep the film loyal to the source, he instead tried to capture the feeling of the novel itself, by only reading it once, and writing the entire script based off of what he remembered and the emotions it brought forth. As such, the film feels very dreamlike, fitting for it's Lovecraftian and eldritch undertones. I feel like with the sudden surge of video game to film adaptations as of late, they can learn a thing or two from director Alex Garland, and instead of trying to capture the entirety of your source line by line, create a narrative that is unique yet stands for everything in your source material. That way, instead of providing a line by line retelling of a particular game, ergo locking our your audience by taking away the interactivity, instead try to play on the sense of nostalgia and the base feelings you recall your first time experiencing the subject. The only issue with this technique in my mind is the inevitable backlash you'll receive by diehard fans who are upset that you didn't follow the lore of the original to an exact T. (But being fair, any video game to movie adaptation will receive backlash, as is the unfortunate nature of them.)
It seems like in recent times, remakes are becoming more and more prevalent, especially in the film, animation, and video game industry. For instance, Disney looks like it's aiming to remake all it's most popular classic films, with it's newest remake of The Lion King to be added to the list soon enough. Netflix adaptations and reboots of popular series are beginning to insert themselves in every possible nook and cranny. Even Nintendo and other similar gaming titans are falling to this trend, such as the Spyro Remastered series, the rerelease of the Crash Bandicoot trilogy, and remakes of Superstar Saga, Bowser's Inside Story, and with it's most current release of Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee. It's speculated that even more remakes of fan favorite games, especially those which are not typically thought of as being "Main Series", currently have a remake scheduled or in development. But why the sudden increase? Well, the dreamer part of me wants to believe that it's an attempt to shed more light on beloved but currently obsolete classics, however, the cynicist in me knows that it's more than likely an attempt at a quick cash grab. As I stated in my previous post, it's much more difficult to use modern culture to your advantage, due to it's volatile nature, but an equally effective way to create interest in your consumers is to cater to their nostalgia. To a film director or a game developer, it's much easier to create a remake than a spiritual successor. You've already got the basic groundwork, the script, the story, the code, and the mechanics. Even creating art assets is easier since you've already got the previous assets that you can use as reference. Not to mention, it's way riskier to try something new, as you know for a fact that with remakes, you're almost guaranteed that you'll have a positive reception from longtime fans-granted that you don't try to stray too far from the original model. Though, as much as I hate to admit it, I do love the re envisioning remakes tend to offer, good or bad, and I am exited to see where the new creative perspective takes longtime favorites, however hesitant I am to come out about it.
Well, with 2018 nearly out of the way, and 2019 fast approaching, here's a short reminder of just how long this year has been around for- the tide pods meme? That was in January. The Ugandan Knuckles? February. The Yannie/Laurel? May. Octo expansion was released this year, and the Teaser for Smash Ultimate was all the way back in this March. Feels like years right? Turns out in this day in age, trends are coming and going faster than they ever had before due to technology and the now widespread use of various forms of digital media used in an almost daily sense. With so much raw information at one's fingertips, it turns out that this overload of data to our heads makes us care less for the current, but what is 'happening'. To put it simply, we've lost a big chunk of our attention span. No wonder why trends last maybe a few weeks or so before dying, no one wants to stick around, everyone wants to move on to the next big 'happening'. This is incredibly significant to content creators - especially game design creators, because such a big part of game design is being able to connect to your audience, and an easy way to do that is by referencing current pop culture trends. The only issue is that these trends now come and go in a blink of an eye, all save for a few, and games can take years to produce. So what does one do in place of this? Well, for some, this means not referencing current pop culture, but referencing pop culture that has managed to linger for a while, that is still popular, even if it's simmered down in time, yet has proven itself against the tests of time. Or in place of a modern connection all together, one could take the route of nostalgia, an attempt to appeal to the deeper, older parts of an individual that have been ingrained into them at this point. Food for thought I guess.
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Creator InfoThis is a blog for a Game Art Design class. Future programmer and currently an artist and writer. Archives
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