This is an example of what I'm talking about. Originally, I had planned to have moving tiles, and 4 levels, and 6 different enemies. Right now I'll be lucky to have 1 level and 3 enemies. I've been getting help from people both online and off line, but many times, despite how much I've trimmed and cut from my original project, it seems like I'll never get it finished in time. How simple do I have to go?
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Well, now that spring brake is over, I have to say that unfortunately I wasn't the busiest of bees, however, to be honest, this break has been a lifesaver. Anyways, to get back on topic, my plan of action for now is to finish creating my own artwork and assets for my next game project. Why you may ask? Well to be perfectly honest, it's mostly because I dislike the original ones, and would like to take a shot at creating my own works. I mean, I'm probably more of an artist than a programmer anyways, but then again, that's not to say I can't write a decent script! No, I believe the main reason why is because I want to exercise my own abilities, and create what I really love creating: sprite artwork. It's been ages since I last did anything of the sort, as I've just started taking commissions again, and unless tile editing counts, I've gotten pretty rusty, so what better opportunity to better my skills? However, to be fair, it is just my personal preference, but after getting back into games like Mega Man Zero for the GBA and marveling at the fluidity and majesty of the sprite work, I've definitely have to say that pixel art and pixelated sprite art are by far my favorite type of art to be seen in games. Perhaps it is because it emits a sense of nostalgia for the "Good ol' days"? Possibly, but in the end, 16 bit heroes will always be my favorites, both to create and to play as. Maybe I'll even learn a thing or two.
At the current time of me writing this, I am only one lesson and one quiz away from finishing my introductory course and moving on to 2D game design, and so far, it's been worth it. In all honesty, I would've finished much faster, had I not stopped to help my friends who occasionally stumbled making their own path. Yes dear friends, it has all been very much worth it. From first learning what strings and ints were, to designing my own classes and constructors, it has been a worthwhile journey. Now the real question which remains is, will I be ready for what comes next? Did the courses adequately train me, or will I find myself struggling like how my classmates were in the upcoming challenges and activities? At this point, I do not know. I mean, I've had experience with javascript, unity, and c# script all before in the past, through various summer camps in past years of more true youthful vigor, and even working with more simple and rudimentary programs like gamemaker through camps that my very Game Art and Design teacher hosted and put out to get people like me interested in various careers in game design. Even with all this prior knowledge, will I still have the bravo to continue onwards? The truth is, I am only limited by my own shortcomings and lack of knowledge, which is a good thing in my opinion, as you can teach any subject with a good teacher, but never can you teach true motivation and passion.
Like with any program that succeeds in giving you nightmares, it will usually succeed in also giving you dreams, and not the kind where you fall asleep and have a weird fever vision of lines of code, but a dream for the future, of what's to come next if you will. During little "ahah!" moments where you realize that you accidentally replaced an 'in' statement with an = statement do I realize that so far C# has been pretty easy to deal with... At least so far. What I am truly worried about is pouring my brains out trying to learn this language and then discovering halfway through that I have absolutely no mortal clue as to what I'm supposed to be doing. As someone who truly wants to get into Indie game design, this is a big issue for me, as languages take time to learn, and time is something I'm fairly short on. My hope for the future is that this language is one I'll be able to master, and in time, I'll be able to create something great with this language. During the early challenges only rarely did I ever have to rely on the forums for unity, and most of my problem solving simply came form my intuition (I guess that's what I'd call it...) To be honest I'm still surprised I've come this far already, and of course with any progress I make in life, I am now instantly worrying about what said progress means. I have an inkling that it's all going to come crashing down to the floor any lesson now, and I'll realize that I wasn't actually the good programmer I thought it was... Oh well, food for thought I guess. All in all, at this point in time, its just best for me to focus on my lessons.
Whenever you're in doubt, visit the help forums, they don't exist for no reason. Ever since my initial beginning of learning to code in C#, I've had it's workings running nonstop in my head. What do I mean by this? Well, what I mean is that occasionally I'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking of how I forgot to put a semicolon at the and of a line, or how I accidentally added a public class type variable in a private OnDisable() action. Though, there is a strange problem that I face, where, I cannot prescribe a whole value to a term or concept. They remain abstract terms until I'm able to get a keyboard under my fingers and type away. For instance, you say "What is a bool?" and my response would probably be "Uhmmmmmm... It's that... True/false thingy yeah..?" But then you tell me "Go make an editable true/false statement in Unity." And my response would be "OK!" Before typing out public bool myStatement = (false); If there's something I'm doing wrong in my approach to this, I wish I could know, as It's way more frustrating than one would think.
The road to success is probably the most difficult road to follow known to man. It has more twists and turns than The Tail of the Dragon. There's a smaller window of chance to complete it than the Passage De Gois. More thieves exist than there are terrorists on Luxor-Al-Hurghanda road. To top it all off, it's longer and takes more time to finish than trekking along Highway 1.
However, to those who have been born into success, it doesn't take much to get where you want. For those in the upper class, either they have worked hard to get there, (Which only happens to very few out of many) or have inherited it from those who actually did the work. (Or perhaps their father gave them a small loan of a million dollars.) However, this idea I have presented to you only covers the monetary gains of success. It is really up to oneself to decide on what success is, and while I am perfectly fine with great friends and family, that in itself won't pay the bills. Well, I have delayed you enough from what this blog post is truly about, so without further stalling, let's delve deeper. Throughout my experience in elementary school, I was taught that the important thing to life was enjoying it, so I did. I worked hard in school, yes, but it wasn't my number one priority. What I put first was having fun. I hung out with friends, wrote some stories, invented adventures, and drew my dreams, however, once I got into middle school, things began to change quite drastically. The closer I got to eighth grade, the more teachers stressed the importance of grades, and aside from the little voice in my head still telling me about the importance of fun, the only thing I really focused on was my grades. I mean, can you blame me? I began to think that success was good grades, high marks, and getting the best paying or most beneficial job. I was starting to lose the idea of success of having a happy life, and it didn't help much that most of the adults and teachers around me were miserable. (But to be honest, even I hated my class, I mean, I don't even know how the teachers got sleep dealing with a class like ours. Rabid chimpanzees would be better behaved and easier to teach than my class.) By the end of seventh grade, I had basically turned to art for my comfort. I had been stressed to the point of insomnia, pushed to the brink of hopelessness, and the only thing keeping me gong at that point were my friends, (Both real and imagined) my art, and the horror of having to repeat a grade. Now I'm not saying that my life has been horrible, I have been quite blessed to have the privileges I do. Nor am I blaming the school either, I actually think it was because of multiple things that all revolve around my mental state, which hadn't really been explored at that time. What I'm saying is that what happened to me has made me into who I am now, and what I want to be in the future. And to be completely honest, I think that the best way I can use my talents to help others is to be the next big indie game designer. Heh, I know, even I think it's pretty silly at first glance, but hear me out. For starters, I have always found peace in fantasy, and rarely in the real world. TV shows like Gravity Falls, and Steven Universe were my go to feel good shows. Why? Well, these fantasy worlds weren't perfect, and they each presented themselves with real world problems that myself and many others were probably struggling with at the time, and they teached the viewers how to fix them as well. (Something that many schools don't.) Same thing with games like Undertale. They present the viewer/player with real life problems/morals and then present to them the answers and the good ethics one should have. So in response, I have decided to create my own universe and will learn how to program it into a reality. I have a love for writing, artistry, and programming, so those aspects won't be to terribly difficult, but still, looming in the distance is a challenge I will be faced with in the close future. You see, I want to create a fantasy world for everyone, no matter the age, race, gender, or sexual orientation, and I would like to do so without the sugar coating most other fantasy worlds put on. There are dangers in this universe like our own, whether they be poor legal systems, discriminating laws/people, a judgmental society, or harmful actions from single individuals. The problem I'm faced with is finding the good in all. Weather someone is being blindly lead, has an unorthodox moral system, or simply does wrongs in order to benefit themselves, (Weather or not they actually need to do so) everything must be presented. What I'm trying to accomplish is to have all who play this game look through their enemy's eyes and walk in their shoes before deciding if they are truly evil, or just a good person who does bad things. If I can accomplish this, then I would feel truly successful. My end goal isn't to become rich, (Although financial gain would be a necessity to pay for its production.) all I want is at least a good part of America to become a better place, (And for people to stop playing the victim in every problem and actually take some responsibility every now and then.) And if I can have fun doing so, then all the better. (Oh, and if you're wondering, I have almost solidified the plot and I am beginning to intertwine all the complex stories that are yet to unfold. So expect the entire project to be completed somewhere within 2018-2020.) My DeviantArt holds more information so click here for more details and information art wise Contrast for the win! |
Creator InfoThis is a blog for a Game Art Design class. Future programmer and currently an artist and writer. Archives
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