Putting in the time! I am feeling more confident about things. The last few days I have just been cleaning up and improving the project. I feel like removing a lot of the jank really has made the game more appealing to me personally. I guess I just need to keep pushing forward.
Not too much to say. Just glad to be doing the work and excited to see what I can accomplish.
Got some good feedback on Reddit. Nothing viral, but still, nice.
Planning is hard. Design is hard. I just don't know how to go about it really. I mean, I have gotten a lot better at it over the years. But it's just still really hard to look ahead and not just make decisions on the fly. I spent the last hour or so just trying to plan, but damn, I barely was able to make any decisions. I guess there are many unknowns that are throwing me off. Mostly these systems that I want to have in the game that are missing - like progression of all kinds. Character, missions, equipment, etc.
Without any sort of progression at all, it's going to get old quick. Even old games had progression - it's a core feature. If the challenge is consistent across the whole play session without ever rising with player capability, it's just gonna be boring.
So yeah I think just the fact that that is just hanging there without any real decisions being made is really making me uneasy. I can't really guess how long anything will take if I have no idea what I'm doing.
I mean I've had lots of ideas but no solid decisions.
I try to relax, but it's difficult not to get stressed out about it.
Ultimately, it'll be fine though. I'm just making a game. And it's turning out alright. It just really takes time to get things done - ya gotta just be patient and keep at it.
Anyway - gonna take a stab at planning probably Saturday. Tomorrow I will focus on cleaning up the battle scene and the rest of the UI so it's all updated w/ new art and looks fun and acceptable. As good as it was before.
Here's before and after GIFs of what I've been working on.
Alright, I may be getting carried away. Well, I suppose I like where the visuals are going so I'm just doing my best with what I have - and I really feel like it's starting to look nice. The thing is, for the Steam page reveal coming up, I need to make it pop as much as possible - and specific animations may not be all that important. I've got enough where it looks kinda neat - but I think varying up the environment and equipment a bit, and making the enemies distinct from the player dudes, and maybe adding wound / blood effects, would be the more important thing to focus on.
I do want to wrap this up nicely before moving on however.
The thing is, I only have two days until I need to submit the game for review. It really doesn't matter how it looks during the review process, it matters more on page reveal, and that's not for another couple weeks. However, time flies and I need to prioritize correctly.
So I'm doing very well, I really like where it's going, it's starting to feel more cohesive. I just need to keep up the work.
Later!
Working on art overhaul still. I like where it's going. Have to keep putting in the work!
Excited to get to blood and animations.
Welp. I've been back at it. I'm currently working on overhauling the artwork - Main complaints have been that the game looks generic and it looks inconsistent visually. That's because it was generic, and inconsistent, because it was just taken from asset store artwork.
So, I decided to do the art myself.
Why the hell not? It's fun. And it's my game. And I wanna do it. So let's do it.
WIP. I'm using Survive the Squids design and code, I'm going to animate the characters in a similar way where the heads move with the mouse lean into the direction they are facing, and the faces change based on facing.
I have been thinking a lot lately. This is a hard thing. There's only so little time... I'm just one person. I'm one person, wh...
