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[Zorg]

Your toilet boss does not look like a toilet to me, because it lacks the typical toilet bowl form.

Fast sketch for an alligator-faced toilet tank. *scnr*

[marcgfx]

hi ziska, progress is looking great!

I'm not totally sold on the toilet-tank design either (although way better than v1-2). if I did not know what it is, I would likely not guess it. also, if you do go the route you are on, I believe you will run into quite a lot of animation issues. the arms are quite big, and to get some smooth animation you will need a lot of frames. what you often see is arms made out of balls or no arms as in ray-man.

I like the particles that have been added to the gun, but as mentioned before, I would not outline anything with black that is supposed to be bright/burning. the particles would likely look good if they stayed closer to the firing point, currently it's very chaotic, but it does show off whats possible. oh, and do the particles fizzle out in the water, or is that a bug in the gif? :D

[Zizka]

@oldblood: Sure, anytime! 

I'll keep the "nose" and change the rest of the design to make it more "toiletish".

@Zorg: Hi Zorg and welcome to the thread. Thanks for the little doodle. I prefer the eyes where they are right now but you're on to something with the bowl/teeth though. 

@Marcgfx: Hi Marc!
But it's still wip  .

I'm not totally sold on the toilet-tank design either (although way better than v1-2). if I did not know what it is, I would likely not guess it. also, if you do go the route you are on, I believe you will run into quite a lot of animation issues. the arms are quite big, and to get some smooth animation you will need a lot of frames. what you often see is arms made out of balls or no arms as in ray-man.

Oh I don't think the arms will be a problem, we'll see. I really hate arms made of balls, never thought it looked great.

I like the particles that have been added to the gun, but as mentioned before, I would not outline anything with black that is supposed to be bright/burning. the particles would likely look good if they stayed closer to the firing point, currently it's very chaotic, but it does show off whats possible. oh, and do the particles fizzle out in the water, or is that a bug in the gif? :D

It is way too loaded at the moment, you're totally right. It was my first impression too when I saw the gif. I don't know if you've noticed but there are numbers actually showing the damage/received taken but at the moment there's so much on-screen with the bits and bolts, sparks and projectiles that we can't make out anything. By the damage numbers I mean something like this:



I don't think I'll keep those though. My game isn't rpg enough to warrant it (although you *will* be able to upgrade your weapons/armor through BNA).

Regarding the sparks, yeah, it doesn't look right still, I've already told Sahand about this. I've asked him to take a look at some references to get it better. Without an outline though, I'm worried they won't be visible enough. Worth a try though.

Something like this would be neat:


And the sparks should fizzle, yes! Still so much to do but I'm focusing on what's done! 

EDIT: I also wanted to include this quote, something I'll need to keep in mind in the future.

Some of the largest gaming blogs, gaming walk-through sites and indie game stores have their own forums. A problem is that a developer needs to participate in a community ahead of launching in order to not be treated as a spammer. Suddenly appearing in forums can be a desperation tactic. There is submitting the game to sites like IndieDB or Gamamia that help catalogue new indie games, but the number of views generated might not be much. For some large blogs instead of the general press address one can attempt to single out a specific blogger who may be more sympathetic, but this too risks being treated as a spammer if done too aggressively. In a situation like this I am biased towards focussing on strong project updates with good content about what the vision of the game is. The hope is that this helps motivate backers into action.

[Zizka]

Hello boys and girls!

As promised here’s this week’s first devlog. As mentioned in devlog 29, Wednesday’s devlog is a minor one compared to the one on Sunday is when everyone is due to hand out something, whatever it is they worked during the week.

Not received.

E and I had a long chat this week regarding music for STG. It seems the 16-bit is a bust for now. I have been over complicating things and after talking to Etienne, I have some clever ways of stripping the music down. I’m excited to get started with what’s coming next, and I think E is right - it’s a good thing for STG.
-Trevor

These last three days for me have been about management. I had an online chat with both Trevor and Sahand to discuss their respective tasks. I find an online chat works well to give feedback especially when it involves starting something over. There’s immediate interaction and less understanding, frustration or hurt feelings (those three I plan to avoid at all costs).

I also received a request to be bound by contract. I had intended to work this way from the get go but I had planned to do this later down the road when more work on the game had been done. So I invested more time trying to get my contracts in gear. I don’t know how to make contracts legally valid so it will involve further research. Just to clarify, I’m totally comfortable with the request, I’m just explaining why there’s nothing new in the art department. Except...

I could introduce another member of the Breasistance: Butter-Fly. The name came easily! Butter-Fly used to be The Dough’s top engineer until it turned rogue along with Pan. He will join Pan on his adventures to give input much like Navi did in Zelda (but without the annoying “Hey”). I want the relationship between Pan and BF to be somewhat peculiar in the sense that Pan constantly fights back an urge to devour BF. BF is thus constantly worried whenever it interacts with Pan.


But, I’d rather not leave with you nothing at all, so here are some gameplay idea from a member of another community, Cactus:

Hi !

Good to see you this week for a new Devlog. Right now i reflect to how STG can be original and to
stand out from the mass.

Firstly i'm working on a new fight system with Pan's grapin. A enemy could be stunned then throw
against other enemies or buttons.

(A little sketch to illustrate):


Also, i'm on way for done a new design of the KS's level, with different roads and a lot of secrets to
find out !

I can't show the level design for the moment but this fast sketch can express the idea.


I hope you enjoy our evolution.

Stay tuned !

-Goulven

This time around, I’ll talk about the upgrade system. Basically, I’ve drafted a few attempts on paper about the upgrade system. As you already know, collected BNA can be spent to upgrade Pan’s abilities.

This is the design aspect which has given me the most difficulty so far. It might seem easy but it’s tough to put in place. I want the layout to be a grid (sort of like in Final Fantasy X and XII). Every time you spend a BNA, more upgrades become available to you.

What’s boggling my mind is determining what the upgrades are. There are the more obvious ones like damage upgrade, damage resistance and so on.

The difficult thing to figure out is the abilities. Should the player have access to all of the game’s abilities from the get go (grapple, charged shot, etc...) or should they need to unlock them.

If they need to unlock them, I can see how that could lead to a *lot* of issues with the level design. On other hand, having access to all the abilities from the beginning sort of spoils the fun. There’s not much to look forward to afterwards. I always found it addictive to play some more time in order to unlock this ability to try it out and to have access to new areas in a game world. In Castlevania, you’d get those abilities at key points in the game.

This leads to a linear progression through the game. Admittedly, in Castlevania, you had the main linear quest but you could also explore some side-areas in any order.

I’d like STG to be more open. First of all, you have access to all of the game stages/worlds from the very beginning. That, in my opinion, has always been a major appeal of Mega Man.

The thing is, we can’t really go too deep into level design without being sure about the abilities otherwise we end up having to change the levels over and over again (which is a lot of time).

BUT setting the abilities in stone right from the beginning stifles the creativity for the rest of the game in case I/we get new ideas.

So that’s what I’m thinking about right now.

Aaaaannnnnnndd that’s it! See you Sunday.

[oldblood]

PM me your email. Will get you a draft contractor agreement. You will need to modify it to suit your needs but it will get you pointed in the right direction. Obviously, I'd recommend you talk to a lawyer but since things like that are challenging at this stage, this will hopefully help expedite your research a bit and get you something.

If you're going to work with a team and/or pay anyone, you MUST have contract agreements in place before you even begin work. Yes, it adds some technicalities but rest assured it protects both parties and helps insure that everyone is on the same page about what is happening.

[Zizka]

Hello guys,

@Jobleonard: First of all, sorry Jobleonard, I totally forgot to reply to you last time! I'm really sorry! I find it really rude when people don't reply to comments but I totally missed that one.

Was that an idle animation just before he got hit?

Yup!

There it is:


@oldblood: Got the samples alright! Thanks! I'd say I'm about 80% done with the contracts.

This week was fairly slow for STG. I was busy doing administrative work and Sahand was sick. I'd say a major breakthrough was in the music department where Trevor whipped up something which I'm happy with. Can't wait to share with you guys!    Listen to it as I'm writing this! 

So, not a lot has happened this week sadly. First I had a lot of tests(school and such) and then I got sick ;-;. I'm recovering though, and because I now have a week off, I can add loads of stuff ^^. This does however mean that the gif will be there next wednesday and not this sunday, I hope you guys understand D:. anyway, see you next wednesday!

-Sahand

This week I focused on simplifying, as per my conversation with Etienne. My first draft was a little “laid back” for him, but with a little extra distortion, some harsher drums and bigger synths, I’m hoping the new version is up to the task! For all you fellow composers out there, grab Dada Life’s “Sausage Fattener” distortion plugin. It’s great for roughing stuff up without degrading the sound too much.
-Trevor

Nothing! Nada! Niet!

As I said, it's been a slow week. Working as a small team means everyone has to a little bit of everything. In my case, a lot of everything. I could talk more about contracts but I'd probably bore you to tears. I also write the team letter, keep the spreadsheet updated, test what I'm sent by the team, etc...

On the bright side, I'm almost done putting in place a system for the team to work together efficiently. It's taking some time now but it'll allow us to work well together in the future. Everything will be done proper legally and the work flow will be top notch! 

I think this devlog has a good chance of being voted the best of 2015, if I may be so bold in saying. It's organised, varied, more concise than it used to be and interesting to read. I've pretty much run out of ideas to make it better so I think that's a good sign!

In the future, we'll all take turns writing up a BTS so it'll end up being more varied.

As today is Sunday, let's talk stats! As you probably know, I try to keep a daily record of the thread's stats. I miss a day or two every once in a while but generally speaking I'm very up to date.

I thought I'd share a few screens of this as it truly is, "behind the scenes".

Image 1: View count per week and daily increase:


You'll notice I write the number of views daily, views per reply, daily average and so on. I like that type of stuff. Keeps your grounded.

Image 2: Comparison with other devlogs:

This image is outdated now but you get the idea. I like to see how well I'm doing compared to others. If other devlogs are doing better, I analyse their respective structures and try to learn from them.

Image 3: Devlogs per week:

This is a simple stat but it shows how I've adapted to doing devlogs. During the first week, I did 10 updates which was really crazy looking back. Then I finally adaped to twice a week which is the best amount so far.

Image 4: Views per week:

Judging by this graph, the devlog is getting less and less popular  . I'm not too bothered about this just now. The number of views really varies from one week to another, sometimes doubling. This week was slow, it's ok. It was also to be expected if we went from 3 devlogs to three a week. It's the price to pay! It will mean better quality devlogs though so I'll gladly pay it! 

AAAAaaaaannnnd that's it for today. A slower week more about management than anything else although marked by major breakthrough in the music.

See you Wednesday for devlog 32.

[JobLeonard]

Hey man, it happens . Especially on forums where there are so many interweaved written conversations going on at the same time. But nice idle animation! Wait... is that a breadcrumb he's eating? IS HE A CANNIBAL?!

[alvarop]

is a devlog's popularity on tigsource really that important for a project? (specially for this type of project, so early in development too).
Legitimate question.

[Zizka]

@Jobleonard: nah, he's eating a butter cube. Being a cannibal would make the game rated R.

@alvarop: well, yes and no. For the most part I'm just interested in stats.

I'd say yes because the more people read and spread the word about the game, the more chance we have when we launch the ks.

I'd say no because at this point in time it's still early, like you've said.

I sometimes ask myself this question too, to be honest.

[JobLeonard]

Might be a bit of subconscious feeling like it gives some control over something uncontrollable (and something that can backfire so badly! Putting something out in the world is scary!).

Also, popularity is one of those "get enough momentum, exponential growth" kind of things, so nurturing the early adopters is actually pretty important I believe.

Also also, at least now you can screw up without it being noticed by many, so it's a good time to practice how to PR I guess.

[Zizka]

Could be. I've certainly got my anxious/control issues!  (you learn to live them with time though).

I think you've got a point about momentum. On the other hand, do I have enough content to generate this momentum? Who knows.

Anyways, the devlog structure is in place now. We're going back to the game for the rest of the game I would say.

Expect *shitloads* of new art in Wednesday's devlog.

[Zizka]

Hello boys and girls!

The biggest news this week is pretty much Sahand leaving the team sadly. He's written a short text explaining what happened. It's sad to see him go. Although very young, he was very responsible and mature. Best of luck in your future endeavors, Sahand.

A new programmer will be joining the team. I will introduce him in devlog 33 (or rather, he will introduce himself).

Hi there! I sadly must tell you all that I'm leaving team STG, the very reason being that the law of my country restricts me from working too much because of my age, which would mean that future progress would go far too slowly. I could've foreseen this before, but was so stupid to not look anything up. I hope I've brought you enough interesting gifs to enjoy before the next programmer will come. It has certainly been a blast working with you guys, good luck with the project *flies away*
-Sahand

Trevor composed a really great version of the Toilet Tank stage. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. If you don't, leave a (polite) comment.

Here's the link, you just need to click here to listen to the song:

https://trevor-black.bandcamp.com/track/stg-toilet-tank-v21

A lot of work went into this, so let him know what you think  .

So I thought to myself, how can I give my game some more replay value. So I thought one thing I liked about Flash Games: achievement. Not the kind that just give you a medal and that’s it. No.

So each stage will have the opportunity to earn a medal. The bronze medal will be awarded for simply completing the stage.
The silver medal, will be awarded for completing certain objectives. Those objectives could take on various aspects. I thought a bit about this. It could be finishing the stage under a certain time limit, finishing the stage without dying etc…

The gold medal, would be awarded for something even harder. Not getting hit once for example. Something which would require a lot of skill.

Getting a bronze medal gives you nothing besides indicating that you’ve completed the stage. A silver medal will earn you some extra BNA to invest on Pan. A gold medal will give you even more BNA. I think this will encourage people to replay stages and do better instead of just rushing them.

Medals would look like this:


I also did the Taser animation. It allows you to shock your enemies for constant damage. The trade-off is being vulnerable while you’re shocking someone and a pretty high energy spending. This is a powerful attack which costs a lot of juice (battery) so it’s better to use it sparingly if you don’t want to run dry.



I also did the banner for Goulven, the level designer. I only had mine left to do now! It’s not much of an animation but then again I don’t want to spend too much time on banners since there’s so much to do in graphics. Still, it didn’t seem fair to leave him out.



Apart from that, I also redid the “taking damage” animation which looked kind of cheap compared to the other ones, here it is:


I also starter working on a team logo. Trevor would sometimes joke when writing a message to me and say: “Go Team Toaster!” I thought it was a pretty good name for a team so I decided to go along with it. Then, during the animation, “toaster” felt too long so I just went with “Team Toast”. But then I decided against it. The logo was too plain and too connected to the game. I’d prefer something more general. I can't for the life of me, find that logo on my laptop anywhere anyway.

Then I decided to go for something else, less funny and more about finishing a project is for me: Prevail(ing). And did these versions:







Which do one do you prefer? (usually when I ask for opinions people keep quiet, maybe I'll use reverse psychology next time and say: Don't share your opinions!  

I've also given the main antagonist a shot for the concept art. I had two versions but decided to scrap both and I came to this conclusion:

There is no way to give an amorphous character enough character to be a main villain of a game. Period. I challenge you to find one. It just doesn't work. You know the movie the blob? The blob is the antagonist but it behaves like a mollusc, by instinct. It's the very flaw of a character type like this, having many shapes is the equivalent of having none and you can't pin enough personality to characters like this. That's the conclusion I came to anyway.

Hello again Toaster Fans! It’s me Trev, with a behind the scenes look at STG - this time some more about music.
I usually like to pick out references for when I’m working, whether it be a texture, a timbre, or a tune. Sometimes it’s more than one thing: a snare sound from this track, the tempo of another, and so on. Sometimes the worst thing you can do as a composer is to give yourself a completely blank slate.

So after some good chatting with Etienne about the sound of STG, we settled on a less dense texture and focussed on groove and energy. The first thing that came to my my apart from the references E showed me was Justice’s album “†”. The album sort of feels like if Metallica got ahold of Daft Punk’s gear, and the duo even remixed Master of Puppets for their live album “A Cross The Universe.” Check it out if you need something to up your heart rate!


-Trevor

[oldblood]

Sorry to hear that you've lost the programmer. These things happen. I've dealt with similar situations in the past where they had these laws (was a fellow from Germany in my case). But, glad to hear you've already found a replacement.

For the logos, it's hard to tell as they're all so low resolution and small. You may want to try sharing these at a larger scale? At a glance, I like the lower two logos with the fist breaking the (chain/letters/broken pieces/can't tell) thing.

[Zizka]

Alright, I'll make it bigger.

This was the other logo I was talking about:



And the rejected concepts for the bosses:


(I dropped the first version even before I really started working on it!  ).

[Zizka]

Hello boys and girls!

Today’s Sunday and it’s time for a devlog.

Greg is joining the team as a programmer although we decided we’d give ourselves a trial period of a couple of weeks before making things official to see how things would go.

Hey guys my name's Greg I'll be taking Sahand's place as developer. Currently there's not too much to show and tell as I've only been here 3 days and I'm still getting used to workflows. So far I've had to scrap Sahand work (sorry!!) and work from the ground up but no worries I'll soon be up-to-date and pumping out some content for you to see! But for now here's a gif of the current build in action:
-Greg

Hey again, Toaster Fans! I'm feeling like I'm getting closer to hitting a groove with the music. E and I have been tossing some Boss-Fight music around that I hope to be able to show you guys soon. I'm thinking new music will start to happen faster and faster as I get to know Etienne's preferences. Your feedback will help a lot too!
-Trevor

I’ve been mostly experimenting with the logo for the last few days. I have three new versions to suggest. It’d be nice if you could say which one is your favorite but you’d rather not, that’s ok too. The timing seemed right since I have to wait for programming to go back where it was when Sahand left. So, I figured I’d take care of that right now.

I’ve basically tried to make each logo bigger than before to make sure they would be readable. If you feel like it you could tell me which one you prefer.

V.1:


V.2:


V.3:


Apart from that, I did the explosion:


I also did the keys for the tutorial. Those are just to explain the concepts as players will have the option of mapping their own keys to the keyboard.










I also added an attack for the hair dryer. It was too vulnerable otherwise.


More time went into negotiating contracts and the like.
And that’s about it really.

Hi guys, always good to see you.

This week I worked on the bathroom level's 4th version, with the two ways possible. I drew the level for an increase the usage of Pan's grapple, I concentrate myself on the road B, the second way of the level and the hardest. This road will challenge you at the same time with its lots of enemy and about your STG's physics handling, but it can reward with some BNA. The Road B faces you with a mini boss, the DeoDevil, introduced by Zizka in a previous devlog. But, without the final engine, I can't go far. So i begin working on two other levels: Garden and Dining room.

Stay tuned !


Goulven

Zizka wrote a little list of questions, so today I took this one "What is your favorite game and why?"

My darlings are always Half Life 2 and Silent Hill 2. Why ? Because these two games showed me that a game can be interesting at the same time for his gameplay and for his story. Videos games can be serious and mature like a book or a movie but with a good gameplay. Before that, I saw videos games like kids toys. Better, these two games can be played today like they can't be aging.

Anyway I really like games like Hearth of Darkness, Ghost and Goblins, Dark Souls, Beyond Good and Evil, COD (United Offensive, 4, BlackOPS2), Quake 4, Zelda 2, Final Fantasy (4, 8, 9, 10, 12), Walking Dead, Aedemphia, Portal... Etc. (And I forget a lot...) I like games that give me a good story, but doesn't forget responsive gameplay, if possible with fun and a good replayability.

-Goulven

Aaaaaannnnnddd that's it, see you on Wednesday for devlog 34.

[oldblood]

Sorry to hear the new programmer isnt able to use Sahand's work. Found this to be surprisingly common issue when transitioning a programmer. Or the end up refactoring/hacking existing code to suit their purposes, which can get messy quickly and can lead to longer term issues. Seems like he is rebuilding the existing work pretty quickly though so its probably better for him to rebuild from the ground up to better suit his purposes. As painful as that is now.

Regarding the logos, I kinda actually like the previous designs which incorporated the circle, the issue was they're just smaller and harder to see but I'm pretty terrible at graphic design so take that with a grain of salt...

[Zizka]

Oh it's not that bad really. Would have been a lot worse if it had happened 6 monhts later.

For the logo, I tried a compromise:

[Zorg]

That final version looks good to me. I did not like the typography of V.1 and V.2.

[Zizka]

@Zorg: I'm glad you like it . Just so you know, in the future, you can tell me: "I don't like the font because...", I wouldn't be offended or anything. I mean, It's valid criticism and I'm receptive to those kinds of comments. I'd much rather know if something is wrong with the project than being spared criticism and pay the price for it later down the line  .

Unfortunately there's not too much to report on this week as I've still been playing content catch-up with Sahand so there’s no too much for me to show which you haven't seen already so for now in true Super Toaster Guy style here's a pretty gif of a duck
-Greg

The past couple of days I've been wrapping up the boss fight, and making it more "sinister" as per Etienne's requests. Often times, as I try to make a track sound fun, I end up getting caught up making it too goofy, and I think E had to do just a little bit of reigning me back in. In order to get a more dark/sinister feel, I used a waterphone-style patch and torqued up the pitch as the track goes on. It's subtle, but I think it really adds to a sense of dread. You can take a listen to the boss fight here:

https://trevor-black.bandcamp.com/track/stg-boss-fight-v12

-Trevor

*On the music note, I've noticed we seldom get comments about the music and I was wondering why that is. Is it because people are less interested by this aspect of game design? Not sure. I hope this aspect of the game will be getting more feedback in the future .  

Nothing! Well, actually, I've been scribbling on paper for some monster designs but ended not choosing any so there would be little point in showing anything. As you might have read in my other messages, I've been investigating the idea of hiring a PR person in order to promote the game. I'm also trying to think of a list of places to share the game at (other communities). So again, the last few days have been administrative for the most part.

Hi guys ! What's up ? I don't have so much news for this devlog but I worked on the first draft for garden's level. Lot of ideas for new gameplay mechanisms, maybe in the next Sunday devlog. Also I'll begin to create the bathroom's level with a first engine's version by Greg in a few days. The development will take a new speed with that ! See u soon.


Goulven.


About the devlog:

I don't think there's a lot of content in today's devlog to be honest. I kind of feel I'm publishing a devlog for the sake of publishing one. This got me thinking about what oldblood mentioned earlier that once a week should be enough. I'll discuss with the rest of the team in the next team letter about this. I think having a single devlog a week would give everyone more time on preparing more content for the devlog, say every Sunday. Basically, one single devlog a week with plenty of content would be better than two with one of them not having much to show.

So this week on behind the scenes I'll take my pick from the list of question and the question I've picked for today is: "What do you think is the secret to making a game unique?"

Now I don't think there is any secret way or special thing that is needed to make a game unique but I think it boils down to one key thing. Simplicity. You can put as much content and features into a game as you want but if the basic core game stripped down of all the different parts isn't simple and fun then the game isn't going to work.

[Zizka]

Hello boys and girls,

As they say, another day, another devlog.

I’m going to go ahead and start with the most important news. We’ll be switching to a weekly devlog. This is something I’ve discussed with the other members and we were all anonymous. I’d be silly not be flexible and just be stubborn and stick to my original plan. This is new for me too, I’m learning every day and adapting in the process.

This means we’ll be sticking to a single Sunday devlog... We’ll see how that goes.

Hey again! This week you'll be glad as I've got loads of gif's to share with you guys! New features this week include: Attacking upwards by toasting Pan, shooting with a nice little particle effect and working health and battery bars! Oh and bubbles but you guys have seen them before Next week I hope to show you a new grapple system and water physics!





-Greg

This past week I posted the Boss Fight music, and I'm interested to hear what you all think! I'm currently taking my time moving through the sound effects for STG. Arguably, they should be even better than the music! You'll be hearing the boss fight fairly often while playing, but you'll be hearing the sound of STG jumping and shooting even more!

-Trevor

You know what, I’ve come to the realization that I really need to sit down and draw from life, period. I’ve been trying to pixel stuff and to be honest I often find myself puzzled in front of my computer wondering how to pull it off. I mean, I always manage in the end but it takes way longer than it should as I often trial and error my way into things.

I’ve been trying to put this off as, to be honest, drawing from life is something I dread doing. But this has been a long time coming so it’s time to drop Graphics Gale for a while and stick to a pencil. I hope you guys will still be interested in this turn in the art part but this is something which needs to done. It’ll also be a good time to work more on concept before jumping into things and pixeling. I guess I was such in a rush to get the Kickstarter going to I thought I could skip on the more fundamental aspects of drawing, but I can’t. I always knew it deep down but it’s time to face the facts and get along with the program.

Now, the first question which comes to mind is: “Won’t this really slow down development”?

The short answer is: No, I don’t think it will. For one thing, we’ve still got a long way to into music. So this will continue as usual.

Programming is getting closer to where Sahand was when he left. Although the core elements are in place, there is still quite a lot of work to be done, mainly on the grappling system. So this will still be a while.

Goulven has the latest version of the engine. This means that his next task is building the actual level with what we have so far by using placeholders. Once this is done, I’ll need to pixel whatever is missing and we’ll be good to go for a playable demo.

More specifically, I am studying perspective. This is very important as with animation, I find myself having to change the perspective of certain shapes. In the case of Pan, the construction is simple enough. A rectangle for the body. But still, it’s hard to admit, but I found it difficult to modify the perspective of the said rectangle in certain animations.

There’s also the idea of having a background with a static perspective and no vanishing point, like so:

And yet with Pan, I decided to use one. You’ll notice in the red square, the perspective is wrong.


I took pictures of the exercises I’m currently doing. Most of them come from the book: “The American drawing-book” by John Gadsby Chapman, 1847. It’s a pretty old book but what I like is that it gives clear instructions as to what you’re supposed to practice. For the most part, I’m practicing to do straight lines without having them wobble along the way. Then, I’m practicing perspective with simple geometric shapes and trying to build Pan with those shapes.

Here's some pics. You'll notice some concept drawing of Cannibal Charcoal, the boss for the Garden stage. Nothing definite yet.
Perspective:



Enemies research:


More perspective:


Cannibal Charcoal Concept Research:


Pixel wise, I’ve mostly did a quick mock-up of what I’d like the dialogues to look like:


In other news, we got our first “fan art” by Sofreak:

It wasn't handed in, unfortunately.

This week I'd like to talk about one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time: Bastion! Supergiant's first released effort is an absolute masterpiece from top to bottom, and a big part of that success is how fantastically the score suits the world of the game. Darron Korb's mix of cowboy-esque guitar picking, ethnic instruments, and relentless electro beats is the perfect companion to the game's brightly colored, energetic wilds. Korb ended up dubbing the genre "acoustic frontier trip-hop," and the moniker is fitting. Supergiant's sophomore effort "Transistor" is equally fantastic, and the inclusion of even more vocals is a welcome change. Perhaps it was that I heard Bastion first, but it's the one that sticks in my head more. Other favorite scores of mine include Final Fantasy X, and Portal 2, both fantastic mixes of orchestral fantasy and electronics.

-Trevor

Aaaaaannnnnnddddd that’s it for today devlog.