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[Pixel Noise]

Yeah, the HQ link looks really good!

[snackycactus]

New enemy: Ghoul

These guys will spawn constantly so long as you are near their spawn points underground.

Here is some color options I've made for em'.
I'm thinking about turning the orange / green ones into two different behavior types, but its too early to know for sure.


I think this time I'm going to get em' in the game without finishing their animations, incase I end up scrapping or changing them. I did however do some wireframe animations to get an idea of how they'll spawn and walk.

spawn:


walk:


- - - UPDATED JAN 12 - - -
I thought my last walk cycle sketch was a bit dramatic, so I toned it down and simplified it a bit.


Next up, I started to do a color blocking one that captures the basic shapes and color areas of the final zombie. For now I might just leave it in this form so that if I need to make a change later on, I haven't gone to far down the road. Once the enemy is in the game and feelin' good, I'll probably finish the sprite.



Does anyone have an opinion between the one older one where his head flops back and forth, and the one where it rotates in a circle?
I made the circle one and now I'm not sure... It may be a bit much. 

[Pixel Noise]

I really like the spawn/walk animations! My favorite coloring is the bottom left, personally. (In case you don't end up using all of them)

[snackycactus]

Thanks! I prefer that one vs the other green one as well. Do you have an opinion between the two orange ones?

I'm probably going to leave these guys alone for a bit and come back with fresh eyes. What I really need to do now is to get back to finishing a tile set to use on my first level, and figure out how I want to handle background art... It's gonna be a long week 

[Pixel Noise]

I like the bottom right of those two - so I guess I like my zombies with blue pants? 

[snackycactus]

I had an Idea for a lil' fake 3D effect and put it together just now!
It's super subtle, and not meant to hit you over the head, but I think it'll help modernize the game, even if you don't notice it outright.

Can you tell the grave stones are semi-3D?

Here's a gif of it: (It's SUPER huge, and may need to load once before it'll play properly).


Here's a HQ link to it as well:
https://gfycat.com/DeliciousOddKid

[snackycactus]

I'm starting on some background art tests, FINALLY.

Art is always my slowest thing, and the thing that takes the most do-overs, so it can be very frustrating, but I think I'm finally getting somewhere.

Here's an art test I just started for background art. It also shows some of the new wall tile sets I made today. They are actually on a separate layer and will have some parallax on em'.


This is still very early, I intend to get way more layers, colors and depth in there.

[snackycactus]

Hey folks!

Art is still coming along steadily- I've just completed the concept for my first level background art!

Here's a gif showing the process I went through:


What's next on my plate is re-drawing, cleaning up and turning this into many little pieces that I can use in a whole bunch'a parallax layers. Once I get those parallax pieces done, i'll do another post showing how I broke everything up, and hopefully showing the parallax in effect. Wish me luck!

[surt]

Why is the player character facing into the screen? Has he got a really ugly face or something?

[snackycactus]

Haha, that's be hilarious

No, he is just a test character (basically a doodle). I need to totally re-design and redraw him- I just wanted to get some more of the game together and more of the art style figured out before I tacked that. (since his design is so important)

[snackycactus]

Parallax background is about 50% complete!

It took much longer than I had expected (I'll explain why below) but the parallax background code is done, and the background itself is about 50% in!

Here's a gif (and a link to the HQ version)
It looks WAY cooler here: HQ Version


The reason this took me so long is that I wanted a system that didn't just endlessly repeat my background, but rather had it repeat up to a point- this will let me do some cool things later like have you walking through a parallax forrest that thins and ends in a view, all in a single level. There was a surprising amount of math involved in calculating when to stop repeating content so that when each part parallax'ed it's way to it's final resting point, they all lined up perfectly and didn't hang over past the area I wanted the effect.

Stylistically I'm doing some weird things here- kinda blending art styles, but with a little more work I think it could work. What do you all think?

[Pixel Noise]

Love that idea - it does sound like a lot of extra work, but it will be well worth it. So far I'm really digging everything you've done artistically, so I say trust yourself and keep going 

[snackycactus]

Hey, sorry It's been over a week since I've posted!

I'm here to announce a bit of a change. I'm temporarily switching work to a new project Go Go Kudamono!.

The two main reasons I'm switching my work over both stem from the same basic thing: Blood Moon is a very large and ambitious game.

The first reason I'm switching is that I'm very new to Unity. This is my first anything that I've made in it, and although I'm learning quickly, it's inevitable that I end up making a ton of rookie mistakes. This is to be expected, but with a project the size and density of Blood Moon, it essentially means that by the time I know what I'm REALLY doing, I'll have to throw out everything I've done and start from scratch- which just feels like a bummer.

The other reason is that Blood Moon is simply not a game I can finish on my own. While I would like to someday soon build a team, currently I'm working on my own (and enjoying the freedom), and it feels a bit like a fools errand to work on a game I know I can't complete in a reasonable amount of time, and one that I know I'll have to throw out 90% of my work due to me learning the software.

For these reasons I've started a new, MUCH smaller and much sillier and more fun project Go Go Kudamono!. The entire design goal for this project is that it is: small, simpler and very fun for me to make. My idea here is this will give me the chance to learn unity and make a ton of rookie mistakes on a game that is small enough that it can handle being built on weird decisions. Rather than working for several months, then throwing it all away, I can work on something cool and release it all while learning Unity.

Please sound off if you guys this is was the right call- hopefully you agree it was!

[Pixel Noise]

I think that's definitely a good call, honestly. Hope you do pick this up again later - but the new project looks really cool already, so I'd say you've got the right idea. Trust yourself and go with it