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[ghostwheel]

I've given some thought to the use of b&w versus colour. I realized that it doesn't have to be one or the other. I don't think that the high quality that images that modern monitors a can reproduce is being fully utilized. I've been struggling with the whole b&w thing from a "mechanical" point of view. By that, I mean in a strictly compositional basics sort of way. Not only is this very rigid but not terribly artistic. H.R. Giger once complained that people think of his work as very monochromatic but in fact, he puts a lot of colour in his paintings. Indeed, when you look at a good print of his stuff, there is a lot a lot of subtle hues and shading. It's not simply blue and black or whatever.
When you paint seriously, you learn about using black and with some artists, it's supposed to be a no-no. Instead you are encouraged to mix dark hues with colours. This gives you more depth because its not just black, its a very very dark blue or red or whatever. And even with blacks, you have warm and cold hues.

What does that mean for Zlythy? It means that with this realization, it frees me up to maintain the visual strength of purely b&w imagery but with a subtlety of colour that can really add a layer of depth and artistry it wouldn't have otherwise. Some areas or objects may have warmer or colder shades. Not only will this push the sophistication of the imagery, give it depth and subtle contrasts but it will also be useful for drawing the player's attention when necessary.

I consider this a real breakthrough for me with the look of Zlythy and gives me a more concrete and artistically satisfying direction.

[ghostwheel]

Some time ago I realized I had to do a proper design document or at least some sort of written plan for Zlythy, especially after hooking up with a coder. It's difficult to communicate ideas to another person, especially if they aren't clear in your own mind. Easier said than done.

It has been extremely difficult for me to know where to begin. This led to all the usual culprits that sabotage productivity: procrastination, inertia and fear. However, it was a bit more than simple procrastination. I wasn't sure where I was headed with this concept. Plus the concept was only half formed. It was one of those catch 22 sort of situations - my concept was only half formed but I couldn't make it more concrete because there wasn't enough there to coalesce into a complete idea. It doesn't help that I'm not the most organized person to begin with. I finally had a breakthrough though. I made an outline. It seem obvious now and more than a little absurd but it was a giant leap for me.

I really should have known better. Once you reach a refined stage with your concept, organization and planning, the execution becomes almost mechanical. It's called workflow. But I can't be too hard on myself, creativity can be hard, especially if you're trying to do something new and unfamiliar.

[ghostwheel]

I dumped Unity, yay! Aquin (the coder guy) didn't mind at all because Unity was pissing him off anyway. Unity free version is ok, unless you want all the graphical bling and support for mobile platforms. You pay extra for each and every one of those things so the cost runs into the thousand of dollars if you want the good stuff. Unity3d ain't so free after all.

I've already created the terrain for the island and figured out how to import skeleton meshes and animations. I can import all my Blender created assets with no problems. Now I'm trying to wrap my head around materials. I suspect materials are going to be the most difficult thing about learning UDK. It's 180 degrees from Unity. Unity is three slots: color, specular and normal. That's it. UDK, it's all about the materials. You can even animate objects with the material editor. It's so insanly complex. UDl is pretty damn awesome.

I'm impressed with UDK's capabilities and the price is right - $99 USD for one of the best game engines available. It ain't free but it's pretty damn close.

[ghostwheel]

I remodelled a number of assets as the originals had an unneccesarily high number of polys. There have also been two big conceptual changes for the world of Zlythy. One is the addition of NPCs and the other is that all the different levels are now part of a single, unbroken island. To show that I'm actually doing stuff on the game, here are some early development screenshots from UDK: http://www.ghostwheelgames.com/early-udk-screens

[ghostwheel]

Generally, I don't do really polished or complex concept art. As it's only for myself, I don't have to make it all that detailed. I'm not following the "next gen" asset pipeline (high res sculpt for normal maps, low-poly models for in game). The way I'm doing it is more old-school. This works fine because I'm going for a simplistic, clean style that is low on detail. I generate all of my normal maps in GIMP with a handy plugin,. Is this the best way to do it? I have no clue as I've never created a game before.

Anyway, here are some quick thumbnail sketches I did in MyPaint for one of the NPCs that appear in the game. I worked from the lower right to the upper left - looking for a style that fits in with the rest of the game. I settled on the spiky-haired one with the check next to it. I like that he has that fat, happy cat look but still a bit feral. Yeah, it's not the spectacular concept art you see for most games but it doesn't have to be.

I'll probably do one more sketch to get the body shape worked out better.

View image here: http://www.ghostwheelgames.com/concept-art

[ghostwheel]

My quicky thumbnails might be a tad too crappy. For one thing, they are only the most minimal planning for a design. One of the things I've learned is that a little bit of advanced planning goes a long way. I really should spend a bit more time on them as it would save me time in the long run when modelling and texturing. I ordered a book on digital painting techniques and today I spent a couple hours with it working on speed painting. Look for some much better concept paintings in the near future.

[Chris Pavia]

I like the visual style you've got going on, it's pretty intriguing.

How do you like Blender for animating? I work in Max and Maya at work (although it's mostly modeling and texturing, rarely animating), but since I can't afford a legal copy of either for myself, Blender seems like my only option.

[ghostwheel]

I like the visual style you've got going on, it's pretty intriguing.

How do you like Blender for animating? I work in Max and Maya at work (although it's mostly modeling and texturing, rarely animating), but since I can't afford a legal copy of either for myself, Blender seems like my only option.

Thank you.

I haven't done a ton of animation in Blender and still don't understand all of it. It's pretty quirky. It works though (when you do it right). I don't have anything to compare it to as I've not worked with Maya or Max. My best advice it just download it and try it. You should probably pick up a 2.5 build from http://www.graphicall.org/builds/ as the UI is alot better than older versions.

[ghostwheel]

I'm working on a new game - a hidden-object/escape-the-room one. Zlythy is taking a rather long time (I'm not abandoning it though) so I'm doing a much smaller, shorter game. At the moment, I'm in the design stage - sketches, puzzles and music (4 tracks so far). I'm shooting for a release at the beginning of April. Here's a little teaser image:

[increpare]

like the style

[ghostwheel]

COMA progress report - music and concept art: http://bit.ly/hnkR8a

[superflat]

Please finish Zlythy too.  (Although they both look awesome.)

[ghostwheel]

Please finish Zlythy too.  (Although they both look awesome.)

There will be a release for Zlythy in the near future. I've decided to release levels episodically. Thanks! :D

[ghostwheel]

More COMA Concept art:
http://www.ghostwheelgames.com/coma-paint-over-with-colour

[ghostwheel]

I'm working on a very short, I can't even call it a game, "vignette" interactive piece. It's based on a dream/nightmare I had. There's not much to it. I mainly did it to figure out some aspects of game creation in UDK. It will be available for free in a week or so.

[agersant]

I like your stuff ! What happened to the first two projects ?
What technology do you use now that you dropped Unity ?

[deadeye]

Zlythy looks awesome, please finish it .  It's reminding me a bit of some of the landscapes in

, only re-imagined in black and white.  Very cool.

[ghostwheel]

I like your stuff ! What happened to the first two projects ?
What technology do you use now that you dropped Unity ?

Zlythy looks awesome, please finish it .  It's reminding me a bit of some of the landscapes in

, only re-imagined in black and white.  Very cool.

Thank you both. Zlythy and COMA are still in the works. When I started Zlythy (nearly 2 years ago now!) I didn't know what I was doing. "Oh yeah, I'll make a game, no problems." This is just a stepping stone. Zlythy is the end goal so it will get done. I realized, to get Zlythy where I wanted it to be, there was a lot I had to learn first.

I've switched to UDK from Unity. I do my modelling in Wings3d and UV maps in Blender. UDK makes things a bit easier for me as a non coder. I suspect it makes things more complex from a coders perspective in many cases but it's working ok for me. And it looks really nice.

And I always did love Fantastic Planet! I haven't seen it in years though; I should watch it again some time.

[ghostwheel]

First beta build of my first (not)game "Help Me, I Am Drowning." This isn't much of a game and it barely qualifies as a (not)game. It's mainly a learning experience. If you download it, please let me know if you have any problems, glitches, bug, etc. Thanks!

Download beta01: http://db.tt/7QuCFXs

[ghostwheel]

Here's another build. There was a glitch with the particles, which should be fixed now. I also tweaked the fog, enlarged the swimmable area a bit and slowed the swimming speed: http://db.tt/FdVFbwD

Btw, you can never reach the surface and you will drown. In case anyone was wondering.