Back at the end of August/ beginning of September, I went to PAX West (yay for 3 years running). In preparation based on last year's experience, I decided to create a mini trailer this time, in case anyone cared enough to see what I was doing during a conversation.

While I only showed that video to one person at the show, what it did for me, combined with what I saw in the indie area at PAX West, was kinda monumental. Because I could, for the first time, see the whole game instead of playing through it for the hundredth billionth time, I noticed some flaws. The biggest one was that the game lacked some life, and the second was that it wasn’t really consistent. The lack of consistency was really in the art style. While it all looked like it was made by one person, it didn’t have a consistent feel from one level to the next. This, of course, makes sense given that this is my first game and my first time doing art this way, so each level improved on the previous one, but as a result, the game felt kinda funky.

I had some discussions with my partner and even with ChatGPT to see if we could pinpoint areas for improvement and possibly areas where I might need additional study. Through this, I ended up taking two online courses, one of which was an introductory digital art course designed to better address some gaps in my digital (reminder: I am a traditional artist by trade). The second course was more specific, focusing on developing a feel for creating Ghibli-style backgrounds. This has been the aesthetic I've been going for the whole time, but I felt I wasn’t quite getting to the picture in my head.

Fast forward two courses and god knows how many hours redrawing every tile for all three levels I have so far, plus other miscellaneous items, and my game is now in a state where it looks really coherent and has a lot of life to it.

Here is a before and after of the forest level to show the difference this time has made:

Hi all! Sorry for the delay. It's been a crazy few months here at DigiLena, but I’ve finally had a chance to stop by and give you all an update.

So, last time we left off, I had given a demo of level one to a whole bunch of people. That left me with some bugs and general feature adjustments that I wanted to make in the game before moving on. Most of March was dedicated to that. After that, I moved on to greyboxing everything, and I mean - everything. At this point, I can run the game from start to finish, minus the cut-scenes. It feels great to be able to do that and get a feel for the time the game takes, and start to see it come together.

Greyboxing also revealed that I had one too many levels, where I felt the player might lose interest, so I cut a level to avoid losing people mid-game.

After the grey boxing was done, it was April, and I had an extended break planned due to some personal stuff to take care of.

May, though, was back in full swing. If you haven’t learned it by now, I am always trying to find the right tool that will make me most efficient at what I am doing, and May was the month that resulted in me trying another art program, Clip Studio Paint.

Honestly, I had always planned to try this once I got to the cut scenes, as I didn’t think that Krita would be able to handle it. However, I decided to try it now since I had researched it and found that I could get a lengthy free trial. I'm amazed at how much switching to this program has reduced my overall workflow time. I know the tool doesn't make the artist. Still, Krita constantly gave me issues with copy/paste (including a bug I found documented), and the way they handled clipping compared to an Adobe product wasn’t as robust.

Meanwhile, CSP has clipping and masking capabilities that are pretty much what anyone coming from Adobe would expect. I managed to get out an animation in a couple of hours, which would have taken at least a day in Krita. The ability to use the light table was a game changer, since most of my animations are pretty simple. I also love that they have a full camera and 3d models you can trace on top of. I am loving the switch.

As a result of the switch, I thought I had lost the functionality I needed since the English version of CSP doesn’t allow plugins (if someone knows why, please let me know). The functionality I’m referring to is the ability to create a spritesheet quickly. However, leave it to Reddit to solve that problem. I found a product called TexturePacker, and truthfully, it’s even better than the plugin I had for Krita. You drop the PNG files for the animation, and it packs them together exactly how you want. It even has built-in support for Godot (you do need to pay for this, though).

Besides learning new software, I was hard at work on level two art assets. Since all of the general code for the levels is complete, art will be the focus for the next several sprints. I created the background, the tileset, and all the different enemies and pickups. By the time I was done, though, I decided that the background and the tiles no longer fit with the rest of the assets, as I felt that they were too one-dimensional and were blocking the ability to add more depth to the scene. So, in the next sprint, I will redo the background and the tiles; however, this time, I will skip the dreaded 9x9 tileset and create the blocks as I want, then pack them together for the tilemap.

You might also be interested in hearing about my AI use. I like communicating with ChatGPT to bounce ideas off or try to solve problems. I don’t use it to code directly, because it’s horrible at it, but with the right prompting, it’s pretty good at getting me out of a pickle. I have also started using it recently to create inspiration/references for art. I always try to use Google first for this, but sometimes I have a very specific idea in mind, and I struggle to put the pieces together. So what I end up doing is giving ChatGPT that information in a prompt, and then I can use that as part of my mood board when working on the art assets. This was particularly helpful when I got stuck trying to figure out why my background and tiles weren’t giving me the feeling I was looking for in-game.

Next month is quite busy with some personal matters so that I will be back in July. Talk to you all soon!

To start the month off, I cleaned up some bugs I had found at the end of the last sprint, including some collisions being off and some adjustments to the pickups.

I then proceeded to make my water look like water. This was not an easy task, and I learned that if I had retained any algebra from 9th grade, it would have been helpful, as creating shaders relies heavily on that kind of math. ChatGPT helped guide me along the way, particularly when I told it to treat me like I was five. While the AI was useful, it was not as valuable as watching this video, replicating it in my game, and making a whole bunch of adjustments to the formulas to perfect the look I was aiming for. Finally, after about a week of playing with the shader, I got the water how I wanted it to be, and honestly, I felt like a magician when I was done.

I then started working on putting mountains in the background, but that turned into yet another fight with the parallax2d node. I swear when I make my next game, I will avoid the need to fake parallax motion because otherwise, it will be the end of me.

First, I learned that Godot tutorials, aka Godot documentation. This was not the case in my world, but it is here. I also learned that when designing the parallax node, no one thought about adding items further into the distance that are not all repeating starting from (0,0). Yes, there is a plugin (thank you, kind Reddit people); however, it doesn’t help when the offset eventually makes the item disappear because you can ONLY place items at the (0,0) mark. The best I can do with the parallax is to have my background repeat and move slower. Ok, rant over.

After deciding to go a different route rather than having mountains in the background, I ended up with the idea of floating islands for the tiles that were not attached to the ground. This also gave me a way to have a grounded cave entrance that was not physically attached to the ground. As a result of that change, and the water now making all of my tiles look meh, I decided to tackle the tiles next. This was where the rest of the month went to. After many days of trying to google how to make tiles for a 2d non-pixel game and driving myself mad because I was on the struggle bus getting my tiles to line up nicely, I called up my cousin, who does art for a living. She helped me understand a plan/pattern to follow to get the tiles to align and have a pattern in them.

Finally, after the tiles, floating islands, and cave entrance were completed, it was time to achieve my significant milestone—giving my group of peeps to try Level 1. Without giving away the plot, the psychology I use in the game seems to work better than expected. A few adjustments/suggestions have been made that I will consider implementing in the future, but so far, I am taking the reactions as a win.

*This post expects some basic understanding of how Godot works, and all images of the engine are as of 4.3.

One of the challenges I faced and couldn’t find good material on was using AnimatedSprite2D nodes with the AnimationPlayer. You might be wondering why I would want to use those together in the first place. Here’s my explanation: I find the AnimatedSprite2D node very intuitive in bringing in a spritesheet with the animations and getting it up and running quickly. It also automatically plays at the speed I want without finagling (more on this in the how-to part). However, things like sound or callouts to Signals don’t exist as part of the node, which is where the AnimationPlayer comes in. Using the Sprite node allows for quick setup of the animation itself, and then the Player gives me the rest of the needed flexibility.

How to achieve this:

1. Create your AnimatedSprite2D and load your animations - there are a ton of videos on this step so I will skip the details here

2. As a child of the AnimatedSprite2D, add the AnimationPlayer node

3. Once you have done this, make sure you are on the Animation tab at the bottom and have an empty animation created.

   

4. Ensuring you are on the animation tab, click on the AnimatedSprite2D node from the tree. It is possible after doing this, you may have to click on the Animation tab at the bottom again.

   

5. Now ensure your Animation at the bottom matches the selected animation in the Inspector. Once done, you will create a new Track by clicking the Key+ icon.

   

6. Now, as seen circled in blue above, click the up carrot and then click the key for each frame you have in the animation.

7. A note: if you have a specific frames-per-second that you want your animation to run, say 12FPS (typical for anime), then before doing step 6, make sure the Snap at the bottom of the screen is set to the correct value you want between each frame. As a general note, .083 seconds is the value for 12FPS. Remember that this is not the 30 or 60 FPS we talk about when a game runs, but rather the speed of the frames for that specific animation.

   

8. Lastly, you will want to ensure you create a Track for the Animation itself. You will know you have done this right, as the images should appear in the frame track line.

That’s it! Now, the two behave nicely together, and you can continue adding sounds or any other track you need with the animation.

This month was a mix of several items, culminating in me finishing the entire build backlog to give some close people a “demo” (pre-pre-alpha) to try out.

I tackled several bugs at the beginning of the sprint, including resetting the character back to idle during a dialog and fixing some labels that weren’t showing at the correct times.

I updated some remaining items from my move to 4.3, including switching to global groups. I also adjusted my logic for the pickup mechanic, as initially, I was trying to set the visual asset dynamically. Still, I realized quickly that I was making too much mess on the backend and switched to each asset being its own scene.

I also added some very needed collisions, like if you fall through a gap in the tiles, you will be transported back to the last marker location. I added a wall at the front of the level so you don’t wander off to nowhere.

I added fullscreen functionality and made the escape key work to get you out of it.

Once all those changes were complete, I returned to the art side. A significant accomplishment of this sprint was getting my character, instead of a stub character, entirely into the game. So now all of the animations are of my character; while they are not done, they are in a good enough state that you can clearly understand the visuals and the goal. While working through these updates on the animations, I also noticed that my abilities in this area were improving, so much so that I made updates even from the last sprint.

Regarding assets, the sky and water/ocean were adjusted and fit much better with the asethic I am going for; in case you are wondering I am calling the asethic somewhere along Bluey meets Ghibli. The backgrounds will be more watercolor/impressionistic. At the same time, the character and any interactable will be cel-shaded (this was a new term to me this month and means a hard shadow rather than a blended one).

Overall, the game is getting close to having a few people pre-alpha test level 1 to ensure this is going in the right direction. Of course, as I mentioned before the goal of this game isn’t to make money, but rather teach me what I need to know to make a game from start to launch (and post-launch), so that I can make my bigger second game that I have been stewing on for a while.

December was the time to sit at my computer and finally work on my character. I may or may not have put this off a bit, given that I have not felt confident in my abilities to draw people in the past. But I did it. Captain Seaward has been designed and animated (at least in the sketch state).

I started with a design I had many months ago while working in Fresco. I thought it was good and went about animating it in frame-by-frame style for each of the animations I needed: walk, jump, attack, and idle. However, when I got to attack, the first one that required moving from 3/4 view to profile view, I understood that my character wasn’t so good. So, with some assistance from a manga chibi drawing book and the internet, I took what I had and improved it.

Along the way, I learned about character turnarounds and finally did one. I also learned that you shouldn’t be animating with all the colors and shadows in place until you have at least a sketched-out animation. Trust me, once I realized that last one, the animation process became easier (still quite tricky, but more straightforward).

After I finished the side-view and the 3/4 view of the character in sketch form, I could finally animate from there. Since I spent almost the first two weeks animating the previous drawing and then having to redo the design, I didn’t have much time left in the sprint. By the time it came to a close, I had finished the following animations: walk and attack.

I am still debating whether the next sprint will be to finish the other two animations in the sketch stage or if I should return to working on the game's development. To give me a break and some time away from staring at the same thing for another month, I will likely work on setting up what happens when the character dies.

Stay tuned!

Sprint reviews will be shared on this channel, as they will be my way of documenting the activities I have accomplished over the last month. However, since this is my first one, it will have a few extra sections.

Why Sprints?

For those unfamiliar with sprints, these are typically a way in the engineering world to divide work into functional blocks with deadlines based on a backlog of work. In my case, I have put everything for a level into the backlog as individual tasks. I will have a sprint that will last three weeks, during which I will pull tasks from the backlog to complete. In my case, there will be

art tasks (i.e., creating a cloud asset) and development tasks (i.e., fixing a bug where the user can jump three times). After those three weeks, I will do a one-week reflection. This time is dedicated to understanding what was working well and what wasn’t and planning for the next sprint. This structure works well for me because it gives a dedicated focus time with a plan in place, but it also ensures that I give myself time to look at where the game is and course-correct if needed.

Quick Catch Up (Jan-Sept)

Since I hadn’t done sprints before, I wanted to summarize what has happened since I officially started working on the game in January.

Well, first, the game has officially been kicked off. It is called “Captain Seaward and the Adventures of Backwards Island” and has a main character: Captain Seaward. The game has an entire plot and map laid out (although that is entirely sketched out on paper).

Since starting, I have switched from a pixel game to a 2D HD game; however, it is still a side-scrolling game, a la Mario. This came in the form of me trying to figure out my art style and getting myself to stop having imposter syndrome when it came to my art, as well as getting myself to stop looking at everyone else’s art and trying to match. I needed to find my way, and eventually, I did.

From the development side, with the help of my partner, I got all of the basic mechanics up and running (pun intended). I have a Dialog Manager that works with how my game will play out. There is a state machine in place. I spent a lot of time building out signals (and generally understanding their functionality in game design). I removed the companion as a separate entity and put him in the Captain's backpack instead. The companion’s name is Whirly, and he is the navigator and maps hoarder. I am sure many other little things were accomplished during those 9 months, but that’s enough of the catch-up.

October and November Sprint

I figured lumping these two months together made sense since I was in Japan for a good chunk of October. Here is a list of the things I worked on in bullet form. If you are interested in more details or have any questions, please comment below. I am happy to adjust this section in the future and answer anything I can along the way.

• I migrated to Godot version 4.3 for several reasons, including the new tile and parallax nodes.

• I updated my background with the new parallax node, including a new piece of art (see the intro image).

• I updated the tile set from “gray box” to actual tiles since I did the art, which involved much learning on the Krita side.

• I inserted a dummy set of assets for anything in the scene (clouds, trees, shells, etc.).

• I update the camera to zoom in when there is a dialog moment

• I added some checks based on user behavior to drive what dialog will display

• I ran a POC for how to use shaders to make trees sway

• I ran a POC for making a poisonous bottle effect

• And, of course, I squashed many random bugs I had created along the way.

Stay tuned for next month’s review, and have a happy holiday season!

So, to begin with, if we go back to my post in July 2023, you will note that I had a low-end (although still pricy) Wacom and was working in Photoshop. At the time, I was taking a class and learning pixel art. My expectation was that the game was going to be in a pixel art style, however that only lasted about six months. When doing the initial concept art for the game, I started using Aesprite (this part of the story may be known, so feel free to skip ahead). While using Aesprite, I realized I could use SideCar with my iPad and promptly sold the Wacom on eBay, looking to recoup some costs. Also, I dreaded using the Wacom because the non-pro version did not support USB-C to C and instead had an entire mangle of cords that I could not stand.

After working on the pixel art concepts, I slowly realized that I was struggling with the pixel concept in moving from physical to digital art. So, I pivoted and moved to 2D HD art instead. This was an excellent turning point in the process, as I felt more in control of what I was trying to draw. However, I only had my iPad, so I had to decide what platform to work on since Aesprite was off the table. Photoshop on the iPad was an absolute no-go; I have no idea who designed the UI, but not for me. I already owned Procreate, so I said why not and tried that. For reasons I honestly cannot explain, I struggled with Procreate and kept looking on YouTube for other alternatives. Eventually, I landed on Adobe Fresco.

While Fresco was working well for me, and I enjoyed its mechanism for frame-by-frame animation, which worked much better than Procreate’s layer mechanism, the file system, or lack thereof, killed it. I was trying to store my files in iCloud to easily access them on my computer without having to AirDrop things constantly. However, Adobe likes to keep you in their ecosystem (much like Apple does), and you had to save it to their cloud for the raw file, which meant eating up what little space I had of storage with them and possibly opening my artwork to be bot food.

This meant going back to the drawing board. This time, I found Krita after looking at probably three other competitors in the market. Krita, like Aesprite, supported SideCar, so I was very excited about that. It also has a complete animation section, eventually enabling me to kill two birds with one platform. Yay!

Well, almost. Yay…. I started working on Krita on my iPad, and all was going well. I was making sketches and working on frames for an animation I pulled from Fresco. Then I tried to switch to a pressure-based brush, which I needed since I am doing something in watercolor style. Honestly, if you work with digital art, you understand the pressure component of the pen. After digging around the internet, I discovered this was a limitation of SideCar with Krita.

So now I’m thinking I wish I hadn’t sold that Wacom, but not because of the cords. Back on YouTube, I saw what artists used with Krita and that they essentially partnered with XP Pen. And as one does, I ordered one. Did it work?? No, of course not, because you see how this story has been going and where it will end up. The XP Pen didn’t work because my computer refused to behave; the drivers would not allow the pen nib to align. I did all of the things: restarting, reinstalling, etc. Nothing worked. I returned it (thank goodness for Amazon). And then I did the thing I should have done probably four months earlier and bought a Wacom. However, this time, I bought one with much less of a cord issue (see the Pro line).

Now, it seems like I have finally landed on my stack.

1. Macbook Pro M4 with 48GB RAM (how I got here will be in another post for another day)

2. Krita for both drawing and animation

3. Wacom 16 in Pro version

4. iCloud for storage (although the transfer is no longer an issue)

I hope that ride wasn’t too dull, and hey, maybe it will help some other person from following these footsteps. Either way, the fun is in the journey, right?

First, let me say that, man, it has been a minute since I posted here. It’s been a year since my last post was for PAX WEST 2023. After this post, it might go dark again for a little while, but I plan to post to this more frequently starting in 2025.

I wanted to ensure I shared my experience before PAX was so far in the rearview window that it didn’t make sense to write.

I hadn’t planned on going this year, not because I was not working on my game, but because I wasn’t sure there would be any value in going. However, after seeing one of the games I am following on YouTube announce that they will be attending, I decided why the heck not, given that I am within driving distance anyway.

This year, we went on Friday instead of Saturday, which was a great decision because there were significantly fewer people to navigate around, particularly in the indie section. Given where I am in my game development this year, I was looking at PAX a bit differently. I wanted to get advice from other developers on where not to go wrong and generally see some other indie games for inspiration.

Two games in the indie section stood out: Tether Geist, which I followed on YouTube, and Spirit of Midnight.

Tether Geist was cool to see up close and personal and play the demo. Since I had been following along, I knew a lot about the game, and it was nice to see it in action. I also talked to the artists behind the game about art-based things, like what programs we draw in. They were also willing to watch the clip of my game that I had on my phone. The best takeaway from that was when watching the clip, they picked up the narrative I was going for, and that was the first time I had an opportunity to hear that feedback.

Spirit of Midnight's art style and adorable cat grabbed my attention. They also had a cute plushie, which I bought before even demoing. The demo was fascinating to play; I analyzed some of their design choices and spoke about them with one of the developers. They confirmed a few things I had guessed based on what I saw. For my second game, I am hoping to incorporate some 2.5D elements, and this game has a version of that, which was really well implemented.

I stopped at a third game that was Robin Hood esq, but I didn’t get the name of the game; I only got the name of the person I spoke with. He was a technical architect for the project and his full-time gig. He gave me some advice that I think is important to anyone making a game:

1. During gray boxing, put placeholders for every element in the game, as this will help determine whether it is scalable at run time.

2. Graybox the whole game end to end before adding art

3. Playtest playtest playtest

While there, I also attended a panel discussion on IP with some gaming lawyers. I got to ask a question about using the public domain and how to avoid getting into trouble with any of the big movie companies. They provided some very valuable insight about sticking strictly to what is written or what your own mind creates from that text directly, and it should be fine. So long as no elements are pulled from any movies, all should be clear. Again, critical information for my second game ;)

Overall, the event was worth it. However, it was hard to tell if there were fewer booths this year or if they just rearranged the layout so that it was less clustered, but I didn’t feel like there were a ton of places to stop and see. Some of that may also be that I was very good at keeping up with gaming news this year, and I was already very much aware of a majority of what was around.

To round out this adventure, I stopped by the tabletop game section and picked up a new game called Flamecraft—I highly recommend it. I also picked up a box of Lorcana cards (which might have been overdoing it). I wanted to play a round of Lorcana, but they didn’t have any. Lastly, I tried to stop at the Nintendo booth to play the demo of the new Zelda game, but they were at peak capacity, and I never bothered to go back. Last but not least, when I got home, I discovered that my Disney pins had been stolen right off my backpack. Note to self for next time: keep them in the front or not at all.

Here is the only pic I have from the day: the loot I brought back.

*Please excuse the desaturation on the image; substack did not want to cooperate

Talk to you all soon!

It has been a bit since I have had a chance to write. The last time I was here was September, and I was working through a tutorial via Unity and thinking I would have to buy a new computer. Boy, have things changed since then.

First, I am no longer using Unity. Let’s start there. If you are here, you will likely know about the Unity debacle; if you don’t, pause and take a brief googling, as many have explained better than I ever would. The long and the short of it is that while I would likely not be affected by the new policies that Unity landed on, I did not feel comfortable with their choices and the pathway they were going on. As a result, I decided that I was not far along in my progress and that I couldn’t switch, so I did that; I switched to Godot.

For those who may not know, Godot is an open-sourced game engine with many features aimed at those doing 2D games. They support 3D, but I don’t fully understand how fleshed out that is, given I am focused solely on 2D.

Shifting to Godot has been an absolute shock in the best way possible. I ended up switching about halfway through September, and within two months, I had something I could play with. The language it primarily uses is called GDScript, which is very similar to Python. As previously mentioned, I am not a developer by trade, but have dabbled here and there. For me, this language has been much easier to pick up and follow than C# was. It is more intuitive, which has allowed me to pick up pace when trying to build.

So, how did I start to build in Godot, you might be wondering? Well, I found a tutorial on YouTube from FreeCodeCamp.org which takes you through the basics of making a platformer game. Once I finished that, I decided to create mini-challenges that aligned with what I plan on doing in my soon-to-be pirate game. Each mini-challenge had a series of steps that I could break down and figure out how to code. I also joined a Discord channel by Maker Tech, and from there, I got some helpful guidance and advice, mainly when I get stuck on something and the documentation doesn’t get me there.

From doing all of those mini-challenges inside the same game, I created a tiny prototype (sorta); it has many mechanics I plan to use, but not how they will show up in the game. I wanted to share it with anyone who reads this because I am proud of where I have gotten so far.

FoxGame: https://digilena.itch.io/fox

Password: TryGame

Only in Chrome! The link should work, but if you are on MacOS, I can tell it can be slow or sometimes crash. There are currently some difficulties with Godot 4 and WebGL that are out of my control.

Speaking of some difficulties, I did want to call out some things I found through this process that someone else might find helpful.

1. If you are doing tutorials, check to see what version they are running. They don’t always say, so you might have to squint at the screen to find it. This is super important because sometimes you may have a new version with a glitch that their version didn’t. Then you will get confused about why it isn’t working until you try their version and realize it’s a bug (yes, this did happen to me, and the bug is being worked on).

2. If you are not using something like GitHub initially, then make a copy of the game every so often on a local drive. I ended up messing up my whole game because undo is not like what I am used to from Photoshop, where once you save in Godot, you can’t really go back. Also, only certain things work through undo, which I have learned through trial and error.

3. When checking documentation/reading people’s suggestions, also check the version. Multiple times, I have encountered the advice in Godot 3, and then the syntax or option has changed, so I need to find the correct, up-to-date one.

4. If you have the screen real estate, you can change your code while your game is running!

There, that has been my last 2.5 months. I still can’t believe how much has changed (oh, I forgot to mention, Godot is a lot lighter on the machine, so no new laptop is needed, woot!). Coming up will be the start of the pirate game, but that likely won’t be until early next year. Stay tuned for more!

The graphics for the test game are not mine and were used from https://ansimuz.itch.io/sunny-land-pixel-game-art

I am back with an update on my DevBlog journey, including a day trip to PAX West 2023 in Seattle. But before we get to that, I have to catch you all up on the many things that have happened since my last post, which is surprisingly a lot.

I finished the Unity Essentials course a few weeks ago and got my lovely badge for completing it. This was an excellent foundational course I recommend anyone starting fresh in Unity to do. It covers all of the basics, and I am ready to start the next steps in my journey after finishing it. And before moving on to those next steps, if you want to have a giggle, here is the project I made to play with gravity:

https://play.unity.com/mg/other/falling-pigs-2

About those next steps, things changed a bit since my last post. Initially, I was going to follow along with a YouTube tutorial; however, while that may have been useful, I stumbled upon a project from Unity that takes you from start to finish building a 2D top-down game. They provide you with all the assets and a series of step-by-step instructions, including building out the scripts to make animations run and how to use Cinemachine. At this time, I haven’t finished the project yet; however, I am already starting to figure out how to pull my pirate pixel game together so I will take that as my win.

A couple of quick notes on the tutorial, should one of you out there be interested in it as well:

1. Read all of the comments regardless if you get stuck. The comments help with questions that the tutorial should have covered and provide more up-to-date alternatives.

2. Be prepared for the tutorial to be out of date and have to look for certain things in different places.

3. Parts of the tutorial are kinda sketchy - they have typos and don’t necessarily seem like one person wrote them, as the code bounces between Update and FixedUpdate, which can be confusing. This is why number 1 is significant.

I also figured out some art-related items things since the last post. If you read my previous post, I took a Coursera course covering the basics of making pixel art for games. It was out of date at best and probably the wrong way to go. I have since found two important things:

1. Use Aseprite, not Photoshop, for pixel art. I also got this confirmed by many at PAX. It is an application designed for creating pixel art, and the animation loops and sets are much clearer and cleaner to work with.

2. If you want to learn about Aseprite and making pixel art, don’t use the Coursera course; instead, go to this YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AdamCYounis.

   1. He has every topic you could possibly want to cover for pixel art, and his teaching style is fantastic! I wish I had found this first, but it is what it is.

   2. He has a discord. Join it! I joined it and have had valuable conversations there that kept me from going down a terrible path.

Moving on, I have also started my Game Design Document for the pirate game, including writing character briefs and building the storyline. I went with Notion.so as that felt the most flexible without being cumbersome. Also, the application is free when you use it on your own, so that’s a nice added perk. While working on the document, I tried their AI out, and if you can do so, I would recommend it. Even though I didn’t keep everything it wrote, it was great to have it extend sections of what I had written as it prompted me with new ideas and concepts I had not thought of yet and thus positively broadened my story. Since the writing parts are for me and help me stay on track in my creative process, using AI is a tool, not something replacing something else.

One last thing before jumping into PAX: I have decided that I will need a different computer than what I originally planned. I have a Macbook Air M2 chip with 8GB RAM. Unfortunately, due to a bug that has yet to be resolved by Unity (I am assuming a bug based on a thread I found), my Unity is leaking memory. I have to restart the application for it to run smoothly continuously. Honestly, I knew working on such a low RAM could have been an issue, and Mac is questionable for development unless intentionally doing Apple Arcade or iOS game. As such, I have decided to invest in a Windows PC, which will be interesting as I have only ever used Windows in college due to Access being a key component of my studies (yes, I am dating myself a bit here :P). I will keep you posted on the final choice in the next blog.

Alright, it's PAX time! My partner and I went together on a single-day pass on the weekend. He felt the crowds were a bit much; I, on the other hand, being small, just dived and navigated around people. There were a lot of people, though. I think some of the best parts of the day were going around to the indie booths and talking to the game makers. I got to meet a couple of artists and a couple of teams that were made up of just one or two people. I got a confidence boost from attending because not only did I see small teams making it, but I also had a few people look at my art; of course, they had feedback, but they also said I was on the right track and honestly, this was great to know. I also got to have a dance party with a woman who makes her own full-fledged animal suits (they are amazing!), and it was a lot of fun. If you are starting and there is a conference like PAX near you, I would recommend attending. I found it provided inspiration and confidence to get me going.

Alright, that’s it for now. Talk to you all soon!

In March of this year (2023, for future folks), I started my journey of becoming an indie game developer. The idea kicked off when I talked to my partner about how I was interested in getting deeper into the games, not just playing them but what made them fun or exciting.

We had previously looked at some schools and such online but had always found it too code-heavy, so I had shied away from proceeding. However, we got the Google keywords right this time and stumbled upon UBC’s Writing for Video Games. That marks my pathway toward deciding I wanted to be an indie gamer began.

While working through the course, I was highly intrigued by the material, and Unity was brought up as a platform many people start with. After some research, I found that Unity has its only learning platform and is an EXCELLENT place to start, even if you have zero background (cue me).

This was where things started to fall into place and shape for me. I created a plan based on various online and free or low-cost courses and videos that will enable me to make my first game. Yes, I know there are a lot of actual school programs out there, but at this point in my life, that isn’t my style and isn’t for me.

One of the key things I wanted to ensure I included in my plan was some art. I have done art as a hobby since I was small (I almost went to college for it but decided against it and got an information systems degree instead). The course I found was from the University of Michigan on Coursera and covered the topic of Pixel Art. The course is designed to teach you how to make pixel art and get it into Unity. More of my opinions on this course are below.

Ok, so with that in mind, here is the plan I constructed for myself:

1. The UBC Writing for Video Game certificate (minus the last course, because right now I am not trying to get a job in the industry, but rather learn an entirely new set of skills and have some fun).

2. The Coursera Pixel Art course, so I can get my head and hand back into drawing since I plan to make my own assets for the game.

3. All the Unity courses (Essentials, Junior Programming, and Core Creative).

4. A fun video tutorial on YouTube from Game Makers Tool Kit - The Unity Tutorial For Complete Beginners

5. Create a very basic game.

While this might be my first DevBlog, I have been progressing already through my plan, and I want to share my thoughts and opinions on what I have done so far.

I have completed the first course in the UBC program and am about halfway through the second. The coursework style is up my alley, as it’s a solid mix of videos and reading and then concludes with discussion forum-based assignments. It keeps me engaged, and the fact that they have real folks from the industry sharing the information alongside watching clips of video games and analyzing them is just better than I could have thought it would be. So far, this program is a 10/10 in my book.

I also just finished the entire Pixel Art course on Coursera. This one has some highs and lows to it. The joys include the fact that it pushed me to draw in new ways, and I finally found myself wanting to make art and having a purpose behind doing so. I struggle with making art just for the sake of it, so I like that making the assets has an end value or purpose. It was also decently structured in how they progressed from having you learn about assets, tile sets, and character design.

The challenge, though, with the course, and what I consider low, is the age of the course and the speed of certain things. The course is at least five years old, which means Photoshop and Unity have changed quite a bit since it launched. Either the steps were completely different or, in some cases, just no longer existed. Eventually, I understood to watch all of the videos and understand just the concepts they were trying to teach and then go off draw on my own and not try and follow along. For the Unity pieces that I couldn’t align, I would google away to solve them.

If you have the patience to work around those challenges, the course gets about a 6/10. Another important thing I did for this course and the remainder of my indie dev career was I bought a Wacom tablet with a screen. I tried using the small tablet you look at on the computer screen, but my brain couldn't get around everything being touch screen these days. It was an investment, but I think it was highly worth it.

As a result of the Coursera course, though, I did come up with a basic game idea. I already had a relatively complex game idea, but it was probably not the best thing to start with. However, I continue thinking about how things can apply to it once I have my big girl pants on.

I am not to give much away yet, but the plan is for it to be a pirate game (you make pirate assets in the Coursera course, so that’s how this started), but I am currently calling it the anti-pirate game. You might be wondering what that means; for now, you shall have to speculate. I hope to put it on Steam for free to see the process.

So that’s pretty much where I am at right now. Next is continuing to work on the UBC courses and finishing the Unity Essentials course. I should be back soon-ish with a new blog to fill you all in on my progress.

Check out some of my assets below, including animations that I made in Photoshop from pixel art to work in Unity.

The main story of Hogwarts Legacy is a fairly short plot line, although the game takes about 30 hours to complete. Therefore, a recap is essential before jumping into the analysis.

As the player, you are found in London, ready to be whisked off to Hogwarts as a 5th year as you have come into your magic. During a ride in the sky, you learn that you can see some other magic, later called Ancient Magic, that glows blue. After your ride is cut short by a very aggressive dragon with a red collar, you arrive at an unknown location in Scotland to land in Gringotts before landing again in Scotland at Hogwarts. 

You and Professor Fig try to piece together what has happened and eventually land in the Map Chamber, where you meet the four keepers. During this time, you also navigate and learn about Rookwood, Ranrock, and Harlow. The Keepers give you each a test, and then eventually, you make it to the end where you kill Rookwood, defeat Ranrock, and maybe if you complete Natsi's quest, something happens to Harlow (I did not finish her side plot, so I am not 100% sure). And that's the main storyline complete.

The plot described above was presented through several formats, including in-game cinematics, cut scenes, found narrative, and many dialogs. 

The in-game cinematics was primarily used at the beginning of the game, leading up to the actual intro. I enjoyed this part of the main story the most out of the whole game. It was intriguing, touched many different emotions, and, most importantly, drew me into the game and left me wanting more. Of course, some other scenes were throughout, but that was the main one.

Cut scenes happened a lot, all over the game, and for the most part, helped the story's narrative move forward. However, it wasn't overused or prevented gameplay from happening.

The found narrative was used throughout, from the pages you were required to collect to notes around the castle. Found narrative in this game felt genuinely designed for the fan rather than for the story. As a fan, I read through several of them, but looking back, I cannot say they did anything for the plot progression.

Next is the dialog, which this particular form of narrative is an interesting one because it both helps the story while also deterring it. When you had an opportunity within the main plot to ask questions, the information was mostly useful or provided guidance in some way. However, there were times when I felt that the questions were obtrusive, and I would have rather a cut scene to get the information rather than continue clicking through each option to get the details. The dialog also never went very deep, so there were times when from a plot perspective, I was looking for more information or why something was the way it was.

This missing why leads me to the last narrative component, the gameplay, specifically regarding the Keepers and their tests. The way they describe the tests and behave towards your character, you expect the test will lead to something in the story. While this is true in that at the end of every trial, you got a memory, the trials themselves had nothing to do with what they were leading up to. As a result, I sometimes found that watching the memory cut-scene felt disjointed from what I had just done to get there. Had there been more sense of why you were doing the tasks and a connection to the end, it would have been more congealed as a story.

Related to dialog was also the presence of choice or at least the illusion of it. Avalanche did claim that the choices you would make would have an impact on the game. However, from what I found myself playing the game and watching others do on YouTube, this was not the case.

At certain points in the game, the dialog choice you made had an "effect," but actually did very little to the game and made the choices feel inconsequential. For example, deciding whether to keep the magic for yourself versus bottling it back up only affects how Fig dies. Snorting the magic and nothing else is just a disappointment to the player. Also, the final cut-scene of the game is identical no matter which route you picked before the final boss, and this took away from the consequence and purpose behind being asked the question. 

While I am sure, this was for DLC and expansion purposes so that everyone's game lands in the same place, I feel that through the cut-scenes they could have offered different results while still having the game itself land in the same spot of needing to take your O.W.L.S.

Strictly from a story perspective, I never thought that the Keeper's storyline indeed concluded. In the end, it felt anti-climatic and lacked a solid ending. It had a great introduction, a middle that needed more depth to keep the story grounded, and an end that didn't conclude on a solid note.

I want to call out because, from a story perspective and analysis, it's important, is that this was the main storyline, where it felt that there wasn't much risk taken or trust in the audience to approve of taking the chances that they were willing to with the companion storyline.

In my opinion, the Sebastian Sallow companion line was a much stronger but more risky story with an emotional pull, a solid three-point arch, and a decision at the end that could have more of a consequence than the actual ending did. It was not perfect, but I think it rang more true to what this game was supposed to be.

1. Spent a lot of time testing the PS VR 2 and then returning it

2. Started the Rivendell Lego set - so far I am loving it and the intricate designs that are in it

3. Finished Hogwarts Legacy, the main story line. I still plan to go back and play it through again and 100% the game challenges and complete my O.W.L.S

4. Joined the EA game pass

5. Started playing Star Wars Fallen Order in prep for the sequel. I am about 4 hours in. Story is interesting but I do continue to get lost in the map.

6. Started playing Lost in Random which is basically a card mechanics game with a very Coraline feeling to it.

7. Began the UBC Game Writing course on EDx

8. Received my Sketchbox subscription which seems it will be a one time thing. It came with access to an AR program called Cupixels - but my hopes of using it to draw my own photographs failed due the contrast not being strong enough to render the contours needed

There are some out there like me who only started playing video games or even getting a console for the purpose of playing Hogwarts Legacy. Many of us did not want to miss the opportunity to explore and adventure inside the wizarding world just because we didn’t previously partake in this activity.

I got my console a year ago and had only played a couple games before Hogwarts Legacy, so my first play-through was very similar to what someone who has never ventured into this realm might look like. As a result, I would like to share tips and tricks for newbie gamers that you might miss from some of the other wonderful content creators out there.

1. Story Mode is probably the best way to enjoy the game without being overwhelmed by the combat. While the combat system in this game is easier than many to pick up, there is a lot of button toggling and combos to get used to. Not having longer and more challenging bosses will allow you to settle more into the story.

2. Don’t forget to explore! If you are not used to an open-world game, it can seem intimidating, and it may lead you to try to stick to the main storyline, but if you do, you may miss out on some fun.

3. Do your assignments as soon as you get them. The spells that they will provide you are required to progress in many cases, so not completing them close to when you get them could hinder your progress in the game.

4. Try to grow and brew your potions and plants. While it costs more money to buy the recipe, you will save a lot of money down the road.

5. To get money early on, do two things: find the eyeball chests as they have 500 coins a piece; keep selling your gear.

6. Speaking of selling your gear, I am going to repeat it, keep selling it. It is worth it before starting any new quest to get rid of any extra gear. If you already have your Room of Requirement, go there first, ensure everything levels up for traits and upgrades, and then floo powder over to Hogsmead to sell what you do not need. You can sell at pretty much any location besides Brood and Peck.

7. On the topic of Brood and Peck, this is a third way to get more coins if needed. Sell the creatures you collect beyond the ones you need in the RoR.

8. If you don’t like spiders like me (I am terrified and wish they were butterflies 🦋). In that case, my suggestion is this: find the quest you are going on (any time you see a tomb or catacombs, it is a safe bet, watch a YouTube video of it, so you avoid jump scares and then play with no sound and possibly a buddy nearby for moral support (I had my husband sit next to me for a couple of them).

9. This trick is a list of all the resources that I like to use, particularly for this game:

   1. Artik - best for guides, particularly traits and gear

   2. RetroRaconteur Let’s Play - I enjoy watching his playthroughsplay-throughs, although not good for individual quests, just search on YouTube for that

   3. XpectoGO - great for news and he was even featured as community host during one of the lead up events

   4. IGN guides - literally for any quest, question or thing you could want to look up, this is the best place for it

   5. Lastly, an interactive map, good for giving you an indicator where to go for things like trolls or kneazels

10. And, of course, my last tip is to remember to have fun - you did not buy this game or console to frustrate yourself :)

Image credit: https://www.hogwartslegacy.com/en-gb/media

Today I officially returned my PS VR2, and while some might consider this a sad day, it was more of a relief for me. I will review my thoughts and decision-making processes on how and why I returned it. Still, I want to emphasize that while I returned it, I do not believe that this should put the PS VR2 in a negative light, as I think many people will embrace and enjoy it.

So why did I return it? Well, the first thing was the headache or even the thought that I might have a headache. Yes, I am fully aware that if you think it, it will happen, but I honestly do not believe that was the case here. Even though I managed to solve my nose bridge issue, and my headache was less problematic the last couple of times I tried playing, every time I had to look at the text in the game, I would get a headache sensation that, for me was unpleasant enough that it led to taking the headset off.

The follow-up question to that was, did I want to try and spend time trying to get used to the text and how I felt, assuming it would improve… truthfully my answer was no, and I thought long and hard. I have Hogwarts Legacy and Disney Dreamlight Valley to play when writing this. As I have mentioned before, I am a nooby gamer. I am not sitting over here going through the games left and right. Instead, I find the few that will make me happy and sit on them. Unfortunately, holding on to the headset would have meant either not playing those games or staring at the headset wondering why I paid for it and am not using it - either way, I would not be happy.

As a result of answering that I didn’t want to spend time trying to adjust, I made the decision to return. However, I believe this PS VR2 headset is just the beginning of people getting into virtual reality. While I know some are unhappy that you have to connect to the PS5 and that it does not connect to PC, I still think that Sony made the right call letting the PS5 be the brain. What this thing can produce in terms of imaging and the world it can transport you to is unbelievable. I think the future will include more components for the feet and hands based on the announcement of Mocopi that Sony made last year. I also believe that I am not the norm in making this decision. Many who bought this will enjoy it and be completely satisfied with the current game offerings.

I will keep an eye on new VRs that come in the future (hint hint Apple) and see what they offer and bring to the table. Gaming is my way into this realm of virtual reality. It will likely be the same for many others, so watching and seeing how things unfold will be interesting.

In future posts, I’ll be discussing ways I can see VR being incorporated into other parts of our lives that are not video games.Thanks for sticking with me through this experiment!

Today I took the big leap and finally decided to crack open Horizon Call of the Mountain 🏔️ . Opening the game, you are immediately met with absolutely stunning graphics, as is to be expected when it comes to the Horizon franchise.

I decided to set up the game with the “easiest” level for viewing purposes, which keeps a vignette when the visuals are moving a lot and has more of a jump movement when spinning (very similar to the movement in Tentacular). Next, I set eye-tracking to off; however, through the menus, eye-tracking stays on, but within the game, I believe it was only moving based on my head movement. I also chose gestures instead of joysticks because I looked forward to trying that. Lastly, I opted for staying seated, mostly because I didn’t want to add too many new things for my brain to process all at once, and staying seated felt like the safer choice.

Once the game started, I somehow had subtitles on, which I usually like; however, I had the earbuds in, and the text was in the middle of the action and a bit difficult on the eyes, particularly with everything else going on, that I had to turn them off.

In the first piece, after the initial riverboat scene, you get a bow, and honestly, I wish even non-VR games let you gesture for shooting a bow and arrow. I was way more consistent at hitting the targets through the more real-life arm movement than I ever am with the joysticks.

I managed to play for about 25-30 minutes before I had to take the headset off. The set did keep slipping down my nose, but unfortunately, making it any tighter in any way made the screen blurry, so I had no choice. The other cause of taking it off after so little play time (or at least what I think is a short amount of time) was that doing some sort of first-person movement when climbing the rocks was getting to my head. Lo and behold, when I took the headset off, I was almost immediately hit with a headache. I had to chill in a chair, staring at the wall, or close my eyes for practically double the time I spent playing. This is a known risk with VR, but it is rather bothersome that this issue exists.

Sidetracking here for a small rant as I am talking about why I had to take the headset off… how on earth do companies like Meta actually see and expect people to wear these all day and do their jobs inside of them? I was in for 25 minutes and got a headache; I do not want to know what I would feel like after a couple of hours, let a whole entire day. In another post, I will deep-dive into my feelings about headsets coming into the workspace as I have a lot to say, and this isn’t the post for it.

Besides not getting to play for a while, the ability to feel as though you are actually in the world is amazing! I was legit worried about being eaten by a Snapmaw or seen by a scrapper. I was so thoroughly immersed in the game (I couldn’t hear anything with the headset in) that when my husband tried touching my hand, my brain thought it was something from the game. It took him a few tries before I processed reality properly.

At this point in the process, I am super torn but leaning heavily toward returning PSVR 2. On the one hand, I absolutely love being in these games and the experience that it brings. But, being able to play for so little and then getting such a headache on the other end, I can foresee not picking the headset up enough to make the price worth it.

The other concern I have right now is that while I can see myself playing Call of the Mountain (assuming no headache issue), I am struggling to find what other games I will play and have to play for a while. I will probably have an answer to this dilemma by the next episode or two because I think the headache 🤕 thing will make or break it for me.

After having a good run with Tentacular, I wanted to see if my husband wanted to try it. While he might be a WoW guy, he really doesn’t do video games, but since we got the VR headset, he has been very into seeing its possibilities.

So we got him set up in the headset with the game turned on and controllers in hand, and then the funniness began. I was trying to explain how to play the game since he picked up where I had left off rather than starting fresh. Even though the game does give some instructions, it does assume you have already learned how to use the controllers. So I had to keep picking his fingers up to put them on the right control since telling him basically meant nothing, and pointing was pointless since he couldn’t see me. He eventually figured out how to pick things up, and then he just started throwing them everywhere. It was entertaining to watch, for sure.

I sat with him for a bit to make sure he was getting on ok. He was until he fell underwater and had to figure out how to hoist himself out, and I had to keep talking him through what he needed to do. I could see what he saw on the screen, although differently, and it was amusing since he kept falling down (in the game). Eventually, he got himself out. Unfortunately, from watching him for so long, I had a headache (yes, this is a common theme for me). I think it was because the movement on the tv screen was disorienting since it’s based on his head movement rather than mine.

He then tried to load Call of the Mountain, which I hadn’t even started yet. Watching Tentacular on the screen was hard to follow; that was like instant ground shifting and head dizziness. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to pay attention for too long as he found the setup too confusing and at which point he gave up for the night with the VR.

I did find it interesting that about 15 minutes or so after he had taken the headset off, he compared his physical feelings of being back in the real world to Peripherals as he had some sort of, not motion sickness, but like something in his eye-sockets where he could feel like something had changed around him. He is not one to usually feel much of anything, so I was surprised by this.

Suffice it to say, I don’t think he will be borrowing the VR again anytime soon, but who knows, maybe after I try Call of the Mountain, he will want another go at it.

Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tentacular_Key_Art.png

Day 3 of having the PSVR 2. On day 2, nothing happened because I had a headache and was too intimidated by Horizon to actually play.

Today I bought and downloaded Tentacular, as previously mentioned, as a good beginner game for learning how to be in virtual reality.

The game was super simple to get into, with no setup required. I was able to jump into playing and start exploring the world as my octopus self (although, are you really an octopus if you can only see two of your tentacles? 🐙 )

I really appreciated that the game didn't have the free move vs. transport options. Instead, you just moved around using the sticks on the controllers. I do think that this led to a less headache-inducing play session. The only movement issue I had was that I kept hitting the end of the play area, which takes you out of feeling like you're in the game and is a bit distracting. Although I imagine with time, I will better understand the space I am in, or maybe not since this is a virtual world.

The coolest thing about the game was that moving stuff around, building, and trying to turn things legit felt like I was trying to do it in real life, but if in real life, I was in one of those blow-up costume things.

While the game did not cause any headaches today, thank goodness, I did end up with quite a pain in my nose bridge. I don't think I made the headset too tight from the back, but maybe further adjustments are still needed to find a happy medium, or alternatively, I will need to get creative with some nose pads (cue a Michaels run).

Oh, one other thing since the last play-through, things seem less blurry, so long as I am only caring about looking at the game and not trying to read the menu (I used my regular controller with no headset to preload the game). So my guess is rushing to put my headset on last time was not a good move - so other noobies out there, don't rush when setting up the headset, ever!

Next episode, I will be featuring the cinematic mode, starring none other than Disney Dreamlight valley. I contemplated Hogwarts Legacy, but let's be real, no one wants to see those spiders up close and personal.

Until next time!

P.S. If you like klezmer music, it certainly seemed like that was the vibe it was giving off when you meet the villagers for the first time

P.S.S. I am leaning more toward keeping the headset than returning it, so let's see how that trend holds up.

Harry Potter game is how literally everyone in my circle of people refers to this game. While it is not set in the time of Harry Potter, the nostalgia that the game brings makes calling it Harry Potter so fitting.

Playing the game for the first time and seeing the title card come after completing the initial gameplay to get to the intro, I legitimately felt like I was in the theaters about to watch a new Harry Potter movie with the same level of excitement and anticipation.

This game has been something I always hoped for, but only in my purview for the last year, in which I decided to buy a PS5 just so I could play this game. I wasn’t really into gaming before that, but seeing that initial trailer, I had high hopes, and man, those expectations have been exceeded.

I’ve been explaining this game to people not playing as a new Harry Potter film that is a part film and part pick-your-own adventure. But, I will note that without spoiling anything, my cousin pointed out that at the beginning of the game, you go from London to somewhere in Scotland, back to London, and back to Scotland. I honestly didn’t even realize, as I was so immersed in the game and what was going on, that the silliness did not even matter.

The pick-your-own adventure part seems truly real. So many people are playing the game in different ways, and there isn’t one single path, despite being a primary storyline. I’ve yet to understand the different endings, but that is because I am trying to avoid spoilers.

If you love the world of Harry Potter and want to have your own adventures in and around the castle, I highly recommend picking this up. Oh, and if you ever played any of the PC games in the past, there are some easter eggs to be found.

Keep tuned for future content on this game as I progress, and share what I think could be added (hint: quidditch).