Wednesday, October 19, 2011

10-19-11 - Woah, lookit the dust! :P



I hate being guilty for anything (as I'm sure anypony hates being guilty for anything)

When I decided to try and tackle two projects at the same time I should had seen what was coming. Lately I've been spending my whole days working on the other project.

I thought maybe I could work one project the first half a day (that being the 3DS pony project) and then the other project the second half of the day (that being Spike's Quest) but by trying to do this I've learned something a bit aweful about myself. Once I put my mind to one project I tend to focus on that project the for the entire duration of the day!

So... I need some opinions...

either I focus on one project one day and the other project on the day after (and so forth) or I focus on one project the first half of the week and the other the second half.

Which one sounds best?

(the included pic is from the 3DS Pony project, feel free to comment ;) - )

Monday, October 17, 2011

10-17-11 - A Fresh New Start

So today I begin refreshed from my week long break from the game.

Of course now I have the 3DS Pony project which will also keep me busy and productive when I become burned out from working on this game (check the 3DS Pony thread here: http://www.ponychan.net/chan/collab/res/24350.html )

I'll be spending the first half of my free time working on the 3DS Pony Project and then the second half will be spent working on the game. I indeed have my work cut out for me... But I promise not to work myself too hard (to avoid risk of another burnout)

my break times will be spent outdoors on nice little nature hikes or just a walk a few times around the block.

But enough of the blab here. There's much work to be done!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

10-16-11 - Side Project # 2 decision

Okay, so I've decided on what I must do for the side project and yes, it will be Pony related (what can I say? Once I became a brony all thought of originality floated right out my bedroom window! :P - )

I'm going to do a little project that I've been meaning to do since the Nintendo 3DS came out... 3DS Ponies!

That's right, I plan to 3D-afy all our favorite ponies so that you can view them on your 3DS (or other 3D viewing devices) or you can view them in stereo crossed eyed vision or 3D (red/cyan) glasses!

I'll be doing the Ponies in my own art style so they'll all seem original and fresh.

I'll be trying to release one piece of this series once a week (or whenever they're finished) right up until I've done every major popular pony in the fandom!

Here's my Pony todo list:

Mane Characters:
- Pinkie Pie : "Breaking The 4th Wall AND the 3rd Dimension!"
- Fluttershy : "Meadow Dreams"
- Twilight Sparkle : "Lets Read a Book"
- Applejack : "Its Raining Apples!"
- Rarity : "Glorious!"
- Rainbow Dash : "3D RainBOOM"

BG Characters:
- Derpy Hooves : "You've Got Mail!"
- Luna
- Celestia

If you have any request, then feel free to add them in the comments. I cant promise that I can do them all but we'll see! :)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

10-15-11 - Production Starts Back on Monday

The much needed break has been very effective! I now have the desire to start back work on the game again. Enough with the lounging around doing nothing all day, I feel the need and desire to be productive! :)


The image here just showcases what I had got done with the new tileset so far (before my break). Still a long ways from completion, but its looking pretty spiffy (its just the basic layout so far, will be adding other details and some extra bits) it also needs a good tweaking as you may can tell... I'll resume work on it Monday along with some coding. ;)

Also I'll be taking the advise of that article I posted in the last blog post and I'll begin work on a secondary side project. It may or may not interest you (it wont be pony related) but it'll give me something else to do to help avoid certain future burnout. What is it? I'm thinking about doing a game in 3D, it may be a fps Heretic/Doom style game or it may be a 3D Mario 64 style platformer. If anypony here is interested then I'll keep y'all posted here until I have an official blog for it ;)

For now I shall enjoy the rest of my time off getting things organized and cleaned up again...

( It honestly doesn't help that my current food budget for the month is at $10.00 and all I have to live on is Ramen noodles, bits of chicken and a few boxes of rice :P but I'm managing! )

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

10-12-11 - Overcoming Creative Burnout

As some of you might have noticed, my updates have been getting slower and slower to the point that I hardly ever update daily like I used to. The fact of the matter is that I'm suffering what many call 'Creative Burnout'

I'm having a hard time focusing my full energy at this project and I keep desiring to do other things (like doing absolutely nothing other than playing videogames or watching movies on netflix, or browsing the internet)

Facts to be these past couple of days I've done nothing but browse Youtube or piddled around on my XBox 360.

Maybe I do need a break from the game. A vacation, if you will. A few weeks give or take. I want to finish this project, but first I really need to refill my own personal energy meter.

I've just finished reading an article about creative burnout (you can find it here: www.scottberkun.com/essays/33-how-to-survive-creative-burnout/ ) and I intend to follow the advise given in that article.

So for the next week or so I plan on getting myself active in other things. Going out for a daily walk (with it being autumn, its a perfect time to do so! ;) - ) maybe I'll begin work on another little side project and maybe I should go read a good book (lord knows that its been months since I've read one of Tolkien's masterpieces.)

Hopefully within a week I'll have my creative juices flowing again.

If anyone here has any good advise about tackling creative burnout then please feel free to post it here. :)

And please dont lose hope in this project!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

10-9-11 - New Tileset in Progress

(Click the image for a full view) 

So I finally started work on a new tileset for the game. This tileset is labelled 'The Celestial Gardens' in the production book and what your looking at is just the first couple of hours of work in Paint Shop Pro. Within the next week it'll start to look more and more fuller and brilliant with statues and brilliant decor.
This may also be the official tileset for test demo #5 :)

As far as coding goes, I havent done any today, but I'll be getting around to doing some later this evening (I want to work some more on this tileset first and get it working in the map editor :) - )

Please feel free to post your opinions. :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

10-8-11 - Birthday Break

As far as this morning goes I've managed to successfully plug in a boomerang function into the game's source code and the day before that I finished working in the item grab system.

But for the rest of the day I intend to celebrate that which is my birth.

I am officially 29 years old today.

So far, no cake, no gifts but a few nice "Happy birthday"s from friends and family.

So from this day forward here's looking forward to year 30 :)

I'll resume work on the game tomorrow and hopefully have a new video up by Monday evening.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

10-5-11 - Coins :)

Some people didn't seem to know what those weird little spinning things were in Demo #4 (after you've destroyed certain blocks) but I'm sure most of you know that they are just coins. :) and they'll be used to purchase certain things from shops in the game's world.

Check the icon in the image here. Those coin icons appear  briefly after you've collected a coin, first they zoom in from an 8 x 8 scaled version and to the full form (what you see in the image)  and then they zoom back out while fading away. That may seem insignificant for a blog update (and it is) but I just wanted to brag a bit about the detail I put into those coins.

Look closely and you'll see actual engraved images. Bronze coins have the head of an unnamed earth pony. Silver coins has a full bodied pegasi and gold coins have the head of Celestia.

The styles are inspired from Ancient  Roman Numismatics (I'm a collector in that field ;) - )

I just had to brag about them. :)

More to come soon!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

10-4-11 - A brony on a mission: Getting back on track

I'm slowly starting to get my sleep schedule back on track by avoiding unnecessary naps during the day and I'm also considering my health (starting to do a bit of walking each day and eating healthily)

All those things truly do matter when one is tackling a massive project such as a Metroidvania style game (or anything else).

My slothfulness these paste couple of weeks has slowed me down in development and I'm not at all happy with it so I intend to do something about it.

there's plenty of coffee in the cabinet and my usual daily dosage of Lipton Green Tea in the fridge and I have plenty of videogames to help feed my creative muse. So why am I having such a hard time getting back to production?

Yesterday I've only got just a bit done with SQ (gui graphics) but today I'm going to try and get much more done than I have been lately.

I need all the energy and inspiration I can get if I'm to make this next demo into something epic.

So wish me luck!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Music Inspiration: SNES - JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring pt1

I made a post a good while back expressing how a certain game was inspiring both in atmosphere and in music. This post concerns that same game. I was thinking about using Org Maker for Spike's Quest in game music but the following Youtube videos may have inspired me to aim for better music and sound quality. 

So I'll just leave these right cheer for your enjoyment/opinions. ;)

SNES - LotR Hobbiton Theme:

SNES - LOTR Wasteland Theme

SNES - LotR Cave Atmosphere



for more from this game check out this channel. He/she also has some other nice game soundtracks uploaded there that you could listen to! :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/gbelair3#grid/user/876FDDE7954E14B6

10-2-11 - Inspiration: Tripworld / Still Tinkering / Soon Mah Birthday!

Lately I've been pondering the graphical style for Spike's Quest. And I'd honestly like to have everything in beautifully detailed (like most Metroidvania style games), even though a 16 x 16 tile system can be very limiting when it comes to detail. So I've gone to take a look at other games that seem to master the art in tiled pixel crafting. One game is that of a certain forgotten Gameboy gem: Trip World! This game was never released in the US and they say that its one of the most hard-to-find games out there. But I have it in its rom format. And I can testify that the game is absolutely gorgeous for a Gameboy game!

The game is overly simplistic but the graphics are beautiful and the characters are cuter than kittens. The levels are linear (with a few hidden pathways and other things) I'd totally recommend it if your looking for a game with uber cute pokemon-like critters and game-play that's almost as easy as reciting the alphabet (backwards) but I'm writing this section about the graphics. The original  Gameboy had a limiting palette (4 shades of green) and to achieve beautiful graphics such as what you see in the screenshot here, one much really have allot of patience! The art style here is very similar to what I'd like to do with Spike's Quest, and considering that I have a far grander range of colors to work with, I could certainly achieve this style and possibly much more!

So what you see in the screenshot there is possibly a scaled down preview of what to expect (graphics wise) just imagine it on a larger window with more colors, details and of course, Spike .. and ponies :3

In other news...

these past few days I've just been tinkering here and there. Admittedly I've been rather slothful and lazy (a common phaze that comes and goes) my sleep schedule has been totally out of whack since I pushed myself so hard to get Demo #4 out two weeks ago and I've been trying to get myself back on track ever since.

But I am still working on Spike's Quest... just at a slower rate than usual.

I'd like to try and have the 5th demo ready by the 20th of this month so here's hoping I improve my work rate in the next week or so...

In other not so SQ related news...

my 29th birthday is just 6 days away. I think I'll celebrate it by ordering a pizza and buying a bottle of fine wine. And maybe I'll marathon Ponies too :P