Dev Diary #15

Tomorrow is the Extra Life charity event!

I will be streaming on twitch for 24 hours straight in an attempt to raise donations for children's hospitals.

This marks my 10th year participating. It's always a good time. We hang out in chat, play games, and do some good. #forthekids

I won't be the only one, either. Gamers all over will be participating. It's a yearly event and raises millions for hospitals all over.

If you are available, you should head over to twitch tomorrow and help keep me awake =D

http://www.twitch.tv/funnersoft

Here is a schedule of the games I will be playing:

(All times are in PST)

All Ages
10:00 AM : Shroom and Gloom
11:30 AM : Minigunner
1:00 PM : Gridlords
2:30 PM : Megabonk
4:00 PM : Portentum
5:30 PM : Echoes of Mystralia
7:00 PM : Dressmaker

Mature
8:30 PM : Path of Exile 2, Hardcore challenge, Co-Op with a bud

Midnight Horror Game (Mature)
11:30 PM : The Complex: Expedition

Mature
1:00 AM : The Void Rains Upon Her Heart
2:30 AM : Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel

Teen
4:00 AM : EverQuest

Annual Star Realms Championship (All Ages)
7:00 AM : Star Realms

Final Game Extra Hard Challenge (All Ages)
8:30 AM : Level Devil

Dev Diary #14

Today is art school day (IE: youtube)

I have been a bit stumped with drawing noses for my characters.

I have good references to look at, but it's then redrawing them with my chosen perspective that has been tricky.

To pull this off; I think I need a better fundamental understanding. And so I turned to youtube to be taught.

I found this great series (https://www.youtube.com/@foundationartschool) and am currently on episode 3 of his Intro To Head Drawing

Dev Diary #13

It has been nice to see my art pipeline working out as hoped.

When I say 'pipeline' I am referring to the process of:

- Artist uses art program to create art files

- Artist uses tool created by programmer to get art files into game

- Designer uses art files, once in game, to create something fun in the game

Normally it can take some time for this pipeline to be smoothed out. There will be issues at each step that aren't immediately recognizable except by the person doing the actual work.

For example, the programmer would be the person to create that special tool, but it's the artist that actually uses it. This means, even though they created the tool, the programmer might not fully see and appreciate the annoying parts of using the tool; the parts that slow down the process or make it difficult to use.

And so, it takes time, for the artist to use the tool enough to find these trouble points, then report them to the programmer in a way the programmer can understand, then time for the programmer to fix them, and then finally time for the artist to try out the fixes. Hopefully that all works the first time, but it's not a guarantee.

The nice thing though about being a solo dev is that I am the artist, the programmer, and the designer. So I fully understand every step of my pipeline. I created every step. I use ever step. And the time it takes to get it smoothed out has been so much less otherwise.

Recent weeks I have been using my pipeline to crank out art assets for the game, and it has been working very well. I am very happy with the results so far