Hey, a new video. A terrible video, but it’s a learning process.
(Edit: By Day 10 I managed to finally correct the audio issues with this video, and while showing improvement is a good part of this blog series, watching a video with audio sync issues is no way to spend your time, so the original has now very thankfully been put out of its misery so the actual content can come through.)
Here’s a bit of art from today’s effort:
Since I mentioned it in the video, and in yesterday’s log post, I thought I should probably dive a bit more into the video game I’m working on. Probably should have spent more time on that in yesterday’s blog post, since it took up so much of my day off, but here you go.
I’m working on a video game. I’ve got a few of them planned, actually, but one thing at a time! Ok, several things at a time, but one thing HARD CORE at a time. I’ve isolated this idea as the best starter, not just out of the video games, but from all of my general projects. It’s complex, but not super complex. It requires skill, but not super skill. It’s something that I can reasonably do a pretty decent job on while I’m honing the skills I need for the other projects, so that’s what I’m doing.
This one is an incremental game, along the lines of Cookie Clicker, or Adventure Capitalist, or any of the dozens of other incremental games out there. It’s a fun genre, and while there are several, it’s not exactly a bloated market while still having enough of a fan base for there to be a demand. I’ve had an idea for my own incremental floating around in my head for a while now, and I’ve been working out some of the details, the game mechanics, what features I’d like to have, that sort of thing. I even made some basic attempts to start coding it up in javascript and WebGL not too long ago, but kept running into various road blocks.
Now that I’m coming back at the concept with more determination and a bit more knowledge, I really feel like it’s starting to come together. I’ve been learning the Unity Game Engine, with help from a subscription to cgcookie.com. Finding that site was one of the things that really led to this strong push for learning. I had the desire, but didn’t really know where to start, and *boom*, here’s a group of people that are set up just to teach me a specific huge chunk of the stuff that I need to know. I found them because I was looking for Blender training, in relation to an upcoming That Explained project, and was elated to see that someone was combining concentrated learning tracks in 3d modeling and animation, game development, sculpture, and concept art. Fantastic.
Until I found that site I hadn’t even realized that Unity would be an option for this game, but it turns out it’s pretty much exactly what I needed to both get it into production and take it to a level that will help it stand out.
That being said, video game design is a LONG process, especially for a single developer, so it’s probably still going to be a while before anyone can play this game. But, when you can, I will let you know.
The other major thing that I mentioned in the video, of course, is the 30 / 30 challenge I’ve given myself for drawing and 2d art. That’s really another thing that I probably should have mentioned before now, but in retrospect it seems like the perfect thing to put in a blog, so here you go. This isn’t just day 4 of the blog, it’s day 4 of the drawing challenge. 30 minutes a day for 30 days, a concentrated push to improve my drawing skills.
Why drawing? Because dang it, that’s a skill that would be super freaking helpful. I need book covers, I need character sketches, I need to be able to think visually to help set scenes in my novels, or design levels in my games. I need promotional materials for everything. There’s a reason that cgcookie has a whole section dedicated to concept art, it’s super valuable. And for such an important skill, my current skill level is *way* under par. So that’s my first target of concentrated growth. I’ll be continuing to study a bit of everything, and reporting on whatever I learn, but for the rest of the 30 days, that’s the main learning focus. Working on the game, learning how to draw.