since I left my job at Chillingo! And 6 years since Chillingo released Angry Birds! (Thanks Timehop!) That happened a month before I started there… Yep, I spent nearly 5 years in mobile games! It was a long time, but gave me much valuable experience.
I really can’t believe it’s been a year already! I thought my game would be done by now, haha! Well, lots of progress has been made, but the level of detail and criticism keeps on rising. I’ve always been critical about, well, pretty much everything, so there’s no reason I shouldn’t continue with my own game. Though, funnily enough, I do find myself thinking “Just let it go Lucy. Move on to something else.”, ‘cause it’s a character that appears once that has 1 or 2 pixels out of place. I always have to remind myself of the bigger picture – the whole game that’s still going to take at least another year to make – and get ticking those boxes.
So, speaking of which, I remember writing back in September what I’d like to have achieved by Christmas: I wanted to be at 50%. There’s still a week to go, but let’s do this!
- 40% Script
- 55% BGs
- 20% CGs
- 50% Sprites
- 20% UI
- 5% Music/audio
- 50% Coding
… wow. This is a little disheartening to say the least! Let’s look at the low scorers first…
- CGs
I do these when inspiration hits me. These are the most fun and expressive pieces to work on, so I like to spread them out. I’m happy with where this is at. It’s low because many may never come into fruition; it all depends on time/ money.
- UI
This is probably the biggest disappointment. I wanted to nail it over a month ago, but then I got my gameplay feedback list so have been focussing solely on that. Now Christmas break is coming up, I don’t want to start the UI and get stuck in, so I’m focussing my efforts elsewhere.
- Music/ audio
I’m not even going to go there.
I really can’t believe it’s been a year already! I thought my game would be done by now, haha! Well, lots of progress has been made, but the level of detail and criticism keeps on rising. I’ve always been critical about, well, pretty much everything, so there’s no reason I shouldn’t continue with my own game. Though, funnily enough, I do find myself thinking “Just let it go Lucy. Move on to something else.”, ‘cause it’s a character that appears once that has 1 or 2 pixels out of place. I always have to remind myself of the bigger picture – the whole game that’s still going to take at least another year to make – and get ticking those boxes.
So, speaking of which, I remember writing back in September what I’d like to have achieved by Christmas: I wanted to be at 50%. There’s still a week to go, but let’s do this!
- 40% Script
- 55% BGs
- 20% CGs
- 50% Sprites
- 20% UI
- 5% Music/audio
- 50% Coding
… wow. This is a little disheartening to say the least! Let’s look at the low scorers first…
- CGs
I do these when inspiration hits me. These are the most fun and expressive pieces to work on, so I like to spread them out. I’m happy with where this is at. It’s low because many may never come into fruition; it all depends on time/ money.
- UI
This is probably the biggest disappointment. I wanted to nail it over a month ago, but then I got my gameplay feedback list so have been focussing solely on that. Now Christmas break is coming up, I don’t want to start the UI and get stuck in, so I’m focussing my efforts elsewhere.
- Music/ audio
I’m not even going to go there.
Everything else is steadily progressing, though I feel I need a section called “refinement, adjustments, bug fixing, improvements etc”, as that would be at about 300% by now!
+ Script
Hasn’t changed since last time. I have improved the dialogue but not written the next chapter of the story. This may not happen for some time…
+ BGs
55% maybe an underestimate, but since the second chapter isn’t written, it’s hard to say how many more backgrounds will be needed. I have a few gaps as the game stands, but will be patching all of those up during the next few months.
+ Sprites
Going well. What I’ve got, I’m happy with, so they’re 50% done and dusted!
+ Coding
I’d say I’ve spent a lot of my time making the code neater/ simpler and the gameplay mechanics more fun, not that there is a ton of gameplay in a visual novel, but I’ve learnt how to add hidden object games and quick-time-events. This will help spice up the in-game battle scenes and quests!
+ Script
Hasn’t changed since last time. I have improved the dialogue but not written the next chapter of the story. This may not happen for some time…
+ BGs
55% maybe an underestimate, but since the second chapter isn’t written, it’s hard to say how many more backgrounds will be needed. I have a few gaps as the game stands, but will be patching all of those up during the next few months.
+ Sprites
Going well. What I’ve got, I’m happy with, so they’re 50% done and dusted!
+ Coding
I’d say I’ve spent a lot of my time making the code neater/ simpler and the gameplay mechanics more fun, not that there is a ton of gameplay in a visual novel, but I’ve learnt how to add hidden object games and quick-time-events. This will help spice up the in-game battle scenes and quests!
So, before I go back to England for Christmas, I’m trying to get as much low-poly in-game artwork completed so I can finish coding those scenes whilst I’m away (if I get chance to work over the holiday, that is).
These are some C-list characters you may or may not bump into. Originally, I wasn’t going to bother creating art for them, but that would’ve sucked so much! It’s taken some time to model and colour them, but it’s totally worth it. It’ll be so much nicer seeing these guys instead of a blank scene and a block of text.
These are some C-list characters you may or may not bump into. Originally, I wasn’t going to bother creating art for them, but that would’ve sucked so much! It’s taken some time to model and colour them, but it’s totally worth it. It’ll be so much nicer seeing these guys instead of a blank scene and a block of text.
So, this will probably be my last blog post of 2015! I’d hoped to begin working on my demo in January, but with all the gameplay feedback I received, it’s been pushed back until at least March. However, March is NaNoReNo month and I plan on doing it this year!
Last year, I nearly took part in the 2 day Global Game Jam, but was ill and didn’t attend. Thinking about it again though, perhaps it’s a good thing that I didn’t go; game jams are noteasy! I know pretty much all developers take part in them these days, but I haven’t even released a game yet! I don’t think I could make a game in 2 days… Anyway, that’s why I’m going to do NaNoReNo next time. It’s a month long and will be my first game and jam. I feel confident enough now to do it. I think that if I want to get noticed, I need to have a game out there first: that’s my logic!
After NaNoReNo, I’m off to Japan for the third time! I love, love, love it and can’t wait to go back! It feels like I’m spoiling myself, going again so soon, but me and my partner have had a tough year moving to Germany with no holiday, not even a weekend away, so I think we’ve earnt it.
From then on, I’ll be back working on the game full time. Perhaps by May, I will have a demo…. haha! When I went into game development, I never expected I’d have a to-do list that would take 1-2 years to complete: it’s crazy! With that always in mind, it’s very easy to keep working and wanting to work until it’s finished, but that way will lead to burn out – I know, it’s happened to me before. What’s worse, is when you can’t even sleep because you want to keep working, and when you do sleep, it’s light and full of dreams about said game. Sounds ridiculous, but at times like that, I need to take a step back and do something else. That’s why I continue freelancing and working on new t-shirt designs, oh yeah, and playing games!
Last year, I nearly took part in the 2 day Global Game Jam, but was ill and didn’t attend. Thinking about it again though, perhaps it’s a good thing that I didn’t go; game jams are noteasy! I know pretty much all developers take part in them these days, but I haven’t even released a game yet! I don’t think I could make a game in 2 days… Anyway, that’s why I’m going to do NaNoReNo next time. It’s a month long and will be my first game and jam. I feel confident enough now to do it. I think that if I want to get noticed, I need to have a game out there first: that’s my logic!
After NaNoReNo, I’m off to Japan for the third time! I love, love, love it and can’t wait to go back! It feels like I’m spoiling myself, going again so soon, but me and my partner have had a tough year moving to Germany with no holiday, not even a weekend away, so I think we’ve earnt it.
From then on, I’ll be back working on the game full time. Perhaps by May, I will have a demo…. haha! When I went into game development, I never expected I’d have a to-do list that would take 1-2 years to complete: it’s crazy! With that always in mind, it’s very easy to keep working and wanting to work until it’s finished, but that way will lead to burn out – I know, it’s happened to me before. What’s worse, is when you can’t even sleep because you want to keep working, and when you do sleep, it’s light and full of dreams about said game. Sounds ridiculous, but at times like that, I need to take a step back and do something else. That’s why I continue freelancing and working on new t-shirt designs, oh yeah, and playing games!
Yep, leaving Chillingo when I did was the best decision for me. I’m truly living my dream and couldn’t be happier. A successful game would certainly make me happier, but right now, I’m just enjoying creating something I’ve always wanted to: a true passion project, a piece of art. If it’s successful, it means I can do it again, but I never stepped into indie development assuming I’d make a ton of money. That’s just silly.