i momentarily forgot grubbin's name and was trying to remember it.
"it's electric type, right?
something like...voltage larva. volva.
...
that's not right."
feel like i got a little lucky in the DLC - the first thing i tried to fight was the furnace golem, not the Blackgaol Knight,
and THAT fucking thing made it so clear to me that i needed to go out and get my scadutree levels up that i never had this problem
someone wrote a STEAM GUIDE for my game and i am floating in the SKY
every little reminder that this thing i made is out there, living its own life, and people i'll never meet are playing with it, is so surreal and so special
check it out free on steam: store.steampowered.com/app/2930550/...
just got my physical copy of PUTTY PYGMALION today and immediately devoured it again
if you want to check out a moving little queer story with an absolutely delightful art style inspired by the old I Spy books, absolutely check this out:
store.silversprocket.net/products/put...
there is a space on the wall above my desk where a movie poster would fit perfectly, if you turned it sideways
so i found myself wondering if they even make movie posters oriented that way
unfortunately, it is impossible to ever know, because...
just got a *lovely* review from some who enjoyed PARTS OF THE ELEPHANT, but also is hopeful for my next game to "have a more positive feeling"
meanwhile, here is the page in my notebook where i've been brainstorming ideas for the next game
man, i miss the bygone aesthetic and functionality of these cheap wraparound wired headphones.
the flat earpieces went well with a variety of hair (or none);
they signaled clearly when you were in Music Town Do Not Talk To Me;
and they were wired so i never had my vibe screwed up by interference.
things i didn't expect when i released my first game on Steam: getting emails asking me to send a stranger a bunch of free keys...so they can play my...free game
some characters i had clear visions for, but for others i wanted to give @cspstuff.bsky.social room to run with a concept.
part of the fun of working with another creative is opening yourself up to surprises. as he put it, "that's projects with +1 person, baybee"
2/8
other times, he helped me fix other issues with my plan - like when a theme color i picked for a character was too bright to work as i'd originally planned.
he'd make a proposal, i would check it to make sure it contrasted properly with my interface elements, and we'd adjust.
3/8
at first, i wanted to draw the character art myself, but i knew it would be beyond my abilities right now -and that every time i saw the final product i'd just think "that's not what it SHOULD look like."
today, i see carlos' art and i think "YES, that's it!"
4/8
so i also used some of the character art to start planning out the backgrounds - by messing with stock images to get certain looks, and then putting a bunch of options into a survey.
i didn't exactly pick the most popular result, but the feedback was still VERY helpful to see what worked!
8/8
making the placeholder artwork was really informative, too. It helped me figure out things like what size i wanted the characters to be on the screen, what expressions i needed, which expressions could be variations on the same pose rather than brand new drawings, etc.
5/8
once i had all that locked in...it was finally time to involve someone who knew what they were doing.
i am super lucky that @cspstuff.bsky.social was interested in working on this project, and i can't really describe what it felt like seeing these characters come to life in his sketches 👀🤩🥰💀👻
6/8
the funny thing about prototypes is that they look so sloppy precisely because they are efficient: each element only has the bare minimum to show where it goes & what it does.
check out this screen from an early build of Slay the Spire, for example... 2/8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_BP...
for my game, the placeholder characters were all stick figures i drew as quickly as i could while still having recognizable facial expressions.
(my boyfriend was one of my first playtesters, and fell in love with this version of the character sprites, actually.)
3/8
jumping the gun on picking an engine was ultimately harmless - i had to start somewhere, after all - but this kinda eagerness can easily slide into Stuff Acquisition Syndrome (a term i'm adopting from Dan Olson's explanation of a common pitfall he called Gear Acquisition Syndrome). 5/11
last time, i described some of my writing process, and how finishing the script was my first goal.
one perk of this approach is that, up to this point, it was engine-agnostic - i could've dumped what i'd written into whatever game engine i chose: Twine, Ren'Py, Godot, RPGMaker... 2/11
i began by brainstorming scenes and imagery that i could fill my creepy hotel with.
i always start my writing in notebooks like this, cos i need to be able to doodle, to lay ideas out haphazardly.
this also helps me find repeated elements, and then develop them into themes. 4/8
by the end of this part of the process, i'm still exploring - but i had begun to list out specific characters and places, which served as the foundation for my game's scope. this would start to tell me how many assets (i.e. character images, backgrounds) i would need. 5/8
I MADE A GAME! It's free! It's weird! Add it to your wishlist now!
"Parts of the Elephant" is a short, moody, replayable visual novel about the strange things you find while drunkenly wandering a creepy hotel.
Featuring amazing character art by
@cspstuff.bsky.social. it drops mid-May! Get messy!
oh my god, he mounted all the "world records"! they're all up on the walls now!
it was baffling that they were all on the floor to begin with, but at least then the duplicate ones were partially hidden behind the others
