Long time no see indeed...

Currently not really working specifically on any games so obviously this blog will probably be at a bit of a standstill. But am still dipping toes in some projects though such as attempting to mount an interactive portfolio/website thingie in flash.

So here's me. Walking. Forever!

At least until I hopefully finish the website or else I really will be walking forever.

Long time no see

As I've been busy with my thesis and my teammate has also been busy with his, Blooning Away hasn't really had an update for a while, although I did update/streamline the look of the objects in the game when I felt like working, but not on the thesis. Here are some before and after animations and why it changed.

BEFORE

Drawn in illustrator using a brush to give it a handdrawn look, which I thought would contrast nicely with the very clean background but also be a quicker artstyle, making production faster.

AFTER

Seeing the handdrawn objects in the build and animated did not satisfy me. The clash between the squeaky clean background lines and the messy handdrawn felt too big and therefore I opted for a cleaner line (it's not pixelated as the gif might suggest) using the pen tool instead. Surprisingly it does not take that much longer to draw and animate with this style.

Procrastinating

I should have been working 

on either my thesis or Blooning Away

instead I spent time 

pimping my resume

Would student working on laptop 

be a good game?

Probably not 

and unlikely lead to fame

Sleeping, eating, waiting, procrastinating,

enough of that, 

let's open a can of Whoop-ass

Ydrasil

Last weekend I took part in the nordic game jam. 48 hours, 7 people and a spelling error in the game title (the tree of life in norse mythology is called Yggdrasil) later we made Ydrasil. A tree simulator where you grow and trim a tree using the powers of cut and thunder. The tree would grow by itself in a very limited manner, by cutting a branch two new one would sprout from the place where you cut the branch. Using thunder instead and the branch would stop growing.

We developed it as a toy first and foremost and had some difficulty tranforming it into a game, this was also because some of us, myself included was a bit reluctant to force gamey conventions on something that lives on being freeform and a creative tool. We did end up putting some weird game goals in there with runes falling down from the sky and the player having to balance it out between the tree and the snake on the ground. It was weird.

In any case we'll continue to develop on it and this time we'll have a bit more time to look into how to make it a game in a way where we can still keep the creational part of the game as the main focus.

Play Ydrasil.