Art Build Journal

This was a weird one for me.

Coming into the game I had a very clear idea of a 2d pixel art based game. I wanted to a work on improving my pixel art and create a top down game. This also felt alot simpler than other possible art-styles I could end up making. However, A major piece of feedback I recieved from the playtest was that this game could easily become a visual novel style game. Part of that of course is because my playtest was made in twine, however I took that feedback to heart. This caused my focus to turn into making sure the game itself played well and the non-dialogue moments were just as engaging as the dialogue itself.

My idea has changed a ton since its original form. Original mock art was made in a simple topdown 2d pixel art style, however that changed quickly to incorperate an isometric style. This felt a bit out of my reach however, as I have never actually worked in this style before and it led to me running into consistent issues as I worked. Due to this I made the choice to pivot once more on my art into a 3d 1st person game. Although I have not coded as often in 3D games, I actually have had alot of ease and enjoyment coding and working in 3D.

Changing into this new perspective meant I had to change my programs however. This was a small issue as the only real program I had any experience in was Maya and I did not feel like using it. This is when I discovered BlockBench. This program's main and most common use was to make 3D models for use in Minecraft Mods. This is when the idea of creating a low poly game blossomed in my head. I Really loved the style, and recently saw it again in the horror game Mouthwashing. After working with the program for a while, I truly fell in love with working on low poly models and the simplicity that came with it. I ran into a few issues importing into Godot, however I overall had a really easy time getting things to work and look mostly how I wanted to. 

Other than these issues, I constantly had trouble holding myself to scope and getting things done in time. Other responsibilities constantly got in the way of working on the game, and even now I still struggle slightly balancing it all. However, despite all the issues I have had, I have been able to take what has and hasn't worked for me and I have been able to transform that into new systems that work much more efficiently for my style of development. All that is left now is for me to push through and finish this game up into a state that I can be proud of.