R. Wilson Studio

I mostly spent the rest of the remaining time touching up different assets and coming up with a few more decorations: I also made an ending screen: He's so happy that he found his wallet! I made a loading screen (with an alternative version): Finally, I made a logo for our team: Apparently I forgot a few notes so here are some additions out of chronological order: I changed the spikes to be raised, rather than in a pit: I made a wallet item that would serve as the trigger for the end of the level: I made a jump pad that wouldn't make it in: And finally I made a checkpoint that animates when you touch it: It's sprite sheet looks odd because part of the animation is on ones before it changes to twos, meaning the frames are doubled, so as to give it a decelerating effect. Well, that's the blog. Thanks for reading!

Today was window day: The last window was created to fit into a brick tile, and Nerd Waffle liked it, but decided the full pane windows fit the urban look a bit better. The main event was the bat item: This was the first item I made that would potentially fit into the single inventory space as per the theme. Sadly we wouldn't quite get to the point of implementing it, but keep you eye out for future versions, and don't get hit by Bill of course: Again here's another snappy two-frame animation. I thought closing one of Bill's eyes would be a fun little touch. He's definitely a squeamish guy.

This day was busy. There was some sort of problem with the decorations. Apparently the needed to match the dimensions of the other tiles, or at least be square. That was a pretty easy fix. I also created an I-beam tile set, something that Nerd Waffle had been requesting for a couple of days at this point: These were pretty simple, but satisfying to make. I also think they add a lot top the urban setting. Hanging spikes were also requested, although I don't think these made it in: Life/Health indicators are kinda fun, even if they didn't make it into the current version: Figuring out how to represent health is always an interesting little problem to solve (I know my solutions aren't terribly original). I find it offers a lot of opportunities to add fun little details. I also started making the cover image for the game. I'm quite proud of it. It changed a bit in the process of the game's further development. For whatever reason I messed up the dimensions slightly. I t...

I wanted the run cycle to be cartoony and quick, like the jump animation, so I kept it to two simple frames, with just legs and mouth moving: If you've played the game before reading this, the Meter Maid is only a still image in the game. I'm happy that much made it in, but more importantly this is a lesson in communication and scope. Adding an enemy into the game would have been outside of Nerd Waffle's coding abilities at the time, and I did know that, but I didn't think about it, at least not very hard. I do tend to get carried away at times. In addition, I drew a bunch of little decorations to spice up the level design: I very much enjoy making details like these. They make the game feel so much more alive. We met again on this day confirm the scope as well as to outline a new roadmap. It's very important to have these meetings, as the game always has the potential to take on a life of its own. 

I spent all my time on the Meter Maid on Day 6. I made an idle animation: I love this guy. I quite enjoy making idle animations. They're often subtle, and involve staggering certain movements, which is a fun little challenge. For instance both my idle animations so far are the respective characters standing in place and breathing, so to lead I animate the belly rising and then I animate the head following slightly after, if only slightly.

The next step was pretty natural: Floating platform tiles. I suppose these aren't really floating,  as was my original intent (that was addressed later), but it's a proper tile set  now. The second tile is a cracked variant, to fit with the grungy setting. These fit together seamlessly, or at least as seamlessly as I could make them. I also created this spike tile, although it would be changed later: Next up was a real gem, the METER MAID: DAYUUUUM. HE SEXY. In all seriousness I do find his design amusing.

Jump animations are kinda weird. Most jumping sprites I've seen are either sticking the classic Mario 'one arm to the sky' pose or a full-throttle two arms up pose. Okay maybe that's not that weird. I just think it looks a little intense when you see it in still frames, but then again all animations are kinda like that. ... I digress. I kept Bill's jump short and sweet so that it would look snappy in motion: (Did I mention his name is Bill? Well, his name is Bill. Cool? Cool.) I also created the first tile that would be the basis of the first tile set: I had never done a full tile set before, and I didn't expect to enjoy it so much! It's like crafting little puzzle pieces or building blocks that you'll spend a lot of time cobbling into useful combinations. Half the fun is try to anticipate those combinations while drawing, as well as coming up with interesting variants: (Sorry these are blurry.)

We had our character. Now I needed him to move. I found this tutorial that helped with animating in Krita: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXMCmiT_wxA Good stuff. It would be a little awkward at first, but I did come to appreciate Krita's animation capabilities. The primary source of friction was learning shortcuts and then getting a feel for them. Integrating them, if you will. My first animation would be a walk cycle. This was my primary reference, from the superb "Animator's Survival Guide" by Richard Williams: Walk cycles can be tricky for beginners. There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, but I'm happy with my result. Nerd Waffle and I had a meeting to iron out its implementation and plan further.

The idea had taken on a life of it's own, as ideas often do, and after a short meeting the treasure hunting aspect had been replaced for a singular goal (common in platformers), and the setting changed to a city in shambles with some quirky twists. Goblin meter maids, missing wallets, and unpaid parking tickets all appealed to the unique sense of humor that Cory and I have in common. I'm happy to say that this idea tickled our imaginations enough to give us an abundance of details, set pieces, and characters that we could continue to add to the game for the foreseeable future. But that's something better shown than explained here. Next I got to work on the art. I've dabbled in pixel art over the years, but I've done very little animating in the style, and when I did it was only drawing sprites side-by-side on a page, always having to find other ways the test the animation in other programs. This was not very efficient, and a little annoying, as I'm sure one can ...

 First day. The game theme drops. The first move: figure out what the heck we're actually doing. Would our ideas fit? Do we modify them or start from scratch? The Theme:  One Inventory Slot Interesting... We talk about it and decide to significantly alter our treasure hunter idea, switching to a platformer rather than a combat focused experience.  I come up with a cartoony treasure hunting idea and Cory likes it, noting that many of the details I thought up wouldn't make into the game by the deadline. I understand and accept this fact. It's better to have a few too many ideas than none at all. Things will always be cut out anyway. I record my idea as quickly as I can so it won't be forgotten. After nailing that down I start my next task as soon as possible: concept art.  I wasn't quite sure how one does concept art for a pixel art game, other than creating very simple designs that would hopefully transfer smoothly to the very reductive style. I used Adobe Illustrato...

This was my first time entering a game jam so I was understandably excited. I was especially excited to see how Nerd Waffle and I worked together, as he is a new friend and a fellow creative so I'm expecting to work on many projects with him in the future. He had been part of Captain Coder's community and had participated in 2023's game jam, so when he asked if I was interested in joining him this year I saw little reason to say no. I went to school for video game art and animation, and as good as the experience was in many ways, it didn't focus very much at all on 2D animation and very little on compiling assets into a working game (the latter is understandable I suppose - leave that to the game designers). I was hoping to really push myself in terms of animation, or at least in creating a working game, if only a short one. I've never made an original, finished game before so this was going to be an interesting two weeks. Note: This blog has been written as a retro...