8:15
Alright so yesterday I was tryna figure out what I should work on today.
A couple possibilities for the next bit of work:
- Add NPC locations so we can start working that into the game. That might allow Tim to incorporate a dialogue system into the codebase at those locations.
- Add the intro so Alysan can see how their writing will be incorporated.
- Add the mob that chases the PC around and hide from it. A little technically risky but I think it’ll be alright.
- Add the big bad signs around the door and either turning back or game over. That’ll let me test the idea of having a single room for the bad signs room and animate the ending.
- Do a nice version of a background. That’ll help me see if my art skills are going to be good enough or if we need another solution. That might help unblock Tim so he can experiment with atmosphere.
- Do a nice version of the player walking animation. Again, see if my art skills are up to the task.
Okay, that’s more than a couple. I’ve included some notes about risk because that’s what the loop Jesse Schell described was based on.
What’s the riskiest part of the game right now?
- Delivering something ugly that doesn’t suspend disbelief enough to create a compelling atmosphere
- Losing engagement from the team
- Not delivering at all
- Delivering something not fun (big bad, mob that chases)
- Delivering sloppy gameplay (big bad, mob that chases)
This time I’m not really doing gameplay prototyping to see if it’s fun. I guess I’m focused more on the conceptual, for better or for worse, and leaning pretty heavily on mechanics from other games hoping that they will ensure some level of fun.
It’s less of a juicy feel good from progression game and more of a slow, scary horror game.
For another game I would prioritize the mechanics and gamefeel and make sure it’s satisfying to play. In this case getting the feel right is probably more important?
9:54
Been researching media and art styles. Junji is a pretty great reference. This article has a lot of great images and describes his work: https://rehnwriter.com/books-and-media/horror-manga/junji-ito-horror/
Some of it is black and white but a lot of them use ink washes (a term I learned today).
I’ve seen a fair amount of Sumi-e and other ink paintings in the last couple months because of trips to museums in Asia.
https://japanobjects.com/features/sumie
They tend to use ink sparingly on the page but doesn’t mean I would have to.
I wonder if it’d look good to pixelate or add some other sort of digital filter after the fact to make it a little video gamey. Especially with the type of music we’re working with.
Also, should I paint very small and scale it up? Ooh pen size is gonna become an issue again here.
I’ll have to do some tests again.
13:04
Back from lunch. Looks like Alysan found us an artist!?
https://www.instagram.com/flaviancroset/
Definitely seems like a good fit. Flavian. Also in France.
Well that changes my priorities. Wute!
Still thinking about ossuaries and HR Giger…
Talked about AI at lunch. And I’m seeing AI in the search results while I look for Giger’s work now.
Maybe part of the reason AI isn’t very appealing right now is because it’s mostly motivated by money. It’s like the opposite of gentrification. Normally art goes somewhere and people are interested in the art so they move there, too. Then the money people see an opportunity and move in. I always thought of gentrification as a geographical phenomenon but maybe it’s true for different media as well. Collages are looked down upon, then some artists do some great work with collage and redefine it. Others follow and eventually people are doing it just to try to capture some of the value that was created and is becomes less interesting.
Feels like a surfski chasing waves is a pretty good analogy. You have to look at the ever-shifting territory to identify trends and possibly even create your own. Ride the waves until they disperse once more.
Reckon artists will find a way to use AI in interesting ways, creative ways. Somehow redefining it and creating that value.
This morning my mom shared an AI-generated video that took a character in one of her paintings and made him dance. Crazy world.
18:00
Alright, we got a stone block infront of a secret tunnel entrance that leads to a placeholder NPC scene.
aaand an enemy. lol
So far I’ve just got it chasing the player around a single room and addressed the z-sorting. Nice that in Godot 4 it’s just a boolean config option in the parent node to use the y position to update the z-order. Swanky.
I guess next step is to have it not spawn in every room. If it’s chasing the player it should pop out the door a few seconds after the player spawns. Maybe track how far away from the door it was when the player left the room?
This will be fun. (-: