Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
Game Dev - Blog Posts
Last year, at Copenhagen Bombay, I worked on a game for the danish public service channel, Danmarks Radio, based on their children's series, Sprinter Galore. I did all the early sketches, the colour scripts, designs, buttons and I got to work with a lot of lovely people. These are a few of those sketches. And now the game is finally out - yaaay!
I felt like I wanted get a clearer picture of what I wanted the world to be, in my little 2D side scroller. I gathered some references and got working on a mood piece. This is the result :)
More development on the 2D side of a game I want to make. This time on the environment side of things.
if your class project group is dysfunctional enough the google docs instance counts as a MOBA
Weekend Update 💥 Doing some real damage!
Attacking enemies is here! Time your hits to well to dish out the pain. If you time your hit well enough, you may even land a critical hit and do even more damage!
MILESTONE RAFFLE WINNERS 🎊
Congratulations to the winners of Boundless's first milestone raffle! It was a fun challenge to reimagine some non-Dotty OCs as Dotties! This is also a better look at the variation Dotties can have. They're not just limited to white fur! Thank you again to those who participated, I hope you enjoy.
Winners can reach out here or via email [contact@uglytheater.com] for full resolution / isolated / non-watermarked images
HorrorVale: Act M Progress Report #2
(Spoilers for "HorrorVale" below!)
April is gone, so that means it's time for the second ever Act M Progress Report!
Has it really been a month already?
First off, let's unveil the first ever Progress Bar for Act M!
This month was spent working on art primarily as we got started on the Twisted Woods, the first major area of Act M!
It's here where Mothman will have his first encounter with the Creepies (although unnamed at this point!)
We also got the art ready for a very important place in game!
This is the equivalent of "Layla's Lane" in HorrorVale. Here you can freely talk to all your Party Members and even buy some special food from Tamamo herself!
Although technically you won't even visit here until Chapter 2...
Finally, we completed the art for the BOSS of Chapter 1!
This foe might surprise you, but for many of those who used this character in battle in HorrorVale, it might be intimidating to come face to face with him!
Chapter 1 takes place before the story of HorrorVale, so don't expect this fella to be quite "himself" yet...
All of this was streamed live over on our YouTube channel!
We plan to stream all of Chapter 1 Development over there weekly, so subscribe and stay tuned!
That's all for now folks, but we'll see you again in June for the next Progress Report!
Stay Mothy!
Hey uhhhhhh convenience store overcharged me for a half gallon of milk and an Arizona for 16 dollars SOOOOO uhhhhhhh could someone buy a bundle to cover that pls and ty
You get $75 of games and expansions for $25 and you help me out so it's a win-win!!!
So here's a twitter thread about the study I made some art for last year! Maddy was researching children and adolesents' methods of data gathering and taking on advice for her PhD. As part of that, she made a little game in which kids would count or guesstimate how many of each type of alien was on a little planet, and rate their confidence in that decision, every now and then getting advice from a little cosmonaut or on a screen. I was commissioned to make the assets for that! The tricky part was designing a large number of colour schemes that even children who potentially had colour blindness could pick out.
Here's the link to the tweet
Here's the link to the study, called "I know better! Emerging metacognition allows adolescents to ignore false advice"
Game Demo - please try!
So @little-smartass and I, plus a few friends, are making a small game. We’d like you to try this first pass at the dialogue part of it!
The dialogue demo in twinery format can be downloaded from the links at the top of this page of the survey for it. If you’re feeling nice, please also take a minute to complete the survey there, too!
It’s kinda frustrating bc recently there’s been so much spam re: downloading games which might put people off, but I’m not a spambot and I’ll happily talk to you to satiate any fears!
pathfinder tileset project i abandoned. should i revisit? 🤔
tiny tile set redo ✨ 6 yrs ago → now ✶ tip jar • links
lady of the lake ✶ tip jar • links
monet - women with parasol ✶ tip jar • links
veadotube mini 2.0 is out!!!
a lot of things changed, if you missed it! new engine, new UI, all sorts of new stuff! come get it
this is so good
I made the game ‘Watermelon Match’ within 48 hours after hearing about the Global Strike for Ceasefire for Palestine on December 11th, 2023. My pixel art and game design may be lacking, but I hope that this is a small reminder to keep going for the people in Palestine and Gaza. 🍉
My itch game page: https://bloomzeye.itch.io/watermelon-match
🎮 HEY I WANNA MAKE A GAME! 🎮
Yeah I getcha. I was once like you. Pure and naive. Great news. I AM STILL PURE AND NAIVE, GAME DEV IS FUN! But where to start?
To start, here are a couple of entry level softwares you can use! source: I just made a game called In Stars and Time and people are asking me how to start making vidy gaems. Now, without further ado:
SOFTWARES AND ENGINES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE!!!
Ren'py (and also a link to it if you click here do it): THE visual novel software. Comic artists, look no further ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It has great documentation! It has a bunch of plugins and UI stuff and assets for you to buy! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) You can also port your game to a BUNCH of consoles! ✨Cons: None really <3 Some games to look at: Doki Doki Literature Club, Bad End Theater, Butterfly Soup
Twine: Great for text-based games! GREAT FOR WRITERS WHO DONT WANNA DRAW!!!!!!!!! (but you can draw if you want) ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's versatile! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) ✨Cons: You can add pictures, but it's a pain. Some games to look at: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, Queers In love At The End of The World, Escape Velocity
Bitsy: Little topdown games! ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's (somewhat) intuitive! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! You can make everything in it, from text to sprites to code! Those games sure are small! ✨Cons: Those games sure are small. This is to make THE simplest game. Barely any animation for your sprites, can barely fit a line of text in there. But honestly, the restrictions are refreshing! Some games to look at: honestly I haven't played that many bitsy games because i am a fake gamer. The picture above is from Under A Star Called Sun though and that looks so pretty
RPGMaker: To make RPGs! LIKE ME!!!!! NOTE: I recommend getting the latest version if you can, but all have their pros and cons. You can get a better idea by looking at this post. ✨Pros: Literally everything you need to make an RPG. Has a tutorial inside the software itself that will teach you the basics. Pretty simple to understand, even if you have no coding experience! Also I made a post helping you out with RPGMaker right here! ✨Cons: Some stuff can be hard to figure out. Also, the latest version is expensive. Get it on sale! Some games to look at: Ib, Hylics, In Stars and Time (hehe. I made it)
engine.lol: collage worlds! it is relatively new so I don't know much about it, but it seems fascinating. picture is from Garden! NOTE: There's a bunch of smaller engines to find out there. Just yesterday I found out there's an Idle Game Maker made by the Cookie Clicker creator. Isn't life wonderful?
✨more advice under the cut. this is Long ok✨
ENGINES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND THEY SEEM HARD BUT ALSO GIVE IT A TRY I GUESS!!!! :
Unity and Unreal: I don't know anything about those! That looks hard to learn! But indie devs use them! It seems expensive! Follow your dreams though! Don't ask me how!
GameMaker: Wuh I just don't know anything about it either! I just know it's now free if your game is non-commercial (aka, you're not selling it), and Undertale was made on it! It seems good! You probably need some coding experience though!!!
Godot: Man I know even less about this one. Heard good things though!
BUNCHA RANDOM ADVICE!!!!
-Make something small first! Try making simple: a character is in a room, and exits the room. The character can look around, decide to take an item with them, can leave, and maybe the door is locked and you have to find the key. Figuring out how to code something like that, whether it is as a fully text-based game or as an RPGMaker map, should be a good start to figure out how your software of choice works!
-After that, if you have an idea, try first to make the simplest version of that idea. For my timeloop RPG, my simplest version was two rooms: first room you can walk in, second room with the King, where a cutscene automatically plays and the battle starts, you immediately die, and loop back to the first room, with the text from this point on reflecting this change. I think I also added a loop counter. This helped me figure out the most important thing: Can This Game Be Made? After that, the rest is just fun stuff. So if you want to make a dating sim, try and figure out how to add choices, and how to have affection points go up and down depending on your choices! If you want to make a platformer, figure out how to make your character move and jump and how to create a simple level! If you just want to make a kinetic visual novel with no choices, figure out how to add text, and how to add portraits! You'll be surprised at how powerful you'll feel after having figured even those simple things out.
-If you have a programming problem or just get confused, never underestimate the power of asking Google! You most likely won't be the only person asking this question, and you will learn some useful tips! If you are powerful enough, you can even… Ask people??? On forums??? Not me though.
-Yeah I know you probably want to make Your Big Idea RIGHT NOW but please. Make a smaller prototype first. You need to get that experience. Trust me.
-If you are not a womanthing of many skills like me, you might realize you need help. Maybe you need an artist, or a programmer. So! Game jams on itch.io are a great way to get to work and meet other game devs that have different strengths! Or ask around! Maybe your artist friend secretly always wanted to draw for a game. Ask! Collaborate! Have fun!!!
I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye
I’m no tumblr historian…but when has a game engine ever been trending on this app??
I see a lot of people reacting to the unity thing by mentioning the price threshold for where fees take effect, and I'd like to remind you that any fees which are applied past an earning threshold are almost always a test that will be nudged down to lower thresholds as soon as the company feels they can scoop money off the top
it's actually wretched for unity to do this because they know exactly what they're doing. the intent is to make people entirely dependent on unity early on and then, once it's too late to switch workflows, squeeze them for every dollar they're worth
this is why it's especially notable that a program like rpgmaker comes with a perpetual license that doesn't change based on your profit scale: it means that they've already taken the money they intend on taking from you, and it's a number below thousands of dollars
I'm not really on Tumblr (or social media consistently, lol) but here's a lil look into my indie game, Strawberry's Flowers!
It's gonna be very short and sweet as I'm just trying to learn some new things in pixel art and in my game dev workflows.
[Video Description: Video of a person filming their screen of a pixel art animation of a small cow-like character with brown fur and a heart-shaped white spot on her forehead, is moving on a screen next to a floating strawberry. The caption reads "Here's Strawberry next to a floating strawberry in my top-down pixel art game, while I try to ignore scope creep." The TikTok account handle is at bloomzeyestudio. End description]
Meet Leafette! They are the main character for my itch io Devtober game jam entry (currently) titled, Foliage Conversations. You can read more about Leafette on my blog, here!
Leafette is a resident of Foliage Falls, a cozy little town known for its beautiful lakes and rivers.
Although well-known by the locals, Leafette can be a bit shy around new people. And with a love for books, they are a familiar face at the local book store, the Cozy Reader.
[Image Description: On the left is a pen sketch of a character with a leaf for a head and a human body wearing a sweater and ripped jeans. On the right against a light brown background, is the pixel art drawing of the same character with a brown colored, leaf for a head. They are wearing red earrings with a dark green knit sweater that has light green patches on the shoulders, cuffs, hemline, and collar. They are wearing blue jeans with heart-shaped patches at the knees and red shoes. END ID]
Find me on!
My Game Dev Blog | Itch.io | Youtube | Twitter | Instagram | Twitch
My First Game Dev Vlog for my First Indie Game!
Hopefully the video loads. If not, here's the link: https://youtu.be/W7zDP6tF2gg
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[ID: GIF of a pixel art styled bumble bee that is flying inside a bubble. The bee has a small green bag with a brown strip around its body. Surrounding the bee are pink flowers inside bubbles. The text above the bee in all caps is "First-Time Pixel Artist plus First Indie Game". Everything is on a yellow-hued, honeycomb patterned background. END ID]
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Soooo I'm back on YouTube. This time I'm sharing my journey into game development, how I learned pixel art and animation, and how I created my first indie game, Bubble Bumble!
I also made a blog post version here: https://www.bloomzeyestudio.com/post/first-time-pixel-artist-and-first-indie-game-devlog-1
And an audio version here via my podcast "Bloomzeye Studio Chats": https://open.spotify.com/episode/4hgGc3duCFmRzXVUMnZlbM?si=db5dLS7-TNiZFXk0U2lOBw&dl_branch=1
I know I sound all markety and I just started this account, but I'm excited to share this!
Via my personal art account! Post from a few weeks ago. The game it actually almost out, and the itch io page is up! https://bloomzeye.itch.io/bubble-bumble
this lil bee is Kiwi
lol I don't even feel like logging into my game dev tumblr @bloomzeye to post this...ANYWAYS! I'm making my first indie game (it's almost done!), and here's Kiwi the Bee, my main character!
ain't she precious?!
I forgot the password for this account, so I was posting via my personal art account 😅
My first indie game is almost ready on itch.io!
Again, not logging into my game dev tumblr (@bloomzeye) for reasons, but my first indie game, Bubble Bumble, is almost ready to play! Here's the itch io page for it: https://bloomzeye.itch.io/bubble-bumble
Ahhhhh! I have basically zero followers on this page, but I don't care! I've made a video game, something I never thought I could even do, and I'm happy about it!
Sock It soundtrack: the project I was talking about
![Sock It [OST]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/dd1ce670aa29001c8e196f202327d7dc/748afcfcd143d544-cf/s250x400/d7a905547c75b049f6d07099963c836bd9ce6f8b.jpg)
New demo of Sock It (really cool game!!) has just released and I've composed its soundtrack! It has been very difficult but I have finished it and it feels really good!!! First video game with my soundtrack!!!!!