NICU

Devlog for NICU game

[nicugame]

Programmer Art

Making art for games is hard. This is news to nobody. But one thing is knowing it, and a different thing is experiencing it.

This post will show you the process I’m going through when creating art for NICU. I’ve divided it in four sections representing the emotional phases I feel whenever I have to draw.

Phase 1: Despair 😩

Whenever I have to draw something I start evaluating the situation.

I have never had drawing training.

I have zero taste in colours.

I know nothing about composition.

I can’t do this!

Most of the times this is it. End of the road. I just move on to do something else. Like program a new game engine from scratch.

But for some reason this time I evolved into a different emotional phase.

Phase 2: Playful 🤪

This time I embraced failure. I decided to start filling one of my numerous drawing pads. And I hated it.

It was almost confirmation that this was going nowhere. I mean, what the heck is that thing on the far right? And just when I was going to give up, I miraculously evolved into the next phase.

Phase 3: Critical 🤔

At some point I said:

- This is shit, it doesn’t work.

This is something I say a lot when solving technical problems. And it clicked. My brain switched to problem solving autopilot mode and started asking questions.

- Why is this not working?

- People won’t recognise what it is.

- Why don’t you try a different prespective?

- Better but still not working.

- Why is it not working?

- Too many lines. Too complex and messy.

- Can you do a simpler sofa?

- This is going somewhere, but I don’t like the pillow.

- Why not?

- I drew it after the sofa, so lines clip through it. It’s also a bit small.

- You know what to do then!

So on and so forth. It surprised me how by having constructive discussions with my brain I could solve little-by-little the problems of the sofa! This iterative process carried on for a bit more until I had all I needed to start the next Phase.

Phase 4: Having Fun 🤩

I fired up Pixelmator Pro (it’s a great alternative to Photoshop for Mac) and started painting the results from the previous phase. It was fun!

It has never been fun before. It’s always been “that thing you need to do to have art in the game”. But this time it was different. It was an activity I’d do even if I didn’t need the art for the game.

In the past it wasn’t fun because I haven’t intensively used digital drawing programs. Thus, whenever I started drawing something I had two big problems at hand:

What to draw

How to use the software

Too many questions for my inexperience. But now I already had answered question 1. I could focus on question 2 alone, which is still a big one, but manageable.

The result is having fun drawing!

Conclusion

I’m extremely excited to have found a process for making art that I enjoy. It has been a surprise to discover the use of critical thinking to solve art problems! In retrospect it makes sense, but I never made that connection before.

Do you have a similar art process?

How do you overcome Phase 1 and 2?

[nicugame]

What’s NICU?

Due to life events, I got the opportunity to personally meet (and see in action) many neonatal intensity care (NICU) nurses. These professionals are extremely skilled and have to deal with pretty dire life-death situations. At the same time, they provide close personalised care and support for sick babies and their families.

They’re super heroes!

Despite their invaluable help to patients, NICU nurses have to deal with a stressful work environment. They have tiring 12-hour shifts with a 1-hour break in between. In addition, they don’t have enough external support, as most charities focus on parents and the sick babies themselves.

NICU is my attempt to make a difference doing what I’m best at - making games.

What kind of Game is NICU?

NICU is an interactive experience that opens a window into the life of a NICU nurse. Our main character is a woman that decided to become a professional carer of sick babies. Players will become her during her discovery of what it means to be a NICU nurse and the achievement of her ambitions.

In the game there are two main mechanics.

On the one hand, our main character writes a diary about her work at the NICU. The diary is the catalyst for the game narrative, as it opens a window for the players to explore the thoughts and feelings of the nurse.

The diary also provides an introduction and closure for every day. Every morning starts with the player reading the expectations of the main character for the day. Every night ends with the player reading the impressions of the nurse during her experience at work.

The meat of the game happens during the work day. The nurse needs to perform a series of treatments to her baby patients. These treatments are represented in the game by interactive vignettes. As the nurse progresses in her career, the treatments get more complex and so does the mini-games.

This provides a framework to create surprising interactive activities for players to discover and master, with a natural way to progress the difficulty.

NICU Support

My goals with the game are to:

Raise the social awareness of how awesome NICU nurses are, and

Raise funds to improve their working conditions.

Since the main goal of the game is to raise awareness, the tone of the game is positive. NICU doesn’t tackle the difficulty of being responsible for a sick baby, or how to handle the death of a patient. NICU explores instead the satisfaction of caring for people in need and the pride of being capable to perform difficult operations in a timely manner during stressful situations.

In order to achieve the second goal of NICU, to raise funds to support NICU nurses, I’m planning to donate all game benefits to charity. At the moment I don’t know how to fiscally do this, or what charity/ies should I donate to. But that is my ambition.

I can’t wait to tell you more about NICU!

ALE

[nicugame]

What’s this?

Welcome to the devlog of NICU, an interactive experience that I’m developing using Unity. I’m starting this series with a twofold purpose:

To broadcast my excitement and frustration with the project, so hopefully you get attached to it and want to buy the final game ✨

To share some tips and tricks that I learn along the way. Gamedev is a daunting task and we should all help each other 💪

I’m not sure how often I’ll write here, but I’ll try to do it as often as possible. Writing is difficult when it’s not code! 🤓

Also, I’d like this to be an open conversation rather than a monologue. If you have something to say, go for it!

Finally, a bit about me. I’m ALE - pronounced like Alex without the x - a Spaniard living in the UK. I work as a software engineer in a game studio, where I’m mostly interested in character locomotion and physics simulations.

In my spare time I make small interactive experiences. I like using games as a medium to talk about difficult topics because I believe in the potential that games have for changing people. I’m idealistic and generally positive. I’m more stubborn than intelligent 😔

I hope to see you around here!

ALE