4 January 2015: A New Art Style (Hope)
I wanted to abandon Alcove Ranch. I really did. The problem wasn't the game though, it was the art. I've learned a lot from that past several months of arting and things like that. When I first started making assets for my monster simulator, Alcove Ranch, I wasn't thinking about any sort of aspect ratios. I was just arting. I made some okay stuff.
My first Pass at the beginning land.
I eventually ended up doing another pass on the back ground.
Second pass, wooh!
These were all fine and dandy at the time, probably some of my best backgrounds, but when I put the assets into the game, they just didn't look good. An eye sore, even. So I put the game on the back burner. Way back there.
I need another project to keep the momentum going when I don't want to deal with Project Colossus, so I dusted off the old folder and decided to fix some of the things that make me not want to work on it, such as the art.
I started working on something very detailed and lovely, but it felt a little flat as well.
Pancake pixels, Just like mother used to make
This still looks 10 times better than the old background, I'd almost be fine with this, but I like hours of painstaking work and suffering (After all, I am an artist).
I decided to step out of my comfort zone and use some tools that I don't normal use and give everything a once over with some shading in the a manner that I thought would give the background more flavor.
New and improved (With many additional WIP hours to go)
Several hours later I came up with the above image, a swirling miasma with vines reaching out all around and surrounding the ranch. There's still a lot more detail I want to add to the image before I'm completely satisfied, but it's definitely a good start and A New Hope for Alcove Ranch! I'm excite to have two games to work on again!