To Boldly Game

Games startup goon. Recent graduate of UC Santa Cruz's Games and Playable Media M.S. Game development, drawing, inspiration, blood sweat&tears.

[toboldlygame]

Snippets of Wisdom, GDC 2015 edition

My GDC is already over! :( Two days still gave me so much to chew on. Here are my favorite bits: Bring people onto your project that are 1-2 degrees separated from you. But remember that like hiring like can stifle creativity, so make your social connections diverse. Practice whack-a-mole game development. Everything, art, features, and business, all in the same list, all prioritized. Working down this cohesive list leads to a more rounded sense of polish and prevents you from falling into a rabbit hole.  It is hard to reach a consensus when you have equal partnerships. Fairness is important, but so is being able to effectively make decisions. If you make a game for everyone, it's for no one. Give your partners ownership in the product. Without this they are more likely to lose interest or flake away.   "Unpacking" Is what happens when a player figures out how they died just now and reverse engineers how to get better results. We don't learn through failure - we learn through the failures we understand. Make sure your players get that feedback, and players will feel immensely satisfied as they get better. Finding the right problem to solve is its own skill. If it's hard to build, it's likely hard to play. Put your hard work into making your concept clear.  Marginalized people may not have the tools to tell their stories, so use your position to empower them to do so. If they don't want to tell it, that's okay. It's not your place to tell it for them. Don't design situations that your physics engine can't solve elegantly. A mismatch between what your screenshots convey and how your game plays is a recipe for low retention rates.  The ideas that you've been letting stew for years? They're not as good as you think they are. Make them, so you can get them out. Create room for new ideas. 

[toboldlygame]

Let's talk about crab design for a sec. For Global Game Jam 2015, my team and I worked on C.R.A.B.S (Crabs Repairing and Building Structures), which is a really silly tower defense game where you're a crab defending the beach from pirate sea creatures. We knew we wanted this game to be co-op. We hoped that giving each crab a unique strength would encourage players to communicate and work together. The result was three players classes: A fighter, a builder, and a scout. I went spelunking through Google image search, looking for real life crabs to use as a basis for classes. Always. Use. References. I was looking for crabs with variant silhouettes. The crabs were likely going to be so small on the screen that color and silhouette would be especially important to character recognition. After picking the three candidates, the fantastic Lauren Carlton did the sketches in the first image. Having that top-down image helped preview what the crabs would look like in game, and provided a clutter-free reference for the following sketches.  This was a 48-hour game project, so collision detection was going to be super simple. Keeping this in mind, I attempted to get each crab's design to fit in a square. I stuck with 6 legs on each crab because being fully realistic quickly leads to extraneous detail. And who wants to animate 8 legs? Not I, sir, not I.  After I transferred the sketches into photoshop, I got to work on blocking in the shapes. Hooray for symmetrical, modular creatures. My favorite trick for getting very clean curves is to use the pen tool + "fill shape". Each alternating segment was done on a different layer, to facilitate animation along those joints.  Locking transparent pixels is pretty much my favorite photoshop feature of all time. It made adding shading via gradient so, so easy. Of the two tones I used earlier I used the darker one to shade the lighter one, and picked a new tone to shade the darker base color. Simple and nice. A few hard shadows along the joints gave a little extra depth. I added some minor surface details, mostly for the sake of the character select screen. I'm pretty happy with the fighter (red) and scout (orange) designs in particular. The builder's (blue) design doesn't reflect anything about its occupation. I think it bothers me that I couldn't find a way to make the builder and fighter as differentiated as the scout compared to the fighter. Color was also tough for this one. The scout crab in particular had to undergo some big color adjustments to stand out from the game's sandy background. Animation was low priority, and in the end I wasn't able to try it out.  I love it when artists record their process, so I make an effort to share when I can. Questions are welcome! 

[toboldlygame]

I made my rabbit, Moxxi, into a Pusheen-style critter! Next up: animation?

[toboldlygame]

what are you doing now that the program is over?

Working in an itsy bitsy startup on a super-secret game. :) I wish I could say more! But I can certainly say I enjoy the heck out of it. The project is innovative, my co-workers are awesome, and I'm lucky enough to be both programming and designing. Couldn't have asked for a better opportunity right out of school. 

[toboldlygame]

Grad School: A Quick Retrospective

When they told me about the bad, I thought I knew what to expect. I thought I knew how to ride the lows, but life bucked and kicked and I almost came flying off. A challenging paradox was presented: I needed to take care of myself, but to take that kind of time made me feel guilty. Grad school does not schedule your time off for you. It has to be blocked off and taken, with the sure mindset that it's an investment in your survival.  When you can feel the pressure piling on, that is not license to punish yourself. You may have weeks where you can't remember the last time you ate away from the computer. Your relationships may drift away. The sun is but a distant memory. Crunch happens, but it should not be your way of life. It means that when a curve-ball is thrown your way, you have no excess time, or energy, or willpower to deal with it. Let your project go. Let other people look it over, turn it over in their hands, and peek under the hood. If a user can't figure something out, do not turn and say "they should have known better", say "how do we make this clearer?". Take feedback. Do not be defensive. Decide how to wield that feedback on your own time.  When you're in grad school, it often feels like only other grad students understand what you're going through. No one else is keeping the same kind of crazy hours, no one else understands why you're stressed out over "just school". Especially about a masters. In "video games". Keep your teammates close, but don't let your relationships at home stretch thin. Sometimes you need to step away from the computer to get clarity, and sometimes you need to step away from grad school to breath.  The good came in ways I didn't expect. In In-N-Out runs and late nights with greened-out task lists. Seeing my project from last quarter and suddenly being hit by how far it had come. Being proud. Doing silly things with caution tape. Stretching myself to the limit, higher each time, and still making it back to the ground in one piece. When the ideas come fast and easy. Pranks. Digging through the bins looking for just the right board game piece. Taking a nap on Marcus Phoenix. Making things work exactly how I imagined them working. And by far the most unexpected thing was seeing myself become exactly who I set out to become.

[toboldlygame]

A drawing update! I'm taking an art class for the first time in years. Getting back into the swing of things. Here's a small sample. First drawing was about four weeks ago, right up to Harley Quinn that I finished yesterday. The topics were picks from Sketch Dailies - they're pretty cool, check them out if you ever had artist's block. Harley Quinn is all colored and nice for an upcoming animation assignment. I'm going to animate my first walk cycle!! I'm unreasonably excited for something that's likely to be headache-inducing. 

[toboldlygame]

One small step for a man...

The alpha crunch immediately followed by the GDC crunch ate up most of the past month. Time to bring the blog back to life with a little wisdom. I liked the little IndieCade notes summary I did last time, so here's the GDC version.  __________________________________________

We're allowed to make games about people not like us. If we didn't we would have no diversity in content. Strong emotions are more important than positive emotions. And sometimes this means removing the player's agency. Ask yourself: Which of our problems can we solve better than anyone else? Do not build your own engine.  Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.  If I do nothing - nothing will happen. But if I do something, then there is at least a slim chance something good will come of it. Everyone in this industry is just another person. Be remarkable - conventional and well done, new and well executed, or maybe just something completely crazy. You may never get this chance again, so be memorable.  Tutorials should teach, comfort, excite, and respect the player. Most tutorials absolutely fail at the respect portion. Frustration is not linear. It can be exceedingly difficult to track when a player is getting frustrated before the breaking point. Stop when the cost of iteration outweighs the benefits of further iteration. When your game gets attention, the expectations rise, and that can lead to depression. Take care of yourself and avoid burnout.

[toboldlygame]

Some day I will make a serious business card, but today is not that day.

[toboldlygame]

Making "Ward", Part 2 I've been putting off making this post because I still searching for some conclusions. While this game was "completed" for class, it's not done. The pieces are painted, the rules are written, but it's not done. I'm actually pretty pleased with some of the aesthetic work I did for the game. Especially the back of the board. I was literally painting it hours before it was going to be seen/played by an audience, and somehow I managed to pull it off. I'm not ready to show off the rules, but those were a lot of fun to paint. I artificially aged them with watercolors. Yet, I get the feeling that only the nurse and people tokens will remain as I continue to revise the game. What really, really frustrates me is the rules. I started crafting the rules for Ward with two classmates. I carried those rules forward on my own with only slight modifications. That was a mistake. Ward is a single-player board game about empathy. Two tough constraints, but that was also why I really really wanted to make it. I faltered mostly with the empathy aspect. I was scared to try any mechanics that were "out there" or "strange", especially with a looming deadline, but I think the game needs them! Something I am heavily considering is making the player write an autopsy report every time a piece is moved to the graveyard. Name. Time of death. I want people to play my game, but hey. If they get up and walk away after that first death, maybe that means my game is effective. There's a chance I'll revisit Ward in a few weeks for my class final. In the mean time I'm still searching for the perfect container to house it. I'm hoping for an old, worn doctor or medic's bag. I can't wait to start putting some board games in my portfolio. 

[toboldlygame]

Visit Original Link

This quarter I've been taking a class about game audio. Now, I'd never even touched a sound editor before this class. I'm going zero to hero to sixty in 10 weeks. This little snippet was for my midterm. I attempted to tell a story from my game using only audio. I had a ton of fun working on it, especially with the voice effects! Yeah, that's me, just pitch shifted beyond recognition. It's still rough around the edges but I hope you enjoy! 

[toboldlygame]

Making "Ward", Part 1 This game consumed me. I didn't mean for it to, but you know how these things happen. You get an idea and you need to let the world see if the same way you do in your head. So out it goes! I made a lot of mistakes while crafting this board game. I tried spray painting the back of the board, but nope. It didn't cover the brand logo. I attempted to bind the boards together. It left a gap between the boards (whoops), but what really killed that iteration that the paint stuck to itself when I left it folded overnight. Never underestimate drying time. Never. In the third and final attempt I chose to go the old fashioned route: illustration board. It's the best multimedia base I've used. It felt really good getting myself reacquainted with so many of my old art tools. Marker, colored pencil, watercolors, and acrylic all in one place. Yes! I also used air-dry clay for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised. Worked great for making the nurse's hat, I was terrified of trying to oven-bake something that had to fit so precisely. Some photos of the "final" pieces and commentary on the game design will be up next in part 2!

[asksuyo-deactivated20150414]

Someone from my school started following me, so I thought it was someone I knew. But this person is in the Master Degree program and I’m not…

[toboldlygame]

I was poking around the 171 teams since I’ll be judging the games Saturday, noticed you were on one, and went a-looking for your art! I’m Kim! Tutored you in…5J and 80k, I think. Biogenesis lead last year.

[toboldlygame]

Heyyy so now that I can breathe for a moment, let's take a look at the most recent game I finished! Rogue Pilot, for Global Game Jam 2014. Good stuff. You're an AI trying to hop from ship to ship to make it back to Earth. It's a bit difficult since you'll often be jumping ship mid-battle.  As with most years, I just art-ed. Don't code well on minimal sleep. Still pretty ridiculously proud since I soloed the art this year.

[toboldlygame]

I could keep adjusting the stippling for hours, but I'm being driven a bit batty by it. So call it done! Finally got around to completing a compixellated challenge. This one was about upscaling and redrawing. Might have to go back and do the old challenges for practice. 

[toboldlygame]

Resolutions!

I'm not really the new year's resolutions type, but every year I have some goals that I slowly creep toward. Time to renew the vows.

Publish my second game!

Move out of my parent's house. Also known as: get hired.

Beat anxiety and depression INTO THE GROUND. Jerks.

Just keep drawing, just keep drawing~

And maybe, just maybe, pick up a knitting craft of sorts. But I figure I have a lot on my plate already. 

Fingers crossed I'll be able to start posting about game progress soon.

[toboldlygame]

Sketchdump of my favorite work from the past couple months. Most of my drawing time is during class, so lots of pencil. Old habits die hard! 

[toboldlygame]

The end of IF

For now. I've "finished" my first interactive fiction. It really doesn't feel done. There's so much more I could tell. But stories have limits, and my playtesters were happy, so for now it will rest. I chose to write a sorta-real story based on my experiences with anxiety. Namely public speaking and social situations. It was an exceptionally different story to write because of how personal it was. I was exposing myself.  There was a fine balance between telling my story and telling a good story, and I think I made the right compromises.  I'm new to interactive fiction, but it strikes me as such a powerful medium. I think I'll probably return to it next time I have a story to tell. There's something about writing in bits and bites and stringing it all together that works for me.