Making Games and Spirling in the 5th dimention
Play DIMINISHING RETURNS for FREE!
https://void-metallurgy.itch.io/diminishing-returns
Follow me on Itch.io!
https://void-metallurgy.itch.io/
My favorite reoccurring motif in THE BATMAN is Bruce Wayne entering the Iceberg Lounge : once as the Batman, once as Bruce Wayne, and lastly as the Drifter.
Know who I am?
(Do you, Bruce?)
Commit to the Bit #1: Bauhaus by Braquen
Commit to the Bit is a personal project where I make a drawing predetermined color palette using all the colors and not changing a single one.
(Here I also included a 1 bit version for the fun of it)
The Penguin penultimate episode is airing today - I've been following it every week since the first ep and it has been a ride. Such excellent show, with Sofia being one of the best additions to this version of Batman cast.
So, when I decided to challenge myself and work with the colors of Fading - 16 by CopheeMoth (on Lospec), I was inspired by the show (and frankly one of the example works on the palette page) to create Sofia fanart of one of my favorite moments of the show.
Anyway, I hate Roose Bolton, but also kinda love him. Someone on reddit suggested it as my next ASOIAF piece and it had been a struggle, and this is both my favorite and least favorite one so far.
I tried making his outfit look like a body who's own skin is flailing around it, and also took a lot of inspiration of Castlevania's Dracula and Aegon 2 by Amok, who has the most "our blades are sharp" pose ever.
This series is a very good practice in character portraits.
Devlog - Small steps towards the end of the world [Diminishing Returns Devlog #1]
Hello all!
There is a lot to expand on in DIMINISHING RETURNS - gameplay, polish, art. It’s daunting at times, but it’s important to remember that everyone’s gotta start somewhere and, for me, it’s here.
Wait, what’s here?
UPDATE SUMMARY:
Added proper logo
Added CRT shader for “feel”...
…and an option to remove it
Changed numbers on cards so now cards on right side of hand could be easier to read
added transitions
Added animations to cards
UP NEXT:
More game rules for more diverse playthrough
Imprvoed “end loop” screen
A whollleee NEW game mechanic. Yes yes!
The full Devlog:
A Proper Main Menu
One of the most noticeable (to me) art shortcoming of the game jam version was the lack of an actual logo.
Well, no more! Say hello to our new and improved game title!
Fancy!
It’s a small improvement but it makes DR feel more like an actual game.
Better Card UX:
One of the critiques of the original game jam version of the game was how, while it was easy to distinguish cards on the left side of your hand, it was hard to do the same for the cards on the right side of the hand. It’s rather difficult to understand without a picture, so here’s one:
In retrospect, it was very foolish to only put the number + element sigil on two corners, and not four. This was easy enough to fix by adjusting the art. I also took this as an opportunity to fix little mistakes in the cards - not fully aligned numbers/drawings, stuff like that.
The player hand’s now looks like this:
And you can tell in a glance exactly which cards you have in your hands.
Sometimes, the best alterations are the simplest ones.
Animated cards:
Cards are now animated! Each element now has a tiny animation loop that plays when you hover over the card. This helps the card to stand out even more and brings more life into the (admittingly intentionally) dead world of DIMINISHING RETURNS.
SHADERS 1 - CRT:
Now this one’s just for fun. I added a overall CRT shader to give the game a more “lost media” feel.
Of course, not everyone would enjoy this addition, so the option to toggle the filter on and off.
(fun fact!!! Options are now saved between game sessions, using a very simple save-and-load function)
The shader used is VHS and CRT monitor effect by pend00 on Godot Shader Library, and I used the given parameters to adjust it for the game. Godot’s shader language is a bit different than what is used in most engines - so if you use GODOT (good choice!) and need a shader, the Godot shader library is your friend.
Which actually brings us to-
SHADERS 2 - Transition Screen:
Do to time limitations, I did not add transition screens to the Jam Version of DIMINISHING RETURNS. This bothered me, and since it is an easy fix, it was one of the first things I set out to improve in the full version of the game.
Once again I used a shader from the godot library, this time Line Screen Transition by Exuin. This one required more work than just adjustments of uniform parameters.
I wanted the lines to be horizontal, which required a few changes to the original shader code, which yielded, um, interesting results:
I did figure it out eventually, and along with some tweaking of the parameters, I got the shader to its current form, which looks like this:
Exciting!
An important note is that the shader’s “animation” is created by changing a parameters during runtime using a function outside the shader itself, which is used not only to control WHEN the transition is triggered, but the speed in which it occurs.
Overall:
A first step of many. In truth, I am currently much ahead in development, but it was good to look back and see all the little - and not so little - changes I already implemented. Next Devlog we’ll talk about the SPECIAL CARDS I added to the game - a whole new special mechanic!!! And perhaps even more.
Would love to see you there, and as a reminder, you can play the game jam of DIMINISHING RETURNS right now, by downloading the game on itch.io!
I had to draw something colorful and fun after all the literal 1-bit doom and gloom I did (and continued to do) for DIMINISHING RETURNS, and what better than Winx club?
Color palette: Sheltzy32 by NatTorpedia (with some changes + additions)
ellievsbear
stormborns
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
kianamaiart
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
janainaart