This is the second year in a row where I’ve attempted to complete a game from scratch for a contest in less than a month. I have to stop doing this.
Regardless, I’m going even faster than I did last year. Why? One word: Freedom.
Don’t get me wrong…I love creating art for my clients. I don’t turn down challenges. “Oh…architecture and technical drawing? Well I’ll do it anyway.” And I find I surprise myself with the results more often than not. I’ve never painted the “likenesses” of real life buildings before, but I did it for Greyhound Manager and Starters Orders and they turned out better than I could have ever imagined. This time around, for Homunculus, I am doing all the animations as well as environment pieces. Funny as this sounds, I’ve never created animations for the main character in a game.
(early animation run test)
The enthusiasm I have for this project is of a very different nature. Instead of making assets for a predetermined game, I’ve been with the project from its conception. Being a part of its creation process gives me a lot more insight into what the team or programmer had in mind from the start. Instead of using methods to inspire myself, I have a whole arsenal of inspiration at my disposal as the game is already familiar territory.
We gave ourselves restrictions within the parameters of the game, but not in our skill sets and inherent likes and dislikes. My programmer is free to code the game in the way he sees fit with my only criticisms being how things move or run rather than telling him how to code. I’m free to make the game’s assets in my natural painting style, which is fun and relieving simultaneously. His criticisms don’t pertain to my style, but merely to how my assets work within the world of the game such as “that jump cycle looks like it needs more frames” or “that crate is too large”. Even our music composer, after a while of telling him what we wanted, I chucked my previous statements and went with “we know you do good stuff, just do what sounds right to you.”
I cannot wait to see it finished, but it’s up to us to make it happen!