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02.2.2025
06 - Ramblings
future plans
Since the last devlog I've added some audio assets into the project. It's not quite final yet but it's nice to actually have some sound in the game finally. I also (somewhat) decided on an artstyle for the UI which should make working on all of that less of a pain in the future.
My current goal is to finish and polish up a vertical slice of my game as soon as possible. I don't know exactly when that'll be, but I'll keep working as hard as I can to get that done. I'm planning on turning the vertical slice into a little demo and using it to make a trailer and a steam store page for my game. I'm not entirely clear on whether first impressions really impact the traction of a newly made steam store page butIi'd like everything to at least look semi-decent before making things public.
I should probably figure out a name for the game at some point too, huh.
inadequacy
As usual, even with working everyday there's just always more to work on. To be honest there are very few things I'm that proud of in my game at this moment. A lot of my drive for working on this project kinda feels like sunk cost fallacy, which is a terrible motivator. It's also very possible that I'm just being overly critical of my own work and focusing too much on all the little "flaws" that only I can see. Either way, there's been a slight feeling of desperation with each day spent working on this project.
It also really doesn't help seeing all of these other games (both indie and not) that are absolutely gorgeous with incredible looking mechanics. Seeing something that looks really cool and
wanting to replicate it but knowing that you don't have the time to do so is a terrible feeling.
One of the few things that I was
somewhat proud of was my game's grass. It doesn't look particularly fancy but I spent a lot of time working on it and trying to create a certain aesthetic for my game. At this point it's unlikely for me to forego all of that and try to chase a completely different artstyle, but
man are there some games with incredible looking grass out there.
There have also been two games I've played in the past two months that have absolutely blown me away with how gorgeous they are.
The first is
Morsels, a creature-collecting roguelite, which has one of my favorite pixel art artstyles I've ever seen. The texturing on the sprites are incredible and the color palettes are really warm and fun. The CRT filter and general artstyle makes the game feel super nostalgic and charming. Other things like the music and gameplay are also really quite solid. I purposefully keep my game's artstyle really simple since I'm not skilled enough at pixel art to really attempt spriting anything too complex. I'm satisfied with most of the stuff I draw and animate, but Morsels really just proves that there's no good replacement for genuinely incredible and detailed pixel art.
The second game is
No Rest For The Wicked, an ARPG with a bit of souls influence sprinkled in. There's really not much to say about this game. Rather, there's nothing I can really say to convey just how
insane this game looks. Straight up, this game is one of the most gorgeous video games I've ever seen in my entire life. The artstyle is gorgeous, the animations are fluid and full of life, the painted details for all the textures look incredible, the lighting is unbelievably vibrant... Words really can't describe how truly amazing this game looks, and at the time of writing this devlog I've only played it for a couple of hours. I can only imagine how the rest of the game looks when I reach the other areas. Of course comparing myself to this game is pretty unfair, Moon Studios also made the Ori games which were also very pretty already. The studio has a full team of artists and animators that have had years working on these graphics and everything. But still, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little discouraged working on my silly little project when there are games as gorgeous as this out there.
I wanted to include proper images and embeds for these games but I got lazy. Please check them out, truly some of the most best looking games I've seen in a while.
A pretty critical devlog, but at least it's not after half a year of not writing anything. I'll still continue to do my best, I'm not planning on giving up on this project just yet.
Maybe next time I'll be feeling better about the state of my game.
thanks for reading :)
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