Category: Blog

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2D art / Blog

March 3, 2019

My choice of pixel art software

In 2019 the offer for pixel art applications is very broad and diverse. We have many packages available. The entry point is as low as Windows Paint or as high as Adobe Photoshop, with all the custom made applications in between. The choice depends on the budget and specific needs of the user. Most applications which allow for drawing bitmaps are sufficient for creating pixel art. However some of them are more of a hassle to setup conveniently than others. There are many excellent articles and lists comparing pixel art applications. I will provide some links in the References section....

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Blog / My designs

February 5, 2019

Making my first game – Part 4: Finishing thoughts

To sum up, the whole process was a great success for me and I managed to create a fully functional, extendable demo game in almost fourty days, while working only in the evenings. The good The art I managed to produce was quite consistent so the graphics didn’t hurt the eyes that much. Character sprite sheets I purchased were also fitting for my style and the end effect, while not very impressive or flashy, did its job well enough (at a total cost of 5$). The gameplay was smooth and interactions felt impactful. As many of my testers said, the...

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Blog / My designs

February 5, 2019

Making my first game – Part 3: Problems

When making my first game I encountered two major problems, which took me quite some time to figure out. Below you will find the detailed descriptions as well as solutions which I used to solve them: Cannot interact with objects (doors/chests) At certain, seemingly random times, interactable objects stopped responding. When I pressed the E key used for interaction in my game, they would activate or not. For a while I could not determine why and when it happened. Then I noticed that objects stopped responding when I was standing still with my character. This was new to me and...

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Blog / My designs

February 5, 2019

Making my first game – Part 2: Systems

Apart from randomly generated backgrounds the game needed to have some other mechanics to get it going. For me one of the most fun aspects of modern games is physics. This is why I decided to base the game systems on physics traps and simple puzzles, as well as basic combat. In the end two main ideas drove the development:– physical interactions (traps, combat),– relevance of game systems Design philosophy All game systems had to fulfill some role: Chests and gold. Apart from measuring “score”, gold is a currency for reviving. I do not like the idea of score without...

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2D art / Blog / Design analysis / Learning / My designs

February 5, 2019

Making my first game – Part 1: Conceptualizing

After a year of diligent self-learning I felt more confident around Unity and became relaxed when writing my own code. I always tried to perform coding challenges in tutorials. Very often I managed to write working code which matched the specifications set by the tutors. At the same time the code was quite different from what the tutors wrote themselves. Not to say it was better, but it was fun to compare my solutions to those of more experienced coders. Conceptualizing my game I have just finished a tutorial for a simple 2D tower defense game (parts of which I have...

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Blog / Design analysis

January 31, 2019

My favourite game mechanics, features and philosophies

Gaming, as any hobby, seems to be governed by the same rules as other forms of human behavior. We form habits based on the patterns we enjoy and we push away aspects that we perceive as annoying. As a child of the 80’s and a teen during the 90’s I was exposed to games and activities that were less casual. Any success required certain level of dedication from the player. While today everyone seems to be enjoying games in their many diverse forms, back then pretty much every game was on the hardcore side. By the mid 90’s most people...

This is why game development is my hobby in a nutshell. 0

Blog / Learning / My designs

January 31, 2019

Why game development

My passion for game development started quite early on. I was 5 when my father brougth an Atari 800 XL from one of his trips and I played forever after. The answer to the question “Why game development” does not lie in games that I could play however. I like making games, because I did not have the games I wanted. 8-bit era My parents sold our first computer, the Atari 800 XL, when I was six years old. Now, that I have my own kids, I think I understand their decision. Kids that fall in love with computers and...

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Blog / Design analysis / Game review / Learning

October 19, 2018

Games that made me

I am a firm believer in incidental learning, which in simple terms means learning new things in an unplanned manner. This is a topic experts debate in the educational community. However, I believe it also has some bearing on other aspects of life. The way we develop our habits and hobbies may also be quite incidental. It is based not only on our conscious choices, but also on different circumstances and key experiences. Even though my current taste in games is determined by the games and experiences I enjoyed in the past, I cannot say that I have, for the...

On the road road to my first game. 1

Blog / Learning / My designs

October 18, 2018

The road to my first game

In a recent post I discussed how I got into game development. All things considered, it took me 35 years to finally get myself to learn to code and embark on a road to my first game. The project I have been working on before I started my adventure with programming and Unity 3D was a tabletop miniature wargame. I was in my sixth year of development for the game and it was taking a bit too long. It was a very ambitious project and I had many other obligations (family, running a business). And yes, mistakes were made that...

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