Expenses
We decided that we want to do this independently rather than trying to find a publisher or investor because… well, that’s how we roll. We like the idea of our games belonging to us, not having debt to anyone, and being able to make our own decisions. There’s a great sense of freedom with that, but unfortunately there’s a certain degree of reality as well that “things cost dollars”.
This Week’s Development Précis or: Hello Megabooth!
Super Hematoma is running, bruisers are bruising, test play is happening.
What I’m getting at is that you can like play it now and stuff. It’s skin and bones at the precise moment, but the concept is at work! *High five*
Broken Games
One time, when I was a kid, I rented Super Mario Bros 3. The game unfortunately had difficulty working and when the old “blow on the cartridge” trick didn’t work I gave up and stuck my fiendishly small child fingers into that NES cartridge, and tried to clean it with my bare flesh. It actually worked. At least until I got to the 8th world. Then it was FUBARed.
The Art of Final Fantasy IX
Walking into a Coles Bookstore, my first year of college, The Art of Final Fantasy IX was probably the first art book that I had ever bought. It’s one of the favourite books that I continue to hold onto because I feel that the drawings are really charming and different. Unlike other Final Fantasy art books, there’s an extremely high ratio of traditional art in it versus cg, and it comes complete with turnarounds, and height charts that were especially great for me to examine when I was first beginning to take drawing seriously.
First Assault
We’ve been working furiously this past week to make progress on Super Hematoma, and despite the amount of work that’s behind the scenes and undemonstratable at this point, we’ve got some great new stuff in the below video to show off!
Chrono Jigga
It probably comes as no surprise to you that if I love video game music, I’ll also love covers of video game music. Well, to be honest my tastes generally sway toward classical and metal, so when I hear stuff of other genres it’s usually only appreciated at a “hmm… it’s ok” sort of level. That said, you need to check out this tribute/mashup/remix/whatever you want to call it album by 2 Mello featuring Jay-Z, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Nobuo Uematsu.
Eye On: Rex Rocket
One of the sad things right now is that as I am boldly at leisure at the moment (read unemployed), I must restrain myself from buying all the cool stuff I see every time I turn around. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t buy all the cool things.
Triumphant Progress
It’s been an incredibly busy week for us here at Sprixelsoft, and we’ve made some great progress in the development of Super Hematoma! Code’s been pouring out of all of Matt’s orifices, wearing down the letters on his keyboard. I’ve been animating so hard that my left eye was twitching for two days straight. Hardcore.
Creating Pixel Art
I’ve been finding that creating pixel art is a unique challenge that is actually pretty tricky to get right. Working in the lowest resolution possible means that drawing shapes that are consistent from frame to frame is extremely difficult, especially when you working with a limited palette. Whilst anti-aliasing is great for photos, it means hell when attempting to rotate small sprites. Here’s a few resources I’ve come across that might help you if you’re starting on your own pixel art.
Eye On: Chasm and A.N.N.E.
My first day at GDC saw me in the GDC Play pavilion, mingling with some of the indies with games-in-progress and checking out some of the awesome stuff that will exist in the near future. Two title in particular caught my interest, and I’ve been waiting for more news to develop so that I can help spread the word about them. My friends? Take a seat. Take a deep breath. Ready? That time has come.