Development Snapshot (September 25, 2017)

This is the current state of development as of September 25, 2017. This is being written in the early stages of development. The final build of the game has not been started yet. I am still in the process of learning the engine. The game currently exists entirely in the design space.

Speaking of which, here’s the first piece of concept art!

Some people would say that it’s way early in the development cycle to be thinking about art. However, I like to view my game holistically. I think that establishing an aesthetic early on gives me direction in how I want to approach the game.

In particular, see the paint splatter effect in the concept art. This is the effect that I referenced in an earlier blog post. If I had established my aesthetic much later, it would have been much more difficult to work around the issue. By establishing the issue now, I potentially save many days of stress and toil in the future.

Of course, the counterargument is that time spent on concept art is time not spent on development. Sometimes, you can’t foresee what kinds of issues you might run into, and it’s better to just develop as much as possible and take each problem as it comes. Fundamentally, this is a clash of different design paradigms. Which is better? I have no way of knowing. We’ll just have to stick it out and see.

Anyway, back to the development side. The blog still has no CSS and no domain (I’m writing this post to my lonely self, with no audience), but I’m hoping that I can get around to changing that within the next few days. I’ve set up the build environment using Pico and SASS.

I’m still in the process of learning Game Maker. I’m trying to work my way through the Game Maker tutorial series.

Next steps: concept music, finish making blog (as of writing, this post is being rendered with minimal CSS on my computer), finish learning Game Maker.