Sharing my process of creating a game

[Max Craving]

Well don't put too much pressure on yourself.

That's how I live, I can't do elseway : )

 

[Max Craving]

Good luck to your project! So far the 'real porn' tag has been an insta-turn off for me, because of so many html 'games' with those horrible, grainy, ultra-low-res 1 sec gifs... complete with watermarks.
I hope your game avoids that.

Thank you! Well, I hope that too.

But I think that probably I will need some of not-so-good media, to show some scenes, because it may be just the only fit in the whole internet.

And the point of this kind of game is text, you're like living the story, and media is only for you to see what's going on, to make this experience more exciting that just text, but it's not the main part.

Anyway thanks for letting me know that some of the guys here don't play this kind of games, I thought everyone okay with that.

 

[Max Craving]

Today I worked on the main story. I had a story already, of the previous version of the game, but this game will be very different, because of it's mechanics, so I've changed it big time. I wrote all the chapters, and what they are about generally.

Now I have a very clear idea what's gonna happen from start to end, in main story. It will be no problem to expand each chapter to it's whole finalized size, and add some chicks to fuck.

 

[Max Craving]

Today I've finished mom's character desctiption. After some struggle with it, I finally got a conceptual understanding of what's she like. Felt great.

Then I wrote some prologue draft text. I started to implement the idea of letting a player to choose what to do, and make character killed if he is wrong. I wrote one of the choices till it's end, couple more left.

After I was tired of writing, I decided to write a code. I created some beautiful stuff with a code. Putted somewhat excessive effort to make prologue look good for player.

Need to rest, feel tired.

 

[Max Craving]

Update. I decided to do two things: hire a translator and release my game in English when it will be worthy to show. Now the demo is ready in Russian, and I work on v0.2. So, I didn't abandon it. I think, the English version with sandbox and hookers will be in two month.

 

[Max Craving]

Hello, the stinking corpse of this thread is twitching once again!

So, after having a disastrous pain in my ass for about 4 years, concerning getting decent art for my games, now I think I came up with something that looks actually appealing and that I can make.

So, I made a couple of pictures, and I like how they look. The question is - will someone else like them too? Would you play a game that looks like that?

They look pretty unusual. But are they rather appealing or repelling to you?

 

[Max Craving]

Spoiler: Me ranting about the few painful years of game development and the status of the tread

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Same/Similar.

I will say, I did practice some projects for a year, to see if I can endure longer projects, and what it help me learn was that an important part about the game making process is discovering my preferred workflow. Art wise, I know I have a preference for 2D drawn characters. I have no attention span for environment art, be it 2D or 3D. I'm learning more towards 3D because I can be more experimental with my workflow, rather than needing to check of a list of to-do's needed for a complete 2D game.

 

[Max Craving]

Same/Similar.

I will say, I did practice some projects for a year, to see if I can endure longer projects, and what it help me learn was that an important part about the game making process is discovering my preferred workflow. Art wise, I know I have a preference for 2D drawn characters. I have no attention span for environment art, be it 2D or 3D. I'm learning more towards 3D because I can be more experimental with my workflow, rather than needing to check of a list of to-do's needed for a complete 2D game.

Hey, it's good to know I'm not the only one. I thought that everyone is gonna think that I'm a loser or something. But this seems to be a common situation to some degree, then.
I actually remember you by your nickname and profile picture, replying this thread like 300 years ago when I created it. Welcome back!
I was learning Blender for two years pretty regularly. I started it after 2d because I think that moving picture is more interesting, and the ragdolls behave like real bodies etc., unlike pictures or even 2d animation. But being able to work with mid/high-poly 3d models is pretty hard. When I figured I could only do low-poly and need couple more years, and the process is quite technical (not artistic), I decided to return to drawing, kinda missed it.
About the preferences - I agree. I also noticed that it is important to focus on what you like in your development process. I was trying to do everything perfect, and it was not good.
I didn't quite get what you mean by "more towards 3d rather than needing to check to-do's". For me, there was always to-do's with any technology.
By the way, what do you think of the pictures I uploaded above? As a player.

 

[Max Craving]

Made another picture for the game. It is the first one that I'm planning to actually use, not a practice or experimenting one. Planning this one as a picture of the mc approaching Helen (landlady) in her room. She's a strict mature woman and the head of the house. But not for long since something is going to happen!

Spoiler: PIKCHA

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

By the way, what do you think of the pictures I uploaded above? As a player.

The fact that you are making something original, and that each image has a purpose makes it more interesting than a mash of 3D renders. I know for myself I like more stylized 2D characters, and I find that I really like it when I can see the line art of the art. So I would definitely look into a game when it uses custom art like what you are making.

I see you are putting in some extra detail by adding in shading with contour hatching. One thing I've struggled with is coloring, not just color theory, but I find coloring a image even if its just flat tones ends up distracting away from good line art, which contradicts with how good art can be when colored or even shaded. I know for myself I've debated how much time and effort to put into coloring art just because while I do like nice line art, sometimes color is important to describe a character's personality or mood. IE what color is the bedroom, their hair, their eyes? But then spending time on this requires more effort for every art piece and trying to figure out energy and time priorities. one thing I wanted to do when I get back into more art focused work is to be very light with my color, treat it like a water painting... but I need more tests before I figure if it will work with my interests or if its too much effort.

An example of very basic shading that I might suggest is with the first image, looking up at Helen. I like exaggerated art, being good at exaggerating art means being good at controlling the players attention and focus, very hard to do when using a 3D model as a base because the 3D can be very stiff. But what can be done is to make the legs and but lighter, and dim the upper body so that the attention is on the 'closer' object. Which I guess this brings up another issue with line art in general, while line art can show of one's skill and design, unless you like to play with line weights, its hard to know what to focus on in an art piece. I like your example with her on a bed, because even though you aren't doing too much with the line weight, it is somewhat noticeable, but more importantly, the fact that only she is shaded helps draw attention to her and pull out of the background noise.

 

[Max Craving]

The fact that you are making something original, and that each image has a purpose makes it more interesting than a mash of 3D renders. I know for myself I like more stylized 2D characters, and I find that I really like it when I can see the line art of the art. So I would definitely look into a game when it uses custom art like what you are making.

I see you are putting in some extra detail by adding in shading with contour hatching. One thing I've struggled with is coloring, not just color theory, but I find coloring a image even if its just flat tones ends up distracting away from good line art, which contradicts with how good art can be when colored or even shaded. I know for myself I've debated how much time and effort to put into coloring art just because while I do like nice line art, sometimes color is important to describe a character's personality or mood. IE what color is the bedroom, their hair, their eyes? But then spending time on this requires more effort for every art piece and trying to figure out energy and time priorities. one thing I wanted to do when I get back into more art focused work is to be very light with my color, treat it like a water painting... but I need more tests before I figure if it will work with my interests or if its too much effort.

An example of very basic shading that I might suggest is with the first image, looking up at Helen. I like exaggerated art, being good at exaggerating art means being good at controlling the players attention and focus, very hard to do when using a 3D model as a base because the 3D can be very stiff. But what can be done is to make the legs and but lighter, and dim the upper body so that the attention is on the 'closer' object. Which I guess this brings up another issue with line art in general, while line art can show of one's skill and design, unless you like to play with line weights, its hard to know what to focus on in an art piece. I like your example with her on a bed, because even though you aren't doing too much with the line weight, it is somewhat noticeable, but more importantly, the fact that only she is shaded helps draw attention to her and pull out of the background noise.

Wow, these are exactly my thoughts mostly! The second paragraph was my thinking process when coming up with this art style. Initially I wanted the colored art with smooth shading, but when I tried coloring it, I noticed that the character of the line faded so very much that I just decided to not color anything. Plus it takes time, to make it worse, basically (in my case). Then I tried something like a drop of a color here and there, for the imagination to fill the rest, because yeah, the color tells a story big time, but I liked it more the way the images look now. If I were a more experienced artist, I may have succeeded in coming up with a good subtle coloring, but my art skills are very poor.

I don't actually draw these, I make lines above the reference pictures I made with 3d models in VAM game. I could have just used the base screenshots, but there are problems with collisions, etc., and I liked it very much how the line art accentuates what I want to accentuate. And I can modify things if needed.

It was actually a big doubt for me if I should use such pictures, because technically they are not "art", just lines over screenshots.

Hence the bad shading. I don't understand the anatomy and volumes great to make it good. But I think it looks good enough to be playable, and I'm interested more in making a game than becoming a good artist after a couple more years during which I actually wanted to make games.

You noticed correctly about the line weight. I simply use a bigger brush size for things that are closer and a lower brush size as they move away from the player. Or less important, like the environment. And yeah, I shaded only the character, because I wanted to accentuate the attention, and basically who would be interested in the room? I assume that the only thing the room is there for is to mark it's existence. Nobody is gonna examine it. They will probably just note the surroundings by swift glancing over them, and then examine the character.

And for the shading, basically the same. A make more shading where I want more attention. And a make it blackier for the points where the attention should go. By the way I noticed it improves the art like 10 times. Just adding the black points where the cavities are.

 

[Max Craving]

Saki_Sliz I stumbled upon some picture, it may be interesting to you.

It's about coloring an image. I think that I couldn't show what this picture expresses with my current art style. I think the colors and the waterness of the tongue make all the difference here. But I think if you put some pale colors for the lips, tongue, skin and the rose, and make some soft shading to show the highlight on the tongue, the picture would express the original thing. I wanted to demonstrate it for the coloring part of what you were talking about.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I want to try painting some more, because I want to use my hands more and be able to add finesse to color. IE not rely on a soft brush or smudge tool, because the more you can get things done right the first time, the faster you can work, and or the more nuances you can add in the same time.

For example, I actually like heavy line art, like a vector art character. I like to use a program like Inkscape because it makes perfect lines and if I want to modify the art I can quickly make changes. But, its all mouse clicks and spending time trying to set the parameters I want, and gently move the lines into place. It takes about the same or less time to draw the art the lines by hand. I found that to get the quality I wanted, I had to have large canvases, thick brushes, practice my muscle memories, and for the most part I can get something nice in about the same time, but the work feels far less tedious. IE instead of converting a line into a stroke and playing with control nodes to get a nice tapper, I can do it with 3 or 5 retries flicking the line out to a tapper, allowing me to quickly test different looks and styles. So now I tend to draw my lines for the most part, and quickly make fill colors, and while I've have gotten a good start with my shading skills, I still need a lot more practice. but I still want to keep my art clean and simple, not too distracting with too many details, nothing like the example picture above. just some soft panting like for the lips transitioning to skin, or eye shadow.

 

[Max Craving]

Some nightmare material for you guys - my shading without the lineart layer

 

[Max Craving]

I want to try painting some more, because I want to use my hands more and be able to add finesse to color. IE not rely on a soft brush or smudge tool, because the more you can get things done right the first time, the faster you can work, and or the more nuances you can add in the same time.

For example, I actually like heavy line art, like a vector art character. I like to use a program like Inkscape because it makes perfect lines and if I want to modify the art I can quickly make changes. But, its all mouse clicks and spending time trying to set the parameters I want, and gently move the lines into place. It takes about the same or less time to draw the art the lines by hand. I found that to get the quality I wanted, I had to have large canvases, thick brushes, practice my muscle memories, and for the most part I can get something nice in about the same time, but the work feels far less tedious. IE instead of converting a line into a stroke and playing with control nodes to get a nice tapper, I can do it with 3 or 5 retries flicking the line out to a tapper, allowing me to quickly test different looks and styles. So now I tend to draw my lines for the most part, and quickly make fill colors, and while I've have gotten a good start with my shading skills, I still need a lot more practice. but I still want to keep my art clean and simple, not too distracting with too many details, nothing like the example picture above. just some soft panting like for the lips transitioning to skin, or eye shadow.

Yeah, I got you, I shared the picture to think about how this can be reproduced using little color, if the main emphasis is on the waterness and the highlight on the tongue, and some pale pastel colors. Idek how your style looks. But it sounds interesting.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I've seen professionals that do nothing but shading, and the better they are, the more the 'shading' is the art and no needs for lines or other effect, but tricks like highlight help a lot.

here's me trying to go as hard as possible with coloring and shading (good god, that was almost a year ago, definatly going to suck when I swing back into doing art). This was me pushing myself to make shading work, incase I want scenes where I need to communicate the mood through shading (mainly low light), but unless its a small project, I am not going to shade, way to much time. And like I said, I want to focus more on line art be minimizing how much shading and color there is... but I've yet to test that... (and right now I'm having fun getting back into custom 3D models)

 

[Max Craving]

I've seen professionals that do nothing but shading, and the better they are, the more the 'shading' is the art and no needs for lines or other effect, but tricks like highlight help a lot.

here's me trying to go as hard as possible with coloring and shading (good god, that was almost a year ago, definatly going to suck when I swing back into doing art). This was me pushing myself to make shading work, incase I want scenes where I need to communicate the mood through shading (mainly low light), but unless its a small project, I am not going to shade, way to much time. And like I said, I want to focus more on line art be minimizing how much shading and color there is... but I've yet to test that... (and right now I'm having fun getting back into custom 3D models)

Looks nice! Actually, with this art style, I think shading is not necessary. The left one from the preview looks good enough to me already. Like a cartoon.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Thanks, I ended up taking a lot of inspiration from the cartoon Xiaolin Showdown when I noticed that it was hand drawn and it looks pretty consistent and interesting, and I tend to lean on Total Drama for proportion and body type styles. But I'm like you, I actually use a 3D model as a base and trace it, the 3D model helps with consistancy, and while I'm fine doing it with characters, I hate doing backgrounds.

 

[Max Craving]

Thanks, I ended up taking a lot of inspiration from the cartoon Xiaolin Showdown when I noticed that it was hand drawn and it looks pretty consistent and interesting, and I tend to lean on Total Drama for proportion and body type styles. But I'm like you, I actually use a 3D model as a base and trace it, the 3D model helps with consistancy, and while I'm fine doing it with characters, I hate doing backgrounds.

So I'm not the only one who's tracing, that's good to know. I thought that other artists are gonna hate me for making this shortcut instead of learning art for 100 years.