As I start writing this entry, it has been about 4 months since I made any big update to the public about the progress of New Dawn for the Elements. In that time, I have been trying to dedicate more of my time and energy to a singular part of developing the game, specifically visual assets, as one of the final things to do before I can release a demo. For this effort, I have somewhat to greatly ignored my various other projects, like my video essays, Webcomic, this website, even my sticker and print work.
This begs the question: did it work? If not, what did I learn or get out of it? Well, to answer the first question... This still took me over 4 months, for just visual assets, no music was made during this time. I don't think that was really a great success, but there's a lot to think about when it comes to the way this all went, so I'll just sort that into pros and cons to go through it relatively smoothly.
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that I've gotten a lot better at pixel art, and really nailed down the game's style during this exercise. at the start of this, it might take me 20-30 minutes just to understand the perspective on an object before I even drew it, mostly because Tiles are made in a fake perspective, which was hard to wrap my head around as someone who has trained in... actual still-lifes for years. Autotiles are still a bitch to envision, but I've been doing a lot better with it, I think.
Another thing I nailed down is my general workflow, kinda. I got into a bit more of a groove after I condensed my to-do list and sorted it out. Because of that, I think I have a better understanding of what I can generally get done in a day. Unfortunately, the answer, while also trying to maintain something resembling a bare minimum of a social life and working a full-time job, is "not much". And, like most people, I get tired, and it doesn't help that I get little to no reinforcement or accountablility for this whole thing. Self-motivation is... difficult, I'm finding, as this project's timeframe drags into "years". It's easy to slip into thinking "Who cares about this, anyway?" as the hours of work rack up.
Unfortunately, the answer is "I do", so work continues.
So, while I've been practicing a lot of pixel art by doing this all the time, my already somewhat not-that-great people drawing skills have kinda atrophied, I found out recently, so I think I'll be glad for my general skill at artwork when I move working on the game into my "general work rotation" alongside stream assets, Art Booth items, and maybe even an actual comic?
The other big con has been a small feeling of resentment that led to a while where I would work slower in order to not work on things I didn't want to, which is pretty childish, huh?
Well, This is the first Dev journal in a year... yikes. Guess I've been spending more time actually developing than talking about developing? That's probably a good thing.