Gruedorf Quasi Update!
For those that don't follow my normal game dev blog, just ignore this post cause it'll probably be pretty boring to you. Not that any of my other posts aren't as boring, just saying this one will be especially geeky, and uninteresting :D
So, while I was attempting to do tiles, because one of the things I really dislike about Amethyst is how much art I've ripped, I ended up just deleting about 99% of my work in disgust.
And it got me thinking.
As someone who isn't so good at art, the most painful part of the creation process, to me, is map making. I know for some people, it's really satisfying and fun (I'm looking at you Grue!), but for Amethyst it's always a really arduous task. It's actually what burns me out, and turns me off of game creation altogether. Which is where I'm finding myself this week.
But this could be my own fault. What I mean is, when I set out to make the sprites, I wanted Chrono Trigger like characters because as someone who can't doing anything 3d, but would love to engross someone into a world I felt that this was the best way to go about it. CT was the first RPG I ever reeeally fell in love with, and was addicted to, and I always felt it's because of how unique the characters looked, the different emotions they can project, and just general awesomeness of the environment they were put in. With characters as detailed as that, you need backgrounds and such that are just as detailed and interesting, otherwise your characters look out of place.
This is where I always get stuck. When creating a scene, I often find my characters out of place because, even if I've ripped art, there's a certain skill involved in making it all mesh together. And of course there's always the need for some original tiles, since my intentions were never to create a full clone of any game. (Artistically or otherwise).
So I've been thinking, maybe I need to scale down my character sprites. I'm decently good at creating smaller tiles that don't require as much detail, and this way, I think I can do all the artwork myself, and not be bummed out that my "original" game, is anything but original looking.
I do have smaller versions of most of the Amethyst characters, that I could update, finish animating, and such, and put them in the game, that wouldn't be a problem. I could also leave the battle sprites as is, since in a lot of games, the walking-around sprites are a lot different than their battling counterparts, and they don't seem out of place with the backgrounds I have. It wouldn't be much of a hassle is what I'm getting at, and the outcome would make map making easier on me, probably more fun to do, and less likely for me to get so frustrated that I don't want to do it anymore.
So those are some of the pro's...
The cons, well, I said I wanted to shift to a darker theme, still have comic relief moments, lovey-dubby scenes, and all that fun jazz...but can you pull it off with characters that aren't as detailed? Can't convey much emotion other then an open mouth and a little symbol beside them? I look at other games, like Lufia which did a pretty good job of this, FF6, of course, hell even FF4 which had simple graphics does a pretty decent job of getting emotion across. So I guess it is possible.
Another thing is well, some people are used to the characters that are out there now. It has been 3 years or so since I released the original demo, so maybe no one will really care if I do this switch. :D
Essentially, this Amethyst that I've been working on is a different game anyway. Same characters, same systems, same name, but the scenario was going to change drastically. So I am leaning more towards simplifying things, so that I can enjoy it more, continue on in this "contest", and not feel so damn guilty about ripping so much artwork.
So that's what I'll fiddle around with this week I think. See if I like it, guage some reactions, oh and have my normal site back up. :P
So, while I was attempting to do tiles, because one of the things I really dislike about Amethyst is how much art I've ripped, I ended up just deleting about 99% of my work in disgust.
And it got me thinking.
As someone who isn't so good at art, the most painful part of the creation process, to me, is map making. I know for some people, it's really satisfying and fun (I'm looking at you Grue!), but for Amethyst it's always a really arduous task. It's actually what burns me out, and turns me off of game creation altogether. Which is where I'm finding myself this week.
But this could be my own fault. What I mean is, when I set out to make the sprites, I wanted Chrono Trigger like characters because as someone who can't doing anything 3d, but would love to engross someone into a world I felt that this was the best way to go about it. CT was the first RPG I ever reeeally fell in love with, and was addicted to, and I always felt it's because of how unique the characters looked, the different emotions they can project, and just general awesomeness of the environment they were put in. With characters as detailed as that, you need backgrounds and such that are just as detailed and interesting, otherwise your characters look out of place.
This is where I always get stuck. When creating a scene, I often find my characters out of place because, even if I've ripped art, there's a certain skill involved in making it all mesh together. And of course there's always the need for some original tiles, since my intentions were never to create a full clone of any game. (Artistically or otherwise).
So I've been thinking, maybe I need to scale down my character sprites. I'm decently good at creating smaller tiles that don't require as much detail, and this way, I think I can do all the artwork myself, and not be bummed out that my "original" game, is anything but original looking.
I do have smaller versions of most of the Amethyst characters, that I could update, finish animating, and such, and put them in the game, that wouldn't be a problem. I could also leave the battle sprites as is, since in a lot of games, the walking-around sprites are a lot different than their battling counterparts, and they don't seem out of place with the backgrounds I have. It wouldn't be much of a hassle is what I'm getting at, and the outcome would make map making easier on me, probably more fun to do, and less likely for me to get so frustrated that I don't want to do it anymore.
So those are some of the pro's...
The cons, well, I said I wanted to shift to a darker theme, still have comic relief moments, lovey-dubby scenes, and all that fun jazz...but can you pull it off with characters that aren't as detailed? Can't convey much emotion other then an open mouth and a little symbol beside them? I look at other games, like Lufia which did a pretty good job of this, FF6, of course, hell even FF4 which had simple graphics does a pretty decent job of getting emotion across. So I guess it is possible.
Another thing is well, some people are used to the characters that are out there now. It has been 3 years or so since I released the original demo, so maybe no one will really care if I do this switch. :D
Essentially, this Amethyst that I've been working on is a different game anyway. Same characters, same systems, same name, but the scenario was going to change drastically. So I am leaning more towards simplifying things, so that I can enjoy it more, continue on in this "contest", and not feel so damn guilty about ripping so much artwork.
So that's what I'll fiddle around with this week I think. See if I like it, guage some reactions, oh and have my normal site back up. :P