My first font!

Hello readers, today I will talk about fonts and one I created. This is the first font I've ever done and I will walk you through my process. I started with researching about fonts and how make them. I started out in photoshop, created a grid and started drawing at low resolution. The reason I chose low resolution is because of the game's art style. The game is supposed to be very pixelated and low resolution so this font was made that way. About halfway through in photoshop I realized that making a font in photoshop is a pain in the ass.

The reason of this is because it's a very complicated process and photoshop isn't the right program for it. I didn't want to put additional workload on the coders so I wanted to make it a .TTF file. If it's a .TTF file it's very easy for the coders to use it. I had trouble converting my already half made font sprite into a .TTF so I started a new on a website called fontstruct. I used this program to make the entire font. It was very easy and quick, atleast to make less complicated fonts like the one I was aiming for.

I'm pretty satisfied with the results, it's not perfect but then again nothing is. If I find the need to change it I will. I achieved that pixel look and it was a good experience. You never know when this knowledge might come in handy. Thanks for reading, picture below!

More animations!

This week has been a really productive one for me. We as a team has made a lot of progress on our game. The game is nearing alpha deadline and is soon entering beta. I've experimented much on different styles for the game and I think i'm getting more used to it now. The two animations I will present to you in this post are two I think came out pretty good. You can see for yourself. They are both a bit small but I think you see what it is.

The first one is a bullet in flight. I've animated it so it looks like it's rotating through the air. I made several iterations on the bullet in the beginning. The first attempts at making it was too bland. I needed something more action packed so I added rotation and some cool particle effects behind it. It's three frames of animation looping. If I would do this again I would use more real life references. References are really important when making pixel art. Because you have so low resolution you have to choose very carefully in how you do it. In pixel art, every single pixel matters.

This one is an animation of the muzzle flare of a gun. It's seven frames of animation with a smoke effect. When I first had started out I only had two frames of animation but I wanted to do more cause I was caught up in all the fun. I added the smoke as a cool effect to make it slightly more badass.

I'm very satisfied with my production this week. Not only on this game but also on other projects and such. It is not often I am satisfied with my work but hey you got to practice to improve. Thanks for reading!

Tileset!

Alright so I made a tileset for a game that i'm working on with some classmates. The game is a stealthy, 50s gangster game. It is top down and grid based so a tileset is perfect for this game. I studied many different tilesets before I started, this process was for about an hour. I wanted to have something from around the 50s so I took references from the TV-series madmen and other pictures. I noticed that there were many wall to wall carpets in offices in the 50s and I wanted to have that in the tileset. I also discovered that diamond shaped, black and white bathroom tiles were popular in those days.

So this is the finished product (so far). Each tile is 64 pixels wide and high. I chose this size because it fits the game. The game has medium low resolution so this was perfect for it. The first one (from the upper left to right) is a marble pattern. I think it fits in a classy entrance or in the executive's office. Next to it we have two iterations of bathroom tiles. Then we have wooden floor for obvious reason, must be something under that wall to wall carpet :). Here we have the carpets. I recolored them to popular office floor colors I saw from pictures to make them fit the setting. Next we have a rought asphalt for maybe a parking lot.

I'm quite satisfied with the results although I could have made more. All this you see is just the basis of the actual tileset. As we continue on the game I will add more textures if necessary. I forgot to mention but all the textures in the tileset is tileable and can be looped. Thanks for reading!

New plans!

Today I started working on some new stuff of my own. I'm planning to create a real-time demo of a game level. My goal is not to create a game but to create an atmosphere. I will use my best techniques to get top notch models. It will be rendered in Unity game engine, unless I change my mind.

Here's a quick model preview below. It's a rock prop with stalagmites. It's very optimized and only has 142 polygons!

I understand that this is quite a huge project i'm undertaking. This project is for my own development, I need to know the process of creating an entire level from start to finish. Just because you know how to model doesn't mean you know how to apply your modeling to a game. I'll keep you posted when I make more notable progress on this little project. Thanks for reading!