Anyone not looking to waste a whole lot of time should probably avoid visiting The Video Game Name Generator. I had to pry myself away to write this week's Gruedorf entry, but not before coming up with a few dozen genuinely good ideas for short video games (thus the title of this post). But before I start making "Morbidly Obese Dessert Assassins", there's work to be done on Starlight.
In that fateful entry from two weeks ago (the one I'm still very sorry about, really), I mentioned that Starlight would blend some of my favorite genres, but that there would be no Nazis. That was a lie. There will be Nazis. The game takes place on seven planets orbiting suns that have been devoured by The Void, one of which is Earth.
Originally I planned on it being modern day Earth (mysteriously devoid of humans), but instead it will be an alternate 1930s Earth where those wacky Nazis toyed with the occult one time too many.
Each of the seven suns emits a different frequency of light (Earth's is yellow, of course) which our heroine must collect using a special gem in her necklace. At each planets' surface, however, the gem would take thousands of years to absorb enough light, and while the main character is immortal, the player is not. Possible solutions include optics, rocketry, and magic. As you gather more light, you gain access to new worlds. And once you have pure white light, you can go home.
Of course, before you can travel to other planets, you must first escape from your prison. This far into the development of the game, I have discovered two things: firstly that character animation is extremely time consuming-- especially at 128x256 pixels per frame --and secondly that a game where a character just walks around is pretty boring. So the heroine must not only walk, but bend, climb, reach, etc...
I've decided to enlist the help of a superior character artist, Hyptosis, to do a few still frame cutscenes to take the place of particularly complex character animations like swinging from vines. And speaking of help, musician Zathras will be lending his talents to the project.
That's all for this week! Next time on Gruedorf, I'll show off some of that tedious and time consuming character animation.
Each of the seven suns emits a different frequency of light (Earth's is yellow, of course) which our heroine must collect using a special gem in her necklace. At each planets' surface, however, the gem would take thousands of years to absorb enough light, and while the main character is immortal, the player is not. Possible solutions include optics, rocketry, and magic. As you gather more light, you gain access to new worlds. And once you have pure white light, you can go home.Of course, before you can travel to other planets, you must first escape from your prison. This far into the development of the game, I have discovered two things: firstly that character animation is extremely time consuming-- especially at 128x256 pixels per frame --and secondly that a game where a character just walks around is pretty boring. So the heroine must not only walk, but bend, climb, reach, etc...I've decided to enlist the help of a superior character artist, Hyptosis, to do a few still frame cutscenes to take the place of particularly complex character animations like swinging from vines. And speaking of help, musician Zathras will be lending his talents to the project.
That's all for this week! Next time on Gruedorf, I'll show off some of that tedious and time consuming character animation.
And then Bobbin turns into a swan!
I really like the style you have going for the art. I have to say though, I am curious if Hyptosis can animate the vine swinging to keep it PG-13 with a character wearing such clothes. =P