The Artist's Struggle

There's something which has been happening to me lately.  Something that is both a blessing and a curse.  It might happen to you, too, if you do art for your own games.  It's something that needn't be feared, though it is a very easy trap to fall into, and, if your will power isn't strong enough, it will consume you completely and might even cause your project to be delayed, or worse still, never finished.  What is this horrifying phenomenon, you ask?  I'll tell you: it's getting better at drawing.

I know, I know, you must be thinking, "how is getting better at drawing a bad thing?"  I'll be the first to tell you that it isn't.  Improving your art is a great thing.  Growing as an artist, or programmer, or writer, or any other facet of game design is truly rewarding.  You can look back at your previous work and you smile to yourself, pleased in the knowledge that what you're doing now is miles beyond what you thought looked good in the past.  There's just one small problem: what if that previous artwork is comprised of several backgrounds in your game?

We all know making a game takes time, especially if you're doing it on your own.  If you get better at art, it might cause the stylistic consistency of your game to change.  What if you learn a new technique or trick for lighting backgrounds?  You feel it looks amazing, but when you look at your previous work, you realize it would benefit from said technique, so you go back and tweak everything to achieve some sort of similarity.  That's all well and good, but where do you draw the line?  If you have to go back and redo everything every time you learn something new, you'll be improving things forever, and your game will never get done.

This has happened to me already with backgrounds in A Golden Wake.  There are some scenes I've tweaked 3 or 4 times since I drew them just because I've learned something new and want to make them look their best.  Same with the character portraits.  I even posted on this blog demonstrating the new technique I learned.

The other day, I tried yet another technique for character portraits, and I feel it makes them look way better than what I've been doing so far, but here is the dilemma: I've already got 31 characters in the game, and 95% of them have portraits, and most of those are already animated.  So is it worth going back and redoing them all?  At this point, I say no.  I am drawing the line, and leaving this new method for my next game.  Will I look back on A Golden Wake and wish I'd redone the portraits?  It's a strong possibility, but I'd rather have the game finished and out within the next year than delay it for who knows how long just because I wanted to change something.  Who's to say I won't learn something in the meantime that will make things look even better?  To get caught in that cycle is definitely not worth it.

More Painting Practice

Last night I finally managed to finish cobbling together Chapter 2 of A Golden Wake.  This involved several placeholder backgrounds which, to be honest, left me feeling somewhat anxious.  The reason for this is because they are set at a very fancy and opulent location, which is going to require an immense amount of detail, and my insecurities came out and made me think that what I wanted to achieve was above my skill level.

Luckily, I have the very talented Sergeant Sweets Tin aka Ben304 to help me out.  Up until recently, his internet didn't have sufficient bandwidth for more than speaking on Skype with voice, but now he is able to share his screen.  Therefore, I have been able to watch him paint.  He's been kind enough to share techniques with me by telling me about them, but watching them in action is much more helpful.  Just today I watched him do a speed painting which was extremely informative, and I think will help me out tremendously with regards to these complex backgrounds.

In the meantime, I went back and touched up a few existing backgrounds yet again, but also decided to practice a bit and do a speed painting of my own.  The result was this:

Still have a ways to go, but I'm pleased with the tree at least.

   Also, for fun last week I decided to redo a background from Ben Jordan 3, but today I revised it a bit and made it a bit more spooky.

No more burn tool!

So basically, it's all about overcoming that mental block where the little voice inside your head says, "no, that's too difficult, you'll never make it look right."  Practice is the best way to silence that voice, because he's an asshole.

Moving Around

I haven't updated in a while, mainly because I've been in the process of moving.  I've finally more or less settled into my Brooklyn apartment, and as of last week have been able to work on A Golden Wake again.  It was really a bit disturbing how antsy I got after not being around a PC to work on it for the better part of 3 weeks.

So, this brief update is just to confirm that things are back to normal, and production will be full steam ahead.

Character Portraits Part 2

As of the last post, Eric Feurstein (aka Mr Colossal) was kind enough to show me some Photoshop tricks which have greatly helped with my character portraits.  The day after, I also attempted another speed painting portrait in high res, but this time using a photo for reference for the face so I could get the proportions right. 

This guy was the result.

I was much more satisfied with the look, but I still have a ways to go.  Practice makes perfect, after all!  As far as the trick Eric showed me, I spent yesterday redoing all the character portraits in AGW, basically tweaking them and making the color ramps less flat.  I'm extremely pleased with the result, which, although subtle, I feel makes a world of difference.

Alfie Banks before.

Alfie Banks after some color tweaking.

Strengths and Weaknesses: Character Portraits

There's no denying that when it comes to any creative output, we've all got our strengths and weaknesses.  As long as you figure out what you're good at and what you're not so good at, it opens the way to being able to work on your weaknesses and play to your strengths.

Lately, I have been practicing my art skills in an attempt to grow and improve, and have been able to identify my own personal strengths and weaknesses.  When it comes to drawing people or faces, I find that working in high resolution becomes way more tricky than working in low resolution.  I've been used to working in low res in all the time I've been making games, that it just feels the most natural now.  This isn't to say that I've always been good at low res portraits.  I cut my teeth on the Ben Jordan games, and looking back at the early ones, the character portraits are pretty terrible. 

Why the long face?

As I went on practicing and improving, I began cheating a bit and using photographs for character portraits, tracing over them and being a slave to their shading.  In some cases, the results were ok.

Simon's facial proportions somewhat resemble that of a human being.

In other cases, the results were terrifying.

I want you to have some proper facial lighting, that's what.

Finally, in the last Ben Jordan game, I learned to stop using the accursed dodge and burn tools and actually use different color values for shadows and highlights.  I drew great inspiration from Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and not only used some dramatic chiaroscuro-esque contrasts, but also some colored lighting.

Ben now carries a blacklight with him wherever he goes.

For A Golden Wake, my methods have differed somewhat.  I'm still using photographs, because I haven't mastered facial proportions exactly as I'd like, but I feel I've gotten a handle on basic shading.  The difference now is I make an outline of the character's portrait as a guide, and then, like a kindergartener coloring, I color within the lines and shade until the portrait is complete.

Not too shabby.

 Finally, to show an example of areas of improvement, here are two speed paintings I did tonight to work on doing faces from scratch without any reference.  First, the high res disaster:

Done in roughly 30 minutes.  Not even 30 hours could have saved him.

And next a very quick low res study:

Less than 10 minutes and he looks more human.

 As you can see, there's lots of room for improvement, but that's what practice is for.

Shamless Self-Promotion

It's been a while since I last posted, mainly because I've been busy working on other games besides A Golden Wake.  As I said in the last post about "game sorbets," sometimes breaks are needed.

In the past month, I made a very short and silly game for the MAGS competition called Bertha Butt's Boogie! as well as a game for the One Room One Week competition.  This particular game is called The Rebirth, and was a lot of fun to do, because I collaborated with Ben304 to make 2 individual games which serve as teaser vignettes for something more.  You can get both my game as well as Ben's, called The Reaper right here.

So what about A Golden Wake?  I have gone back and tweaked every single background, as I found a much better lighting technique which makes them look a lot nicer than they did before, though honestly I think I might be the only person to notice this.  I've also been practicing drawing character portraits, and feel I have reached a level I am pleased with for the time being.

On a personal note, I will be moving to New York on August 16, so I expect a bit of a delay in game-making during that transition.  However, my goal is to have Chapter 2 completely playable by the time I leave, so I can focus on getting the second half of the game done once all the dust from moving settles.  I'll definitely remember to back up my game before then, however!

Game Sorbet

Sometimes you get an idea that you really like for a game, and you feel so excited about it that you spend every waking moment thinking about it and eagerly awaiting the opportunity to just let all the ideas out so you can get to work designing it.  Time passes, and your excitement continues as you work on your game on a fairly regular schedule.  Eventually, you get to the point where you've done a fair amount of work, but either you're just not as excited about it, or you've gotten sick of the sight of the same thing over and over.  This is a crucial period, as it can easily lead to you putting your game on the back burner, or worse still, completely abandoning it.  In times like these, it's time for what I like to call a "game sorbet."

As the name implies, this is a smaller, way less ambitious project intended as a break, or palate cleanser.  The idea is not to lose momentum on your big project while still having something fresh to work on.  It can be something as simple as a one room joke game, or something with a mini story told in 3 or 4 rooms.  It's important, however, not to get too ambitious, or you'll end up right back where you started.  Ideally, your sorbet game won't take more than a week or two to finish.  By the time you're done with it, hopefully you'll be looking forward to returning to your main project.

I've hit that spot in A Golden Wake, and just yesterday I participated in a 4 hour game jam where I and a fellow AGSer created a silly joke game called Monty Python's Makeout Mansion.  It was a lot of fun to work on, and a welcome break from AGW.  Currently, I've been drawing a background and sprite for another game which I plan on spending a few days on as another distraction.

The thing to remember also is not to go overboard with sorbet games.  You don't want to find yourself with 6 games in production in addition to your main one.  If you make 2 or 3 sorbet games and still find you're not excited about going back to your main project, maybe it's time to step away from making games and do something else.  Read a book or go for a walk or take lots of showers.  At some point, hopefully some creative spark will enter your mind and you'll think of something new or a different approach to a problem you were having in your main game that will make you want to run back to it and work on it again.