Hey All! I Haven't Been Making Much Progress With Bounder Games Lately, Mostly Due To GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT
Hey all! I haven't been making much progress with Bounder Games lately, mostly due to GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT (fill-in college lecturer). But that's no excuse! Here's where we stand:
I've been reading Hideo Kojima's "The Creative Gene", a collection of reflections on the books and media that inspired him to make games like Metal Gear. In "The Moon Over the Mountain", the main character feels he has failed to capitalise on his talent and describes his unwillingness to publish imperfect material as "timid pride" and "disdainful shyness". His following quote hit me pretty hard:
"No, whether the poems are good or bad, I would not rest easy in my grave without passing these poems on to later generations, since the represent my deepest passion in life, even to the point of losing my fortune and my sanity."
It's been almost 10 years since we founded Bounder Games and began work on Armoured Engines, and that decade of shame floods through me like toxic oil. I felt like I'd let everyone down, not working hard enough or focusing on the wrong things. I have so many ideas; to build, to design, to write, to act, to create, that I'm overwhelmed by the cavernous silence of my portfolio. The more I thought upon my neglect, the more I mired myself in doubt.
That quote struck me, and I could feel what Li Zheng could feel. That need to pass on what I make. Shame is the great assassin of creativity. If I could be a fraction as confident as Kojima-san, I might be able to look at myself with pride.
For me, no more excuses. Time to Make!
More Posts from Roymakes and Others
I've been called into college to fill in for an animation class. Looks like they're using Illustrator to make art and After Effects to animate. It's pretty early on in the term, so I'll start from the basics to see what they know already. I use Inkscape for Armoured Engines (main art) and Stardust Survivors (icons).
I'm not that familiar with Illustrator; Inkscape is my vector art program of choice. I'm going to be helping out the students with their work, so I've got to familiarise myself with it. There's a few oddities; you have to use a different tool to add nodes instead of just double clicking. But it's functional so far, once I looked up a few shortcuts.
A little snowman should be easy for them to make, simple shapes for a simple character.
Hey friendly reminder that I made not one but two games in which you've got a grappling gun that's a frog! They're lowpoly platformers and you go up against Beelzebub himself <3
Following on from what I said yesterday, I’ll be posting daily on Tumblr (here), Mastadon (https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@RoyMakes), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/roymakes.bsky.social), and the Bounder Games Discord (https://discord.gg/3DZKj2Ex). I also looked into Instagram, but I’m not entirely sure how that place works for this kind of post.
It doesn’t matter what I talk about: current work, old projects, interesting videos, observations, etc, as long as I’m posting. There’s no real goal; I’d just like to improve myself.
On that note, the ADHD meds shortage is coming to end so I’m hopefully going to get some help for my broken brain and focus more. But I’m not going to rely on that. Sure, ADHD is a massive pain in the ass, BUT I’m the one who chooses to let it control me. I have that power to choose already; medication will just make it easier.
I got this document from an ADHD support group I went to; I have it blu-tacked to the wall behind my monitor. I forget it’s there half the time, but it’s good advice.
Listening to the Sonic Hysteria soundtrack by NicoCW while I work on Stardust Survivors! Some of the best music from the Sonic fandom. I'm a particular fan of the various Launch Base Zone tracks, especially the underwater variant that builds on the PC marching-band version. The Hill Top / Mystic Cave mashup is also *chef's kiss*.
Talking about the level design in ‘Jak & Daxter’ on the PlayStation 2. Source: Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine Demo Disc 51. Support us on Patreon
Following on from yesterday's post, another interesting presentation came from Victor Paredes of Moho. Moho is an animation software that does quite a few interesting things with vector art. Two things really caught my eye; the first was pairing recorded "actions" to control bones, causing really smooth 3d motion for 2d objects. Full on head turning for 2d characters can be pretty challenging, but Victor made it look effortless.
The second was "Line Boil", which reanimated the art applied to vector lines, giving it a really nice, natural, hand-drawn look. There's a certain stiffness associated with vector art, and this completely masked it.
I'm gonna keep my eye on it; there's a 30-day free trial if you want to have a go. The demos they had on display were immediately eye-catching, so if you're interested in a bit more "art" on your vector art, give it a gander.
Happy Valentines day! A good excuse for chocolate (for any relationship), and for me to talk about my partner, Coding Dino https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@codingdino. Not to gush, but she’s the smartest person I know, full of passion for her craft, and keeps pushing herself to improve.
I’ve learned a lot from her over the 11 or so years we’ve been together, and I’d be a far worse person without her. <3
She's been obsessed with Ascendance of a Bookworm for the last couple weeks, so here's some Rozemyne.
Now that my indie game has a map and fast travel it is really satisfying to see just how much of the world is finished so far~
MeaBea 🧡💙
Here's a weird optical illusion I found while modelling: the two black lines in the center are completely straight, yet there's this bulge in the middle. :'V
