Returning to Introvert

29 July

So I was away for about 4 months - partially due to real life commitments and also partially because I lost motivation to continue developing the game.

But recently, I was coding another game for a friend and while involved in this secondary project, I also saw a lot of inspiration and I had this vision of a forest themed map for my own game. I visualized a small log which I wanted the player to go through, and at the other end, when he comes out of the log, he'd see himself as a better person and the environment around him becomes more "cheerful".

 Pictured: A log I was going to use

I ended up doing something quite different though, and excluded the log altogether.

ScenicForest.jpg

It took me two days to complete it, with all the background layers and parallax scrolling, it was really worth it. It is one of my best drawings with my new drawing tablet, the WACOM, and I feel like I should have gotten it sooner since it makes my drawings and turtle characters less rigid than using a Pen Tool, which restricts freehand drawing. I added one of David's music to this map and this scene really brings out David's music to showcase its potential.

Implementing the map into the game...

Also drawing a new 64 x 128 px turtle sprite for the new forest theme. Above was a placeholder turtle graphic scaled up by 400% I added to navigate the map. Drawing a new, unpixelated turtle would look better, which is what I'm doing now. It's my first time animating freely without the constrictions of a mouse.

Turtle Jump Sequence (Drawing the limbs)

I also discussed how the game was going so far with my friend, Li Hao, and when I look back at the game, I realize it has come very far from when I first started. It would be ready for release, but things just had room for improvement so I kept re-drawing and re-designing the game. This meant that I didn't get around to release the game even though completion was probably just around the corner.

I was told that this game was an achievement in itself, even if it weren't published. I was told that for a first game, it was really good, but personally I'd be more than happy to see it through to its release.

It's come a long way now...

There were a couple of changes I made to the game in the past few days (had a long weekend), mostly to improve player experience.

I also looked at the old game trailer and Li Hao said the trailer was pretty good, even though it was very outdated and showcased a lot of the game's outdated graphics. In fact it was so far back (1 year+ ago) that it actually gave me some nostalgia just looking at it.

When the time comes (probably at least a couple more months), I shall make a new trailer, to showcase the new graphics and features of the game and it shall hopefully be my final trailer before the game is set for release.