October Concept Artfest: Day 29

Hey all,

Just finished a doodle for today.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28

Hey all,

Before we get to drawings, just wanted to say that there are some new (fun!) developments in the Zombie game. Basically, new enemies! Look forward to seeing them next playtest!

I fell way behind and decided to do some speed drawings to catch up, some came out better than others.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 19, 20, and 21

Hey all,

Sorry I'm late on these, been really busy, not much to say today, just crappy doodles.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 17 and 18

Hey all,

Today, I have two mediocre drawings for you. I'm trying to remove the training wheels / reference material for general shape, and it shows.

The thing I am proud of, though, is that these characters are original and will be in Chang-e.

Before I show the doodles, I want to mention that I made progress on the RPG, which is ready to have a real artist on board. If you're interested, feel free to reach out.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 16

Hey all,

Getting this in before I have to go to a live event.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 14 and 15

Hey all,

This time, I tried to draw another female character, and you'll see her in the RPG game!

In a way this is a bit of a reveal? Not that anyone cares.

I did these ones fairly quickly, admittedly, and they're not very good...

Today, I put character switching into the RPG game (Chang-e) as well, the prototype is almost ready for a test, and I'm excited to see it be broken apart.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 13

Hey all,

Waiting on playing Dragon Quest, so here's a doodle.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 10, 11, and 12

Hey all,

Doodle dump!

... As a surprise to no one.

I'm really focusing on faces, if you couldn't tell by the theming.

Also, there will be no playtest this week, Dragon Quest Builders came out and I'm too excited to pass it up!

... Yeah, I play games sometimes in between development periods...

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 9: Pre Debate Edition!

Hey all,

Throwing this in before people start talking about political gooble grop.

I shaded this one a bit and I'm pretty happy.

Now back to what I was doing: Zombie game bug fixes + feature additions.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 6, 7, and 8

Hey all,

Just another doodle dump!

I found myself a bit busy the past couple of days and couldn't post. I'm not going to apologize, though. It's not like anyone looks forward to these!

... Unless it's to mock me, then sure, I suppose that's a reason. One point to you!

Overall, I can feel myself getting more comfortable with the tools and basic shapes. I feel more comfortable applying things I've seen or learned, and I'm feeling more confident in general.

Also, had another playtest on Thursday, to much success! Got some fresh eyes on the Zombie game and came back with some new notes:

Obviously, some of these are jokes.

I've turned a few of these into tasks on my sprint board as well, to fix for the upcoming playtest next week!

Some of these notes are observations by me, and others are observations by the testers themselves, it's up to you to decide what sticks and what doesn't.

Remember to ask the tester to rip into your product, because by tearing it apart, you can find ways to make your product better. Criticism is not a reflection upon yourself, but the way you take it is!

That's all I have for today, until next time!

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 5

Hey all,

Just a daily art dump... Again!

If I'm going to critique myself, it would be this: I can't draw women, period. I should stop.

... But I'm not going to. I'm going to keep trying until I get this art thing down. I feel myself getting a little bit better with doodling.

On another note, there has been a bit of something added to Zombie's single player mode...

You may notice that there's a bit of something new added to the game... Which I'll tell you about, it's another type of enemy! This type of enemy digs up from the ground to throw rocks at the player.

The rate and speed of this new type of enemy is determined by the AI Manager, which takes input about how long the player has been playing, how much health they have, and other criteria, and sets the AI difficulty.

I may dive deeper into it at some point, but there you go.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 4

Hey all,

Just a daily art dump, nothing major!

My two cents? This one came out "meh", but I'm posting it to remind myself how much I need to improve.

I'll have a new build of Zombie available for playtesting tomorrow, all the changes revolve around singleplayer content. I'll do a deep dive article about how I responded to the feedback from the previous playtest when I have the time.

Jimmy

October Concept Artfest: Day 1, 2, and 3

Hey all,

While I come up with topics to discuss on this blog and have more substantial things to show from either Chang-e or Zombie, I'll post the stuff I've been drawing in an effort to get better over the course of the month.

To be totally clear: both game projects are moving along just fine! The Zombie game recently had a successful playtest, and I've adjusted the game per the feedback. Chang-e will soon have a playable build for testing. (I'm really nervous about that one.)

Of course, feel free to laugh during this month, I'm an adult, and definitely heard worse! I've worked in the games industry, I've heard some terrible feedback!

The drawings below could be either practice or something original, you'll just have to parse that stuff out.

The drawings for Oct. 1, 2, and 3:

 Oct. 2

Oct. 3

 Oct. 1

Thanks,
Jimmy

Playtesting

Hey all,

Presented without context.

This is a picture of my notes during a playtest, it's a combination of user suggestions or my own findings. I tend to keep my notes a bit scrambled like this, and create tasks from these notes in JIRA.

Why am I presenting this to you? Well, I want to talk about playtesting, of course!

Basically, playtesting is letting people test your game, to aid you in identifying what is fun, and more importantly, what isn't. Some people misconstrue playtesting as the practice of writing down and implementing EVERYTHING the user says, this simply isn't true.

So, how do you playtest? Easy, get your game out there and make people play, your family, your friends, your enemies, your dog, and that weird drawing your cousin made you keep on the fridge: EVERYONE. When the player starts playing, try to keep the explanations to an absolute minimum, your game should speak for itself. Record what you notice, about lost messages in communication, or parts that are too easy or difficult. Try to find ways to keep the player engaged in the next iteration (i.e. Do they level up fast enough? Do the platforms move fast enough? etc.). Show your game as soon as you can, try to find that hook in your gameplay.

Also, provide your own equipment, and maybe even bring snacks for your guests.

It's really hard to get your game out there, I know, but think of it this way: this is part of making your work better, it makes you better! Your game may not seem ready, but it probably is, really. Have confidence in your work, you made it, after all!

Something that helps me when playtesting is that I tell myself: "I'll never present this product in this state ever again, it can only get better." In a way, it makes me look forward to the future. It may not work for you, but take comfort in knowing that your game will get better.

Part of being a game developer (or a creator of ANYTHING, really) is that you have to learn how to take feedback. Ultimately, the vision of the project is yours, and the feedback will help you accomplish that vision. Always listen, but know what advice to keep and what isn't necessarily helpful.

You may also have to deal with hecklers or haters, just be an adult and accept their feedback, I mean, what else CAN you do? Even the most hateful people can impart a good idea or two!

That's my talk this time. If you have questions, feel free to post a comment!

On another note, I've been working on my drawing, and I plan to draw something everyday in October. Not Inktober, I'm not good enough for that, I'm awful at art. Ironically, I wrote earlier about having confidence in your work...

I may or may not love Gurren Lagann.

Still working on it.

Also provided without context, a picture of Daigo.

That's it, go home. Oh, you are home? Then leave, go somewhere else, and then go home.

Jimmy