CrazyHoundGameDesign

  In my first post in this series I talked about the way I think about building a world and how I think about expanding it from an initial idea into an actual fictional world. With the whole reason for this series being to share how I go about creating a fictional world, I didn't think it would be fair for me to explain my process and just leave it that. So, using my recent project as an example, I plan to share the world I've been creating through this blog series. This post and other future posts will include chapters from the document I have been using to record my thoughts on my fictional world to hopefully illustrate how, by starting with a single idea, I'm working to expand on it to create a world and all that being a world implies. My hope in creating my world is to create a resource, and a setting, that I can use for any number of creative projects.  Also, by setting projects in my fictional world, I hope to be able to create games and stories set in that world that...

  This week I've learned a couple of things and realised a few others about where I am with my art and where I would like to get to.  In the last week I haven't really finished anything I can share, but I have done a few things. So to start with what I've been up to with art, after getting the majority of my new blog headers finished, I noticed that a new PenUp challenge has gone live.  The challenge this time around is "Gummies", as in the gummy sweets we likely all enjoyed growing up.  When I was thinking about what to draw, I had just finished watching more YouTube videos discussing how to actually improve, when I decided I would like to be able to draw an image of a girl being fed by gummy bears standing on each others shoulders to reach up to her.  This idea would allow me to practice drawing a person, and the idea is progressing, but I am seriously noticing my shortcomings when it comes to drawing people, and they're all the normal problems; proportions,...

  Over the last few years of learning how to make games, I have figured out a few things that I hope will help me as I restart my activities. Firstly, with game jams, while I feel they have been a great experience and have helped me to explore my own capabilities for making games, I always tend to feel that my projects are pretty much bespoke to the jams themselves.  By this I mean that the games are made for the jams and built around the work I feel I am able to do in the allotted timeframe of the jams.  As a solo developer who also aims to make their own assets as much as possible, this means that in a two week jam, I might only spend about five or six days actually working on the code and building the actual game.  Of these five or six days, I might only be able to average about four hours a day of time I can use on my projects, meaning that for a two week jam, I am spending the equivalent of two or three good days of work actually making the game.  The remai...

  One of the key ideas I have learned over the last few years of trying to make games is that a good game needs depth.  I learned this by looking at the differences between what I have been creating and what I would like to be able to create.  I'm still learning as I go so the ideas and principles I'll be discussing are almost entirely my own perspectives, but I hope that the things I'll be sharing through this series can help at least one person in their own creative pursuits. A well crafted game can have a lot of interconnected systems and mechanics that allow players to engage with the game, and the world it is set in is just as important as what the game is and how it plays.  When I think back to the games I have enjoyed playing, the ones that come to mind are always very well put together, and normally have a setting in a world that feels established.  Every character has a place, everything in the world has a reason or a purpose.  So, if I want to be ...

In an effort to get some consistency in my creative endeavours I've decided to create a schedule for my blog to let people know what they can expect me to talk about in the future.  The following schedule is outlined to fit my currently planned activities, and will be the minimum I aim to provide.  If anything else interesting happens, I will make posts outside of the current schedule as well. The main days for blog posts will be Wednesdays and Sundays each week.  Most Wednesdays will also have two posts.  I have not yet come up with a specific time to post by, but they will always be made on these days according to UTC. As a general guide at the moment, Wednesdays will be for Art related posts, and Sundays for World Building related posts.  Game Development and and Music posts will be every Wednesday every two weeks. Schedule 20th Sept (Later Today) - World Building 23rd Sept - Upgrading My Art 27th Sept - World Building 30th Sept - Art Challenge & GameDev ...

  A recent understanding I've come to following my down time and reflection is that my art skills need improving just as much as my coding and musical skills.  While I've known for some time that my art skills are mediocre at best, and that I normally try to compensate for this by using pixel art, I now think that I really should try to focus on improving this skill for it to be able to partner with any growth in my capabilities for making games. This realisation came about partly from a recent game idea had that I then realised I felt I could not actually make a reality, not because I cannot draw, but because I cannot draw well enough to feel confident in the result. Not wanting to really stop, or continue to hold myself back, I did the thing that so often becomes the source of distraction and procrastination, I turned to YouTube, looking for that one tutorial that might help me figure out where to start or how to go about improving my art. By pure chance I came across the ch...

  This post is about reflecting on where I am today and how I plan to progress with trying to make games.  It's a bit long and includes a description of why I want to make the games I want to make, and why I want to make them.  I also mention a few things I've learned along the way that might be helpful. Over the last few years my ambition has been to try and figure out how to make games that people can enjoy, but more than that, to figure out how to create games of a quality that I feel is sufficient for me to be willing to charge people some money for providing games that I hope they will enjoy playing.  These days, in the world of AI, Influencers and the never ending need to chase the latest trends, I personally feel that many games released today do not reflect what I enjoy in a video game.  This is not to suggest that all of the games made today are bad, just that most of them are not the sort of games I enjoy playing. The games I grew up with didn't have o...

So it has been a while since I last posted anything and I want to start by saying that I'm still here and still planning on moving forwards.  I'm still working on improving my own skills and aiming for the dream of making games that I feel are worth playing. Since my last post towards the end of last year, I have had a lot of personal stuff happening and it both prevented me from focussing on gamedev and creativity, and resulted in some major changes in my own life.  For the last 3 years I had been living in a home run by a "bad" landlord who, when challenged on the condition of the property, chose to try and evict me which, while considered illegal in the UK, is also quite difficult to prove.  Rental homes in the UK are also massively over priced, and as a low income worker, I had nowhere reasonable to go.  The result of this situation 6 months ago almost resulted in my becoming homeless, which would have meant the loss of my job, my belongings, and even my dog. Tha...