Drawing again - part #2

Blog posted by Ste Pickford on Thu, 24 May 2012
Subject: ISMMTTM

Following up my post from a fortnight ago about getting back into drawing actual game graphics again (instead of admin, bizdev, marketing, planning etc. which usually takes up most of my time), here's work on another graphic, from clumsy sketch to finished bitmap.

This is a background graphic for I Sent My Monkey To The Moon, a new game idea we're working on, which is currently a playable prototype within Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint, for Skeleton Key owners.

This background was drawn about two weeks ago, and since then I've drawn quite a few more monochrome / tinted background tiles like this one, and a few coloured platform types as well.

I'm enjoying myself and it feels a bit like making a Spectrum game, as the graphics system is fairly simple and the game scope isn't that large. Certainly smaller and simpler than most the games I've worked on over the last couple of decades. One of the great things about mobile / iOS development is that it supports relatively simple games, which makes a nice change (as a developer) from the massive year-or-longer projects that I've been working on since the end of the 8-bit days.

We've got several different projects on the go at the moment, two with outside developers who'll be using my art assets and design work, and another that's getting most of John's programming attention at the moment. So, right now, Monkey only has me working on it, building art assets like this.

It's a weird feeling making graphics that are just piling up ready to be used at some point in the future. Usually everything I draw gets implemented straight away, and then re-drawn or re-worked for some reason, as it doesn't quite fit once I can see it in context. None of these graphics will get tested or re-worked until John gets back to this project, which could be a few weeks away.

I wonder if it will be easier or harder to re-work them, so far from the date of the original drawing?

Hopefully it will be a nice experience for John too, getting back to the Monkey project with a big pile of finished (ish) art assets to work with, rather than requesting assets as he codes different features.

» Play the prototype of I Sent My Monkey To The Moon in Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint

Tags: game design, graphics, indie, drawing, pixel art, bitmap, blob

Predecessor post: Drawing again - part #1

View the softography page for ISMMTTM »

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