dev log 1

So if you saw my last game dev log about the studio sim i made for a crocotile jam, you might have had a glimpse into what i have going on here. I am taking that game and trying to turn it into an actual game where you can play and win. This project also coincides with the color aid painter game made in threeJS. 

After going to a game dev meeting one of the people there suggested I make tiles that come out of the cardboard box that the player has to arrange on the wall to form a picture. Since my work is abstract, i think that would be hard for people to do. 

So i have decided that im going to make a layering game where the player places  stickers of patterns and shapes in accordance to a "target" painting, in effort to re create it as best as possible. 

The first thing I did was get the player to be able to paint all over the wall using these stickers. it places Sprite3D nodes.

This looks cool and is pretty fun to just mess around with. So im keeping this as like the "free paint" mode. but i now need to make an actual canvas that the player can work on and get graded on for true gameplay.

The canvas is a 2d plane using a Subviewport. the coordinates of where each sticker is placed is recorded for validation.

I created a MissionAuthoring tool that allows me to create the Missions that the player has to complete. basically i make a painting in-game and save it as a scene. this is used to validate the players attempt to re create it.

I was thrilled to get this to work. seeing my work abstracted into a video game like this is kind of mesmerizing. it is actually teaching me more about my own work than i thought i knew. The essence of my work in the studio is layering shapes and patterns to create interesting relationships between the positive and negative shapes between the layers. 

Being able to go click-happy with it and form a composition in no time is really fun and makes me think about how i could kind of bring this kind of excitement into my real life studio practice. 

The scoring system is determined in three ways, 

|Method|What it checks|

|-|-|

|Coordinate|Spatial correctness (placement, order, orientation)|

|Visual|Render-level pixel similarity between final images|

|Color|Statistical similarity of color distribution / histogram|

i need to balance the weights of these systems so that the game is a lot easier. i dont want the game to be hard at all really, i would rather people get through the game in a half hour to and hour first try than stuggle, as just kind of a one-off experience type of game. 

Today, i am going to fix the UI. its hard for me to figure out how to unify the Ui into something without any annoyances. its a real challenge of UX. Hopefully my brain can kind of figure it out today.

here is another picture of the studio covered in stickers.

Imagine a real art installation like this.

The paintings themselves are great too, and if i could only find a way to make these in real life.

As an artist its cool to have the tools to be able to abstract my entire process from being a human that goes into a studio to create work, all the way to a final 2d picture that functions like a painting, into a simulation (video game) that others can play. other people will be able to understand my work very simply just by playing this game and make this game will give more context to what i am trying to do in the studio. 

Hopefully i can finish this game and my goal is to put it on steam just as a conceptual art piece.