Just signed up to the IGMC yesterday, with my current schedule you would think I'm insane to even join a game jam, not sure how I plan on juggling all my work  and create a game but we shall see how this will work out.

The Game

Still have  no idea what I plan on creating as of yet but I want a lighthearted, upbeat type of game, think Zelda and Super Mario RPG, Maple Story?. I don't think I'm going to go with the traditional RPG route, I may skip battles entirely and create a mini-game of some sort to replace battles.  But, because I have no ideas as of yet, I decided to start making tiles to get the creative juices flowing to the brain and maybe an idea will appear, we shall see I guess.

Day 1 and 2

So, because I plan on having a lighthearted,  cartoony style game I started to create my own tiles (totally a newbie when it comes to art btw) just to match the vibe I'm looking for. So I created some basic shape tiles with light and bright colors, it already matches the look and feel I'm going for compared to any other tiles I have available. They can obviously use some extra work and some tlc  but I'm not worried about polishing anything as of yet, I still need a story and the basic mechanics/ gameplay before I can really progress further. Luckily I can always map and create tiles until I can think of something. Untill next time!

This map has a very Super Mario feel to it, maybe some Link to the Past as well. looks cool!

Well I realize I suck at dev blogs, I always have hehe. Well I've been a busy little bee and painting a lot of tiles and creating the main base sprite. I have some basic mechanics I want in the game but I still have no story :O

If you want to keep a close eye on my daily development with this project then check out my twitter, I post every few hours and I at least post daily...so far, In fact you can check out my entire week of development in this moment I created

I'll most likely keep my posts only to twitter as It's too much work to post in different places.

 Day 3

I created more tiles, tidied up some of the ones I created before and I made sure I added some winter snow on top of the outside tiles so I can at least have one winter scene...maybe, but at least I have the option.

some ugly looking trees, well not actually but they don't match the aesthetic I'm aiming for with the restof the tiles. I re-did them after this but as you can see I've progressed with my tile painting skills (or lack thereof)

Creating tiles is so fun, if all I do is make tiles this entry I'm okay with that :P 

So here are the new tree in the style I am looking for, much better no? I think so, maybe a bit more TLC but polishing can be done just before submission or when the contest is over.

Winter tiles! I love the winter tiles and these turned out really nice, I still can't believe I'm making my own tileset, this thought alone was never heard of before this contest.

Day 4 - Spriting and some tile work

Spriting is a tough gig and this is my first time creating an entire template and not just simple edits or small re-color's etc This is a whole new ball game where I create a style, choose colors and create each frame from scratch. What a load of work that is, I feel overwhelmed on this day but I made it through to the end and I enjoyed it so much. 

Once I got a rhythm and general idea of the style things went smooth. Here is the final design, which again matches the overall aesthetic of the game

So cute! The eyes I was having issues with but in a simple, light-hearted game like mine sometimes simple is better and I've actually had to re-think some tiles with that same thought in mind.

Day 5

So after I had some fun spriting I took a small break to create indoor tiles and then after that proceeded to create more frames for my little sprite so he can fight monster slimes and break stuff. The indoor tiles took some time, mainly those dang floor boards being an autotile, let's just say I required the practise to create a decent texture with some okay colors like I did.  Once I got the floor done I simply copied my outdoor cabin house walls and used them for the inside with some slight adjustments. Then I added cabinets, because the cabinet was the base for all shelves and other things to create with them.

Finally if you've read this far congrats!If you want to see more check out my twitter page and see some live videos of my little sprite in action as well as my cute little tiles. until next time!