~Kitasia
News
Retrogression
Jun 11th
Almost every game there comes a stage where I take my base model and update it to more accurately depict the character. I probably did this about 5 times in the Tandem Tales-Tale of the Night era. This minutia really makes me feel like I’m getting nowhere but as I stated, I’m attempting to get as close as I can to perfection this time.
I’m trying to achieve the look of a sprite I modified a month or so ago. It seems to be the perfect representation of the character, but of course that won’t seem to stop changing! But I’ll take wanting him to look more cartoonish this time around as a sign that I’ve found a happy medium.
On a last note, I’ll try and start posting real news at some point. I have the habit of using the site as a journal.
Coloring
Jun 5th
Why am I still working on graphics? It’s not the texturing I can’t get right, it’s the coloring. It’s pretty clear to me why there are people hired just to work with the lighting alone. To help me find out the exact kind of shading I’m looking for I made this concept art using the current model. I haven’t forgotten about gameplay if anyone’s wondering. If I don’t do graphics now I’ll be too lazy to do it later.
There are no ice stages in the game, this actually came to mind when I was thinking of some sort of ice fortress. I don’t know when or why I was thinking of it but the image stuck with me.
UPDATE: June 6 2010
Perhaps concept art is more useful than I thought. Attempting to recreate a concept rather than blindly doing things really helped. Although I had to go back to square one with coloring, I think I finally got the lighting down. Should be easy to move forward from here!
Really liking the results.
Texturing
Jun 3rd
Without being too verbose, I thought I may just post how a little screenshot of how things are going. I really ought to do that more. I still have work to do with character texturing and level texturing was simply a rush job just to see how it would turn out so take it with a grain of salt. I hope to get out of this graphics bubble soon.
In the Shadows
May 29th
I
truly have been ubiquitous on my schedule as of late and oh this has been such a strange week! It started out with me thinking early on how I would do shadows, to researching shadows to attempting to apply shadows. It’s the usual way I get thrown off track. This week has been murder because I’ve been extremely picky about how I want shadows done and there are dozens of concerns I have as with anything I haven’t tried. I may have to remove what I’ve done and start from scratch but let’s hope I don’t have to do that. I’d put this in my top 3 most stressful experiences of the development so, far but hopefully it’ll be worth it in the end.
I’ll keep shadows around for now, but if my framerate dips I will be opting for a cheaper solution. But while it’s here, I do think it looks pretty nice.
Texturing Continued
May 24th
I don’t usually update so soon but I couldn’t resist.
Texturing seems t
o be a relatively quick process, much quicker than I thought. Because the camera is pretty far away and I”m not exactly shooting for star quality texturing, I can be pretty sloppy and still get good results. What the picture entails is a uncolored Felix because, I haven’t figured out how I”m going to color the characters. I should probably do a bit more brainstorming before moving on but I like how things are going so far.
On a side note, the other Felix’s head is stuck on the box because of the change in collision code. I’m going to have to finalize that later on too. Sigh, so much work.
Texture Experiments
May 23rd
A while 
back I drew some concept art that roughly adds up to how the model looks currently. Well I thought I might modify that picture, or at least enough to get the point, to get an idea of how things may look after texturing is finished. I’ve never attempted to use real fur textures in anything I’ve made so I was sure the result wouldn’t be the same.
I think I’m finally going to be able to show that hairy look off in a game for once.
Working with Music
May 21st
I’ve temporarily stepped away from the collision of the game to begin texturing the model but I’ve temporarily stepped away from that to address something that even I had a problem with, the music. I don’t think my music was bad but there could be times where it wouldn’t fit with the rhythm of the game and I repeated it so much that it could become, well… annoying. I’m being very careful to make a complete soundtrack that has no recycled songs, and fits with the game pacing. At the same time, I’m attempting to improve on my composition.
Sadly I haven’t been able to make a single song yet due to a new standard, but I”m getting there : )
In too Deep
May 18th
I can’t believe May is almost gone. Still feels like so much more needs to be done. That’s probably because there’s so much more to be done but hey, I’m getting there. : )
I’m making sure I live up to the hype.
In regard to last update I was talking about how deep I would go with physics, after a few days of work I can say I can go a lot deeper than I thought. Thanks to one “olii” at gamedev.net I’ve managed to see that the separating axis theorem is much more powerful than I had first thought. Thusly, the collision can get a bit more wily and be more stable than ever. The physics aren’t in place to manipulate objects more realistically but instead to add more dynamic objects and platforms and such without error. Ohh the possibilities of objects in a dynamic world!
So Far, So Good
May 13th
Test Stage
Everything has been more or less working according to plan. I have a fully skinned Felix model running and jumping around on a death trap level for my favorite collision detection errors. Some sound is even in place. It might not seem like I’m not doing much at this point, but that’s only because I haven’t added the glitter yet. I’m likely to do all that in one artsy burst.
Right now I’m trying to figure out how deep I want to get with the physics system. It’s poison to think about having just created a system without errors, but interaction has pretty much been my key goal for the project. I really shouldn’t try to do too much here, but you can expect moving platforms, pushable objects, and dynamic level geometry. The question is, how deep will I go physics wise…
Pick up the Pace!
May 5th
I think I’ve just had the most sluggish two weeks out of the whole time developing this. What pray tell have I been doing? I’ve been fidgeting with Felix’s design again. I even went as far as to update the old game with a more accurate design so I’d have something better to work off. 3D isn’t very easy. Skinning is hard, animating is hard, and I still have very little idea what the heck I’m doing with the inverse bind pose. I’m almost certain it’ll jump up to bite me in the neck later.
But ever since I’ve updated my sprites, I’ve been able to pick up the pace and it’s only a matter of before those problems are nailed down. Right now I’m attempting to finalize the skinning and animation. It’s hard to move ahead in-game when the model isn’t exactly moving right.
I haven’t filled in the eyes yet so Felix has the look I use in concept art.