Quick update. Meaty skeleton (updated)

Quick update. A skeleton (or a bit more than that) to serve as a drawing base for my hand drawn animation of the main character.

I'm posting this at 10:30 pm and I would like to believe that I'm finally entering this 'serious work mood'.
Because as it turns out we have to finish before mid March because that's the date when engine licence runs out. New one cost about 300$ (I believe) and we would like to avoid buying it.

Feels a bit weird though. For 2D animation I'm making a 3D prop.. I don't feel confident about my animating skill that much. And I'm looking forward to see how all this experimentation will turn out.

Character development progress.

My robot character (for various reasons) evolved to become a human. I am trying to step aside from typical types of game characters and would like to make him into something I've never seen in game before.
That's where I came up with idea to keep his hands in his jacket pockets most of the time.
A short bio:
A guy wearing a suit. He's been of the road for a while now (remember that it's sort of post-apocalyptic world where action takes place).
I also want the player to think about the character. To like him or see him as a douche. As long as the character will be able to create some sort of emotion for the player it is what I am aiming for.

Visual inspirations

Thanks to my friend and modern ways of sharing information (today it's facebook) I've stumbled across some impressive photos. Originally from European Environment Agency. Kind of the way I want my game to look like. Or more specifically what feelings I want to express via backgrounds.

A book. And a story.

You look inside your pocket. You find a card. You have no idea how it got there. Why is it even there? You read the card, it says the following:

"Your objective: give this card to somebody without them knowing. If your target catches you giving this card to them, you must take back this card."

Meet The Boy Who Wants To Change Your Life

By Mark Serrels

There's some amazing stuff in that article. Reading through it strongly reminded me of my own doing about two years ago. 

So I've bought this book. It was telling a cute story about two friends who decided to go to the park and eat sweets. One of them was a rabbit and the other one.. I don't really remember but maybe an otter?.. Anyway. The book has illustration on each page which are black and white. I liked the story very much because it talks about simple stuff but has a deep meaning behind. It talks about friendship and things beyond routine. 

So I wrote a message of my own there. Something saying that when you enjoyed that book enough you have to give it to someone else. Someone who doesn't know the person who gave the book to you in the first place. 

My intention was to send this friendly message into the world where love and caring for other person is not common enough. 

Shortly after the book left me I've heard a story that some pages of it are already coloured. That made me very happy because I've inspired someone to create, share and communicate. 

I've left my name in the book and asked to do the same everybody else. And who knows maybe one day that very same book will end up in my hands once more. 

Learning Agreementssssss

Ohh my god. I'm writing my Learning Agreement at the moment. A moment ago I was just staring at all those (two) briefs and thinking "what the hell do these people want from me?!?!?!" Let my just make games. That's why I want to go indie all the way. I don't want to be writing super huge and complicated Game Design Documents and stuff. I just want to live in my tiny space by my tiny desk lamp and be bleeding ideas about small and meaningful concepts.

Well.. I guess that's what BA is about.

Some controversial stuff

I've been reading Newsgames and generating some new ideas about games and world. About the way I see world and what's right or wrong in it. But that's still not really clear (is it ever going to be?) in my head.
The book is good. I have skipped most of the third chapter which talks about info-graphs for now. I'll come back to that one day.
Fourth chapter is all about documentary and stuff. It's good.
There was some games mentioned in Newsgames which looked interesting and now I've came across them once more. But this time it happened on the web.

Molleindustria  is really extraordinary source of controversial games. So if you're into different kind of stuff go there and check something out.


"Since 2003 we produced homeopathic remedies to the idiocy of mainstream entertainment in the form of free, short-form, online games. Our products range from satirical business simulations (McDonald’s Video game, Oiligarchy) to meditations on labor and alienation (Every day the same dream, Tuboflex, Unmanned), from playable theories (the Free Culture Game, Leaky World) to politically incorrect pseudo-games (Orgasm Simulator, Operation: Pedopriest)."

Molleindustria

Stop Sweating the Details and Let Game Design 'Happen'

Wow. I'm really happy that I've stumbled upon this video from GDC 2012 posted on indiegames.com. Indie games studio Santa Ragione co-founder Pietro Righi Riva talks about things which makes loads of sense to me.

For a while now I have this thought in my mind that game is what the player makes it to be. I am certain that not only me but many people out there are trying to different kind of things while playing video games. Trying to break the rules find the boundaries and overcome them. And I don't mean cheating. Does that makes sense?

Will Wright used to talked about that somewhere. Like when you are playing a racing game but going the wrong way. What happens then? Wright also told that long time ago he was playing online FPS game Tribes but instead of shooting other players he was trying to negotiate with them and make peace.

That GDC video archive is a good place to look around. Videos there are divided into chapters so it's easy to find something later.
I remember playing  Fotonica, a game by Santa Ragione at Eurogamer 2012. It really stood out of the rest of the crowd at indie games arcade.

And the keynote of the lecture is awesome.

"The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it"
Banksy