Just an art update! (Patreon)

Wooooopp!! Hey folks, Marty here with just a normal art update. That's right, if cbob can have a silly name I can too!  

So first of all, I was hesitant to write this update since a lot of you would expect it to be a bughunt build post which this isn't!  Still, I have a few things to say so here goes.

For anyone leaving encouraging posts in the update written by "struggles the clown" (cbob) thanks! That stuff helps when we're disappointed with the speed of our progress. For anyone expressing frustration... we feel it ourselves so we can more than understand that sentiment. I don't know when cbob will have that 20% gap filled which he mentioned in his post and I'm actively keeping myself from asking him every day how far along things are. I doubt that would help  ...but I'm still thinking it though...

But seriously I'm going to ask cbob to not give out estimations anymore since he's the enemy of dependable timetables. Which is too bad because I really like knowing when I can expect things to be about ready. At the same time I can understand and appreciate his desire to not be happy with just anything he writes. We both write for FET, but cbob most by far and basically it's always him who puts in the parts which put a smile on your face. 

I've been making good use of the "extra" time in the meanwhile. I consider every single day another chance to put in a good amount of work and I mostly do. As I've said in the past, I'm a slow drawer so I need to put in that time because there's no alternative which lets me finish things before cbob does.  Having that said I also don't want to work too far ahead or cbob won't be there to keep me from drawing the insanity i can dream up. I mean.. it wasn't cbob who decided old ladies need love too... imagine what I'd come up with without him holding me back! But yeah I need his take on things.

So after realizing cbob wasn't going to make his first estimation, I started considering what I could do which would still enable me to create stuff for the player's benefit. That didn't take me long because as irony wants it, I was in the same kind of position in 2019 around this time. Back then I made a small stand alone side story in which tenzin(the player) would tell pema and the kids a Halloween themed scary story. 

Since I don't know how soon cbob will have the next build finished it's a bit of a gamble, but I started creating another side story in the vain of the Halloween side story of 2019..  and am having a lot of fun doing so! I'm trying to add some stuff we haven't done before to see how it'll work in a game. Although I haven't gotten much done yet I think it could be nice. However!  IF (big if) for example cbob will finish a bughunt version in the next few days, I'll drop all work on my Halloween side project and return to the regular stuff. I'll keep working on the Halloween side project in my own time and finish it muuuuch more slowly or shelve it. Not much use for a Halloween themed game if it's November.

I haven't shown cbob anything I'm cooking since i want him to focus entirely on the current build.

To give this update a bit more luster I've also drawn a Halloween inspired pic. 

Pumpkin crusher.  You'll find a couple more variations in the attachments.

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Other than that, I'd like to take the opportunity to talk about some of the pm's we get,  messages of people who'd like to do what we do and have no idea where to start. 

Well... that feels a lot like us back when we dreamed up FET at the very start before we even were MITY! 

I'd say there's a couple of important things which can differ greatly depending on what abilities you have. For a lot it might be the lack of being able to draw. That's not something which can be solved easily, but there's a lot of artists out there and ain't nothing stopping you from asking them whether they'd be interested in doing a project with you. that's how cbob got me involved. He emailed me asking whether I was interested in creating  something smutty situated in the avatar universe and that sounded pretty damn good to me. I didn't immediately agree though! I didn't know this guy so he had to work on getting me beyond that stage of  "I don't even know you". 

Getting an artist to jump in will be a lot easier when you're able to show him something you made. Use temporary art you've gotten from wherever. 

We're using a piece of software called renpy to help us create FET.  It can be found at www.renpy.org. It's opensource, free to use, not difficult to learn and has a treasure trove of how-to's  on youtube  etc.  Never underestimate the importance of being able to take a gander at how others are doing something.

Now there's one final thing which I think is just as important as anything else and that's your attitude towards getting started.  I'm going to link to a youtube movie which I watched recently and made me nod my head all the way. It's not about how to create a game, but it has some excellent things to say in my opinion. If you always wanted to start but feel like there's something holding you back, give the first two minutes a watch and see if you feel like listening some more to it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTMZZi4GPBQ&t=597s

And that's it for my little update. Hope you got something out of it and I hope you'll have a good weekend!

edit:  Shoulda done this the first time! Links to the old Halloween side story from 2019

Spooky times  - PC version

Spooky times - Mac version

Spooky times - Android version

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Vampussy!  Mini shooting game. Shoot skeletons, zombies and coffins to see a bit more of our mascot. 

vampussy  -   PC version

vampussy - Mac version