palehandgame

[palehandgame]

Time is not your enemy.

It is the things you do or don’t do over time that age you or waste your potential.

[palehandgame]

Foolishness is the prime component of both comedy and tragedy.

Absurd reasoning or consideration are the main cause of both.

[palehandgame]

A.I has opinions ‘Ghost In The Shell’ PlayStation Support us on Patreon

[palehandgame]

making art is just like showering………can’t get up and do it, can’t stop when you’ve started. you want to crawl out of your skin if you don’t do it often enough. everything in the world is the exact same

[palehandgame]

Loss and Creativity

Firstly, don’t panic.

This isn’t a resignation or a cry for help.

This is a personal wake up call to acknowledge I haven’t been taking this nearly serious enough. It seems with social media anything is rarely serious anymore, but I’m intent on changing that right now.

Recently I lost a ton of files on my computer due to personal negligence. Initially I concentrated my anger at Microsoft, but the cold hard truth is that:

If I had simply completed the works and released them, or made a proper effort to back things up, they wouldn’t be gone now.

And so I acknowledge my betrayal of myself.

I’ll admit, I got caught up in the likes and followers again instead of doing explicitly what I was put on this earth to do.

It’s time to buckle down and work.

I’ll be finalizing my Discord server so anyone who is inclined to visit may do so, but I’m not going to be engaging Twitter and like sites as much because it shifts me back into engagement rather than finishing works.

I’ve always thought I could die at any moment any day because that’s a fact of living, but I never considered what losing all my life’s work could feel like in an instant.

I haven’t lost all my life’s work as of late, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to volunteer for that experience by remaining complacent 😤

Much love to whom it may concern

-Barry Burce (Pale Hand)

[palehandgame]

DAY 16 Tile Mapping

I'll have to test this out in my old engine to see how it feels in-game, but I'm really happy with the way perspective is handled in the floor tiles. I'm surprised how easy it was to achieve a continuous checker pattern as well.

I'll be using the design of this tile set as the technical basis for other areas in the game.

So far so good.

-Pale Hand

[palehandgame]

Day 15 of creating 1-2 assets a day.

I'm feeling really good about blogging this part of production. Showcasing on Twitter or Instagram can be a bit addictive so it's good to come here and slow it down.

Oddly, this is the most productive I've been making games in a long time, but with the sense of attention seeking on other platforms it feels like I'm not doing enough.

Hence why I've started doing this dev log :D

About these assets:

I've been studying neo-classical architecture and furniture for this project and I'm pretty happy about it. The intricate detail that used to go into the construction of the simplest things were really something special way back when.

In the above image I've simply created things that will adorn the walls, halls, and rooms of a neo-classical manor, but I'll soon be hard at work on some detailed tile sets and decals.

I'll keep up this daily pace until I'm satisfied with the world I'm creating.

Hopefully people passionate about these matters will be satisfied too.

-Pale Hand

P.S. the bunny woman was sort of an ongoing meme, but I have some interesting ideas for her placement in the game.

[palehandgame]

Finishing Projects & Me

Lately, I've been thinking and working through the issue of finishing a project.

I know it's definitely not an uncommon problem in any independent scene, but it's certainly more problematic in independent game development due to the complexity of making games.

The motivation to make games extends firstly from inspiration and secondly from ambition.

In my experience, ambition has been the scariest part.

Ambition inspires questions like:

Is this what my audience expects?

Will the time invested in this payoff?

If it doesn't pay off, will it harm me?

What if my other projects would be more successful?

And on and on ...

and on...

Inevitably, new inspiration hits, a formerly loved project sits incomplete, and time marches on.

So what do I do?

Should I abandon ambition and focus on creation?

That seems like the proper practice, but what does that entail about independent game development and successful ambition?

Consider this:

Videogames are an INTERACTIVE MEDIUM. Meaning, they derive all value from being directly interacted with.

If people aren't playing your game, then what is it?

A dream. An idea. At best, a popular mockup...

but it ain't a game.

Animated gifs and screenshots are NOT interactive!

Therefore if that's all you've offered, your work is incomplete no matter how glossy the images and gameplay previews are.

So, to revisit the earlier question, "should I abandon ambition and focus on creation?'

The answer is bitter and sobering, but the truth is...

If it is not playable and available to people for play, then there IS NO AMBITION because there are NO PLAYERS!

And if there is no ambition without players, then what should YOU be doing?

Creating your game.

Demoing your game.

Finish your game!

Here's to a productive 2024.

I hope everyone who reads this finishes their projects with a renewed fervor and motivation to succeed.

Take all those likes and follows and make them players.

-Barry Burce (Pale Hand)