Day 9089

A write up from my 2019 diary. Here's to 2020! and tomorrow I'll be 9090, maybe I should bring cake into work ;)

Game:

Get Sh*t Done. 

Keywords:
Motivation. Dedication. Discipline.

Visuals: 
Koala in space. Mehndi planets and stars. Planet per goal.  Galaxy background that slowly shifts over the year (timelapse)

Sun bottom centre of the screen is the home main menu button and takes you to a more traditional diary. 5 rings coming out each with their own planet. Each planet can be clicked on to take you into its goals breakdown.

UI Prompts: 
Up to 5 planets with 52 growing stages and 12 key developments.
Goals - x 10 you got this year
Monthly - x 10 reason
Weekly - x 52 Small tip / good wish
Day - Happy, Sad, Bored, Sleepy, Excited, Star

Small space flower with the date top-right, small spin wheel to get accessories for your planets, both rocks and space things floating in the orbits of planets also.

Monthly and weekly push notifications to remind you about the app, if it's not been opened in 3 weeks one last notification to say turning them off for now.



Know it, apply it, turn simple things into a habit.

1. Plan. Big steeps planned so you have the clarity to change. See the competition and know where you are going. Break down into 5 major steps, start at your goal and work your way backwards reverse engineer.
   30 MIN break the day into 30 min intervals and plan it out, use Sunday nights to plan the overall week and each day the night before.
   Discipline = freedom 
   Procrastination is a habit to keep you safe. This is all about creating habits, what is the vision behind the vision? Plan it out. What are you scared of?
   No clarity. No change.
   
2. Productive environment. Create an inspiring place to work in. Plants, Sunlight, A clean mental environment. Tidy = more productive organisation.
   Reticular activator - clear mental space.
   Brain dump all the things your brain is nagging at you. 
   
3. Get shit done buddy. Speak it. Share it. Stick to it. 40% more change (citation needed?)
   Don't say anything to naysayers, say to people who care about your success and will hold you accountable.
   
4. Say NO! Literally taking time from the goals you want to do. Protect your energy. Each day 3 things that would happy to do. At least 3 things that are moving you forward in life.
   One life + One of you.
   
5. Choose long term>Short term
   Wake up 1 hour earlier / stay up 1 hour alter/ give up 1-hour tv/sleep a day.
   365 hours (366 for 2020) buy giving up one of the above. basically getting a whole extra month each year. (That said sleep is very important, for health, memory). Remove yourself from addictive things. 
   Stay focussed. Let people know when you need to be distraction-free. Pomodoro 25/30min do the thing then stretch, breathe, repeat. Set a timer if needed.
   
6. Heart hustle. If you're feeling a little uncomfortable push through. Show up for yourself. Determined, desired, intention.  Goal to wake up at 5am. Start by waking up 10 minutes earlier, then 15, then 20. Wake up a little earlier each day and inch towards that goal.
   
7. Generate energy. Listen to yourself. Exercise, food, supplements. Things that help your brain get focussed, use tools for production and make sure to drink water. Figure out if you are naturally a morning or night person and work with your energy flow.
   If you can afford to get a cleaner /doing an online shop getting other to do admin, outsource and get help where you can don't need to do everything. Be efficient and effective.
   
8. Celebrate not berate. Flip the switch on what you've done/ 3 things to do and get them done and actually do them! what have you done? Not what you haven't. Let the negative go. Have rewards, on a birthday / Celebration level.
   
9. White space. Leave empty space in your plans for you to do whatever you want in. Some time for you to meditate/yoga etc, chill, watch tv. Plan week on Sunday and have fun on Sunday. Divine downloads your brain will help you get the answers.
   
10. Be a badass. Visualise and affirm what you are about to do. Choose to be disciplined. You live one life this is not a dress rehearsal. 

Game:

Draw Cats With Eyes Closed 

Keywords:

Fun, Pun, Cat, Party 

Visuals:

Pastels and cute, you open the game to see a cat with buttons on its tummy that take you into the main game. 

Main sections: 

Menu / Gallery / Settings / Play 

The animation UI style is elastic and squishy
Cat stretching loading animation chasing a ball. When you interact with a folder in the gallery section little cat paws poke out, an ear twitches, a tail flicks out, small hints of squishy cats appear. When scored for your drawing (out of 5 stars) they briiing into existence, like flashy jelly.  Words describing your drawing pop up
Smushed cat face for the app store icon.

Different "Cat-egorys" 
Cat / Octopus / Girafe / Koala / Sloth / Mountain goat / Duck / Whale / Turtle / Rabbit
Random each time you unlock, change colour of the background for differnt animals. 

But for cat-related ones, puns to critique your drawing/rate it.
Clawful. Apawful. Catastrophe. Furmidible. Unfurtunate. Purrfect. Clawver. Purrty. Pawsome. Cattitude.

Gameplay: 
Click play -> pop up category -> 3,2,1 -> Timer 1:30 - 10sec timer (Player can change but default is 30sec) -> images share of players session -> Rate drawings (No names, thumbnail gallery) Rate out of 5 -> Reveal~ see who drew what and see all side by side, save pictures into folder if wanted.

The closing game screen blinks closed to black, cat's eyes open

Cost:
Colours to draw with, player cap, Add free


Game Story notes from February with Colin:

Don't Trust Larry 

(marketing imgur DTL 35 second gif, game food transition to real food, less than a second intro and outro. Make the 3D food in real life. White duck icon comes out at the end)
A1)
- Ducks have an aggression meter
- Narrator "you take care of the ducks well being they'll look after your well being" all calm and nice
- Larry becomes more aggressive trying to eat bread, you have to try hard not to feed him
- Narrator "oh, I've given one duck a name, here is Germima, who's actually a duck. Not Larry, because Larry, is not a duck"
- Non-sequential random order lines to flesh out pre bush Larry and after bush Larry.

B4)
- "You can smell what the rock is smashing"
Rock Johnson
Rebel Rubble

A2)
Shop - Each time you go back to a shop the character gets more annoyed for different reasons
- Narrator translating the duck squawking noises "I don't know if you speak duck but they are not happy" "oh dear, no need for that language"

- Ammo slots for different weapons
- Drake Canaveral

A1 - Tower bridge boss
A2 - Tunnel boss
A3 - Train boss

Gun - Cycle through ammo left and right hand. After each area boss, there is a gun upgrade.

(A) Security guard zoo. Police on the streets. Scientist ducks (gun upgrade). Cowboy duck (level boss).
(B) Museum security. Ninja ducks (gun upgrade, makes bread bigger). Right-hand man (level boss).

- Suck larry into gun then feed him to make him big again?

A2)
Big and small bread Larry.
/........../......./...../../././/.(I).//././..../......./........./
Normal uck size at duck pond smashes through gates then starts to shrink to "waist height"
Some food makes him grow some makes him shrink, takes less effort to maintain "normal size/waist height". Each food has it's own value +/- to time wheel depending on the food.

Size management: food, growth value + time value that stack on top of themselves.



Game:

Koala game

Level based or never ending?
I quite like the princess drop style with 10 "levels" in a row but very hard to reach level 10. (Although I did find it very frustrating as much as I did fun) 

Fail? 

Maybe fall from the tree, or gets eaten? Or the koala starves to death? In some way a sad death for the koala.  If there is water intake, koala slowly dehydrating from sun/need to collect water for the tea.

Win? 

Top of the tree? Maybe a golden leaf at the top? Quest of the god's style. 

Obstacles?

Spiders, Sun, Snakes, Snapping branches, Scoundrel koala...

Power up? 

+1 <3... Probably decide after obstacles and then added, the koala-fications 

Level playtime? 

<10seconds but with high replayability.

Fun features? 

HATS :D Different koala, different hat. 

Cost?

70% free, can be played 100% for free and not super grindy with everything available but then the option to buy if feeling lazy.  

Graphics? 

Pixel art. Center of the tree moves up the middle, branches move off to the left and right, main play area split into three sections [_!_!_] far-left and far-right has empty sky, the camera follows koala that can either jump inside same area or move left/right depending on branches climbed onto.  

Marketing: 

Before the launch plan

 100 days before launch~ 

100 images, 100 statues, 100 RTS/tags 

10 gifs, 10 polls, 10 mentions 

1 video, 1 blog, 1 thank you 

200 days before launch 

20 YouTubers

10 bloggers / streamers 

1 website  

Game: 

Sneaky Slime

Power-ups: 

Golden chicken (boss drop) 

Cake slices: one slice, half cake, one slice missing, the whole cake 

Animation: 

Pose

- A strong line of action: flow, direction, guiding the eye, shows a force 

- Mountain peaks, not all are super exaggerated one big mountain theme of the shot 

- Flip the S curve for dynamic 

Most humans look to the face and "feel" the language of the body 

Use pose to direct to face / important parts. Visual elements used for clean flow to point of interest in the shot. 

Don't force a silhouette - focus on the lines. Clean and flowy poses are key. Can use to flow through multiple points ( travel up a leg / to face, travel up a lifted arm / to something they are pointing at) 

Can use eye line to connect body parts for an added bonus. 

The link between characters use the entire scene, 

*head tilt* this action is human, can add persona and show weight and appeal, it also makes them more accessible.  

Rotate hips and shoulders independently not the head. 

If it's in the shot then use it, use shoulders and briefly show hands to imply gestures but save time.

Try and avoid showing only one eye on the screen (one-eyed Pete), instead have the nose forward with the eyes to the side, this way you can direct with both eyes. 

Think of a human as 3 weights on a line, where the weights lie can help show the personality of the character.  

To show an introvert imagine them inside of a bounding box and they don't move outside of that, lots of open space on the screen.  For an extrovert a lot of space really big bounding box, less empty space on the screen. 

Animation: 

Timing

- Mini anticipation to big anticipation will make it flowier (1 + 2 frames) 

- But anticipation into ease in will create popping, avoid! 

- S curve computer-generated in-betweens aren't great, make sure to add the frames in 

Start by blocking the poses/shapes with no timing just the images, then add drag and lip-sync get it all in there so you feel the movement. Then timing away. Wait to spline, the pc may not be your friend.

Projects: 

- Inktober gif

- Animation mentor games gif

- DTL 

- Cat with eyes closed 

- Sneaky slime 

- Koala tea  time 

- 100 vector ladies 

- 11-second club 

- Get shit done koala planner 

- Overwatch healers 

- Profile pic 

- Steff drawing 

- Tom card background 

- Locomotion marketing plan 

- Prize studio 3 commission if they ever get back to me 
- Demon cycle drawing (powerful book series?)
- Dragon dynasty 

- Timmy the reaper 

Day 8460

EGX rezzed 2018 talk notes.


PR for indie games panel talk.

- Keys to PR is to get people to find your game, play your game and buy your game.
- The sooner you start the better, think of PR like sound or graphics
- Ideally you want to get your game on sites that people trust
- Right now the consesns from the panel that at least 60% of their effrors goe's into finging streamers
- Jounralisists and streamers feed off one another, everythones looking for views, more people stream more people want to write about it, more people write more people want to stream etc...
- Keep in mind journalists/streamers are going through 100's of games and maybe only make 10 posts a week tops, you need to target the right people and make sure it's going to reach the right audience
- Plus side to Twitch

Day 8385

Games forum 2018 VR Notes

AR - How to unlock AR's Business potential

Will Freeman @spadgy_OTA- game journalist. Phil Charnock @Phil_Charnock- Draw and code. Russel Harding@russhar - Conspexit. Travis Ryan@travisxuryan - Dumpling Design.

- More humans use AR in Snapchat daily than use Twitter
- More humans viewed the super bowl Snapchat add than watched the game live.
- 5 years 2 billion regular AR users
- Pragmatic to work on mobile VR which has the audience but future proofing for glasses/headsets is a good idea. Just takes Apple or Google to make the leap
- Snapchat and Pokémon has helped create an investment buzz for selling products
- How to get people using the technology without forcing, they out a tower in the middle of the level and then people naturally leaned and learned for themselves
- Key things to consider for AR is Camera, battery power, fun.

AR  101 - Oliver Clarke, Modern dream (Awesome talk o3o)

@OllieClarke

- We have created a range of inter-subjective ideas to interpret our world. Road signs for example
- Exciting is digitising our reality, e.g photo > digital currency> AR digital reality
- Intersubjectivity - unique ability to share something created and believe it is real e.g money we believe it is real for the purpose of accountancy.
- AR has so many possibilities,  picking up on light we can't see, facilitating productivity, potential for experiences new ranges of emotions to name just a few
- AR/VR can be used for Science! Visualise the microscopic and macroscopic. In medicine, it can be very difficult to train surgeons introducing the VR cadaver~ More outside of just marketing and entertainment
-Andrew Lacey VR/AR world 2016 chart, predicts that in 2022  is when everything really starts to take off
- What's great about AR is you can do things now,  we are in an experimental stage before exponential growth in 2021 mobile, AR especially, the rules have not been written yet
- Solving clunky problems will be when it takes over (e.g holding your phone to look at a map)
- Stats a wonderful chart that I didn't take the name of... Premium VR 1.3x increase. Mobile VR 4x increase in 2021
- Untethered is the most compelling, powerful features are great but ultimately performance is key
- If it runs well on a smartphone now then it will work wonderfully with the tech to come
- 100-150 max keep draw calls, batch as much as possible, atlas textures. (what they currently use)
- To keep in mind: Scale is an issue in AR, often things are gigantic when assets are taken in first. (Physics don't scale very well, especially in unity that works on real-world scales)
- Goo.gl/KPDNU3 - books used for the talk
- Things of the future/now~ High fidelity texture, haptic feedback, real-time collaboration, machine learning, blockchain

Design and Art in VR games  (50% great talk >.>)

Anna Hollinrake@AnnaHollinrake - Dream reality interactive. Russ Earwaker @climaxstudios- Climax

- Scale and movement are key to great art
- Tiny animated characters feel great, simple interactions (just picking it up) feel cool
- Negatives to consider: Motion sickness - restricted audience - still developing - space, wires, heat and weight
- Don't scare off new players bridge accessibility gap, keep the excitement with clear ideas
- No standardised controller (though really there is more than controller buttons to work with....)
- Gestures for tutorials/actions should be natural to real life movements
- Give players time to get their VR legs
- Make speed constant and avoid turning too quickly, the acceleration is the sickening factor
- Scale camera and move in closer for more toy-like view
- Restrictions to keep mobile VR running nicely: Low poly, no alpha, no particles, few bones(blend shapes instead)
- Include artistic rhythm
- Silhouette interesting from all angles, pull out edges, remove chunks, add kinks don't have overly thin else you'll have flickering, sweeping curves, no chamfering, every loop and vert say something
- Atlasing - one 4k texture per environment
- Keep in mind headsets get hot - use light baking and be careful with bright colours and things that will overheat
- Second UV texture of paper over the top of all to tie it together

Surviving and thriving in the VR market 

Vincent Brunet-Dupont @trebuchetvr- Trebuchet. Tanya Laird @TanyaLaird- Digital Jam. Fernando Montalvo @ferm3ogs- 3OGS. Erik Desiderio@Erik_Desiderio - Erik Desiderio music.

- All of the areas, don't be prudish and stick only to games, explore! Defence industry (synthetic) medicine, housing,  larger markets that can pay
- Many big cooperate brands don't understand narrative design
- They don't understand the return they get, helps if you can show them and compare audience reach mobile app Vs VR experience. A lot of the people who are in charge of paying and deciding where the money goes haven't tried VR - educate all of the humans
- Still very much a VR bubble - people in shock over having to have a pc/laptop shock and horror ensues
- Current gen VR is very much a family set up ( like how it used to be one shared TV, then one shared pc etc.)  Keep the spectatorship in mind
- When it comes to marketing -  explaining the tech. Then explain the game.
- Game arcades talk to them about the game VR arcade Facebook group - far East arcade culture still there
- Shareable as well as playable - key to getting people to know your game/experience 
- Circus, theatre, magic - reference for VR staging

VR esports  - Patrick@ndreams-tea-.com

@patrickol

- 3million high-end VR
- Oculus go, give pro, Santa Cruz coming soon~
- VR arcades lots of money
- Echo area, the unspoken tournaments already in place
- Interactive spectating twitch and YouTube, voting for harder easier play, food drops, take part as otherwise ai like a zombie
- 350k peak watching a match
- Seeing Dota 2 final from inside VR
- VR very exciting to watch. Throwing, moving, sneaking, jumping, finding, cover, etc
- SOS interesting game and a new idea

Creating content that matters - Ben Maltz Jones - rewind

@V_Ben 

- People 100% focus and engaged, making people feeling in VR makes them act
- People feel more in VR 15% more donations
-  Immersive, memorable, impactful
- 100% attention, more emotion and a physical connection memory, will last longer

Day 8384

Games forum 2018 notes!

Video games with mum - Rami Ismail Vlambeer & Alysia Judge IGN 

@tha_rami & @AlysiaJudge

- Choose game for mum based on narrative
- Option of just holding attack, someone new to controller and gaming is like learning a new language
- Shopkeeper concept XD (in ff, human at night selling weapons...)
- Often in games now it shows you how to do a mechanic but not explaining why you should use it
- Often hearing from audience that they don't like tutorials - elegant solution, tooltips coming out if you have difficulty, ff18 at start a mini-match/skills test to assess player and adjusts difficulty accordingly 
- Achievements straight out the gate, make a couple casual gamer explosion trophies
- Cuphead a good example of accessible to many people (Teaching wise at least)
- Don't perfect what already exists add value by incorporating other perspectives outside of gaming (Someone who has never played a game is very valuable)

Understanding desire - Kirsty Rigden (Awesome talk o3o)

@KirstyRigden

- Future lab creating Tiny trax VR game
- What do players want? Power
- Power comes in different ways = Creation, destruction, control and knowledge
- (Creation) Individuality, and exploration satisfaction, customisation of character, vehicle, environment, names.
- (Destruction) Humans love breaking stuff, interesting to watch and visually stimulating seeing things break in different ways, destruction is a complete goal, it's easy to understand and a repeatable task
- (Control) 3 ways humans like to learn: Jump right in with instructions to refer to - humans who like their handheld to make them feel fully in control - and humans who like to try as they go and just mess around.
- In their game, had 3 core tutorial stages,  then optional stages from each with low risk
- Reasons to play - Status (high score and streaming), collectors, exploration, completionist
- Incorporating different levels to cater to different needs: Speed levels, multiple route collection levels, puzzle efficient areas, thoughtless smash and get through it levels.
- This also allows for peaks and troughs in intensity catering to different playstyles
- Time, collectables, points - rewards at the end of a level, enough from different individual tracks to progress to next level
- Key is to let the player know what the goal of the game is at all times
- Provide all the information to the player, how far through the game, how much is collected, what to do next etc.
- Plant seeds, items that they can see but can't get to, very early on in a level
- Can use collectables as breadcrumbs to steer player (banjo and Kazooie)
- Add rhythm, jump jump slide, jump jump leap etc.
- Either have the player: I know what I to do but not if they can OR I don't know what to do but once it's been figured out it'll be easy.
- New mechanics wait a bit, then give humans the new one, doesn't overwhelm and keeps the game fresh.
- Rewards make people feel smart and powerful, turns mediocrity into magic
- That amount of congratulations makes you feel like you've done something wonderful, all adds up and makes people feel they've done well
- Empathy - Remember people who are not you will be playing your game
- When adding something ask, will it benefit the player or is it just cool?
- Analyse media that doesn't appeal to you, try to find what others enjoy in them and why
- Look at game reviews for what people like - the most positive or negative and analyse
- Personality tests - life motivations and communication styles
- Playtest - Sure listen to what they say, but also watch them play, this will help you truly understand
- As long as a player is comfortable with everything that has happened, then allowed space (almost like starting a brand new game) for player to readjust, adding a twist to the game style can be very powerful

What price is right?

Stewart Rodgers@TheRealSJR - Venture beat. Alex Moyet @AlexMoyet- Curve Digital. Mike Bithell @mikeBithell- Bithell Games. Mark Sorrells @Sorrell - Rovio. Alex Moukas @wappier- Wappier.

- Mostly a free to play and mobile talk
- Something that costs more can appear more valuable, especially in countries that are more cost elastic.
- International audience, variance in price, based on how good they think it is (is game as good as a trip to the cinema or compared to another game etc.)
- 1/3 budget on advertising 2/3 marketing to existing customer base
- Demand and supply, selling umbrellas is all well and good but making it rain is also important (Value and price)
- In game bundle deals create a higher pricing sense, keep in mind game economy but upscale value (50% of etc.)
- Honesty with user and transparency is key, especially in freemium games, world is connected and can compare notes

Good news and bad indie talk - Phil Elliott (Also an awesome talk o3o)

@Sly_Rebirth

- 250 games per week released steam 2017 (something like 25pw 2016), growing, even more, every year
- Media channels are also flooded - sites give everyone love
- They want things that are going to generate clicks and views - drive traffic and excite people
- Fighting against the pile of shame on steam - people have accumulated so many games that aren't played
- There is also the expectation of promotion, there is a value proposition waiting in wishlist
- enough user reviews to justify? Overall humans are being taught to wait
- It's no longer so much the spike at launch but more so is normal for over time and in updates and sales
- 50k-100k year 1 sale opportunities for steam are still there
- Forecasting - Steam spy, understand data for what it is (Mike rose on twitter, rave of Ravensdale)
- Ignore data more than 3/4 months old - proportion of revenue, promotions/humble bundle, don't look at games you've heard of either
- Costs to consider - Localisation, age rating, UI restrictions etc. for different platforms, consider these at the very beginning and plan for them in your game
- Leave at least 3 months for submissions and QA
- No substitute for a thriving community - small polished gameplay is much better than an hour of dullness
- Choose your audience, then how to get them excited
- Key art, grab attention, generate awareness, most people will only see this as a thumbnail though so make sure that looks good, needs name of game and recognisable art piece
- Events are great for feedback but limited sales impact
- Wishlist > pre-orders. Algorithms for steam spikes something to look into, but spikes are better overall

No filthy casuals - Dirty Mitchell 

@SpaceApeGames

- Cookie and radish test - ego depletion 
- Better to make fell good than know they are good, keep in players favour, it is better for your player to feel mastery instead of actually having it
- Provide your team and player base with transparency, build knowledge based on previously learnt things 
- Tension with experience = excitement, tension with casual = stress 
- Include small doses of tension even with a super casual experience, it adds context and consequences 
- Keep humans motivated in your team, give them the autonomy to get the game done and then trust them to get things done, if there are any problems and humans don't believe in the game early on it's best to address this then and talk it out rather than have it as a sideline
- Small well-knitted teams are a great place for creating teams 

Original IP 

Sean Lee @wargaming_net - Wargaming, Calgar Eger@CaglarEger - Goodgame, Sebastien Kriese@FoxNext - FoxNex, Monty Munford@montymunford - Game industry Journalist 

- Brands often sell on a case by case basis, it's no longer about the highest bidder but about what a company can bring to the table, for example, past experiences and quality are key to costs
- 10-day turnaround on approvals 
- Easier and Quicker to create your own IP
- A good game will be easy to market - Do you know the right people? "Trivial marketing costs" publishers have the money out there, it's just about the quality of your game and getting it noticed
- Best ways to talk about IP are reaching out in person at conferences, having a meeting or a drink is the best way to go

Day 7920

Good day? Bad day?

It's been a while and I needed somewhere to collect my thoughts and make plans so I'm writing rather early in the morning. As such I predict today will be a good day, full of efficiency and productivity! (And a lucky one where I shall get the Junkrat Halloween skin.)

Health - 8/10 This past month has been like having repeat doses of freshers flu without the fun of freshers. I am sorry to all the people I will have unwittingly infected, but may your immune systems be the stronger for it, like mine hopefully is.  

Work vs Play

 - Work
1) 
- Play 
1) 

Thing of today: 

From the frog, princess! But wait there is more: a whole album of 2D animation 

To do list

1) Rubber duck model 2) Fix normal duck model 3) Bread basket model 4) Slice of bread model 5) Send off 360 video 6) Inktober animation 7) Inktober drawing 8) - 9) - 10) -

Quick catch up

Completed BFX. - insert link here soon so you can watch it's wonderful ness- 

360 video for charity Create Acting as the producer, semi director, lighting, compositer, some VFX, and HRness.
Good things - I learned a lot // First time doing lighting and thought it went okay // met some wonderful people // got to make a 360 video // because of the careers fair at BFX festival got to meet both Random 42, and Double Negative! There were also a couple other companies who were lovely and there was a VR advertising agency nearby also which was awesome to see. // I had a lot of fun, mostly at the start // Nice reason to meet up with Porstmouth humans who were wonderful and really helped me out // Found out I can work for 24 hours in one go (energy drinks are not a good idea at this point)    
Bad things - Group work with constant bickering and trying to single one person out was tedious to deal with // I did not produce well, I should have been a lot stricter from the get go and not taken BS from people, following up on deadlines and checking people are actually doing what they said they would not just doing their own thing and not talking with me. // Ran out of time for rendering so was trying to complete at home without VRAY and a bad internet connection (when it connected at all) // When 360 renders go wrong they are not easy to fix and dealing with 4k is incredibly tedious // Found out I can work for 24 hours in one go (energy drinks are not a good idea at this point) 

Made some awesome business cards! - Aren't they pretty o3o

Using munchkin as a design guide and banana print to print, a very good company would recommend. 

Now making a duck game with Isaac - It's a game where you feed ducks

You can see more early prototyping here  

We are using Blender and Unity, one thing Blender definitely has on Maya is the lack of crashing, it's a little unusual to navigate however and I am still getting used to moving around and picking up on the hotkeys and general ways of working but there are lots of tutorials so this is good.  

Applied for part time job at Sainsburys - Wish me luck! 

Interview on Friday, I have heard good things about the company and the times are early, early morning, which gives me the rest of the day (that I'm awake) to work on game projects and can help fund a VR course I have seen and am hoping to do (though is £1500 so I'm unsure I can take part right now) this is assuming I get the job -fingers crossed-  If it does fall through.... I have no plans right now, I don't think animation companies will accept me just yet, but by this time next month I hope to have an incredibly strong reel.

I am doing inktober - Or was and now I'm doing some animations

Kinda O.o, My plan was to do an animated reveal of the drawings  however that was taking a lot longer than expected, new plan! Is just get 10 done by end of October! You can see above the ones I've started, the animation is pretty simple, and inside the blue is where the drawing will be. 

 

Ring a ring a roses - My roses are dying/dead but I have a new rose so all is good

They aren't 100% dead yet.... But realistically what's left of them won't survive much longer. When I came back from BFX I found two of the pots sitting in a couple inches of water, so being drowned after being left outside and then catching the black spot  which they were only just recovering from. And then for my part I over fed them which created a horrible ammonia smell when they got watered too much and in general isn't good for the plants as they will flurry for a short time but then won't take in the nutrients that they need (found out after googling the smell).... I'm finding this surprisingly more upsetting that I would expect, I think it's because I kept the oldest alive for three years and I wasn't the best with them but they didn't die, but when left with people I trusted with plants and throught my own neglect, they ended up dying, not intentionally, but still... I currently have them sitting in rice to try and dry it up, as of yet it has not worked but we shall see ^^ ah well, at least roses are my biggest concern right now, could be a lot worse.   

- Mini update -  I have a new rose! A second ago one was just gifted to me as they thought it would make me happy and it is a white rose which is the perfect colour o.o and it is in full bloom and I will love it and look after it and all is well in the world of Rosie. 

Overwatch - Good game, I can mostly only play support well but it's fun.

Just as a note to self more than anything, I've gone from really liking to playing Symettera and Mercy, to Mei and Lucio, but also Genji, Junkrat and Zenyatta I really enjoy, Ana and D.Va are characters I'm trying to get the hang of also, Ana for her tea emotes and D.va because it would be good to play at least one tank to an okay standard o.o  A good game, I'm not amazing at it but it's 

    

Day: 7245

12 Levels of the game, 12 chapters in the comic

1. City of Wings - Floating steampunk city 
2. Mechanical forest - Moving across the land 
3. Center french city -  Many rivers running through it, everything is controlled and pristine "perfect" 
4. Train - that is super high up and made of glass that travels from area to area 
5. Kingdom of fire and smoke - everything is long and spindly and covered in ashe/sand
6. Oasis market - Which you reach through a cloud of mist has lots of waterfalls but the sky is covered from the ashe. Floating embers from the fire and hanging lights provided make it look like night all the time. 
7. Underground city of towers - Use magic to create impossible buildings that reach through the roof and into the world above 
8. Silken palace - The highest of the towers but long abandoned hidden under 1000's and 1000's of small crawling black spiders. Pristine and white and ends in covering a large tree with random threads blowing off into the wind very high up in the clouds 
9. Clouds - insane winds with giant glass birds that fly just out of sight but cast their shadows and refract light like rainbows through the air 
10. Under world - Great lake, glow in the dark jellyfish like souls that will drag you under if you get caught. Extremely cold and though you can walk on the water every step you take leaves a little fragment of yourself behind as you freeze yourself a path. There is a tower in the center of the lake with frozen bodies making a stairway to the open window in the tower that is letting a sing stream of daylight into the place
11. Space - Looking down on Rythum it shrinks to the palm of your hand and you gain the title "Ruler of Rythum" 
12. Space - Same.... 

I think what I'll do is make this concept art on photoshop to use in the comic and what not and then make low poly versions of it to use in the story game thing. 

Day 7120

NEW TAG : Game

Spent the best part of the afternoon working on this, made a paper copy to work it all out then Isaac helped me by putting it all onto excel.  

115 videos I think

10 sec per video

Every video will be followed by a choice, two choices and your good to go. 3 choices and only one of them will be a safe choice so you continue the rest lead to "deaths" where the game ends. 

The blue is just there to show that all of those options go through to the same next set of options.

Secret ending factor. A little hard to explain but I shall try. You will need to get to the end(biggest red square) at least once. In example if you reach it using the bottom path that will be recorded in the game, though the player won't know this. If you then play through again and reach the end through the bottom path nothing will happen, but if you reach it through the top half you will see a version of yourself already at the stage, as you will have activated both paths.

You will then fight the other path version of you. The winner will be decided by the opposite choice of the first path you took. So if you went left/up on the first choice then the right/bottom version would win, if you went right/down on your first choice then the left/top version would win

 Before you make your choice on each section you will be shown a 10-20second animation clip explaining the situation.

At the end of the game you will be told the total amount of time you played for and what you could have done instead with your time.