Key, The Bored Warrior

I decided to brainstorm a little bit of the game early as I couldn’t resist. So, here is what I have so far, and it will change as I work on the idea, but something to get me started through the ideas.

Game Name: Key, the Bored Warrior

In a monotonous call center, Key, a disillusioned worker, discovers a hidden power: the ability to manipulate reality with a keyboard and mouse. What starts as a prank on a coworker quickly escalates into a thrilling quest for power and adventure. Take on the role of Key, the Bored Warrior, and battle through the corporate hierarchy, from bored employee to the ambitious CEO. With only a small fanny pack to carry their weapons, each choice is crucial for survival. Get ready for an endless cycle of strategy and discovery in this top-down survivor roguelite!

Game Genre: Top-down Survivor Roguelite
Game Engine: GameMaker
Platform: PC/HTML5
Developer: TheAverageGoob

I’m excited to start coming up with mechanics and ideas to iterate on stream! See you there!

Last night’s stream went pretty great! Below is some progress on my live art session.

I didn’t spend much time learning as much time as I did practicing. I started learning digital art a few months ago, but I mostly learned using Procreate, so I wanted to spend some time in Photoshop practicing using a tablet without a screen. This process is new to me, but it’s quite a fun learning experience! My biggest challenge here will be creating animations and using them in my game. Not only is this my first time drawing game art by hand, but it will also be my first time trying to animate it, so join me on a long journey of learning art/animation and even GameMaker as I work on new coding techniques. I hope to work on the game for at least a few hours each day and share my progress. It’s a lot of work, but I hope to inspire as I work through this live on Twitch.

Before: Photoshop

What I learned during day 1:

• Global variables don’t work the way I thought in GameMaker
• Practiced writing letters with my tablet
• How to steady my hand a little while digital painting
• ALWAYS WRITE DOWN YOUR BRUSHES – so you don’t lose them
• Don’t use mouse mode on the tablet, this is much more difficult than just having the screen space be your entire screen.
• I need a better way to export assets from Photoshop
• Sketching before inking is super important for getting ideas together
• Flip your canvas upside down or left/right mirror to get better perspective on your art

After: Running in GameMaker!

On day 2, I started practicing some character art. Although most of my practice was tracing and practicing strokes, I feel like I’m getting a little more into it. I always have difficulty figuring out what to draw, but I’m leaning on AI and my typing skills to help me find a direction. I know AI art is frowned upon, but it helps give me a starting point to something more creative. Since the art is always wonky, it gives me room to be creative and practice. I didn’t stream any of this process because it was WAY TOO NERVE-WRACKING. So, I will try to draw up the courage to stream some more of my art process. I decided to go with Procreate rather than Photoshop for now, so we will see how this turns out. I even found a way to share my iPad screen so we can judge it together!

I’m going to try to keep it simple and focus on volume/consistency rather than complex character and asset creation. I had fun exploring some character designs and landed on a few variations, where my character almost looks like a Pokemon trainer scaling down for an 8-bit game, lol!

What I learned on day 2:

• Livestreaming art creation is very scary
• I get a ton of anxiety when I think about doing game dev on stream
• Community is super important during the learning process to help motivate me through the difficult processes such as learning live
• I feel like I enjoy working in Procreate more than Photoshop with a tablet – so I’m going to continue my art journey on Procreate.
• Making simple, straight lines makes it feel more like a video game for me, something stylized, rather than something more realistic.
• I enjoy the process of drawing/sketching, and it gives me an outlet for the anxiety it creates (HAHA the irony)
• I need to start closing off and creating separate pieces of the art so it’s easier to animate

Resources I found for learning:

• Art Videos
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-MXbGX1IxI
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwcuqiVtLis
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMquxE6ywpg
• Courses
  • https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-landscapes-for-absolute-beginners-in-procreate/ (still working through this one)
  • https://www.udemy.com/course/procreate-solid-foundations/ (best course ever for understanding Procreate in depth)
  • https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-draw-cartoon-characters-in-procreate/ (learned how to make characters using this)

I think this is the route I’m going with the characters, simple shapes to keep it simple! See you on stream! Please note: this is not what the character will look like; this is just some practice tracing/sketches to get a feel for what I wanted.