people don't explore a world where everything looks the same. that effort you went for is part of rewarding the player for exploration. A short online game design class once told me that players will quickly identify repeated assets and stop exploring in a particular direction if it looks like they're just going to see the same thing over and over again so, where you can afford it, always use unique assets and the rest of the time find ways to make repeated assets look different.
Emphasize on "make repeated assets look different". There is no reason to create completely unique assets when minor changes have a very dramatic effect.
@@kilrain_dev don't change the asset because that's still a new asset. You have to have a set of repeated decor assets that sit in front of the larger assets and then players will still notice the repetition but they'll think, oh that was clever.
This is why Genshin's world design is incredible. It's a mobile game, but it's got that Rockstar level of attention to detail where nothing is repeated.
A very subtle parallax effect between the walkable foreground buildings and non-walkable background buildings could help players distinguish what they can walk on. Since, you already have a parallax system this should be an easy effect to make and might add that much needed depth. Keep it up, I will be following this game's journey !! ❤
On the unique versus repeatable take. While it's true for the most part, I think it's what makes a world interesting to explore in your case, especially in these "comfort hubs" where the pacing is slower. I personally love to see a bridge different from the previous one, or little details of items hanging etc, and not just repeated tile sets, I actually get really tired of the repeatability of most pixel art games. But I do agree that they obviously come at a time cost, so it's true that it has to be a balance, on more impactful places. I like to approach uniqueness based on camera time on screen, items could can be placed strategically (based on how long the player stays within one "screen", or to emphasize an out of bound discovery, to highlight a "vista". If you cross a bridge and move on the the next screen within a second it's clearly not the same as crossing the bridge, that has an npc fishing on top, that you can talk to, some sign you can stop by to know where to go etc, all these things slowing you down on that "one screen" than this bridge becomes way more important and impactful. You can also approach it with a deco kit that adds flavor on existing pieces, so it's more about unique compositions than unique assets. 2 Bridges could be the same, but one has extra sprites plugged to it, like like a roof etc.
unique assets are a marvelous feat, the issue is with plane separation. Everything seems to stand out, which looks cluttered. I'd make a color grading wash over the whole level to bring everything together, and dim some things to bring more clarity. ALSO! I think the movement speed vs environment detail size is unbalanced. Either make movement smaller, or details bigger and spaced out.
This is so interesting seeing this perspective of what's visually one of the most interesting and beautiful hub towns in any game I've played in a long time. The uniqueness of all of the designs is incredible to look at, but I totally get that it's inefficient design and will absolutely keep these things in mind as I work through my own projects.
ok that was a strange glitch I commented on this video but it somehow commented on a completely different video that I was watching earlier anyway noice
It ended up being a beautiful hometown. I'm sure there are ways to give off the perception of unique assets while still repeating them, but I don't yet know how to do that. I wish you guys luck. Looks great so far! Dev logs are incredibly helpful for new solo devs like me.
honestly thats very realistic for true town planning- and it makes it more immersive. towns are *not* all planned at once and often get TONS of changes along the way- people slap stuff up and build next to it. also repeating assets with tiny or no changes will get dull VERY quickly.
Those were some very valuable teachings for fellow devs, thanks for sharing. It's great to see how you learned from the mistakes and found the right approaches
If you ever played fez, the game have amazing hub worlds and optional things to look. A game I played almost 10 years ago and still stuck in my memory because mostly of the map design
Thank you so much for sharing such content. Each of us learns from our mistakes, but videos like this help us pay attention to certain things that you haven't thought about before
It's really cool to know a little more about the process of creating the visual part of the game! I love all the unique assets! But as an artist, I understand the need for repetition 🥲. Your game looks incredible!💖
I'm delighted to have helped with feedback for the town to improve! It obviously still isn't perfect, as playing more of it made me realize, but it has so much potential that i can't avoid praising it!
The art in this game is so beautiful!! Thogh from what we saw from the dialogue it the art of the people looks… kinda off? When speaking with the old lady, for example, something about it feels weird, like it doesn’t fit. Is it temporary art? If not, please consider giving it another look!
The idea of visualizing the final product is something that need to have in every kind of projects. But it's so hard to come up with the one I'm looking for. Guess I'll have to use elimination process with logic to come up with the one. It's sad that when using logic, the passion got lowered immensely.
As a solo game dev who is working on an open world game, you just inspired me to make a pixel art adventure game myself haha. Hands down, this is just one of the most beautiful pixel art game I have seen by far. All the best for the release 💪🏻
I think it's fine to use a lot unique assets so long as you know the player will spend a lot of their time in that area. The new roof style is a lot readable compared from before. Great job!
I love indie games that take the time to make all the assets unique it makes the world feel more genuine in my opinion making assets repeatable might make the game fell more generic but it all depends how its done the artistic design in this game is already awesome so i cant wait to see how it continues to improve and evolve.
One of the main drawbacks of having too many unique assets is that you'll have to maintain that design bar or your other hubs will feel rushed for observing players
Great video. Do you think the unique art has made the game more stand out/do you worry that introducing the repeatable assets will make the game feel samey?
Is there some way you can add variety at the very end? Like, here are three roofs that have the same collision geometry but let me take 10 minutes to make the lines a little different once we’re 95% final. As other comments mention, repeated assets discourage exploration, if only subconsciously.
not sure if it's been patched out, but the way the "charges" wouldn't recharge after a while sorta discouraged me from exploring the village area - I didn't wanna have to go out of screen and come back if I missed a jump. Not sure what the best way to fix that would be, I'm pretty sure you can't just have them recharge if you still wanna sneak in some little platforming challenges in the exploration, and similarly I don't think it'd work to just hide the hud and have them act like a dash that recharges over time? Maybe that would work? It would def indicate that the area was different and maybe hint to the player that they're in a non platforming area.
people don't explore a world where everything looks the same. that effort you went for is part of rewarding the player for exploration. A short online game design class once told me that players will quickly identify repeated assets and stop exploring in a particular direction if it looks like they're just going to see the same thing over and over again so, where you can afford it, always use unique assets and the rest of the time find ways to make repeated assets look different.
Emphasize on "make repeated assets look different". There is no reason to create completely unique assets when minor changes have a very dramatic effect.
@@kilrain_dev don't change the asset because that's still a new asset. You have to have a set of repeated decor assets that sit in front of the larger assets and then players will still notice the repetition but they'll think, oh that was clever.
This is why Genshin's world design is incredible. It's a mobile game, but it's got that Rockstar level of attention to detail where nothing is repeated.
A very subtle parallax effect between the walkable foreground buildings and non-walkable background buildings could help players distinguish what they can walk on.
Since, you already have a parallax system this should be an easy effect to make and might add that much needed depth.
Keep it up, I will be following this game's journey !! ❤
That wouldn't make sense here, since the walkable parts are the roofs
On the unique versus repeatable take. While it's true for the most part, I think it's what makes a world interesting to explore in your case, especially in these "comfort hubs" where the pacing is slower. I personally love to see a bridge different from the previous one, or little details of items hanging etc, and not just repeated tile sets, I actually get really tired of the repeatability of most pixel art games. But I do agree that they obviously come at a time cost, so it's true that it has to be a balance, on more impactful places. I like to approach uniqueness based on camera time on screen, items could can be placed strategically (based on how long the player stays within one "screen", or to emphasize an out of bound discovery, to highlight a "vista". If you cross a bridge and move on the the next screen within a second it's clearly not the same as crossing the bridge, that has an npc fishing on top, that you can talk to, some sign you can stop by to know where to go etc, all these things slowing you down on that "one screen" than this bridge becomes way more important and impactful. You can also approach it with a deco kit that adds flavor on existing pieces, so it's more about unique compositions than unique assets. 2 Bridges could be the same, but one has extra sprites plugged to it, like like a roof etc.
unique assets are a marvelous feat, the issue is with plane separation. Everything seems to stand out, which looks cluttered. I'd make a color grading wash over the whole level to bring everything together, and dim some things to bring more clarity.
ALSO! I think the movement speed vs environment detail size is unbalanced. Either make movement smaller, or details bigger and spaced out.
This is so interesting seeing this perspective of what's visually one of the most interesting and beautiful hub towns in any game I've played in a long time. The uniqueness of all of the designs is incredible to look at, but I totally get that it's inefficient design and will absolutely keep these things in mind as I work through my own projects.
ok that was a strange glitch I commented on this video but it somehow commented on a completely different video that I was watching earlier
anyway noice
lol weird.
I got that once, except it was a reply to a guy on a video somehow being sent to another guy on another video. It's wild.
Seeing as the "hubs" are my favorite part of the game, I am VERY excited to see more in the future :D
You should be proud, it's a great game thus far.
It ended up being a beautiful hometown. I'm sure there are ways to give off the perception of unique assets while still repeating them, but I don't yet know how to do that. I wish you guys luck. Looks great so far! Dev logs are incredibly helpful for new solo devs like me.
The best way to learn is to fail! Love seeing the progress and I have been loving the playtest so far! Keep it up y'all, I'm cheering for ya :)
Building a city without planning. Ha sounds like my country...
honestly thats very realistic for true town planning- and it makes it more immersive. towns are *not* all planned at once and often get TONS of changes along the way- people slap stuff up and build next to it. also repeating assets with tiny or no changes will get dull VERY quickly.
this is my opinion as backed up by my half finished anthropology degree so. theres your added grain of salt
excellent point
Love the retrospective look at things! Ive also got to commend your ability to churn out great videos! Quality AND Quantity! Keep up the amazing work!
Im loving these videos!
Yay, that's what I asked for keep these art and design videos coming :)
I love those episodes. You are doing a great job with both development and marketing :)
Those were some very valuable teachings for fellow devs, thanks for sharing. It's great to see how you learned from the mistakes and found the right approaches
Very insightful retrospective! I think we can learn a lot from the simpler/older games that had a lot of limitations. The game looks great!
If you ever played fez, the game have amazing hub worlds and optional things to look. A game I played almost 10 years ago and still stuck in my memory because mostly of the map design
Thank you so much for sharing such content. Each of us learns from our mistakes, but videos like this help us pay attention to certain things that you haven't thought about before
It's really cool to know a little more about the process of creating the visual part of the game! I love all the unique assets! But as an artist, I understand the need for repetition 🥲. Your game looks incredible!💖
I'm delighted to have helped with feedback for the town to improve! It obviously still isn't perfect, as playing more of it made me realize, but it has so much potential that i can't avoid praising it!
The art in this game is so beautiful!! Thogh from what we saw from the dialogue it the art of the people looks… kinda off? When speaking with the old lady, for example, something about it feels weird, like it doesn’t fit. Is it temporary art? If not, please consider giving it another look!
The idea of visualizing the final product is something that need to have in every kind of projects. But it's so hard to come up with the one I'm looking for. Guess I'll have to use elimination process with logic to come up with the one. It's sad that when using logic, the passion got lowered immensely.
As a solo game dev who is working on an open world game, you just inspired me to make a pixel art adventure game myself haha.
Hands down, this is just one of the most beautiful pixel art game I have seen by far. All the best for the release 💪🏻
I think it's fine to use a lot unique assets so long as you know the player will spend a lot of their time in that area.
The new roof style is a lot readable compared from before. Great job!
Cool. Working on your mistakes is important
I love indie games that take the time to make all the assets unique it makes the world feel more genuine in my opinion making assets repeatable might make the game fell more generic but it all depends how its done the artistic design in this game is already awesome so i cant wait to see how it continues to improve and evolve.
I watched a video about this game with funny memes in other youtube channel. I spent almost an hour watching it. Your game is great.
Thank you for those details, and your honesty about your workflow :)
I'd much rather watch a video about the things you are proud of. I really like how you designed the verticality of the hub area, for example.
One of the main drawbacks of having too many unique assets is that you'll have to maintain that design bar or your other hubs will feel rushed for observing players
Woaw your game looks amazing, I want to try it this weekend
Oh I love this art! Cant wait for more
golden content, happy to have found this
yeah
Agreed.
@@OandCoGamesmind if I disagree?
@@praquenomereal This is very disapointing.
your game looks really pretty
Very cool, great video as always!
I love these devlogs maaan
this is very useful, thank you for this video.
It’s beautiful
Great video. Do you think the unique art has made the game more stand out/do you worry that introducing the repeatable assets will make the game feel samey?
On man I completely forgot to get the demo cause I wasn't home when you released it
Is there some way you can add variety at the very end? Like, here are three roofs that have the same collision geometry but let me take 10 minutes to make the lines a little different once we’re 95% final. As other comments mention, repeated assets discourage exploration, if only subconsciously.
Looks great, nice video! What resolution are you aiming for in your pixel art? How many pixels tall is the main character?
640x360. Character is sub 24 px
not sure if it's been patched out, but the way the "charges" wouldn't recharge after a while sorta discouraged me from exploring the village area - I didn't wanna have to go out of screen and come back if I missed a jump. Not sure what the best way to fix that would be, I'm pretty sure you can't just have them recharge if you still wanna sneak in some little platforming challenges in the exploration, and similarly I don't think it'd work to just hide the hud and have them act like a dash that recharges over time? Maybe that would work? It would def indicate that the area was different and maybe hint to the player that they're in a non platforming area.
the second idea reminds me of how elden ring hides your stamina when you aren't in a battle and just lets you run as much as you want
pet a duck!!!!
1:42 is that a brawl stars Dicord server????
Yeah probably lol