Mob #1: Myur
Wallpaper #1
First, I drew it on Clip Studio Paint to get the idea of where everything is because I believe doing sketches on Asesprite is difficult for me.
Next, I redraw it on Aseprite with a lower resolution to give it a more pixelated look.
After a realization, I do not think this was a good background for the project. I believe that it was too dynamic for my taste and wanted something simpler and more retro. So, I ended the illustration at this point and started to make a new background.
Weekly Blog #3: The Pixel Creator
Welcome back to my weekly blog! My name is Tony and I will show you one of the tools that I will be using and its purpose.
First off, the main program for the project, Aseprite.
Aseprite is an illustration/animation program that solely based on pixels. The brush strokes can only go as high as 64 bit to keep that low-resolution standard. It was not meant to create high detailed illustrations or animations, it is more of a blocky look to represent what the art was in 90s video games.
Aseprite will also be the animation part of the video. Considering that the program has frames feature, I can make the illustration be in motion. It can also produce the sprite sheet for every frame that was remade. As you can see in the below image, not much is changed on the idle stance of the character but a lot of motion is happening during the walking. The idle stance shouldn’t contain that much motion because they are standing afterall. While the walking stance shows the character that she is walking which is intended.
That is it for this blog. Next week’s blog will be the storyboard and the explanation.
Your digital artist,
Tony
Weekly Blog #2: Data
Hello! Tony here!
As stated from last week’s blog, I would like to talk about the data that I have to come to gather.
I want to explain a bit more of my thesis examples, Bethesda’s Fallout 76 and Re-Logic Terraria. Fallout 76 was going to be the successor of Fallout 4 with new aesthetics, lots of content, and enjoyable gameplay. However, Bethesda did not succeed in the slightest. While it may hold it’s beautiful graphics, the rest of the game was completely rushed to the release; they were glitches, multiplayer was lacking security, and the story can be interrupted with other sources of unintentional interactions such as hearing one recording being skipped by another recording that talks about the lore. The game’s initial release price was $60 but depreciate dramatically in just a week due to the negative impact it gives to the gamers. The release was going so terribly that Bethesda refused to give out refunds. It overall only sold a bit over a million, according to vgchartz, so far as September 2019.
Re-Logic’s Terraria, on the other hand, is a simple sandbox 2D game that continues to sell their game ever since its release in 2011. Terraria is a 16-bit game that lets you have control. There was no story or lore to follow by; it is you who have to make the exploration. On its first initial release, they didn’t sell as much as a triple AAA game due to its simplicity, 200k copies were sold, according to wikipedia. However, after players are having such an enjoyable time making their own 2D journey, the game’s gotten more and more popular as time goes by. In 2015, Terraria had sold 12 million copies with the same game mechanics as it had on its release but with added content. Terraria gamers understand that the aesthetics of a game should not be the priority to attract sales, it should rather be on the aesthetics of gameplay. The game was so successful, it had its final content update in 2019 and have a total of 27 million copies sold currently.
They are other examples as well. You can replace Bethesda to EA with some of their games such as Battlefield V and replace Terraria with another well-known game such as Undertale.
My point is, “don’t judge a book with its cover” while the “book” is actually games.
Next week’s blog will be discussing some of the tools I will be using and it’s advantages.
Your digital artist,
Tony
Weekly Blog #1: The Startup
Hello everyone! My name is Tony, one of the two collaborators in the project!
First off, not everything is going to be final. So, might have to change things here and there. Anyway, if you have read our thesis, our project is going to prove that game aesthetics shouldn’t be a higher priority than gameplay. We want to accomplish this by making a 2D pixel animation video that simulates a retro 2D videogame. It’s a simple idea yet hard to execute. For instance, a general videogame consumer is attracted to the beautiful, advanced graphics of a game as an understanding that it’s a high production game. What the unexpected turn of events for some of these games is that they were boring, lacking content, or simply unenjoyable. Our job is to show the visual look of a game shouldn’t determine the game’s popularity, rather it should be the gameplay.
Some of the programs that we will produce the video with are:
Aseprite for pixel sprites and animations.
Clip Studio Paint for illustrations, concept art, and sketches.
Adobe Premiere for the video.
Adobe After Effects for special effects on the video.
Next week’s blog will possibly talk about the statistics on sales of video games that talk about sales from famous game companies and indie game companies with their games.
See you next week!
Your Digital artist,
Tony
Week 1: Thesis
Although the gaming industry is influenced by the sales of games, the game’s success and popularity are influenced by the gamers rather than by the much emphasized visual aesthetics of the game by the industry games. There should be a hierarchy of which aspect should take more priority when it comes to the production of games. The aesthetic of the game graphics can cause a large initial popularity for the product, but it will surely plummet because the lack of aesthetic of game play. So, the gaming industry should not solely consider a game that highlights the aesthetics of it if they want sales, but rather on the game logic to have gamers to continue playing the product. Take Bethesda’s newest game, Fallout 76, as an example in which they created a game with high resolution but their gameplay had caused their reputation to drop. Gamers has low expectation from Bethesda to due of Fallout 76. Additionally, some video games with low resolution, such as Terraria, can cause replayability and enjoyment because of their unique aspects. Terraria is continuing to increase their population of gamers currently, regardless that Terraria game is eight-years-old.