How could I lose? I've got a bionic arm!

I spent last night going through a lot of my old posts, just to see how far I'd come since starting this blog thing. I was pretty happy with how much better I'd gotten with the drawing, but what the hell has happened to my motivation? Or my enthusiasm? Or my passion? I mean... I think I have some idea what's beat me down (and I guess there's been a few other things happen...) but dammit I was going to kick ass and do great work.

Things are going to change. 

I don't make things difficult. That's the way they get, all by themselves...

So finding time to get anything started at all is already proving difficult... Hopefully once things start getting into a groove it'll get a little easier.

The plan is to start working on a game of my own. I have a few designs in mind, but finding something that will be relatively quick to make solo is the challenge here. Ideally I'd be after something high on gameplay mechanics but low on art requirements, so something like a puzzle game (or at least something with puzzle elements). Unfortunately I don't have a good candidate for that at the moment, so instead I'm going to work on the best option I have despite that it's likely to be pretty art heavy. If I end up having some kind of epiphany I'll switch over or (unless I'm most of the way through already).

The game itself is a side scrolling brawler designed specifically for phone/tablets, with an emphasis on over the top action and ridiculous Marvel Vs Capcom style combos. Further, because I've been watching a lot of 80's action movies lately I want to give it that kind of a look and feel. Combinations and moves should provide enough depth to expand gameplay away from straight beat-em up and into challenge and puzzle territory as well. What's more important is that it remains accessible and fun to play... I'm aiming to have it so that cool stuff should happen even if you just randomly slash around the screen. The downside to this is that it will be too simplistic for a proper PC/console release, but there are options for expansion and reuse for phones/tablets.

With all that in mind, I've decided to use Stencyl to make this game rather than Unity, just because its seems like it should be a lot quicker for one person (also 2D friendly). It reminds me a lot of doing things in Flash, so I already feel pretty at home in it. It's still one more thing to learn, but that wont take as much time as doing the art... Particularly because I just can't seem to get into a decent flow with it at the moment. Having to rely on 2 underpowered laptops instead of my regular desktop machine doesn't help either... But at the same time I don't see any point in wasting time until I have access to it again.

Today's pic is some random character and enemy sketches/colour considerations. I think a lot of the references/homages/rip offs should be obvious. At the moment I'm thinking final art will be pixels.

The time for fighting in the streets is over.

This american Air Force guy beat me up and told me to, so I did.

I realise that it's been a while since I've done anything, but times have been busy/tough. To be honest I wasn't going to bother doing anything until after New Years, but what's the point in sitting around waiting for a couple of days?

Aquatic equivalent of birds and the bees?

You've got some strange friends, Sister!

Canis Homarus

Just dipping into another of my art comp entries, because it's hard to find time to do much else at the moment. I didn't win this one, losing out to the incredible Saxon Dixon, but I still like it. The topic for that week was "Lobster dog" in the style of "something game-y". The reason: Do we really need one? It's freaking awesome! (Or alternatively because I had just seen Lobster dog and my mind was transfixed on his awe-inspiring visage. Gaze deep at his majesty.)

Also check out Dogfort if you are dogwardly inclined.

The Evaporative Iron Man

As requested: A moderately detailed steampunk Iron Man in front of an icecream parlour. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out... Although by the time I got to the background and drew the icecream parlour, I no longer wanted to draw a background. One of these days I'm really going to have to work on that.

So I hope you like it Ithyrn Luin. If not, send your complaints to Stan Lee c/o Marvel Comics.

Also, Aliesha: When you work out what you want me to draw for your prize, let me know and I'll get right on it.

That Buttercup is a spy!

I had really expected to have had something else done before dipping into the backlog of art comp entries again... but meh, time etc.

This one did win me back the coveted "Lead Artist" title. For those it's not blindingly obvious to, the topic for that week was (3 of the) characters from Team Fortress 2, in the style of The Powerpuff Girls. Critics may debate the proportions of the said Powerpuff girls, but what can I say to that except "hater's gonna hate."