Interlude

Hallo gamerz!

It's Sxtycat, and I'm very excited to finally receive my drawing tablet today.
I had to send it off to get repairs, but the shipping company lost it,
so I had to get a new one.

Being here so long without a drawing tablet has made me really appreciate it's value!
It's practically one of my limbs, so rough to live without it!

I've been playing around with some traditional hand drawn animation.
It's gotten me excited to work on digital animations for Pizza Boss.
So far the animation has been pretty limited, truly I could spend eternity adding animation assets,
and refining the visual style.

However this project I am determined to finish, so I will have to try to be as effective with the minimal
amount of resources. True Indie-Game-Dev style.
This is where being clever with design can optimize the workload drastically.

While personality is not required to finish this project, it is an area I value spending a lot of focus.

Various areas can also greatly communicate what is happening within the game to the player
with some well chosen animations.

For example, adding a "working" animation to indicate a worker is processing something communicates
important information to the player.

The tricky part is, if I have to create a unique animation for each character at each station differently it
will be a bit cumbersome to produce.

I designed the assets so far to attempt to be at the same hand level for all the characters.
I was hoping to make a generic "working" animation for each worker character.
Something like just putting their hands up and down.

Again there's always the total ideal, and then the practical to finish the project to consider.
Ideally I would have beautiful 24frame unique hand drawn animation for absolutely everything.
But we have to weigh the value of each situation to the total project size so it's possible to finish.


A lot of games I've worked on have been proof of concepts, prototypes to physicalize some of the ideas I have.
Manifesting a prototype instantly informs the design process enormously.

I tend to develop ideas over drastically long periods of time.
Pizza Boss in the beginning was a bit of an exception.
It was fueled with the desire to finish it, so everything put into it was designed to get it out the door.

I normally would want to mull things over, and redesign and refine again.
But in the first few weeks for this project it was driven production.
However, I drew upon all my past experiences of game design to inform the process.

Pizza Boss has so many cobbled elements from past games I've worked on.
It's almost like the best parts of  all the designs I've conceived and tested put together.
Yet still as a new original game.

Ultimately though this is a fan game for one of my favorite online personalities:
Matpat of Game Theory.
Right before starting this, I was on a long binge watch of all his streams.
Their appreciation for indie games, and for their fans perked the idea of making a game for them.
Having a possible audience that I care for, was enough impetus for me to work hard on finishing a game.

The game includes Matt and Stephanie reimagined as anthropomorphic animals.
In one of their early streams they were asked what animal would they be, and Matt said a squirrel,
and Stephanie said a cat.
So I made them those animals in the game!

I also made character models for various team members that work with them.
It was fun to come up with cartoon characters for their personalities.

I also want to include various references, but in ways that doesn't depend on knowing the reference.
So in ways I want the game to stand up in it's own right, and not necessarily alienate people who don't know their inside jokes.

Even if nobody ends up playing it, being able to say I have a finished project is enough satisfaction to keep going.
I have a tendency to redesign ad infinitum, since I love the design process so much.
But I'm a little bothered that after over 10 years of game development I don't have a game I can say is 100% finished.

Sure some games may have passed off here in itch.io as some half-baked projects are.
Or even a game of mine could be considered like a flash game caliber.
But in my mind I never completed the full design for any of the games I've designed.
So part of my bucket list is attempting that satisfaction.

There is the factor that I don't have a manager over my head, demanding production.
I wont lose my apartment if I don't work on the game.
Instead I have to spend the majority of my energy and time actually earning money.
Which can hamper the inspiration to work game development.

I wish I could focus all my energy and time to game development.
Maybe one day it can happen.
In the mean time I'll have to be the one supporting this games production.

Really the only force moving the project is my sheer will.
Which is fueled by inspiration, which waxes and wanes.

I hope you can be patient for the full game.
Thank you everyone for tuning in,
have a nice day!

-Sxtycat