POWERHOUSE

I must say that I'm really grateful for the Powerhouse of Instructors that I have this semester.  This has been the most efficient semester because every class I'm taking are within my fields of interest and relative to each other...unlike CSG and Marine Biology.  The shade is real.  Any who, I'd like to thank Emil H., Brian M., Seth S, Craig S., and Mike A for serving as mentors for this SUPER-DEE-DUPER DOPE SEMESTER.

I'm not done picking your brains, yet, so lets keep the lines of communication open, DEAL?

COMMUDITATION

I used to hate how long my commute to school took until I taught myself to use it in a productive way.  For nearly twelve weeks, my commute has been utilized for meditation and concept creation.  Well, it's also long enough for me to wake up by the time I get to school.

Having one's thoughts organized before starting any task does wonders for workflow.

Right Place, Right Time

It has been a very interesting year for me.  I have had more “Right place Right time” moments this year than I've had in the past five or so years combined.  This has led me to believe that one or a combination of scenarios is responsible for these events:

\\      I have somehow purchased a yearlong subscription to good luck streaks.

2       The universe is setting me up

3       I have truly found my calling.

At first I thought that it was a huge coincidence, but after examining my life thus far…I believe I’m finally on the right path.  I should probably stop exploiting the laziness of gamers turned aspiring Game developers...NAH!!!  YAY ME!!!!

12-13 BARRAGE OF ITEMS!!!

ERMAHGERD!!!  It’s raining art assets!!!  The levels were looking too similar to be different levels.  With these new assets (including a prescription pill bottle to serve as health), we can make the remaining levels look very different from each other.  I think we can make Martha Stewart’s cell block with the new assets...”because it’s a good thing.”  Next I’ll be making shanks that double as beer cozies.

12-9 What's an RPG without a Mech? Incomplete, duh!

After finding out that we were going to continue working on the later levels, I made another boss enemy.  Enter Mecha Mike the Mobile.  He might look vaguely familiar since he was built in the likeness of none other than MIKE ANDERSON!!!  At this point, I feel fairly confident in my ability to pixelate people.  

12-2 This would make an Epic Sweater!

If you ask me, cemeteries shouldn't look like football fields and wooden floors should probably look like wooden floors.  The grass was made with a noise filter, and the wooden floors were made with various path patterns for the rings/grain.  Thus, they’ve been updated and upgraded.  I also made a bunch of enemies from a reskinned Darryl.  It was very easy to make basic enemies with the awesome paint bucket tool.  

12-1 TEDDY'S BERRY BEAR PICNIC

I am glad to say that we have a second boss!!!  Meet Teddy the Discarded or simply put, Teddy.  Teddy, for the most part, is a plushy, adorable version of Frankenstein’s creature.  Made from parts of other stuffed animals and creepy spikes, Teddy is pretty angry and confused.  I also made a payphone, the companion piece for the quarter on a string that will serve as a save point.

11-21 Lets get Projectile!!

What’s the point of going insane if one can’t track the progress of their insanity, hmmm?  Enter the Insanity Bar, one bite and you won’t be right…in the head!  Also, what’s the point of going insane if you don’t get any crazy perks?  Thus, a projectile-ish attack was given to the Insane Darryl Mason.  I say “Projectile-ish” because I haven’t quite figured out how to combine separate animations for one seemingly cohesive animation.

11-25 ENTER THE REAPER

There’s been a lot of talk about the Reaper in the last couple of weeks.  The decision was made to make the appearance of the Reaper somewhat familiar.  By familiar I mean making the unhooded reaper in the likeness of our instructor, EMIL HARMSEN!  Not only that, the unhooded reaper has a rainbow pony scythe to make it more believable.  The Reaper has a Scythe Swipe attack and becomes unhooded after half of his hit points are gone.  The illustrator paths of the scythe made it very easy to simulate the action of spinning the scythe.

11-18 You can dither this, or you can dither that

With the reaper battles taking place in a cemetery, I think that a couple of gravestones and a moonlit sky would set the mood.  Hopefully, these will make scene really pop.  The moon’s glare is kind of sick, too!  There’s so much to gain from strategic dithering.

11-17 Key-Stain'd Shawty

We have a key for doors as well as a Game Logo/Title Screen dealie.   The idea was to have bereavement set in a stained glass frame.  It also includes a pixelated version of the original box line art.  After decreasing the size of the frames a few times, I was finally able to import the animation for a gleaming title.

11-12 PSYCHE!!!

The bed was redone on a 160x160 pixel canvas.  The original was 40x40 and didn't have enough detail when enlarged.  Also, I learned a bit about the interpolation and how to use it for enlarging without blurring the image. The Nearest Neighbor option is ideal for pixel art. I also made sparkles, a teddy bear and a quarter on a string(which was to be used for saving in the game).