slynyrd

Thyrian Defenders - 72

Heya! Back with another TD update before I get cracking on the latest Pixelblog.

I’ve been working on some modified versions of the logo for marketing materials that will read better across many formats. This gold version is the current iteration. The logo we use on the title screen is black/dark blue with golden outlines, and has a galaxy in the background. I've shown it several times in past updates. It looks really cool when it's large scale, but has too much going on for scaled do...

December Schedule 2020

Hey folks! One more month to go in the year. Much has been said about how dreadful of a year it has been, and I've had my fair share of lumps as well. However, carrying the spirit of American Thanksgiving, I prefer to focus on the things I should be grateful for.  

First, I'm grateful for family and friends. In my darkest times they've saved me, going to such great lengths I feel I can never repay them.

I'm grateful to be alive here in this place in time. Despite the chall...

Our System - 12 - Ariel

The fourth largest moon orbiting Uranus, Ariel is only about a third of the size of Earth’s moon. Similar to Earth’s moon, it always keeps the same face towards the planet it orbits. The images taken from Voyager 2 in 1986 show crisscrossed scarps forming long valleys. These are likely formed by stretching tectonic activity, which was caused by freezing water or ammonia in the moon’s interior. I find these long winding valleys to be the most interesting geographic feature, and imagine t...

Thyrian Defenders - 71

Hello, fine patrons. It's been a while since my last post on here. As I mentioned in this month's schedule post, I recently moved to a new residence this past week. I'm sure many of you know, moving is quite the chore. Thankfully, everything went smoothly for me and I was settled in and back to work after only a few days of hard labor.

In an effort to get a beta out before years end, my recent work has been purely focused on Thyrian Defenders. It's a bit of a crunch, but it's looking l...

Thyrian Defenders - 70

Hey folks! It's been another productive week in the Thyrian universe. As with last week, I've spent much of my time working on sound effects. Most of the SFX are being created by some lads in the UK, however, I've created many on my own and have built entirely new sounds by editing some of their work. As with my music production I use Logic for that. I've learned a lot in the process and feel I could possibly create my own SFX from scratch on a future project.

In addition to the sound ...

Our System - 11 - Uranus

With a record low atmospheric temperature of -224ºC, Uranus gets the coldest of any planet in the Solar System. Comprised of an icy mantle enveloping a rock and ice core, this far way and frigid place is often referred to as an ‘ice giant’ planet. Thin dark rings surround the planet, which were likely formed by debris broken off its moons from impacts. Speaking of moons, at least 27 known moons orbit the planet, most if which are named after characters that appear in the work of Shakespe...

Thyrian Defenders - 69

Heya, back with some high flyin' space adventure! We've been hard at work trying to get this polished up into a real game.

In this update I'm sharing some new details on how the story will be integrated into the game. While story is not essential for shmups, a rich setting and characters can bring a lot to the experience. Furthermore, we're not going for anything too deep with the overall plot, but rather focusing on characterization and world building. But who knows? As I develop the ...

November Schedule 2020

Hey folks! Hope everyone is doing well.

The human race seems to be going through some rough times with little hope for catharsis anytime soon. Hard times can bring out the worst, and the best in people. I confess, negative thoughts often try to pervade my mind and I sometimes feel compelled to let that spill into the world. Thankfully, I have developed a good safety mechanism that searches for meaning while discarding superficial emotions. In the end, perseverance and positivity prevail...

Our System - 10 - Titan

Saturn's largest moon, and only second in size in the Solar System to Jupiter's Ganymede, Titan presents wonders under its golden atmosphere. While the surface can't be seen by the naked eye through its dense atmosphere, I've decided to reveal it in this depiction and still imply the atmosphere. Otherwise it just looks like a perfectly smooth golden ball. Because the surface details have only been captured with infrared light, much of my colorization and textures are imagined based on the moo...

Thyrian Defenders - 68

Hey, space jockeys! This week I worked on spicing up the title animation. A simple fade would have sufficed, but we don't do anything the easy way with this game. It all happens real quick, but it was quite a bit of work to make the letters build in like this. I broke down the dimensional planes of each letter into separate layers so I could animate them forming frame by frame. I animated each letter and additional elements into separate frame animations in Photoshop. Then, I imported all the...

Ivory Towers layers breakdown

While I didn't exactly document my process for this piece, I thought it might be insightful to breakdown many of the layers I used. There were actually more layers involved in the process but eventually merged and not preserved here. For example, I used several layers to create the main towers, including several variants that got tossed.

I don't always use so many layers, but I find the freedom they allow to be very useful for certain subjects and styles. Furthermore, I'm more prone to...

Ivory Towers

No matter how high they build, the elites could never escape the stench of their sins, rising from below.

198x264px
19 colors
Photoshop

The making of

Prints & merch 

Thyrian Defenders - 67

Suri to the rescue!

In the last update on the intro, a Fighter ship emerged from a portal and chased down Taz. Now in the latest scenes, just before he is about to be cut down from behind, the alternative playable character, Suri, enters the scene to aid her squad mate.

I've shared almost all of the scenes bit by bit in these updates over the past year. These final scenes pretty much wrap up the intro cinematic, outside of some fine tuning with timing and some transitions. Now...

Our System - 9 - Saturn

The most distant planet from Earth that can still be seen with the naked eye, Saturn is the second largest planet in the system at about 85% the size of massive Jupiter. When first observing images of this gas giant I thought the photos had been accidentally stretched out, however, the polar diameter is only 90% of the equatorial diameter, making it an actual wide boy. The extensive rings are the most distinguishing characteristic, stretching out to nearly double the diameter of the planet. I...

Thyrian Defenders - 66

Hey folks! I've been busy working on SFX all week, which is difficult to present as all the new work has yet to be implemented into the game. Nevertheless, I want to show you an exclusive look at more extended raw gameplay in this update.

With that said, keep in the mind the SFX are a bit rough and several sounds are still missing in this video. Also, the dialogue feature is broken and hasn't been fully implemented into the HUD. The graphics and gameplay are pretty much final, but we i...

Tutorial - 80 - Restaurant

Going back to my cozy geometric design style, I present a step by step process to create a fictional fast food restaurant from 3/4 side view and 3/4 top down projections.

Full feature 

Tutorial - 79 - Ramen

Step by step process fro creating Japanese style ramen. Have fun creating your favorite variation of the dish!

Full feature 

Tutorial - 78 - Food Sprites

A sprite reference of a variety of foods in the 32x32px range. More insight and description in the full feature.

Full feature 

Tutorial 79 Source File

Download the original Photoshop source file for Tutorial 79 and gain insight into how I setup my animated tutorials. Make sure to open up the frame animation timeline in order to see the animation.

Download 

Pixelblog - 30 - Food

In this fun and colorful tutorial series I try my best to make you hungry with the illusion of organized tiny squares ;)

Full feature 

October Schedule 2020

Hey folks! I've been doing well and got another month of pixel goodies lined up for you. The postponed Pixelblog from last week has been moved to this coming Tuesday and is well on track. I'm going to be spending a lot of time on gamedev again this month, but also including a fair amount of original art in the schedule. Our System series will reach Saturn and its moons. If you've been closely following the development of Thyrian Defenders you can probably guess which moon I will do. Also, I p...

Life happens (notice of Pixelblog postponement)

Hey folks. I hope everyone is doing well to cope with the challenges of 2020. I’ve been trying my best to gracefully pass through the hard times, but it seems no one is invulnerable to the stress that pervades the world these days. Without going into personal details, I’ll just say life dropped some lemons on me this past week. I’m in good health and I haven’t got sick or anything like that. Thankfully, that goes for my loved ones as well. However, I do have some personal issues I’m...

Our System - 8 - Ganymede

The largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede orbits Jupiter along with dozens of other natural satellites. As the only moon to boast a magnetic field, auroras swirl around the poles. An atmosphere containing oxygen has been detected, but is too thin to support life as we know it. With evidence suggesting an underground ocean, I wouldn't rule out all possibilities of life on this beautiful globe. Bright ridges and raised regions cut across older dark regions, creating one of the most strikin...

Thyrian Defenders - 65

Welcome to another TD update, space cadets! All aboard the Starhulk, the Royal Space Forces' flagship capable of interstellar travel. This will be your home for the next several months, or even years as we seek to purge the Exodon from our fine galaxy. The ultimate goal is to locate the source of these malicious invaders and wipe them out for good. We are severely out numbered, and facing an enemy that is highly adaptable. They seem to have a knack for quickly assimilating alien knowledge and...

Thyrian Defenders - 64

Hey folks, back with some more TD updates this week!

The first video is a new scene I'm working on for the intro. After Taz destroys all the Invaders, a Fighter emerges from a portal. Once you get familiar with the game you'll easily recognize these enemy units and you'll know that Fighters can be real pesky buggers, relentlessly homing on your ship for a kamikaze attack. Definitely not good to have one on your six. Now Taz is really sweating it. What will happen next? Stay tuned!
<...

Our System - 7 - Jupiter

Beyond the terrestrial planets we meet the largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter. This gas giant has long been gazed upon with curiosity, as it's the fourth brightest object in the night sky. Below the massive atmosphere comprised mostly of hydrogen, supposedly there is a core of ice, rock, and metals. The most iconic feature of Jupiter is the Great Red Spot. This is actually a huge storm the size of 3 Earth's, which has raged for as long as 350 years.

This was probably the toug...

Thyrian Defenders - 63

Hey folks! Got some exciting updates for you today. Well, mostly UI stuff, but that's kinda hot for a nerd like me. A solid UI just makes the whole game feel so much more legit.

The first 2 images show examples of the updated main menu functions. Previously, we just had one single list you scrolled through (image 3), which works okay and looks pretty good, but there are too many important features that felt like they got lost in one generic list. By breaking the options into 3 sub menu...

September Schedule 2020

Greetings! Sadly, we're reaching the tail end of summer and the days are already much shorter than a month ago. This season has been good to me this year with aplenty nature outings that will supply me with enough inspiration to get through the cold months. But the warm days aren't over yet, and I plan on soaking up as much vitamin D as I can while the sun still hangs high.

This month's content focuses back on development of Thyrian Defenders, so I'll be sharing juicy updates almost e...

8th Street process

I cranked up the difficulty level with this one. When I first started I had doubts I could pull it off, but I was determined to to delve deeper into my foray of realistic pixel art. In the end, I'm really excited with the results.

Effectively capturing perspective and lighting in an urban environment requires more precision than natural environments. Furthermore, I had to really get inside this picture as if I was solving a jigsaw puzzle in order to bring clarity to all the details. Ov...

8th Street

A diverse commercial block that leads to the university. Along the roadside you'll find restaurants, car dealerships, auto mechanics, hair salons, and many other small businesses. These businesses not only serve the community, they represent people's dreams and demonstrate a path to prosperity through hard work. The businesses and surrounding infrastructure didn't spring up over night, but they could be gone tomorrow. I surely don't want that. Let's BUILD for a better future.

Learn abo...