slynyrd

Thyrian Defenders - 55

Hey all! gamedev month is in full swing. I've mostly been working on progressing the intro this week. I set up a project in After Effects where I'm putting everything together and trying to sync things with music. It's coming together nicely, but I still need to create more assets for additional scenes. The final intro will be just under a minute in length and I have about 30 solid seconds now, so about halfway done. Now that I've come this far and established the vision I expect the second h...

June 2020 Schedule

Hey all my pixel friends! It's been another strange month with a lot of chaos unfolding around the world. I hope you all are staying safe and healthy. My situation has fortunately allowed me to ride out the storm that is 2020 with relative ease so far. However, humanity is a global community these days, and everything that happens in the world affects us in some way. Even if you're living in a palace with all your needs taken care of, it's impossible to not feel pain when the world is crumbli...

Sunken Planet - Complete Gallery

Choose your fighter! What sub are you taking treasure hunting?

Here it is, the patreon exclusive complete gallery of the Sunken Planet series. This might have been the most fun minis series for me so far. I'll have to visit this world again sometime. I'd also love to do a spaceship series in this style, hint hint. 

Pandora's Entrance

The flame of life resides somewhere deep within her ever shifting labyrinthine chambers. Do you chance entering before the maze rearranges itself?

This is just a quick spontaneous piece. After working on tiles for the past couple weeks I was itching to create something free form. So there ya go, bonus content!

188x128px
14 colors
Photoshop 

Tutorial - 74 - Background Tiles

Learn how to make background tiles with various layers of vegetation, clouds, and sky. More explanation and tutorials in full feature.

Full feature 

Tutorial - 73 - Rocky Grass platform and support tiles

It’s common convention in older games but there’s something that irks me about floating platforms, so I often create support tiles. More explanation and tutorials in the full feature.

Full feature 

Tutorial - 72 - Rocky Grass basic ground tiles

Jump into side view tile creation with the basic ground tiles. More explanation and tutorials in full feature.

Full feature 

Sly 16

16 colors. Some say that’s all you need.
The following download link includes aco, ase, and png files to easily load the colors into your favorite pixel program.

Download 

Side View Tiles Source Files

This includes the Photoshop file for tutorial 72, and the Pixel Edit file with all the tiles loaded in ready to create levels. Gain insight from these original project files.

Download 

Side View Grassy Rock Tiles Pack

This asset download includes all the tiles presented in Pixelblog 28. Enjoy using these in your studies and projects. 

Download 

Pixelblog - 28 - Side View Tiles

From the foreground to the background, learn how to make tiles to create a complete game environment. 

Full Feature 

Thyrian Defenders - 54

Heya! I've been busy working on the upcoming Pixelblog this week, but there's always stuff going on with TD. As usual, this week has been mostly testing, bug fixing, and adjusting minor balancing issues. Also, got in contact with some audio guys who previously helped us  with sfx and voice over work. Currently, the sfx is still a bit rough and incomplete, so we're hoping to pick back up where we left off and get the audio all finished this time. Next month I'm going to dedicate my schedu...

Sunken Planet - 9

Echinopod - The sole vessel of a mysterious private company, reportedly setting the record for greatest depth. It will surely change the game if put into production. 

64x64px (128x128px frame)
21 colors
Photoshop

This is my last entry in this series. I had a lot of fun making these and would love to flesh out the concept more someday with characters, creatures, and locations of the world. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the series. I will release a gallery of all 9 designs ...

Thyrian Defenders - 53

Hey everybody! Slight remix with the scheduled content today. Instead of a regular Pixelmotion piece I'm sharing an animated scene I'm working on for TD. This is part of the intro sequence. I admit, I didn't have to do too much animating with this, as I already had the background created when I made the scene with the Titan a while back. However, it's still WIP and I intend to add some movement to the ships to get a bit of parallax effect on them too. That motion can been tweened in unity, ra...

Somewhere Red

Artwork featured in Pixelcast 40

188x188px
22 colors
Photoshop
6 hours

Pixelcast - 40

Hey! Watch me attack the canvas in this exciting episode. In order to capture the twisted organic forms of the landscape, I approached this piece with a looser and sketchier style than usual. When I sketch on paper it's gestural and full of chatter. This leads to a lot of improvisation as my imagination pulls unexpected ideas from the sketchy forms. However, sketching in pixels always feels like it leaves a lot of unnecessary mess that will have to be cleaned up, so I try to keep it clean fro...

Thyrian Defenders - 52

Hi again. Got a quick update for you from the Thyrian universe.

Here are a few more idle animations for the map screen. These are all completed and implemented into the game now. In addition to animating the planets, I updated the sprite work quite a bit. Some of these were originally made a couple years ago, so naturally I now see ways to improve them. However, I try not to get too caught up in tiny cosmetic revisions, as you can get trapped in a constant cycle of redoing your graphic...

May Schedule 2020

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well in these strange times. Things have been going surprisingly well for me lately. I suppose there are a lot of people stuck at home and looking for entertainment, or utilizing the time to learn new skills. I wish this awkward reality could be undone, but I'm delighted to see so many making the best out of the situation by attempting to better themselves.

With a steady influx of new patrons I've recently hit my goal of 200 patrons! Wow, it's starting to...

Sunken Planet - 8

Decashuttle - A rare design with the ability to transform into loco mode, which allows the craft to use its mechanical legs to crawl or propel itself like a shrimp.  

64x64px (128x128px frame)
24 colors
Photoshop

Thyrian Defenders - 51

Yo, got another TD update for you!

The first image is another frame from the intro sequence. Yep, fun with hands again. I took my time setting up a quality reference photo and it's going  pretty smooth. Still WIP, working on animating the trigger finger.

Also, I'm creating subtle animations for the level select screen, which bring a little more life to the scene and emphasize your current selection.

Still doing a lot of testing as well. While we are still squashing...

Thyrian Defenders - 50

Well, it's Friday again, and time to talk TD. I've been spending most of my time working on the graphical assets to go on our steam page. This is the point we really have to decide on the game's image as far as marketing goes. Even if a game is pixel art, the box art and marketing assets are usually some kind of high res illustration, often in a generic anime or cartoon style. I understand this makes it more accessible to the mainstream, but it's always disappointing to me. I often see the ga...

Place of Infinity

What will you find in this cursed landscape? The key to existence, or eternal madness?

As promised in the schedule, here's my random original piece. Had a lot of ideas floating around my head but felt I was due for an isometric piece. This is loosely inspired by a fiction I was working on back in my teens and early 20's called Beast Planet. It was mostly a hyper gory sci-fi universe that let me vent my adolescent angst, but there were some really cool concepts that still captivate me ...

Thyrian Defenders - 49

Hey! I've been deep in the Thyrian universe this week and making progress. We're in the polishing stages, so a lot of little things going on, like color changes, and the addition of subtle details. I've spent a ton of time testing the game recently as well, which is also really important work, but so much fun when you're doing an organic play through. I've been playing all week and I'm currently at about 70% complete. Lot of replay here. Not just because it's challenging, but there is quite a...

Sunken Planet - 7

Angelfish - Another all around performer from the 'Fish' makers. Showcasing an elegant outer appearance, and a stylish interior, these craft provide luxury within a dangerous abyss.

64x6xpx (128x128px frame)
15 colors
Photoshop

Thyrian Defenders - 48

Yo, got the first of many TD updates coming this month. We've recently been focused on presentation details. The first image you see is more WIP from the intro scene. The perspective is a bit odd, but I felt the ship needed to be tilted a certain degree to read well. I think it will work for the brief moment it will be shown, but I might play with it some more, and maybe add another layer of streaking lights for greater depth.

The following images are concepts for the wingman unlock s...

April Schedule 2020

Greetings everyone. I hope that you all are safe and doing well.
Pheww... I survived March. It's been difficult times with the pandemic the world is experiencing, but I'm glad to report I'm staying safe and doing as well as possible given the situation. Things escalated so quickly, thinking back to just one month ago seems surreal. The first week of the month was business as usual. I was watching NBA games and totally taking it for granted up until they pulled the plug on March 11th. Altho...

Sunken Planet - 6

Bubble Pod - Economic and easy to pilot, this small craft with a max capacity of only two passengers is a great choice for novice explorers. 

64x6xpx (128x128px frame)
22 colors
Photoshop

Tutorial - 71 - Submarine

Not quite in line with the other natural studies in this lesson, but it’s also important to study man made objects. More explanation and tutorials in full feature.

Full feature 

Tutorial - 70 - Algae

A general reference for various algae species. Try researching and pixeling some that aren’t featured here! More explanation and tutorials in full feature.

Full feature 

Tutorial - 69 - Corals

A general reference for various coral species. Try researching and pixeling some that aren’t featured here! More explanation and tutorials in full feature.

Full feature