Tutorial - 120 - Rock Wall
Time to add some verticality to our top down environments.
2023-03-29 13:36:11 +0000 UTC View Post
slynyrd posts
Tutorial - 119 - Grass and Dirt
Another round of grass and dirt to warm up for a new top down tile lesson.
2023-03-29 13:35:59 +0000 UTC View PostTop Down Tiles Part 2 Source Files
This download includes tutorial 119-121 psd files, and Top Down Tile Part 2 Pixel Edit file. Treasures of creations await!
2023-03-29 13:28:37 +0000 UTC View PostTop Down Tiles Pack 2
This download includes all 100 tiles present in Pixelblog 43. Tiles come in individual png files, as well as one png file with them all in one image.
2023-03-29 13:27:58 +0000 UTC View PostPixelblog - 43 - Top Down Tiles Part 2
An expansion of my top down tile concepts with new textures, variants, and a layered approach for more versatile environment creation.
2023-03-29 13:27:01 +0000 UTC View PostDrifters - 3 - Wind Guppy
Getting in the groove. Keep on drifting.
64x64px(canvas) 128x128px(frame)
17 colors
Photoshop
Drifters - 2 - Sky Crawler
As usual. I've already changed the color palette for the series. I used my classic Mondo palette for the first design, but it doesn't capture the mood I want. This design uses colors from my latest master palette, Mega Beast, which I designed specifically for Beast Planet. It's still in beta, but I'll eventually share it with my Patrons someday.
The palette swap improves the feeling of volume of the ships by increasing contrast between lights and darks. I'm also using a warming filter t...
2023-03-07 23:27:05 +0000 UTC View PostDevlog - 14
I've been thoroughly enjoying my time working on Beast Planet this past month. Here's the latest.
Started to work on UI concepts, including the main title/logo, basic HUD elements, and some menu ideas. Want to keep the menus simple and slick with a black and red color scheme, and perhaps one other highlight color. I think it can be a powerful design, but I must be careful to avoid the Virtual Boy look, and avoid the overuse of large swathes of loud red color.
I made a simple d...
March Schedule 2023
And just like that, the days of winter come to the last leg. Hope you all have been making the most of your time, cuz it keeps on slipping. I was having so much fun working on Beast Planet this past month, it sure went fast for me.
For March, I'm going to squeeze in a bit more gamedev before I gear up for the next Pixelblog due at the end of the month. Couple more airship designs coming as well. Enough blabbering, let's pixel!
Thank you always for the amazing support of my Pat...
Devlog - 13
Another week of gleeful gamedev going on here. I completed the assets for the Meat Man enemy and we have the basic implementation with patrol, pathfinding, and attack behaviors. We'll tune things up later when we get more into the level design. New additions to the sprite are idle animations and a death animation. I had a surprising amount of fun making the death animation. Sorry for the bloody mess, but I want to lean into the gore factor and make killing things ultra satisfying with unique ...
2023-02-24 19:51:41 +0000 UTC View PostDrifters - 1 - Delphibus
Prepare to embark on a new Pixel Minis adventure! With airships being one of my favorite subjects, it's high time I make a series all about them. Furthermore, I bring you Drifters. I'm anxious to iterate and create a variety of sky bound wonders for you. Hope you enjoy!
64x64px(canvas) 128x128px(frame)
16 colors
Photoshop
*Color revsion 3/7/23
Devlog - 12
Similar to SNES games like Zelda and Secret of Mana, the characters in Beast Planet have 8 directional movement but there aren't actual angled frames, so while you can move in any direction, your character can't face toward the angles. This decision is mostly about economy, but I think the simplicity keeps the action clean, and the limitation forces more creative strategies when you can't simply point and shoot in any direction. However, to compensate for the limitation of 4 directions, most ...
2023-02-17 17:34:55 +0000 UTC View PostDevlog - 11
Hey folks! Exciting things happening with development of Beast Planet. I've finally got my hands on the first playable build of the game. Well, there's not a lot you can do yet, but we've established many foundations of the design including basic movement, camera behavior, pixel perfect solutions for the desired resolution, and collision system. The short clip demonstrates the screen size/resolution, which is 384x216px. Notice the subtle depth effect by allowing the player to slightly walk be...
2023-02-10 18:04:11 +0000 UTC View PostFebruary Schedule 2023
Hey folks! The year is off to a good start with a solid month of content already in the books. It was a great pleasure to bring back Pixelmotion, and fill the month with originals. This month, I will turn my priority back to gamedev, as the first functioning builds of Beast Planet begin to take shape. I'm determined to get that mech in action!
I plan to start up a new Pixel Minis towards the end of the month. I already have some ideas from previous suggestions, but I might release a p...
Tutorial - 118 - Cyberpunk Buildings
The real main character of any cyberpunk story is the city itself.
2023-01-31 15:02:46 +0000 UTC View PostTutorial - 117 - Cyberpunk Miscellaneous
Cyberpunk signatures that fill the streets of 20XX.
Full Feature
Tutorial - 116 - Cyberpunk Characters
An exploration that covers a fair range of body types, skin tones, cybernetic prosthetics, and fashions. Also, this breakdown provides a sure fire protocol for awesome character creation.
2023-01-31 15:02:24 +0000 UTC View PostCyberpunk Source Files
This download includes tutorial 116-118 in psd format. See exactly how I organize my animation projects in Photoshop.
2023-01-31 14:54:29 +0000 UTC View PostCyberpunk Assets Pack
This download includes nearly all assets presented in Pixelblog 42. Files are in .png format with transparent background in native resolution.
2023-01-31 14:54:03 +0000 UTC View PostPixelblog - 42 - Cyberpunk Pixel Art
Hovercars, vending machines, and impractical fashions that exude sexuality. It's all here with a fair dose of neon.
2023-01-31 14:53:14 +0000 UTC View PostAmatia - Complete Gallery
It's a wrap for Amatia, but I'm sure I'll return to a similar subject soon. This series was right in the sweet spot for me, combining a favorite style and subject. A pleasure to make, and the audience seemed to dig it. If I was ever going to lean into one thing, it would be something like this. Nevertheless, I can't see myself becoming only a mech guy, then again, if it kept the lights on. Moreover, It seems most of the really successful artists stick to a single formula. As a consumer, I und...
2023-01-19 15:05:24 +0000 UTC View PostPixelmotion - 31 - Joy Flight
Surprise! It's an impromptu Pixelmotion. I just realized I neglected to keep up my animated scenes in 2022, but that's got to change. To get things going again I made a signature parallaxer. I'd like to put more of these out on the reg in hopes of gaining some traction on my YT channel. Please have a view of the animated version with original tunes.
Watch on Youtube
2023-01-17 23:21:01 +0000 UTC
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Devlog - 10
Finally getting this mech moving! Personally, the greatest hurdle to making game art is sprite animation. A one off animation ain't so bad, but when you have to string together a multitude of animations from various positions while maintaining consistency of design, proportion, and motion, it's a whole different beast. Compared to Hyper Echelon, where most sprites always face one direction, I'm going to have to up my game to crack this nut.
I'm using a layered approach to execute the m...
Amatia - 9 - Exun
While this modified service bot is considered an economy model, its reliable blaster arm can put down the best of them with a relentless torrent of energy pellets.
63x52px sprite 128x128px canvas
22 colors
Photoshop
Amatia - 8 - Kozo
A fearsome unit balanced for heavy melee weapons. No armor can withstand a clean strike from its mighty hammer.
100x62px sprite 128x128px canvas
21 colors
Photoshop
January Schedule 2023
Happy New Year! Although the world seems to be in a cycle of darkness these past few years, I hold out optimism and still proclaim the new year to be happy. As a fan of odd numbers I warmly welcome 2023.
Looking back on 2022, it was a decent year for the Slynyrd business, but I would have liked to put out more original artworks. The lack of published art is partly due to the benching of Shape of the Universe, and I also did some behind the scenes freelance vector illustration. It's rare...
2023-01-02 20:08:36 +0000 UTC View PostDevlog - 9
The first idea for Beast Planet came to be waaay back when I was 18 years old. Over the years it's provided the backdrop for many artworks, writings, and multimedia projects. For that, I have a deep well of established concepts and lore to build from. Along with the current game development, I would like to sprinkle in some of these older materials to provide more history and context to the project. So called world building.
The first image is such material - sort of an encyclopedia e...
Devlog - 8
Hey folks. In this update I want to go into more detail on the design process of the hub city of the game. This last refuge for humankind is appropriately called Omega City. Starting with the sketches, I first conceived of a large interconnected colony that ringed the entire planet. I liked the visuals, but felt the scale was too grand, as the vast development would imply a large population of residents in relatively comfortable symbiosis with the planet, lessening the sense of tension. Next,...
2022-12-23 20:21:44 +0000 UTC View PostDevlog - 7
No better way to spend these dark cold days than getting lost in development of Beast Planet. This past week I've mostly been focused on environment/tile design. As you can see from the first couple images, we are going with a 3/4 top down view, similar to the style used in my Phantasy Star study. This is the common presentation of many 16bit RPGs. The consistent perspective provides a convincing sense of depth, however the way the viewpoint hides the back side of elevated areas and objects i...
2022-12-16 16:38:25 +0000 UTC View PostAmatia - 7 - Aelosk
A great all around machine, but the configuration is best suited for utilizing ranged weapons.
84xm68px sprite 128x128px canvas
20 colors
Photoshop