Feel free to ignore this suggestion completely it's just an idea but!! If you're going to have the inside of the tree always visible to the player I think a good idea would be to have areas youre not in covered in a dark sort of filter and then when you enter an area it lights up to it's actual colours. This way nothing outside of the tree is distracting while youre inside and vice versa!!! It draws the player's attention to where they are and also makes entering new places more exciting- encouraging the player to explore. The player should want to enter new rooms to explore instead of just standing on one floor of the tree or outside because they can see everything already. Of course that might clash completely with your future game play plans but just thought i'd share the idea!
This absolutely *slaps*. I’ve been making video games for over 30 years and I have no advice for you. You already know it all. Your pixel art is flawless (you kids today… when I was your age we had to dig our pixels out of the cold hard ground one at a time! with our own two hands and a sharp stick!) Let strangers beat up on your builds early, exactly like you’re doing now, and learn to never allow your ego to equate any negative feedback directed at your work as feedback directed at you (and any negative feedback, i.e. insults from trolls, directed at you: F ‘em. This is the internet. You’re gonna have to ignore a lot of haters in your career. I’m sure you already know this. You’re obviously a very sharp person.) I love everything about this. I love your enthusiasm, I love your aesthetic, I love how you share your entire process. Killer killer killer work. I wish you all the luck and success in the world 🕊️➕❤
It's so cute, i love it! One thing that bothers me a little is that the stairs from the first to the second floor looks a little bit weird with the way the tree works. It's on the border of the trunk, and it looks like is going outside the tree instead of up the tree. But it's the only nitpick because everything looks absolutely GOURGEOUS
Would love to see this idea expanded upon, it looks great for a little prototype and I think you did the right thing getting it out there as soon as possible. And I get you, when you see everything come together it can be pretty emotional sometimes! It's great that you made sure not to make things static, like making the little band animations, the pouring drink, etc, it really makes the atmosphere all come together to be so cozy 😊
I love this! ❤️ And love the tite screen honestly. The only thing I would say is to make the main character different from the rest of the pixies 🩷 love!
This game looks absolutely AMAZING!!! the second I heard the music I felt that IMMACULATE cozy vibes and wanted to build my little pixie village and make my little pixie friends.
As a life long lover of little people (polly pockets, tinkerbell fairies, the borrowers, etc.) this is my dream! Love all of the little creative details you included!
This looks like a warm cup of tea tastes. Also, I'm a sim player that did the 100 baby challenge (unsuccessfully) so overpopulation in that sort of gameplay would be really cool to me. Like they don't move out.
I can imagine this as a social online game along the lines of animal jam. Users decorating their own trees and being able to visit other users, interactive mini games in a communal area, maybe collectibles and trading?? Man, I miss the flash era of gaming.
My new best gaming content creator And i dont even like Cozy games. But just seeing someone discovering the same passion for making games as me is very plaesant. 🙂
Omg it’s like a pixelated pixie Polly pocket. Maybe your player character should have a hat or something so you can tell them apart from the other pixies easier. The theme song wip is so cute! Why is it that wanting to make a miniature world for lil creatures is like a universal childhood experience?
It looks great! I'm not sure how hard it would be but you should add the ability for the npcs to switch the activity they are doing. Or the player can interact with them like playing catch!
This looks super cute. The music is so ethereal and fitting for the game too! It would be cool if the NPC's had dialogues when you clicked on them or if a block of narration popped up on the screen after clicking on an object to give the game some more interactivity and immersion. You can even build the story that way by having the other characters have different dialogues throughout the storyline to give the world consistency and depth. Great job so far! Hope to see the finished product come to life eventually!
As someone who has worked with kickstarters and crowdfunding in TTRPGs and is a huge pixel art game fan, i cannot WAIT!!! and if u ever need help on planning a crowdfunding campaign i got tips! (though u seem to be able to do it all, truly)
My idea for the title, is to make it look like the roots of a tree growing into the shape of the letters, so it fits the theme of them living in a cool tree.
okay i’m like mildly obsessed with you your interests seem to really align with mine and i really relate to how you described your experience with building worlds and neighbourhoods in other games. i also tried city skylines for craving something bigger or more in depth but… it was too big, too detailed the idea of a soft little world like this is so sweet
Looks great! Looking forward to see more of it. I know you're aiming for it to be a cozy game but I hope it would have a bit more active gameplay and visible ingame progression would also be great. Still it's just what I want, you do you. Keep up the good work!
I LOVE THE CONCEPT! I am also loving the idea of the character creator! Just a question. Will it have a whole world or will it onky be concentrated in making avatars? A game sugestion for decorating is also a game I love bc it has a story behind it (can get frustrating) is unpacking!❤ Also will HollowHearth have a story game? Like talking to the pixies and getting quests or smth . Or only as a hangout character area where you cant really do anything?
Great game! It might take a bit of learning up front but I think using Aseprite for your pixel would be beneficial for you down the line. You can draw, animate, and export sprite sheets all in the same place
I like how you set out to do a thing and then did it. ... I think you should make the font of your title more legible/add higher contrast for the lettering maybe. I also think a neat touch would be that some parts of the music get louder when you are near the band pixies. Keep doing your thing. Highly inspirational :)
When I saw this video I immediatly clicked, this is the kind of game I've always wanted to play - just being little pixies living in a tree aaaaaaa my childhood dreams coming trueeeee
super cute, I'm so excited for this!! one small thing: to me the flying animations didnt really read as flying. I think a good solution would be to add a shadow on the ground to indicate where the player is relative to the ground. also once you have this you could probably even make the pixie float a little teeny tiny bit higher but maybe that wont be needed.
Aaaaaaaaa it's sooo cute! You inspire me greatly, and thank you so much for being so consistent in uploading your progress, keep up the great work! lots of love ❤
Something cool you could do is you could solve some issues with the tree so say there's a pixie who doesn't know where their best friend billy or something went so you can go around talking to different pixies asking the whereabouts and then you can figure out he was say stuck under an acorn or something just to add some life to it obviously there would be more issues but maybe at the end you can see everything come to life and be happy or something
It would be a neat idea if you add way more lighting to the environment Like a very warm yellow lighting inside the tree to make everything look more golden And a cool dark blue for the outside to make the environment surrounding the tree more mysterious and creepy, that makes you think "what goes down on the outside? You could use canvas modulate for that effect and combine it with point light to create that look Also do a thing that you only see the inside of the tree when you enter it like when you go outside the front bark of the tree blocks the view of the inside but the moment you enter it the front bark fades and reveals the inside, maybe the outside view get a little obscured as well
yess!! I totally agree! I’ve been playing around with also using shaders etc, so I will try to implement the lights in the next video. For the bark part, I’m actually almost done drawing the outside bark! so I hope you will stay tuned for that! :)
All of your videos makes my day, weeks, and months! I love listening to the worlds you create! Those childhood references gives me so much nostalgia, even the ones I've forgotten about hehe Thanks so much for making these videos! 💖✨
If you want to use only six drawings per character, you use a hexagonal grid instead of a square grid like they used in Fallout 1&2. Because you can only move in six directions you only need to do six drawings.
Nice, maybe you can ask help like track hours and set some value for help, if it sells enough, give it or some if dont sell much, and maybe bonus, but keep it yours
This speaks to the part of me that always wished I could live in The Shire, cozied up with a pipe, some tea, and a book in a tiny hobbit home. PS, will there be different color pixies?
This is so cute and your art style is so beautiful! If you ever need additional sfx or music in this style I'd love to work on a project like this! I've also got plenty of light/mystical stuff up for free in the Creative Commons!
You should add an interact button, to give description to more of the world (Sorry if that doesn't make sense I mean, an interact button like, Undertale, Deltarune, Earthbound, Pokemon, etc)
I'm currently trying to figure out how to program an autonomous simulation game. Like a cozy village where every npc just lives their life autonomously and you can just watch or interact, or mess them up. But I don't know any programming. Be better than me, please. Good luck! I really like your pixel art! I only don't like the winged goblins, why they look evil tho 😭 otherwise it's really cute, I love the artstyle
This could honestly be the next Stardew Valley, please do not abandon this more than adorable game! I believe in you!
Feel free to ignore this suggestion completely it's just an idea but!! If you're going to have the inside of the tree always visible to the player I think a good idea would be to have areas youre not in covered in a dark sort of filter and then when you enter an area it lights up to it's actual colours. This way nothing outside of the tree is distracting while youre inside and vice versa!!! It draws the player's attention to where they are and also makes entering new places more exciting- encouraging the player to explore. The player should want to enter new rooms to explore instead of just standing on one floor of the tree or outside because they can see everything already. Of course that might clash completely with your future game play plans but just thought i'd share the idea!
This absolutely *slaps*. I’ve been making video games for over 30 years and I have no advice for you. You already know it all. Your pixel art is flawless (you kids today… when I was your age we had to dig our pixels out of the cold hard ground one at a time! with our own two hands and a sharp stick!)
Let strangers beat up on your builds early, exactly like you’re doing now, and learn to never allow your ego to equate any negative feedback directed at your work as feedback directed at you (and any negative feedback, i.e. insults from trolls, directed at you: F ‘em. This is the internet. You’re gonna have to ignore a lot of haters in your career. I’m sure you already know this. You’re obviously a very sharp person.)
I love everything about this. I love your enthusiasm, I love your aesthetic, I love how you share your entire process. Killer killer killer work. I wish you all the luck and success in the world 🕊️➕❤
Your dev logs are a breath of fresh air. And this game has huge potential! Looking forward to seeing where it goes next.
thats so kind! thankyou so much!
i am OBSESSED with their little jiggly tummies, this is so beautiful
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I SMILED WHEN I HEARD THE THEME SONG WIP
yayyy so glad you like it!!!
you’re so inspiring
It's so cute, i love it!
One thing that bothers me a little is that the stairs from the first to the second floor looks a little bit weird with the way the tree works. It's on the border of the trunk, and it looks like is going outside the tree instead of up the tree.
But it's the only nitpick because everything looks absolutely GOURGEOUS
agreed, it could be a ladder, or maybe you could have the player fly up to the next floor!
Maybe that door could lead to a spiral stair that's inbetween the tavern and the trunk.
Would love to see this idea expanded upon, it looks great for a little prototype and I think you did the right thing getting it out there as soon as possible. And I get you, when you see everything come together it can be pretty emotional sometimes! It's great that you made sure not to make things static, like making the little band animations, the pouring drink, etc, it really makes the atmosphere all come together to be so cozy 😊
You're so talented, wtf! I was already loving the overall look of the game, then you showed the music and I was completely blown off.
The pixelart is amazing... If this ends up having actual gameplay... Omg, it will be crazy fr! Keep up the good work c:
This is gorgeous!! I love lil people living in lil places and this is one of the best put together scenes of that 💖 I hope this becomes a full game!
You've got a gift in world-building.. amazed when you're explaining the tree and the environment!
I love this! ❤️ And love the tite screen honestly. The only thing I would say is to make the main character different from the rest of the pixies 🩷 love!
aa thankyou! and yes! planning on making all the characters different and the main customizable! will tackle that in a seperate video :) 💖
wait AND you're a musician? amazing. i think you are maybe my spirit animal
This game looks absolutely AMAZING!!! the second I heard the music I felt that IMMACULATE cozy vibes and wanted to build my little pixie village and make my little pixie friends.
As a life long lover of little people (polly pockets, tinkerbell fairies, the borrowers, etc.) this is my dream! Love all of the little creative details you included!
omg polly pocketss!! loved chewing on them as a kid 😂😂 also thankyou so much!!! im glad you like it :)
you're honestly super talented at pixel art! the whole artstyle and world looks gorgeous. keep up the good work!
thankyou so much for the kind words! I’m still learning something new everyday with pixel art, so I always think I still have a long ways to go! :):)
This looks so cuuuteee!!! All the art assets you made are so polished, excited to see more videos on gameplay as you work on hollowhearth more :)
This looks like a warm cup of tea tastes. Also, I'm a sim player that did the 100 baby challenge (unsuccessfully) so overpopulation in that sort of gameplay would be really cool to me. Like they don't move out.
omg I have never successfully done a 100 baby challenge 😱 also omg!!! thanks for using my character creator as ur pfp! its such a compliment 💖🙇♀️
Very cute, love all the little bits of animation!
The desire to create little worlds has always been a driving force for my own creativity too.
I can imagine this as a social online game along the lines of animal jam. Users decorating their own trees and being able to visit other users, interactive mini games in a communal area, maybe collectibles and trading?? Man, I miss the flash era of gaming.
You are so good at all the aspects needed for game development!! Such a creative idea excited to see more if you stick this idea out!!
My new best gaming content creator And i dont even like Cozy games. But just seeing someone discovering the same passion for making games as me is very plaesant. 🙂
Omg it’s like a pixelated pixie Polly pocket. Maybe your player character should have a hat or something so you can tell them apart from the other pixies easier. The theme song wip is so cute! Why is it that wanting to make a miniature world for lil creatures is like a universal childhood experience?
It looks great! I'm not sure how hard it would be but you should add the ability for the npcs to switch the activity they are doing. Or the player can interact with them like playing catch!
This looks super cute. The music is so ethereal and fitting for the game too! It would be cool if the NPC's had dialogues when you clicked on them or if a block of narration popped up on the screen after clicking on an object to give the game some more interactivity and immersion. You can even build the story that way by having the other characters have different dialogues throughout the storyline to give the world consistency and depth. Great job so far! Hope to see the finished product come to life eventually!
As someone who has worked with kickstarters and crowdfunding in TTRPGs and is a huge pixel art game fan, i cannot WAIT!!!
and if u ever need help on planning a crowdfunding campaign i got tips! (though u seem to be able to do it all, truly)
My idea for the title, is to make it look like the roots of a tree growing into the shape of the letters, so it fits the theme of them living in a cool tree.
this is so cute!! i think maybe it would be great to have like, a zoom in when you enter the tree, for more visibility !!
Watching your progression as a game dev has been fun since day one
obsessed! can't wait to see all of what you add. The music, the colors, the concept... Hollowhearth is going to be a solid game!
Holy crap I am so happy the algorithm has sent me to you, you're so talented!! Excited for more videos 😁
thats so kind! thankyou! I’m currently working on a game jam, a horror game, and the rest of Hollowhearth! so more videos to come for sure! :)
okay i’m like mildly obsessed with you
your interests seem to really align with mine and i really relate to how you described your experience with building worlds and neighbourhoods in other games. i also tried city skylines for craving something bigger or more in depth but… it was too big, too detailed
the idea of a soft little world like this is so sweet
I’m so happy that there’s a game developer making my dream game ❤🎉 (I’ve always wanted to play a game like this omg)
Looks great! Looking forward to see more of it.
I know you're aiming for it to be a cozy game but I hope it would have a bit more active gameplay and visible ingame progression would also be great.
Still it's just what I want, you do you. Keep up the good work!
Omg the little band. And the way the voices come in when you enter the tree is so great. This would be such a great full game.
I LOVE THE CONCEPT! I am also loving the idea of the character creator! Just a question. Will it have a whole world or will it onky be concentrated in making avatars? A game sugestion for decorating is also a game I love bc it has a story behind it (can get frustrating) is unpacking!❤
Also will HollowHearth have a story game? Like talking to the pixies and getting quests or smth . Or only as a hangout character area where you cant really do anything?
Great game! It might take a bit of learning up front but I think using Aseprite for your pixel would be beneficial for you down the line. You can draw, animate, and export sprite sheets all in the same place
Yay! A quality devlogger posted once again!
Loving the game dev content, keep up the good work!
and i loved the tinkerbell movies growing up!
I like how you set out to do a thing and then did it.
...
I think you should make the font of your title more legible/add higher contrast for the lettering maybe.
I also think a neat touch would be that some parts of the music get louder when you are near the band pixies.
Keep doing your thing. Highly inspirational :)
That’s so cool thanks for such an in depth walkthrough also the title screen looks awesome
Gorgeous little creatures!!! You seem super enthusiastic about the concept so I look forward to seeing how development goes
ahhh it's so cute! excited to see how it develops
This is just amazing to be ablo to do so many things ! You're so talented :) Keep working on it, it's so great!
This looks fantastic, great work!
trees has some veins, maybe keeping those inside the tree, part of the building to keep the tree alive ?
i already love this channel, you are full of skills and ideas
When I saw this video I immediatly clicked, this is the kind of game I've always wanted to play - just being little pixies living in a tree aaaaaaa my childhood dreams coming trueeeee
super cute, I'm so excited for this!!
one small thing: to me the flying animations didnt really read as flying. I think a good solution would be to add a shadow on the ground to indicate where the player is relative to the ground. also once you have this you could probably even make the pixie float a little teeny tiny bit higher but maybe that wont be needed.
yes! I tried adding a shadow but I was having issues with the y-sort! But I think I may have figured out a solution 🤔 we will see if it works! hahaha
omg, it's so pretty~~
and I totally wanna hear about the over population story!
I love the details and music! Can't wait to see more as you develop it!
this is unbelievably cute, and your artwork is wonderful. I love all of it.
You're literally so talented. proud of you
I just can't wait to see more and more things about this project. Everything is just too cute ♥ ♥
Aaaaaaaaa it's sooo cute! You inspire me greatly, and thank you so much for being so consistent in uploading your progress, keep up the great work! lots of love ❤
I have always wanted a game like this !! I'm so excited
Something cool you could do is you could solve some issues with the tree so say there's a pixie who doesn't know where their best friend billy or something went so you can go around talking to different pixies asking the whereabouts and then you can figure out he was say stuck under an acorn or something just to add some life to it obviously there would be more issues but maybe at the end you can see everything come to life and be happy or something
It would be a neat idea if you add way more lighting to the environment
Like a very warm yellow lighting inside the tree to make everything look more golden
And a cool dark blue for the outside to make the environment surrounding the tree more mysterious and creepy, that makes you think "what goes down on the outside?
You could use canvas modulate for that effect and combine it with point light to create that look
Also do a thing that you only see the inside of the tree when you enter it
like when you go outside the front bark of the tree blocks the view of the inside but the moment you enter it the front bark fades and reveals the inside, maybe the outside view get a little obscured as well
yess!! I totally agree! I’ve been playing around with also using shaders etc, so I will try to implement the lights in the next video. For the bark part, I’m actually almost done drawing the outside bark! so I hope you will stay tuned for that! :)
love this genre of games !! it always gets my brain tingling! ur art is beautiful as always :)
You are adorable and I loved your gamedev process!
i can't wait to hear you talk about your ideas for hollowhearth! 🤩 i'll be sure to tune in because a game about "overpopulation" sounds interesting 🤔
Would love to follow this progress on Bluesky! Thanks for sharing your progress
All of your videos makes my day, weeks, and months! I love listening to the worlds you create! Those childhood references gives me so much nostalgia, even the ones I've forgotten about hehe Thanks so much for making these videos! 💖✨
ahh im loving the game dev videos sm!! and i love your pixies suPER cute concept so excited
wow your pixel art is amazinggg
If you want to use only six drawings per character, you use a hexagonal grid instead of a square grid like they used in Fallout 1&2. Because you can only move in six directions you only need to do six drawings.
aww the pixies are adorable!
gorgeous concept and art direction! excited to see more
The pixies are so cute! I wanna hug them so bad.
Girl you’re literally Barbie given the sheer amount of stuff you can do
It’s soooo cute 😭💖 great job!!!!
You're an excellent artist!
OMGSH I loooove this! it's so cute and cozy!
OMG this is so good - well done!!!
The song is sooo relaxing and nice
the pixies look like yoda . . .
Nice, maybe you can ask help like track hours and set some value for help, if it sells enough, give it or some if dont sell much, and maybe bonus, but keep it yours
thank you from Brasil ^.^ congrats for the cuteness (yours and the game ~.~)
This speaks to the part of me that always wished I could live in The Shire, cozied up with a pipe, some tea, and a book in a tiny hobbit home.
PS, will there be different color pixies?
new sub! Loved the vid 🥰 lol your explanation of everything was cute 💖 This looks so good!
damn you have some talent succesful musicartist, great drawing artist, game developer DAMN
this is so pretty i LOVE thissss amazing job so far!! ^w^
This is so cute and your art style is so beautiful! If you ever need additional sfx or music in this style I'd love to work on a project like this! I've also got plenty of light/mystical stuff up for free in the Creative Commons!
The art is soooo nice
precious idea! i would play!
wow , amazing work! great video
you can sing too! you're amazing!
You should add an interact button, to give description to more of the world (Sorry if that doesn't make sense I mean, an interact button like, Undertale, Deltarune, Earthbound, Pokemon, etc)
26x26 hurts me; it's so close to 32x32
You are inspirational af
I would love to see where this goes
stop itttt this is AMAZING
It would be cute If they wear lil flower hats or glasses and they where different colors, i also love those types of games
So cute! Wish I had those kind of skills 😅
You're so underrated omg❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I'm currently trying to figure out how to program an autonomous simulation game. Like a cozy village where every npc just lives their life autonomously and you can just watch or interact, or mess them up. But I don't know any programming. Be better than me, please. Good luck!
I really like your pixel art! I only don't like the winged goblins, why they look evil tho 😭 otherwise it's really cute, I love the artstyle
make it so the band syncs with the music
How cool! And I'm sorry what game engine was this in?
thanks! it was Godot 4.2! :)