Nothing against a little bit of experimentation! This is your channel after all, and like you said in the video, you should know your audience and lean into it. Thanks for your advice!
But you can tell you are playing a role instead of being an over the top teenager youtuber, so it works well enough. And besides, you kept the straight to the point style of your narrative voice, which works for me.
Avoiding "Just doing a thing and hoping that someone likes it." (@2:43) - such great advice! I think that general idea has been in my subconscious for quite some time, but I never knew how to articulate it, even just in my conscious mind. Yet, you put it so succinctly.
Just got into 2D game development with an idea and almost immediately found your channel. First, THANK YOU for your videos and time and effort you put in them, really helps me a lot! Second, could you make a video about what tools you are using when creating your artwork? I mean what phisical tools (like wacom, pen, or mouse, tablet or other), and what other tools and sources (like sites, programs), and other assets (meaning brushes, pre-defined color palettes), etc. And thanks again, keep up the good work!
Thanks, I appreciate it :) There are quite a bit of options that I would consider good, Tablets: I consider "huion, wacom and xp-pen" to be quite decent Drawing programs: I think "Krita, Affinity Photo and photoshop (though I have stopped using photoshop entirely because I personally think it is more expensive than it's worth)" are decent options. Websites: I really like pinterest for references, other than that I collect a lot of physical books (but I like books) Reference program: I really like pureref for collecting and looking at references Writing program: I use obsidian to store notes and images In terms of the drawing program you see in all my videos, it is procreate using an ipad pro. I do all my animations and assets in procreate and then I do game dev in godot. The brushes I use are basic brushes that belong to the standard procreate kit, I also use very few, mostly just the syrup brush. I don't use any predefined colour palettes (I have a video on how I tend to pick colours, it is significantly less rigorous than it probably should be, but I tend to just pick analogous colours that are either "warm or cold") I have two videos covering 90% of what I use and how I think about it. one called "How to draw game art in Procreate" and then one called "Collecting and using References" Good luck!
See this is a good video. It is short and it gives so much. We are debating art style and now I will send this video to everyone. That way we might be able to determine the group of people we want to attract.
Thank you so much for those words, I really hope i could put in on practice for my personal project. This is really something I hardly thought about since I started drawing on 2021, i always more worried about something looking impressive or well rendered, when in some cases more appeal could be found in the simplest illustrations
i just want to create a game like realm of the mad god but im too lazy to spend days n hours improving my art. it feels like such a chore. especially if ur aggravated that u might violate copyright or something. u constantly need to sketch. sketch skills. then u need to get used to throwing them out. a lot of it seems like do my shapes look cute.
In terms of overall design, I was hugely inspired by games like Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and Cuphead because of their animation and had the desire to create hand drawn animation for my game. I also looked for games that had mediocre pixel art that still appealed to a large audience and I discovered Undertale. After careful consideration and testing, and also after loving both games as well as metroid, I opted to create an Undertale-inspired metroidvania. Then in terms of the visuals, after pondering over what kind of art to use, I figured, by not be crazy and do both hand drawn vector art ad well as pixel art. And lucky enough, the feedback was mostly positive and no one had any issues with the visuals and still accepted it as a metroidvania. TL;DR Feedback is also an important tool especially if you're going to decide what sort of audience you want your game to appeal to. The earlier you discuss this with many people from fellow developers ad well as players, the sooner you get to know if the game visuals you are working on as well as gameplay would appeal to their taste and make them want to buy it. It saves time and energy that way.😅 Also, concerning your approach to videos. Here's a crazy thought... Why not feature all of them? The main difference is you could keep them consistent by using a certain approach based on a certain topic. You could make your videos feel dry/blunt for analysis on certain games like the one you did on aeterna noctis, Then offer a slightly warmer approach for the art tutorials, and an approach like this when discussing about game design. I feel that might help your content feel an extra dose of uniqueness, as a UA-camr who uses different faces for certain videos. Like a man of many masks. But that's just me. Any approach from here onwards is fine by me, since at the end of the day, I learn a lot of tips, advice and gain some new insights.😁👍
I think I can see on your channel, it looks cool, I really like how you implemented the tree in you #1 devlog :) Ye feedback is super important, other developers, players, even people you know :) Ye I will probably to some extent do it differently depending on topic. I didn't really try to make this video 'special', it was more that without the visuals I felt that the point I was trying to make wasn't that clear so I had to try and do my best to fix it :) Thanks for the advice!
I strongly disagree with your perspective on this. Yes, you def need to have your audience in mind. But this does not necessarily mean the artstyle has to be alien or dark. Look at Hollow Knight, which is an obvious counter example to your argument, because ist appeals both Metroidvania and Soulslike players and is close to your own artstyle which you called inappropriate.
Hmm, I see where I might have communicated poorly. I was only making the argument that if you wanted to appeal to a ’metroid crowd’ having this artstyle wouldn’t be the best. This does not mean that there isn’t another type of ’audience’ that does in fact like what you are doing such as the ’i like cute but creepy crowd’. My point is that you want to ensure that you know which crowd you are trying to appeal to. Trying to appeal to one crowd but inadvertantly appealing to another is bad, because it will mean you will make choices that might turn off the audience that actually like your game, in favor of an audience that you think you are appealing to. I dont really think there is ”an inappropriate artstyle”, but there i believe there are bad strategic choices that you might make with your style.
@@Nonsensical2D yes I unstand that. If you have a target audience, your creative vision should not be independent of that. You can not just develop for a void. I support that you want to make people aware of that. But you can appeal differently than just visually. Having cute character design does not mean that metroid fans won‘t like your game because it’s not alien of mature enough. People are multidimensional and so are target audiences and games/game Genres. Otherwise everyone would just make clones that look and feel the same but contribute nothing new. BTW: what I‘m trying to say is keep your artstyle, I like it even as a fan of darker more mature looking games
This is really true. I didn't like Ghost Song, even though I love metroidvanias. I disliked everything about how the character moved and I found the visual communication confusing to the point where I didn't even see the path forward because it was so hidden (I saw it in a youtube video after I had uninstalled it). Whereas lots of metroidvanias that focused on other aspects have appealed to me more.
Ye, I personally put ghost song in a weird bucket in that I both really like some aspects of it, and really dislike other aspects, but it feels more unique than a lot of games that have come out, so it's an interesting game to discuss :)
Shows how games are subjective, i also LOVE metroidvania's and love ghost song, but i dislike HK because it's too convoluted, obscure and punishing, especially on death.
@@d00mnoodle24 I get that with Hollow Knight, it depends on what you like with metroidvanias also. To me Hollow Knight is the perfect metroidvania, it allows open exploration like literally no other metroidvania (though yeah, once the map is more explored finding the path forward if you don't know can be tricky), but yeah the difficulty can be tough. I definitely understand anyone who bounced off HK.
@@dondashall For me the map is too big for it's own good, the fast travel points are lacking for it's size, and checkpoints are stretched too far and few between. I also like platforming more than combat, so for me ori is the perfect MV. Big map with enough travel options, fun and diverse platforming and you don't get lost as often, as the main path is relatively linear. It's also insanely beautiful visually and audibly. Haiku the robot was also perfect for me, that game is like a more accesible hk, with very open exploration but easier difficulty and more checkpoints/fast travel. I think if HK didn't have death penalties and twice the amount of benches/stag stations i'd like it a lot more. There should also be a slightly lower difficulty level, more akin to haiku. Also thanks for not shooting me down on the spot for saying i don't like hk, a lot of 'fans' start calling me things when i say that.
I am fully aware that this video is a bit weird... Feel free to tell me that you want to go back to a world in which I never smiled :)
Nothing against a little bit of experimentation! This is your channel after all, and like you said in the video, you should know your audience and lean into it. Thanks for your advice!
that's fine with the current one, maybe even better
This one feels like a step up imo, I liked it! And my opinion is the only one that matters.
You come out authentic and that's why it doesn't feel weird at all. Keep it up, i hope i can post content like this one day
But you can tell you are playing a role instead of being an over the top teenager youtuber, so it works well enough. And besides, you kept the straight to the point style of your narrative voice, which works for me.
This channel is one of those hidden gems, I'm so glad I came across it.
Same!
Once again a really good lesson on game design, well done man!
Avoiding "Just doing a thing and hoping that someone likes it." (@2:43) - such great advice! I think that general idea has been in my subconscious for quite some time, but I never knew how to articulate it, even just in my conscious mind. Yet, you put it so succinctly.
amazing video, straight to the point, and great advice
criminally underrated channel
Just got into 2D game development with an idea and almost immediately found your channel. First, THANK YOU for your videos and time and effort you put in them, really helps me a lot! Second, could you make a video about what tools you are using when creating your artwork? I mean what phisical tools (like wacom, pen, or mouse, tablet or other), and what other tools and sources (like sites, programs), and other assets (meaning brushes, pre-defined color palettes), etc. And thanks again, keep up the good work!
Thanks, I appreciate it :) There are quite a bit of options that I would consider good,
Tablets: I consider "huion, wacom and xp-pen" to be quite decent
Drawing programs: I think "Krita, Affinity Photo and photoshop (though I have stopped using photoshop entirely because I personally think it is more expensive than it's worth)" are decent options.
Websites: I really like pinterest for references, other than that I collect a lot of physical books (but I like books)
Reference program: I really like pureref for collecting and looking at references
Writing program: I use obsidian to store notes and images
In terms of the drawing program you see in all my videos, it is procreate using an ipad pro. I do all my animations and assets in procreate and then I do game dev in godot. The brushes I use are basic brushes that belong to the standard procreate kit, I also use very few, mostly just the syrup brush. I don't use any predefined colour palettes (I have a video on how I tend to pick colours, it is significantly less rigorous than it probably should be, but I tend to just pick analogous colours that are either "warm or cold")
I have two videos covering 90% of what I use and how I think about it. one called "How to draw game art in Procreate" and then one called "Collecting and using References"
Good luck!
@@Nonsensical2DThanks for such a comprehensive info!
Talk about a good lesson
See this is a good video. It is short and it gives so much. We are debating art style and now I will send this video to everyone. That way we might be able to determine the group of people we want to attract.
Thank you so much for those words, I really hope i could put in on practice for my personal project.
This is really something I hardly thought about since I started drawing on 2021, i always more worried about something looking impressive or well rendered, when in some cases more appeal could be found in the simplest illustrations
Oh good. I have some drawing skill and a roadmap of how to improve it, but absolutely no taste and no idea where one lives.
Amazing and unique advise as usual.
i just want to create a game like realm of the mad god but im too lazy to spend days n hours improving my art. it feels like such a chore. especially if ur aggravated that u might violate copyright or something. u constantly need to sketch. sketch skills. then u need to get used to throwing them out. a lot of it seems like do my shapes look cute.
In terms of overall design, I was hugely inspired by games like Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and Cuphead because of their animation and had the desire to create hand drawn animation for my game. I also looked for games that had mediocre pixel art that still appealed to a large audience and I discovered Undertale.
After careful consideration and testing, and also after loving both games as well as metroid, I opted to create an Undertale-inspired metroidvania.
Then in terms of the visuals, after pondering over what kind of art to use, I figured, by not be crazy and do both hand drawn vector art ad well as pixel art.
And lucky enough, the feedback was mostly positive and no one had any issues with the visuals and still accepted it as a metroidvania.
TL;DR Feedback is also an important tool especially if you're going to decide what sort of audience you want your game to appeal to. The earlier you discuss this with many people from fellow developers ad well as players, the sooner you get to know if the game visuals you are working on as well as gameplay would appeal to their taste and make them want to buy it.
It saves time and energy that way.😅
Also, concerning your approach to videos. Here's a crazy thought... Why not feature all of them?
The main difference is you could keep them consistent by using a certain approach based on a certain topic.
You could make your videos feel dry/blunt for analysis on certain games like the one you did on aeterna noctis,
Then offer a slightly warmer approach for the art tutorials, and an approach like this when discussing about game design.
I feel that might help your content feel an extra dose of uniqueness, as a UA-camr who uses different faces for certain videos.
Like a man of many masks. But that's just me. Any approach from here onwards is fine by me, since at the end of the day, I learn a lot of tips, advice and gain some new insights.😁👍
I think I can see on your channel, it looks cool, I really like how you implemented the tree in you #1 devlog :) Ye feedback is super important, other developers, players, even people you know :)
Ye I will probably to some extent do it differently depending on topic. I didn't really try to make this video 'special', it was more that without the visuals I felt that the point I was trying to make wasn't that clear so I had to try and do my best to fix it :) Thanks for the advice!
you touch great points but never let watcher think of it, just give 1sn after you pointed something.
really good insights
I strongly disagree with your perspective on this. Yes, you def need to have your audience in mind. But this does not necessarily mean the artstyle has to be alien or dark. Look at Hollow Knight, which is an obvious counter example to your argument, because ist appeals both Metroidvania and Soulslike players and is close to your own artstyle which you called inappropriate.
Hmm, I see where I might have communicated poorly. I was only making the argument that if you wanted to appeal to a ’metroid crowd’ having this artstyle wouldn’t be the best. This does not mean that there isn’t another type of ’audience’ that does in fact like what you are doing such as the ’i like cute but creepy crowd’. My point is that you want to ensure that you know which crowd you are trying to appeal to. Trying to appeal to one crowd but inadvertantly appealing to another is bad, because it will mean you will make choices that might turn off the audience that actually like your game, in favor of an audience that you think you are appealing to. I dont really think there is ”an inappropriate artstyle”, but there i believe there are bad strategic choices that you might make with your style.
@@Nonsensical2D yes I unstand that. If you have a target audience, your creative vision should not be independent of that. You can not just develop for a void. I support that you want to make people aware of that. But you can appeal differently than just visually. Having cute character design does not mean that metroid fans won‘t like your game because it’s not alien of mature enough. People are multidimensional and so are target audiences and games/game Genres.
Otherwise everyone would just make clones that look and feel the same but contribute nothing new.
BTW: what I‘m trying to say is keep your artstyle, I like it even as a fan of darker more mature looking games
u really look like that guy from blade runner 2049
He’s such an Ana de Armas lookalike
This is really true. I didn't like Ghost Song, even though I love metroidvanias. I disliked everything about how the character moved and I found the visual communication confusing to the point where I didn't even see the path forward because it was so hidden (I saw it in a youtube video after I had uninstalled it). Whereas lots of metroidvanias that focused on other aspects have appealed to me more.
Ye, I personally put ghost song in a weird bucket in that I both really like some aspects of it, and really dislike other aspects, but it feels more unique than a lot of games that have come out, so it's an interesting game to discuss :)
@@Nonsensical2D Maybe I'll give it another go next time I have a humble choice subscription. But yeah, visually it is very striking.
Shows how games are subjective, i also LOVE metroidvania's and love ghost song, but i dislike HK because it's too convoluted, obscure and punishing, especially on death.
@@d00mnoodle24 I get that with Hollow Knight, it depends on what you like with metroidvanias also. To me Hollow Knight is the perfect metroidvania, it allows open exploration like literally no other metroidvania (though yeah, once the map is more explored finding the path forward if you don't know can be tricky), but yeah the difficulty can be tough. I definitely understand anyone who bounced off HK.
@@dondashall For me the map is too big for it's own good, the fast travel points are lacking for it's size, and checkpoints are stretched too far and few between. I also like platforming more than combat, so for me ori is the perfect MV. Big map with enough travel options, fun and diverse platforming and you don't get lost as often, as the main path is relatively linear. It's also insanely beautiful visually and audibly. Haiku the robot was also perfect for me, that game is like a more accesible hk, with very open exploration but easier difficulty and more checkpoints/fast travel. I think if HK didn't have death penalties and twice the amount of benches/stag stations i'd like it a lot more. There should also be a slightly lower difficulty level, more akin to haiku. Also thanks for not shooting me down on the spot for saying i don't like hk, a lot of 'fans' start calling me things when i say that.