Game Maker Progress 50: This Month's Plan

Hello everyone,

As I have mentioned in a previous post - this month will be focusing primarily on improving the project aesthetically - and aiming to improve on this aspect both in relation to making changes, as well as making the graphics more appealing.

Much - if not all - of the game's current graphical assets were always intended to be placeholders. I do have a vision for how the game would aesthetically look at completion - however, between now and then lies a few obstacles. Depending on whether I decide to forgo bringing in digital artists to create assets for the game, or simply create them myself - will have a major impact on the project. Whilst the biggest barrier to bringing in digital artists to create assets is primarily financial, as well as finding the artist with the style that can fit the game itself; the biggest barrier when creating the assets myself is a mixture between my skill-set and the time-investment. 

As such - the first thing I am will be working on this month - is taking a digital arts course; with the aim to improve my drawing abilities, both digitally and non-digitally. This will likely take up a large part of the month, and will also likely take more time even after - however the intention is to begin improving my artistic abilities in digital arts, and keep moving forward from there. 

Following this - there are two aspects of the aesthetic of the game that will require improvement. First of which is not visual per se - but will help with implementing and modifying graphical assets - that is standardising and improving the way graphical assets are handled in the project. This can be as simple as making sure that all icons are the same size, and making sure that each icon defaults to the default zoom level to allow for maximum detail, to improving the way code modifies the graphical elements for effect. The other visual aspect - is simply to improve the graphical assets. 'Improve' being a very general term - however moving towards what I have in mind, whilst also making sure that the graphical assets are both recognisable and appealing are a major part of this aspect.

I may do a few touches to the code itself this month - however, primarily this month I will solely be focusing on the graphical and aesthetic aspect of the project itself.

Until next time,

Dylan