Comments - Pehesse

Man, missed your comment! Sorry about that! Did you get the chance to play it then? Got any feedback? :-D

Not done yet (else it'd be in your hands :-D) - still need to do the assets for one more match, script said match and a few other gameplay segments, do all sorts of menus (assets+scripts), then go over the whole thing with a fine toothed comb to debug, test and polish... and rework a few things so it works even better than it currently does! Still on track for a release later this year, but I don't commit to any specific date yet in case I need to push back at the last minute :-)

Haha, yeah, saw you there already :-D Thanks!
The visuals probably won't change now so I'm glad you like them, especially the match fights - they've taken quite a bit of time :-D

So I see! I'll keep a tighter lookout from now on... and thanks again :-D

Thanks a lot :-D (and sorry for the very late reply, somehow I didn't see the comment until now!)

Many thanks :-D

I'll try to keep the news coming (hopefully once a month, or something), but since I'm working on game elements I want to keep as a surprise, it may take a while before I have something to show :-D

Thanks for the watch :-)

Thanks for keeping an eye on Honey :-) News aren't coming fast, but they're coming!

Thanks :-D It hasn't always been fun, but as long as the end result is, it'll have been worth it :-D

Many thanks for tracking Honey :-)

Thanks a lot for tracking Honey!

Man, way to make me feel old! Kidding, good luck with your studies, animation should be a great field :-) It's mostly the same than with every other art related practices - there are fundamentals to understand (motion arcs, acceleration/deceleration, rhythm, deformation, etc), and then it's up to you to pick which tool fits the best your production schedule and your chosen aesthetic, not necessarily in that order!

And yeah, it'll be at least a few weeks before the next article/post, since the game itself is not due before at least the end of the year, so I need to spread them apart and find interesting stuff to talk about :-D Still, it'll come... eventually!

We're probably not that far apart, I'm only 28 (or is that too old already by today's standards? :-D)! Either way, the industry landscape changes so much on a yearly basis, even the best laid plans can be thrown away by just a few months shift, so don't worry about when you start!

To learn animation, I'd indeed recommend trying to work in the animation industry as well as in games - even stuff like working as an intervalist can potentially teach you lots if you find the right team/studio. Of course, I'm saying that, but I never could manage to get one myself, so I'm basically self taught animation wise (still went through art school for the fundamentals - fundamentals are key! Don't neglect them!)

For software references I'm running short right now, only other suggestion would be GraphicsGale for pixel art work, but I have limited experience with pixel art, so you probably know more than I do about this field! :-D

Anyway, yeah! It won't be right now, but I'll re-post some articles here about stuff I wrote for the TIGsource devlog, including some of my animation workflow and techniques, so you'll have that to look forward to at some point :-D

Hey, we all start somewhere! I worked on my first "indie" projects wayy back in the day, when I was like 7 or 8 years old, using the household x86 - and that's after having spent some time designing games on paper even before that, so... it's never too early to start :-D It's all about practice, so the earlier you start and the more work you put in, the better it'll be eventually! That reminds me, another soft you might want to look into is RPGMaker - I absolutely loved it when I was in high school (was using the 2003 ver. at the time, but the newer ones are even better, like XV Ace). I'd like to make a complete game using that sometime! (Had one started before Honey actually, but decided to work on Honey instead :-D)

Internet groups and online work: yeah, you need to find what works for you, and that comes through experience. It's no good to only do solo work, or only do teamwork. I think you have to try a little of everything, see what works and what doesn't, so you can eventually develop into your own style and get a sense of your comfort zone - that way, you can both use it (comfortable progress!) and transgress it (because constraints are usually a, if not the, fuel to creativity)!

Limited internet, oops! You're in luck though, I'm considering re-posting some of the most article worthy stuff I've posted on TIGsource/tumblr back here, reformatted, reworded and relinked, for archival's sake, so it'll be easier to access that way and shouldn't require a monster connection anymore!

And yeah, pixelprospector PDF FTW :-D

You should definitely look into Game Maker or Construct 2, possibly Stencyl too! I find their visual approach to scripting easy enough to understand to allow for even us drawing types to make something that works :-D I had plenty of projects started in duo with programmers, but most got off course/abandoned, because of the difficulty of respecting a schedule when multiple people are involved.. I actually find that more impressive than working alone. In my situation, since I control everything regarding the production, I can only blame myself if work doesn't get done :-D

If you're looking into the production details for Honey, I've kept a log on TIGsource here: Forums.tigsource.com It's very GIF heavy so watch out (depending on your connection), but you'll see plenty of WIP stuff in there, along with how the game looked a few months/year ago! :-D

Thanks for the pixelprospector link! I already had it as a bookmark, but the information within can never be shared enough :-D

And yeah... tell me about it :v At least, the game is coming out eventually!

Gee, thanks :-D

Adding team members: actually, I found that I work better alone... working in teams certainly has advantages, but for this specific project, I wanted to do the maximum I could by myself without relying on other's help. I still had to ask for sound design and composition, though, and I'm loving what Morusque brought to the project! Though someday, I'd love to try doing *everything* by myself. Gonna take even more time, but it should be interesting :v I'll also surely go back to working with others for other projects, too, eventually, there's interesting experiences to be had there, just not what I was looking for right now :-D

Photoshop: eh, it's all relative! You say pixel art, I'm in awe of that, I couldn't do pixel art to save my hide :-D It all comes down to how much practice you have with any given aesthetic...

If you have some more "behind the scenes" questions or stuff you'd like to know, feel free to ask! I'm not always sure what's interesting or relevant, so having questions to answer makes for far easier guidelines to follow :-D

I tried contacting a few media outlets already, but most didn't get back to me - the game probably didn't catch their eye. I'll wait until the greenlight campaign/I'm closer to release to try again, we'll see what happens this time. I'm hoping with exposure from big sites like here, and the support from people like you, it'll eventually get some more cool coverage!

Splintmind: I'll be as curious as you to try it out when it's out, to be honest! After all, I worked on the thing, and I don't even really know how its story plays out, or even what the game really looks and plays like now :-D

Actually, I'm the only dev working full time on this project, Morusque is helping for the soundtrack/sounds but everything else is from me, explaining the long dev time :-D

I'm using Photoshop to animate, too, by simulating hand drawn animation techniques - layers work as cels, and I use little to no automation tools or techniques! I'd work just the same on paper (in fact, I did!), I'd just have to scan things, and my scanner has been out of order for a long time now(plus using so much paper gets *very* expensive *very* fast :-D). So indeed, I'm looking to specialize and do more games using this style, but that's getting ahead a bit, Honey needs to come out first, and needs to do well :-D

I don't have any other solo projects to show, however, unfortunately, as it is my first indie project - I have participated in others, but none with a similar aesthetic approach (which is one of the main reasons I did this :v). One of the most recent projects I've helped is Splitmind, a point and click for which I was a background artist - the game isn't out yet, I think it's planned for the coming months. Can't speak to the whole game, since I've never seen it in action myself, but if you like what you see in Honey, you should at least like the backgrounds in Splitmind :-D

Yeah, it's quite rare - though if you ask me, after this prod', I can totally understand why, it's not very economical to make at all (not to mention time consuming), so I get why the flash/tween/skeletak animation have become an increasingly common aesthetic! Not that I'll go that way, if Honey works, I intend to keep developing this style and push it further :-D

And indeed, many thanks for the tracking! Not sure how frequent the updates will be here, since posting text updates seems to need to have plenty of new material to show alongside, but rest assured the game is coming along just fine - I'm currently working on the script, which makes for less than exciting screenshots to share, but cool content to experience... or at least, that's the plan!

Thanks for the follow!

Thanks a lot! It's the chief reason why the game's taking so long to come out, but it should be worth it in the end... I think :-D

Thanks a lot for the follow! :-D