Edwardian Spaceships
LAST TIME on THIS BLOG:
I was about to go to the ‘Get Into Games’ festival, and I was testing out a more illustrative art style for my next game.
AND NOW: THE CONCLUSION.
Get Into Games
The month started off with the Get Into Games festival at the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham, aimed at young people interested in careers in games. I really enjoyed getting to meet lots of sparky future game developers, and show off The Beekeeper's Picnic!
Having conversations at a table and being 'switched on' for a whole day can be exhausting, so I really appreciated that this is the first event of this kind where I had a nice view to look (complete with SWANS!) if I needed a refresh!
(I mean I’m not saying it was the most verdant view ever, but better than nothing…)
Into Games, who were behind the festival, are a social mobility charity for the games industry and they have lots of initiatives worth supporting. I’m enjoying their Slow Games Club which is like a book club for games which delivers a new game to my inbox every month.
Skulking around the roof of a museum
The Museum of Everything is set in an alternate universe 1912, and I've been looking for early 20th century art nouveau architectural inspiration.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has been brilliant for this. It's been undergoing extensive, long-term renovations since 2020 (not due to be finished until 2031!) although I'm pleased to say that some of my favourite galleries have reopened. The renovations have meant that they're running tours 'behind the scenes' to see parts of the museum which aren't usually accessible.
This turned out to be perfect for me, giving me a chance to get references for 'backstage' areas of the correct time period and style. There was this wonderful moment when my tour group walked out into a big space and I thought - wow, that's it, that's an Edwardian spaceship!
I was a good girl and followed the instructions not to take photos on the tour, but fortunately Birmingham Museums Trust have some on their website:
It’s hard to tell from this photograph, but this was a large circular area which I thought looked just like the top of a kind of Arts and Crafts Starship Enterprise.
The museum has several impressive domes and skylights. I’d never really thought about it before but it makes sense that they don’t actually open out onto the sky (they need more protection than that!), and so you can see the ‘other side’ of them from the roof space.
Continuing Art Conundrums
Last month, I wrote how I was leaning away from a pixel art style for this game towards something more illustrative... and now having played around a bit, I'm leaning back the other way! I'm pleased to have experimented, though, and I'm more confident that I'm making the choice for good artistic and storytelling reasons, and not because of anxiety about my own skills.
I just find this style so pleasing!
Avoiding Crunch in your Production Process
I finished this video about how to avoid ‘crunch’ when making indie games, based on my own experience and reading I did over the summer.
Looking Forwards…
My big goal for February was to complete as much of the art and design work needed to make the prologue of the game as possible. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m hoping that by the end of March I’ll be well on my way to having a playable prologue/vertical slice.
I have another really exciting thing I’ll be able to talk about then too… but it’s currently confidential, so you’ll just have to wait!
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