Nina Kalinina
@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

In-tenˊtion-al′i-ty
(n.) The quality or state of being intentional; purpose; design.

== #indiegamedev log, entry 2 ==

This spring, at the ripe age of 33, I started drawing. One of my primary goals was to create graphics for my little games. At this point, after about 200 hours of practice, I think I am pretty close to being able to draw anything I want. Especially in the context of retro game dev and pixel art.

If you haven't seen yet my notes on the first 40 hours of drawing, here is the link: https://www.ninakalinina.com/notes/iseeidraw/

In this log, I want to talk about two major topics: the progress I've made since the note and the importance of intention in character design. Incidentally, I will share my thoughts on why GenAI art will always be mediocre at best.

As an eye trap, here's a character I've finished a month ago (and I've improved since)

🧵 (cont)
Rune Skovbo Johansen
@runevision@mastodon.gamedev.place  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

The tree leaves are now swaying in the wind. The "Grasslands - Stylized Nature" pack the trees are from actually already included a wind effect, but I implemented some simple tweaks to make it more to my liking. What do you think?
#GameDev#IndieGameDev

Side by side comparison of tree with two different wind effects. Subtitles: Grasslands original shader - Modified shader The original shader moves vertices back and forth along the wind direction. The modified shader projects the wind direction onto the normal plane for each vertex. The underlying logic is that branches wiggle but don't compress or expand. An assumption is made that branches are largely orthogonal to the overall "surface" of the tree. The technique requires tree models where the normals are aligned with this "tree surface" rather than individual leaves.
Side by side comparison of tree with two different wind effects. Subtitles: Grasslands original shader - Modified shader The original shader moves vertices back and forth along the wind direction. The modified shader projects the wind direction onto the normal plane for each vertex. The underlying logic is that branches wiggle but don't compress or expand. An assumption is made that branches are largely orthogonal to the overall "surface" of the tree. The technique requires tree models where the normals are aligned with this "tree surface" rather than individual leaves.
alcinnz
alcinnz boosted
Nina Kalinina
@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

== #indiegamedev log, entry 1 ==

There is a famous ancient saying: "If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together." As it happens, it is probably made-up. Even if it was real, I don't think it is necessarily true, especially in the context of game development.

I have been making games since my teenage years. Most of those projects were solitary efforts, and they ended nowhere. But some of them were a team effort, and, you guessed it, they ended nowhere, too.

Perhaps it is my luck, or maybe it is a trait of my character, but it seems that any team that I assemble for any project that is longer than a couple of weeks ends up falling apart. And this includes projects where I'd hire professionals, too, so maybe I am a bad boss, after all.

But there's nothing that screams "the project is over" as much as your lead artist starting to avoid you. :D

To avoid such situations, I decided to tackle a whole (small-ish) project on my own.

Rate my current dev setup, by the way!

1/2