Mythic Minds DevBlog 3/23/19 - Three Steps Backwards, Five Steps Forwards

Changing Artistic Directions 

At our last team meeting, we had the very tough discussion about our progress with art and how quickly we're able to create Unit art. The problem was, because we decided on a pixel art style, all animations needed to be essentially hand-drawn frame by frame which looks absolutely incredible, but takes an awfully long time to do. Also, every move and attack animation would need at least 3 variations to account for the different directions in the game. So we talked for a bit about whether we wanted to stick with it, have animations take a long time to make or essentially cut our losses and instead rethink our workflow and art style in favor of something that can be created and animated faster so we could ensure we meet our final deadline in September.

Ya Gotta Do What Ya Gotta Do To Meet Deadlines

If the image above doesn't immediately tell you what we picked, we picked the "actually meeting deadlines" option and have shifted to 3D models that can be rigged and animated instead of drawing pixel art frame by frame, pixel by pixel.

So what does this mean for our schedule? It means we essentially have to undo a bunch of work (that's not completely wasted) and start at square two or three with art in order to reduce the overall amount of work that's required and ensure we can come even close to our September deadline for the Capital Creative Showcase. 

  

As you can see by this last image/silhouette, we're still figuring out our art style as it transforms into the 3D space so the previously shown model is still not even a final representation. 

LFT

Last big thing to talk about is that we are looking for people to join our team. With this change in art style and increase in work, we decided that bringing on additional help in the form of a rigger/animator and possibly another modeler/artist. So, if you or someone you know wants to help us out with any of these tasks. Hit us up and let us know.   

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