Tiny 16 RPG

Isn't it adorable?  I've been making this tileset inspired by the games done by Skipmore.  I've tried to limit myself with this tileset, it has only 16 colors and the tiles are 16x16 pixels big and I tried to use as few tiles as possible.  I'm using Dawnbringer's palette, who worked very hard to make a flexible 4-bit palette for everyone to use.  I think he did an amazing job.

When I'm done I intend to have enough tiles, characters, monsters, bosses, and effects to make a whole but very simple RPG. There's a lot left to do still, mostly animation and characters.  I figure I'm about halfway done at the moment.

Weather Wizards Progress

NaNoWriMo has not only inspired many would be writers to actually write, but it's also inspired a lot of similar challenges.  In the VN community there's one called NanoReno, held in March.  The point of the challenge is to make an entire visual novel in that month.  You can use pre-made resources and be in a group.  I decided to give Weather Wizards a makeover for the challenge.  I didn't come close to finishing (the problem with working alone I suppose) but I did get much further along than my last attempt to write this story.

Things I've learned about making tiles

I like making tiles for pixel based games.  I prefer making RPGs, but there are lots of genres that use tiles to make up the graphics of a game.  Between my involvement in the Liberated Pixel Cup and my latest RPG project, I've learned a lot about how I thought making pixel art for games worked, and how they actually work.  I'm still learning, but I think I have enough info to share for those who would like to do the same.

Chibi Amigurumi Doll

I've been debating posting this pattern for quite some time.  I've wanted to make it available but could never decided if I was going to sell it or if I was just going to give it away so I just wrote the whole thing out and edited it over and over again as I kept debating.  In the end selling it is too much hassle.  If I ever start selling patterns I'll just make up more!

RPG creation software, Part 1

I've been testing out a few programs for creating RPGs trying to find one that will work best for the way I do things and I thought I'd share what I've learned.  All are free and have active communities, all are 2D based, all run on windows and one also runs on Linux and Macintosh.  I chose four programs to test, the others got axed before download because of things like not being free, having an unfinished engine or being in development limbo.

If you have a suggestion for software that I've missed and should look into, send a link.  Keep in mind that it must be free and complete enough that I can make a small game with no money involved, and it can't be a Mac only product (because I don't own a Mac).  Please note that I'm not interested in general game makers unless it's got some sort of built in RPG template.

As I test these out I'll be creating a small game and which I'll make available to play at the end.

Being a rebel this year

Some of you may have heard of a little thing called NaNoWriMo.  I'm a big fan, I've been doing it for years now but the only time I won was back in '09.  This year, since I've been working so hard on my game, Twin Crowns, I thought I'd keep the momentum and use NaNo to work on it.  Since Twin Crowns is a Visual Novel I figured it was still in the spirit of the challenge and I don't feel very guilty about not writing a book.

I'm very hopeful about wining this year.  I have a good outline, no commitments during my favourite writing hours, and I'll be trying to finish the entire story within the month.  Planning to write more than 50k in November is really key for me, otherwise I'll get ahead one day and take the next 3 off then get out of the habit of writing.

I go by the name Sharm, add me as a buddy if you'd like!  I really love trying to beat the word counts of everyone on my buddy list.

Little by little

Moving from one state to another is a big messy heavy hard complicated exhausting thing that I never want to do again.  I'm taking a break from getting my new place together to work a little on a new background for Twin Crowns, the main character's bedroom.

Just the bed so far, I haven't quite figured out the architecture and layout I want so I'm keeping myself going by just doing the stuff that I know I want in there.  I'll be softening the corners of the mattress and adding a coverlet in post processing, it'll just look less mechanical that way and add fewer lines that I can't seem to get sketchup to hide.  I'm thinking of putting a mirror in the room, which will be complicated in sketchup since it doesn't have reflection rendering.