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CuddlySpider

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Posts posted by CuddlySpider

  1. This probably will sound bad, but can't seem to find the right way to word this. I don't exactly admire people just for their style or creativity or even accomplishments, at least not for those things alone. Sure there are styles I take inspiration from and enjoy drawing, but I don't exactly admire the artists as individuals just for making good art. No, I tend to admire people for their passion, and overall personality.

    I am really bad with names, but most of the famous artist I actually look up to are the ones that crossed a social line with passion. They knew what they wanted to make and knew society would shame them, but they didn't let that stop them. I did a report on Marina Abramović for one of my classes. I had no idea who she was at first I just got left with her since I tend to always pick from the available subjects for an assignment last (I find it more fun that way). She was the most controversial artist on that list and I was thrilled to write a report and presentation on her. Warning for sexual content and odd and disturbing content if you look her up. She is most known for her liver performance arts. I just love how she pushed the limits and how most of her pieces were experiments! I respect her so much for her passion and ambition. I mostly love when an artist pushes the boundaries and crosses the line in a respectful and tasteful manner. They don't resort to mocking tragedies or other's sufferings to push boundaries  and I just really admire that bravery. Not just for Marina but for any artist that does things like that. For example Michelangelo of course. I just like his spite and sass, he is my hero for that.

    I also really admire developing or even developed artists that give actually helpful constructive critiques without including uncalled for harsh comments.Artists who are willing to help beginners learn what they have learned or even are learning in a positive friendly way is just so great. I live for helping others I would love to try to start a channel for constructively critiquing art, be it drawing or photography. I would mean so much to me to help beginner artists learn new techniques and inspire them to experiment and push their comfort zones as my senior year photography teacher did for me. It is helpful to be reminded that failure is ok. We are told from the very beginning the mistakes and failures are shameful, but in reality they are the fundamentals of learning. You simply cannot learn if you do not fail. It is all about trial and error and I thing we forget that a lot of the time. I'm getting off topic.

    But yeah I really admire artists for what they do and why over their end results.

    I tried to keep this short and to the point, I rewrote this like three times. Sorry It's so long. I just have a lot to say on this subject.

    Oh at the moment I am really looking up to LavenderTowne on youtube. She is a handful of years younger then me, but that doesn't matter. She is just supper polite and nice to listen to and has wonderful inspirational things to say. Plus is a delight on her little let's play for passpartout (a game where you play as a "starving artist"). I highly suggest checking out her videos and her passpartout videos, they helped me smile and chuckle. Oh here is the play list of her playing the game, it's just four videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0BV8tpTOoM&list=PLhmHswx9NVfVyrIczfAovjml1sK5gGIdg

    Hope you enjoy! And can't wait to see who/what type of artists all of you admire too!

     

  2. I guess I could add some more.

    I tend to use a few methods to try to draw inspiration.
    - Patterns from life
    - Scribbles
    - Random generators

    There are times I'm staring at something from life and then see a pattern in it. The pattern can look like a character, or creature or part of, when I look at it. I tend to have a small hard cover sketchbook in my bag with me as much as I can for this reason. I star at some mundane object, lets say a towel, and I'll start too see either the towel itself make shapes of a creature based on how it is laid or shapes that form creatures in the pattern on the towel or the way the fibers are laying. For example, there is a little hand cloth near me and when I look at it and focus on it I can make out a cute eyeball like creature in the way the fibers are shuffled.

    The other method I like to use is scribbling. I uses lines, curves, circles, and/or shapes. I just scribble them out in no particular way. This is like making my own patterns to see something in. This can also be done by silhouetting shapes instead of just using their lines. I remember when I was a kid I was shone a neat trick that involved wring a word on  paper, folding it in half to cut out around the wording. When unfolded the outline of the mirrored word can inspired a design. This can be done digitally too of course. This also helps make fun and interesting creature or even character silhouette shapes. It can help prevent you from using the same body structure for all your creatures and characters.

    Next is one I have been mostly using, random generators. Now I am extremely picky but in all honesty you don't have to be, and is even better and simpler if you aren't. You can use an random animal, element, object, or whatever else generator to help you design a creature or character. There are some places that have a mix of things being generated, and that's fine, but don't forget that it's ok to use multiple to suit what you are looking for. I have spent days trying to find the perfect one use generator, and, you arne't going to find it, it doesn't exist and can't exist. What you are looking for or need is never going to be consistent so just one generator is simply not possible plus is a pain to try to make. I tried making an all in one random generator, there are a lot of words in this language. Anyway, it's best to just think of the general theme you want and find generators for those things to help pull inspiration from. Like maybe I want to make a creature based on a career, all I really need is a career generator and then maybe if i really can't think of an animal to suit it then use a animal and then maybe even some personality ones if I really can't feel inspired for more details.

    You do not have to be over the top complicated like I am. I just have this uncontrollable urge to make things 100 times more complicated than they need to be at times. However, if you want to find some cool creatures you may have never heard of before I highly suggest using http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/browse/tree to generate from. It is not a random generator site and they did not take kindly to my suggestion to add that as a feature. So you unfortunately have to make it a three step thing.  You can randomize each category, or the phylum in it or the classes in a phylum, and so on. You can keep going until you reach a species or you can just look up the group you got for inspiration. Not all species have pictures or data sine that is every known species, so many have nothing on them that is public. Just a little heads up there. But you can find some really cool and fun species or types doing that complicated method. But using a generic animal generator is honestly just as efficient. This is just in case you want to really be over the top complicated or really want to find something new not many use or may have in generators.

    Hope those are helpful! Oh and don't forget to have fun and remember not every creature has to be pretty, but try to avoid adding too much to their design. It's best for them to be easy to understand and remember.

    • Like 1
  3. I wonder this too at times. When I feel stuck on deciding what to put on it, I look to other pet sites. Many have all or some of these:

    Newsfeed
    Random Pet
    Random Avatar
    Newest Users
    Some buttons to social media or donate button or merch shop.

    There are sometimes some other things but they tend to be more specific to that site's game play.

    I Like to think of the home page as both an introduction to new unregistered users and an informational center for registered users. So visitors can see updates that have happened, some quick idea on what active user avatars look like, what the pets may look like, etc. So the can get a general quick taste of the aesthetics and activity. While for registered users it's a good reference to quickly see if anything news have been posted and even see names of new users if the with to great them and welcome them to the site.

    I hope this helps.

  4. Hello. I am very interested in the manager position. However, manager tends to mean different things to different people (and honestly that's what I like about it I never have a clear picture of what my job will exactly be). With that said I enjoy helping others, organizing, researching, and discovering new things in general.

    It seems the manager role is heavy on the writing here. I admit i'm not professional English major. But to be far the English language is a fluid and ever changing beast. I do not know Dutch specifically, but I feel confident about being able to find someone who does.

    May I ask what your minimal expected hours per day/week for the positions are?
    I am available any day, but Thursday is a toss up for a volunteer job.

    If you have further questions or wish to exchange contact info please feel free to PM me.

  5. @SingSong, thank you so much for the list format!

    I was actually thinking of making forms for people to vote on and very briefly add words if they want . I was not going to attach the name or the core reason behind the data collection. But do plan on making it short but to the point so I can gather information on what people like and don't like about the few games with similar concepts. That way I can indirectly ask people's onions on it with out directly yelling out "hey I'm making a game" I have seen some people do this (tracked down the earliest origins that i could of some other indie games) and seemed many have asked questions and asked people to fill out some questions to help the progress without directly saying why.

    Not many people like filling out random questions about their opinions, but it seems enough do like giving their input (I know i'm one at least, I don't care if it's for a school project or just for fun, I like helping add to the statistics and data being gathered) Might do that with inconspicuous test runs on my personal social media accounts and just be like "hey i made this mini game for fun real quick, what do you think? But have it be a part of the or for a concept of my larger project for people to try out and tell me how they feel, again without putting the official name tag on it. It think only my closest friends will see the pattern of what I am doing, but most of my other followers probably will just think i'm messing around with small game design, which will be true.

    But yeah that's gain more in the future I need to plan out the order of which these happen and what I want them to contain.

  6. @Hasi @hurricaneviolet,  Thanks your advice was helpful! I'll keep my push back my official going public back a  bit and just do my best to be able to pay for the programmer also in full or partial if they agree since I could code some of the main site layouts myself, it'd just need help with implementing java mostly. May need their help find a host and best place for the domain since since there are just too many options for me to narrow down. I could ask on programming and web design social sites myself tho.

    Thank you again I feel I have a clearer course of action now c:
    I think i will make that semi-public log so I can keep better track of things I have done and changes I have made in case. So only people who understand that I am still new, and this is a large project so i'd need to take breaks to make smaller projects to learn and experiment with any road blocks or concerns I encounter.

  7. I have been trying to decide on this and planning out how I want to start and manage publicity during development.

    I am unsure how prepared I should be before going public on social medias. Should it be different for each stage of development? How frequently should I try post updates?

    Some seem to start making social media accounts for their projects right after they get a solid idea of what they want to make. However, it also seems some other wait until they have official and final visual content being made and have future update posts made and ready to go in a queue to create a s steady flow and they continue to work on more update posts. Everyone seems to do it drastically differently and it's hard for me to tell which path and course of action would be the best for my situation.

    Right now I assume that It would be best for me to wait to get enough resources on my own so I can pay for starting official visual content out of my own pocket and then work with the hired artist and writer to create at least a month's worth of queued update posts before starting up on social media so that updates can be flowing in at a consistent rate.

    This is because if I make social media account for my project right now, the updates will be scattered and inconsistent time wise. I have no idea how that will effect the public's opinion on the project or if they will take it seriously or not. There will be times I can post updates once a day/week due to getting a spark of inspiration, but I am only one person, I get art blocks and have other things to do so will have stretches of time where i just cant think of what part is should work on now. Or I feel stuck since maybe something I thought would work together just doesn't seem to fit together and I need to fix it to continue, but I can't at the time come up with a solution so need down time to think on it. Which might lead to disinterest or people feeling doubt. (even though, in my honest opinion, down times are normal)

    What I am thinking now however is a third option. A more semi-public option where I post logs instead of updates. This will help me keep track of things I have done and changes I have made, but also give me something to show people if they ask. I'd just have to make it perfectly clear that it is in the idea stage and not ready for full blown development yet so will most likely not be getting constantly paced log updates. On top of that since it won't be technically official my not so appealing writing style won't really be a problem since I'd only be sharing the logs with friends or people who directly ask or people who are interested and just want to stop by on their on volition to see what has been added.

    That might help me have something out in public while I work on getting a more solid idea to work with and save up my own funds to hire people to help me make official project posts in social media. I might still have those pre-planned and made in a queue to keep a consistent flow going and try to avoid long hiatuses. I am unsure how long or how much out of pocket money i'd need for that to gain enough interest and ready content for a kickstater (need a videographer for that too, that is not my specialty at all). Planning approximately how long that will all take and how much money I need to save for it is in my list of things to do for planning ideas and preparing things to show whoever I hire so they have something to work with and discuss.

    I'm terrified of going public too soon and make people feel skeptical because of inevitable hiatuses in the idea phase while it's just me working on this. I rather avoid getting a bad public imagery right off the bat. I have tried making my process for other much smaller project public and found many leave and loos interest if you don't update fast enough. They fail to understand that as one person working alone it's hard to have ideas to add in a constant manner. That's no one's fault, it's just stressful and disheartening. At least that has been my experience.

    So what stage of the development process is best to start going public? How much should you have prepared before posting updates? Should I find someone to help answer questions too since not many like how I word and explain things? Should I be this worried about my own lack of skill with writing when it comes to going public? (ie. do enough people even care how correct your English is in your updates). Should I find a bigger name to help promote my social media?

    I apologize for all the questions I am just trying to prepare for every possible hurdle I can think of that I might encounter or have encountered with smaller projects that I would like to avoid.

    EDIT: I think i'm overthinking things, as I tend to do. But yeah right now i'm just making a course of action for me to take and probly over complicating each step and wondering about the order of events and such.

    • Thanks 1
  8. I really like and appreciate how much transparency you seem to offer during the development! This sounds very interesting and is nice seeing each step of the way.

    Your market price change idea is nice! I would like to suggest adding a way to see the average sale or lowest current market price if you are not considering adding that already. It helps save time and avoids players needing to open several tabs or go back and forth to find how they should price and item. At least for me personally i find it a bit confusing and difficult when the market price statistics aren't on the same page of the item i'm trying to price. I could be wrong and you might want to encourage players to look up the price statistics vs hand it to them.
    The over all simplicity concept is nice and eliminates confusion or too many decisions to make.

    • Like 1
  9. I have been working on a game for several years on and off (everyone's development speed is very different)

    From reading a ton of guides for both this project and some others, If found that, for me at least, it was easier to start with a question rather than an answer. If helps me and some others stay organized with a clear goal in mind first.

    I do no know where you particularly are, so forgive me if you already have this done.
    I like to Have some base questions and have answers for them. Why am I making this? Who is this for? What type of players will be interested or use this game? What do I want the players to get out of this?
    Then I start asking How I plan on entertaining those types of players and how I plan on keeping them engaged and how or what part of the game will achieve why I want to make it in the first place.

    Some seem to jump on an idea before considering why they want it or what it would be for or what problems it may solve. Or even what about it will be new.

    I didn't do this before but I also am finding it helpful to make and plan out a time line of goals for the development of the ideas and concepts and how long each should take. Like finalizing and creating a string of events and features, what mechanics you want, and so on. It depends on your preferences and abilities and what you have access to it seems.

    But that I just stuff I learned and think I understand. I'm sure most is just from my engineering classes over the business courses I took. Engineering taught me to get in a habit of finding a problem I want to address first and then find answers for it and then development and prototype/test my ideas.

    Teams seem to come form anywhere, willing or able friends, family, volunteer, paid. Paid seems to be the easiest and most sure fire way for quality. I have no idea if it's right, but I'm starting with planning out visuals, sneak peaks, and explanations on what the game i'm working on's goal is along with planned features to post over time to get people hyped and know i'm serious so they maybe more willing to contribute to the future kick stater. But right now i'm still planning what I would want to show off to the public, what i want in production behind the scenes and about how much starting out of pocket money i'd need for that self advertisement so i can get enough interest to get enough donations to actually produce the full game and launch it.

    Again I'm just spit balling here. I have no business experience. This is just stuff I picked up on from classes and guides and asking. And of course I left out a tone of micro details so i don't send a novel of things I learned from guides and videos and such.

    I feel there are several ways to go about the development, this is just one possible, and vague, path of action.

    But do feel it is important to at least consider those questions at some point since you probably will be asked them by your potential development team I'd assume.

    • Like 1
  10. @hurricaneviolet Thank you for your input! I know it's hard to be open about this kind of stuff because of how sensitive that type of information can be. But it is very helpful to others who experience the same or similar difficulties.

    I did put on my development timeline to find a therapist or help group.
    Honestly on my down days I wonder where the time goes, but it is as you said, I'm using all my time and energy on negative/obsessive thoughts vs actually doing anything.
    I think all add "Find coping mechanisms and a support group/therapist" to my development timeline and put it at the top priority. I do have things that help temporarily, but once common events happen where I am I go right back down so to speak. I should focus on finding lasting coping mechanisms or ones i can do right after those events that bring me down or during them.

    It would be helpful and immediately helpful for me to move out, but that is a long term goals so I should find something that helps while I'm here and waiting for the ability to move to a healthier environment.

    Thanks again I was very narrow focused on moving out vs finding things I can do right now to help. c:

    • Like 1
  11. I could be wrong, but this is just from what I have observed and tend to feel myself.

    Pixel art for games in general seem to be an outdated medium. While in the past, the technology to make smoother lines or even realistic or 3d renderings did not exist, or weren't that practical. As technology grew it seems to have made making higher res mediums more practical and producible. And people tent to gravitate towards smoother lines and shading than blocky.

    Granted there are some games that still use pixel like appearances, but most seem to not make appeal to the modern aesthetics. I do not like minecraft-like 3d rendered pixel mix, but seems a lot do like the mix of most modern medium with the older original. I know that's not what you were talking about here though.

    It seems very hard to make pixel art appealing to today's audience. Gaiaonline (as much as i am very bitter about them in general) seem to have got the pixel art to appeal to modern audience. That seem to make the transitions between pixels feel smooth and less blocky yet also retain the pixel art over painted feel. Habitica on the other hand went back to 8 bit. It is very ugly if you ask me. The avatars and most pets do not look appealing to me at all and most items look the same just recolored since there is not a lot you can do with such limited pixel space. And to me that got boring real fast, but seems some like it. I'm not sure tho i never looked into specifically how people feel about Habitica's art.

    I feel pixel art is a very tedious medium (I like making it too but it's pretty difficult do to the hard and pointed edges). However, I do feel that if you create a nice balance or new way of using the medium of pixels it can be refreshing to look at rather than feel too old school.

    I mean unless your target audience is specifically people who grew up on pixel games and want to re create that nostalgia. But if you ask me that is limiting your target audience too much. However, I am not a business owner so what do I know. This is just assumptions from what I have witnessed and learned in college.

    With that said, if you wish to appeal to a younger audience you have too step into their point of view. They are not being raised on pixel games any more, to them that is old history. They now experience high res 3d renderings and now potential vr renderings first. You should keep that in mind when working with your pixel medium if you wish to appeal to younger generations. Maybe add more gradient areas to your pixels, maybe add something new and undone with pixels to your finished pieces.  I wouldn't give up on it, I think pixels as a medium can be good, they just got put down by modern artists due to the new technology and mediums out there.

    If you are going for a nostalgic feel, you can , just know that younger generations won't have the same connection as older generations.

    I am not saying let go of pixels as your medium of choice. I am saying decide on your target audience and use their expectations and the aesthetics there were are are raised on to implement how you are going to use pixels as a medium to create art that appeals to the expectations and aesthetics, or breaks them in a new way.

    I would look for how people talk about the art style in games with the medium you are interested in using as well as of popular games. What does your target audience currently like, what to they not like. Try to keep the reviews or comments that re at most maybe 2 years old to keep it relevant to how people potentially feel about it today. Their feelings can change and it helps to see how others might be trying to predict where the next appeal will go.

    I wish you the best! I love seeing new ways artists use the available and older mediums or mixing them!

    • Like 2
  12. 5 minutes ago, Digital said:

    Sometimes, baby steps helps reduce the fatigue and burnout.

    I agree with that fully. I just very hyper focused and loos track of time and before i know it the sun is setting and I worked way too much on one thing vs spreading it out.

    Perhaps a timer can help me remember to take a step back. I think i'll add some to my phone for when I start working on one thing it will notify in my perhaps one/two hours that i need to stop for the day and work on something else.

    Thank you c:

  13. The TGL Discord invite link works fine, I just used it a few seconds ago to see.

    Even so I might be nice to have master list of open servers somewhere. With a brief description or even link to their about page/thread?
    Something like Server Name(linked) by Username and a description or link to about under it?

    Not sue how removing your own server can be implemented if in the event it is remade or removed.

  14. 5 hours ago, SingSong said:

    If you want the role of a leader then you have to develop the qualities of being one and that means divvying up tasks, setting deadlines, managing the group, and mimicking the behavior you want to see in everyone else. If you want them to get things done consistently, you have to do the same.

    Thank you so much for all you advice!

    I think I'll start working on ways to build on trust issues and timelines for the development to hold people to when I'm ready. Possibly label each part that needs to get done with a priority rating along with order so I can easily edit it it if I get more or less people than initially planned for.

    But definitely have to work on my trust thing more so. I'll probly talk to my friends and therapist about wanting to work on trusting others and being able to be prepared for the worse case at the same time. I do feel once I trust myself on my ability to handle any hurdle I'll be ok, but will ask to see what a professional has to say about it.

    I feel I came off as closed minded. I am very open to ideas, I am just worried and don't like when people do permanent changes without asking first. Like if they have a start idea while writing a description they can add that in if they want without asking, I would just like to see to be sure it fits before it gets coded in without a word about the change. But again that is all to do with trust issues. I'm sure most people don't go behind backs like that.

    Thank you again for the detailed reply! I do feel more confident in knowing where I really should start. I'll work on my trust, and timeline along with minimal job roles needed.
    I graduated recently so am still in the school mindset of "team work" (aka. most people not doing anything they promised or adding in things without asking the team before turning it in.) I assume people's attitudes, when being paid to be a part of the team or are passionate about what is being done, will be drastically different.

  15. The title is iffy, but I tried.
    I have been reading more on these forums and have a questions I have not considered asking before yet is something that concerns me.

    Despite feeling highly passionate about my project for several years. I understand and acknowledge that my mental ailments make it hard to focus on one thing consistently for long periods of time. I can hyper focus for several days, but then burn out and experience mental blocks that prevent me from being able to feel any sort of motivation despite the passion still being there. It has been a frustrating on and off progress of jotting down framework ideas and reworking them over those years. Exactly how many years it has been i cannot tell you since my perception of time tends to be warped.

    With that said. This project is still my child and I still feel very strongly about it's core concept.
    What I am wondering is how could someone like me not let this die due to my own on and off activity and sluggishness. I know i can technically sell my idea, but I can't just do that.  I don't trust anyone else to understand exactly how I need the game to work. What I would like and possibly need is some one or people that I can trust to refer to me and to understand that I have moments of mental block and can't contribute much of my own ideas in that time, but can still help in smaller ways if asked.  However, it seems most want someone who can work for hours consistently every day and give up on people like me who are on and off with activity.

    I have no idea what type of job or person would be needed to help me keep the progress consistently regardless if I am in my down time or not.
    Currently I could not pay for someone, but would still like to know what i need to look for so I know exactly how much i should expect to need to get what I and this project needs to get a good official public start. Despite me not being able to be the sol primary manager so to speak.

    Since my last thread asking for opinions on my project ideas I have put together a google spread sheet for the wireframe of a potential link tree and notes on it.
    However recently I noticed my energy going down again and am scared I'm not going to be able to keep up with myself, but refuse to put this down for too long again.

    My main issue is my inability to work on something for only an hour or two a day since I go into hyper focus which cases me to burn out quickly.
    And, again, I absolutely refuse to allow that be the reason I can't get this project moving consistently.

    It's a complicated type of question with some personal information, sorry about that.

    I did take business courses and got a BA in Accounting so know how this kind of stuff can spell danger for a business if left unaddressed. But I have no idea how to go about finding someone who can manage me so to speak or be my co manager or creator. I don't know what I need, they didnd't talk about this in my past classes and just assume everyone interested in business can handle it on their own consistently.

    Thank you for your time.
    If this is still confusing despite my rambling attempt to explain my question, I'll try to rephrase.

  16. I was wondering about this. I do feel it can cut down on any drama issue that can arise unexpectedly. But allowing staff to use their personal account can also help establish a nice staff to members relationship. It seems like a tough call. Would it be best to leave it up to the staff member?

    But I do agree with test accounts. I always make some right away.

  17. I feel every artist has this happen to them. It is good to recognize it, but correcting it is easier said than done.

    Personally I am a vector artist so I tend to play with the manipulating the paths of the main outline to get more varied shapes and sizes. Silhouetting them helps too so all you see is the shapes and aren't distracted by detail lines or colors.
    I'm sure you can do this in other programs with a liquefy tool on the lines or silhouette to get a shape that fits their personality.

    I also like exercising by drawing in other styles when I feel stuck.

    That is a good idea to study pictures of people tho. I think i'll try that too for detail and general shape ideas!

  18. I making it single player is a good idea. It would also avoid broken economy. Thank you c: Thinking back on it It did like hoe Habitica was just earn for yourself and you could view what others have earned, but there was no player to player trading or selling of in game stuff.

    2 hours ago, Anoua said:

    Sounds like a pretty interesting concept that could be pretty cool. I think Projia is a good name for this idea. It incorporates project element and then the jia ending works for the more gaming aspect....

    I was definitely planning a progress feature to see how consistent you are in general or for each goal and non-repeating types. So like average mission completion rate, or even this specific mission's rate to show how often you are checking off it's sub-goals. Thank you c:

    1 hour ago, SingSong said:

    This is one type of game I've been looking to play (and also considered making myself in the past)....

    I was thinking of trying 750words when I had a writing idea, but as you said the punishments turned me away. I figured I would feel too pressured to write that much in that short time span, on top of being a slow typer, it just sounded like a nightmare.

    When I first started their logo said HabitRPG but the site domain was habitica. I found that a bit confusing but ignored it.

    I honestly didn't know flight rising had skins? They don't have much outline altering features though, but Thinking about it I could have skins be like an image over lay vs an actual full image replacement. So the features can still be seen. The skins would just add a texture or over all pattern or gradient? I'll think on it and play around with some of the grey scale pet bases I have made to see what works universally and consider how sites can and can't overlay images.

    Yeah they might, and walker app can always be replaced easily with just a regular step tracker and saying if you reach the goal amount or not if walking is one of your goals. And puzzles mini games are fun, but again players can always use on off site mind game of their choice and check off if they completed their goal of either beating their high score or doing x amount of puzzles.

    Housing did feel like just extra aesthetic that not many would use or want. I guess if more than needed is donated I'll add something simple as a feature you can add to your profile if you want to, but don't have to. I was going to have it so you can place your pets in the rooms, but all it would act as is like an extra pet storage vs an interaction thing.

    Reminders would definitely have a check off option. I would just eliminate the 'close to ignore forever' type button. you can edit or delete the whole goal if it is no longer relevant.

    I do plan on having most content and items be 'free' to earn. But of course I would need some inflow to keep the site up and updated. So was thinking of having some cash only items, mostly things that in crease storage space, increase clothing limits or reward limits, increase pet added features and skins limits, etc. Just like little "I am ready for more items" expansion items that don't expire. Possibly a monthly item/s in there. But nothing that asks for a lot of irl money. Maybe tops 5 or 7 usd. Might add having a housing feature in there if the idea gets some interest. I know what you mean about feeling like you can't have a good looking character with out the monthly premium of cash items it defeats the purpose of earning a good looking character or pets through the life management and becomes a "buy to win" like game play.

    I definitely would love to have site wide events. Maybe may site bosses, or npcs with lore and stories that you can follow throughout the events. I would have a way for players just joining to be able to accept past site wide events and single a player event so they can follow the story on their own as well later on if they missed it. Might have it be something that can be bought with the in game currency depending how old the event is.

    It would be cool to have lands that people can unlock though activity. I am not sure what purpose they would serve. Maybe you can only find certain pets or items when those lands are unlocked. And can find npc in them that offer little npc goals.

    Oh that gave me an idea. I was thinking of having goals with rewards have the option to attach a pet (or more with a limit breaker item) so that they gain exp too for their own little lvls and stats. I might think of a use for lvls and stats later, maybe they help boost rewards from goals with a correlated stat to it. So accepting a npc quest you can attach them to a goal with the type they requested (preferably with a similar idea behind it). Like an npc asking you to drink a glass of water 3 days in a row in the morning, it would be best to attach them to a goal with just that in mind. I would have it so they add their own goal list, but it might be something you already do or have. (maybe i'll have it so you can select if you already had that as a goal or if you want them to add it for you). I'll play around with this to see how it sounds in different scenarios.

    I think that would be cute tho. So you could complete goals with your pets and with a npc. (possibly have little circle icons of their head shots in the corner of the goal)

    Might make all goal private automatically and players can choose to make certain ones public if they want to. Not sure if the consistency or progress graphs should be public or not, might make that optional too. So if someone wants to show their progress on completing a commission they can.

    Might still need an app version, if anything at least so it can offer interactive phone reminders and notifications too if you want that.

    EDIT: and you OneNote is great. It has more options on PC then the Mac version. But it saves onto your google account so you can login and see your stuff anywhere. And you can share your notebooks, sections or pages with others if you want to. I haven't done that yet but it's pretty cool that i can.

  19. Woah what a title! I was surprised I could fit all that in the title.

    This is going to be a long post. I'm going to break it down into spoilers for things you don't really have to read if you don't want to, but could be helpful in understanding what is going on. I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes. They are not my forte.

    The basic features of this project is and has always been Life Management, Virtual Pet Collecting, and Avatar Building.

    Some background on why i am making this, and how i plan of going about the early stages:

    Spoiler

    I struggle with finding motivation to do things I should be doing. I always have.
    I would spend hours looking for something that could help motivate me to get work done and have tried many different types of calendars, reminder systems, notes, etc. Both digital and physical methods. But nothing seemed to work.

    Eventually I came across Habitica. The concept was fascinating to me, turning life management into a game. It worked for a while and wonderfully. However I get forgetful or too tired to even login sometimes. It didn't take long for me to find out that dying in the game means you not only loose a level, but also all your gold and a random item. It was way too much pressure and I lost motivation and even felt scared to open my account if I forgot to log in one day. It was no longer helping and just ended up making me feel even worse.

    I continued my tireless on and off again search for something that can help me feel that motivation i felt again. Trying anything I could that was free to use.

    All the while I kept thinking about what I wanted in a Life Development Game.
    Over time I decided that I should probably develop my own if no one else would.

    It has been in on and off development for years now and I feel terribly stuck and indecisive. I am much closer to a final concept than I was a few years ago, but it is still mainly in text and has only a few image concepts that I drew for pets and layouts. I have asked for volunteer help many time, but I just could seem to find the energy to keep a consistent flow of publicity on social media sites on my own.

    I have done a lot of self improvement over those years though. And I found that being in a comfortable environment helps me feel a more consistent energy which I need to keep up a flow of production and advertising as well as save up to hire some others to help me design and draw parts of the game to show people to gain interest to eventually have enough to start a kickstarter to fund alpha and then beta development.

    I currently am not in good living conditions and my stress levels are way too high to develop at a reasonable rate or consistently. However, I'm willing to accept that and just work on it piece by piece when I can till I can get to a place where i can make and request graphics and come up with financial breakdowns, and everything else I need before starting a kickstarter.

    Right now I am just tweaking the concept and features along with the layout and some graphics ideas. Also, going around looking at guides and tips as well as asking for feedback opinions to help this slow stage develop to where all i need to worry about next is getting the resources to help gather public interest and have finalized graphics and page layouts. (This stage also include planning proper ways to find helpers for that)

    Ok so with that out of the way, here is what I have so far:

    I have all my ideas written in OneNote (because I love it's automatic collapsible intended lists feature, as well as it's other features)

    At first the project was called ChorePets. I thought this was kinda cute and clever, but also just never really felt like it sounded right. I drew a logo for it where the r was a bird and it ended like a leafy vine. It was cute, but still didn't sit well with me.

    Recently I decided to rename the project Projia. I feel like that word exists for something already but can't find it on google. I named it Projia as short for project, since it involves life management projects, and the ending ia sounded best and kinda make me think of gaia for earth. Plus the whole name makes me think of the word prodigy and that seems cute and funny to me. Also, it's short, relatively easy to remember, and sounds nice to say in my opinion.
    I have not made a logo for this new name yet, but I'm sure something will come to mind.

    Some main parts of Projia's concept notes are feature detail ideas, stretch goals, link tree, and e general black page for brain storm rambling that a clear out once I transfer it over to the right section.

    To start I plan on making the game relatively simple and add more details and feature depending on funding/interest.
    So at a minimum It will have a detailed life management system, static pet species with preset color variations, basic avatar dressing system, and a basic skills/stats counter, four game difficulty modes to select from.
    And at possibly the max be the detailed life management system, highly customizable pets and avatars, a house/rooms feature, and a walker app to track your steps and translate it into rewards depending on your average steps, and customizable username colors, maybe do some more with the skills/stats counter, difficulty modes will be the same, maybe add a customization mode.

    The main focus is the life management and pets are secondary, avatars are just for aesthetics.
    Since life management is the focus I hope to make it default stress free with only rewards for completing your goals. The difficulty settings are if you work better under pressure and determine how much and what it lost if you do not complete a goal in time or fail it. (For Fun is the default no loss mode; Easy is you get an hp bar and loose hp throughout the day, but is regained each day or with completed goals, this is simply aesthetics and does not actually effect your account; Medium where complete loss of hp lowers your level, levels are just for aesthetics, but they are a part of your account and profile; Hard where loss of hp also means you loose some currency; and then finally Really Hard where you loose all your on hand currency and a random item/pet from your inventory. I might add item protection options to it too so rare items/pets cannot be lost and items/pets in storage cannot be lost, but they can be toggled off if you really need to feel the pressure.)
    I am not sure if accounts with different modes should be separated for sake of fairness or not.

    Here are the details of how the Life Management part works currently:

    Spoiler

    Currently I call the things you wish to do "Goals" as a general term. Each goal can be one of four types, Mission, Quest, Task, or Checklist Item. Each type can stand alone and does not need to be under a parent goal. Missions are for very long term large goals, these can take a month or more to complete, they can contain Quests as sub-goals. Quests are for long term goals, these can take about a week or so to complete, they can contain Tasks as sub-goals. Tasks are sort term goals, they take a several hours to complete, they can have Checklist Items as sub-goals. Checklist Items are very short term goals, they just take a second to a couple hours to complete.

    When creating a goal, you can toggle it's reward system. You can select if the reward comes from completing each sub-goal, or only when it is fully completed. Reward chances are determined by a goal's stats, which also serve the purpose of organizing goals. A goals stats are very simple, there is Difficulty (how much energy or effort the goal takes to complete) and Urgency (how important is this goal to complete, do you need to get it done as soon as possible, or can it be done whenever, how important is it to you). Each stat has six levels; None, Low, Medium, High, Very High, Extreme. Each stat's level will have a numerical value that add points to the over all goal to place it at a higher or lower challenge to you and effect it's reward chances (number of exp, currency, and rarity/number of items/pets you can find). You can set the stats manually or you can say you want it to be the average of the sub-goals or the highest of the sub-goals.

    Creating goals has the standard expected information data entry point too. For example, due/complete by date, repetition (how often it is to be done), Name Description, Tags, (possibly effected skill/stat). But what good is a Life Manager if you doesn't have a reminders feature. I plan on putting this in the goals themselves instead of having a generic "check your today's do list" notification. That way you can also be reminded of something that is coming up. You do not need to have a remember on, it's not recommended to set one for every or even most goals, just for the ones you need it for. Now I struggles with reminders that always start at the same time, so I plan on including a dynamic option. You can set the reminder to start after a condition is met like another goal being completed (like a waking up goal (possibly also be able to tell when you log in for the day), or eating breakfast goal). I feel this lowers pressures from the very thing that's supposed to help you manage it. Say you wake up late, a reminder set to a time will be telling you to take a shower when you are just rolling out of bed and still need to eat, but a dynamic reminder won't bother you about that until you are ready. You can also set if you want a one time reminder or if you want it to keep bothering you at various times  until you start the goal. Personally I would love a "Don't let me just hit close and forget to draw my promised commissions" type of reminders. Possibly even a toggle for checking in on you notifications for reminding you to take breaks and asking you how it's going where you can say if you are still working, done, or just tired of working and want to stop (making it remind you to start again either the next day or in a few hours). I am not sure if I can make the browser notification or phone app popups not have a traditional x button, but other options might still help distract from the easy 'leave me alone/let me forget about you' x button. But that's just my thought on how I would love the possibility of reminders that don't let you forget or ignore them.

    There is the possibility of people just making empty high stated goals just to quickly gain rewards with no effort irl. Which completely defeats the purpose. I am thinking about adding either or both of a limit on how frequently you can check off types of goals and/or a reward from goals cap. I'd have the cap be realistic to represent some one completed about 8 hours of hard work in one day.

    I am also thinking of possibly having an alert system set up to let you know if you have overlapping reminders or an overly busy day set up. So if the goals you with to complete on a given day total something like 12+ hours or more than 3 high difficulty goals it warns you that you might over work yourself. You can edit the goals on the alert or select an "I can do it" button. I might include an unrealistic alerts too for it it is something like about 18+ hours of goals or 5-6 high difficulty goals in one day.

    And of course I have some shop ideas like the basic equips, usable items, pound, recycle shop, etc.

    I do hope to make Pet appearances highly customization, but am currently unsure how to go about that exactly. I am thinking of having traits that can be added on or replace existing parts of a pet's base. And possibly a way to custom color the over all pet/it's traits with a color picker on site. (or via skins?) Skins seems more difficult to have work with added traits. I would also like to have a equip system, but with so many base variations possibilities it will need to be a drag and drop like equipment system.

    I am thinking I want the art style to be in gradient vector shadings since that is my own shading style. However I am unsure if a more painted style would be more calming and fit the game concept better. I cannot shade that way confidently so would definitely need to hire some one to make all the art for me then.

    I am open to suggestions. Nothing here is written in stone. Even nitpicking is fine like the name of some part bothers you or doesn't seem to fit. As long as you have alternative ideas to suggest with it I'll listen and consider them. I know it is is a bit sloppy on some details, but i'm still playing around with platform location ideas and such. Mostly still thinking about what the steps I should take to start are. I do have a list of things I know I'll need either some help or all the help with doing (like official writing is something I can't confidently do on my own)

    Thank you for your time! I look forward to hearing our input!
    (keep in mind a large chunk of this is not the full details of what i have thought up, this is just to show my core thoughts and things I am considering or feel mostly sure of)

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