Stay on target, STAY ON TARGET!

So its been a while since I've last posted, sorry about that but a shit load has happened. Obviously we all took some time out for the Xmas period, but PJ has had work commitments and I have lost my day job and I have been job hunting. On the game dev front we have decided that the next full game we are going to make is going to be a cracker so we are going to take our time with it and make sure we are happy with every aspect of it. For now we have a brief plot and the odd concept image but that's about it. Its going to be a story driven game but that's all I can say on that for the moment. Will will keep you updated s keep checking the website and twitter for info.

So what have I been up to? well, First of all I have been trying to design some concept images for the new game, but I was really struggling to get inspiration and have suffered my first creative block. I saturated myself with images and art styles to try and get a feel/style for the new games artwork but nothing I came up with really stood out. After numerous moans about it to the others PJ give me a couple of slaps round the chops and said that its going to be long process, lets just talk about the game, plot and atmos and as we flesh things out the artwork will evolve itself and let it grow organically.

After that chat I decided to shelve the new game and finally learn flash animation. PJ mentioned that we need a logo intro for our games so I thought that would be a perfect project to learn flash with. TOP TIP time - don't bite off more than you can chew! start with ground up tutorials and practise. I had a whole complex image I had done in illustrator, but where as I though this would speed the whole process up it ended up bogging me down right at the start. I presumed that being used to Adobe programs that I should be able to jump straight into flash, but as it turns out it seems like flash (formally macromedia) is a kind of emulation of adobe programs and there are a few effects in illustrator that flash doesn't like. after a lot of YouTube tutorials and googling I started to make some progress. One of the biggest issues was how i ordered and layered things in illustrator. On the bright side i now know for future projects how I need to set files up in illustrator. Now I'm just waiting for the sounds from Adam before we can add the intro to our games.

While I have been working on the above PJ has been cracking on with a game he's making, we have been play testing it for him and its looking really good. I wont spoil the game for you so keep an eye out on PJ's blog and the website.

What am I doing at the moment you may ask, well I'm starting another animation project for the time being. Its an animation based around a character I made using illustrator ages ago. Its just an exercise in learning to animate and I've got to say its looking good. I'm going to be using a track that Adams made and I'm going to practice syncing up the sound track to the animation as part of my learning journey. keep an eye out for it. right that's me for now, I have loads to do so I better get cracking. latas