New Assets, New Thoughts, and All My Doubts and Loathing

Murilo has been working away at generating some new assets with which we might brighten up the planet of Sprout. Exciting side-truth, in the original Style Doc, Sprout was written to be done in all pastel colors. In reality! I had even chosen a base palette for the game, which you can see on the right.

Needless to say, Sprout's taken a bit far more of a muted path, and I think that is for the greatest. I never specifically want to hammer men and women over the head with this notion that it really is a hopeless globe, but I possibly also do not want them to think they're just playing a Rugrats adventure. Personally, I believe that the existing appear of the game is far exceeding my hopes (let's not overlook that I was about to do the art myself, which would have been disastrous.)

So, in any case, we want to genuinely make the game feel immersive. To do that, something has to be completed about the rather bland terrain makeup. Whilst all the separate parts so far are, in my humble opinion, exceedingly gorgeous, they have not really come together into some thing with a beating heart. And that's been the current goal. Last evening, Murilo sent over the very first batch of new assets for me to toy around with.

So, as I get prepared to expand the spectrum of colors and shades visible in the game, I'm also gearing up to genuinely take a excellent long look at what the program is. Sprout is a comparatively slow-paced game that may take time to complete puzzles and hardly ever has you slaying enemies. A twitter thread I created earlier in the day asking about people's favourite side-scrollers came back with predictable and but, somehow, surprising results. 

What tends to make a great game? Nice visuals, tight controls and entertaining combat. Thoughts: "Okay, so the initial one is an easy check. Sprout appears great.

"And tight controls? Nicely, yeah, that's obvious. But wait- what are tight controls?! How do I know when I've got them?!" And hence starts the journey into the rabbit hole of doubt. But I feel I may possibly actually have this a single figured out. Tight controls imply that you ought to by no means say "Ah, I didn't mean to do that," while you're playing a game. The mind, controller, and game need to be 100% in sync. Proper, so I can consider of a couple locations in Sprout exactly where that needs to be enhanced.

The the last 1. "Combat. Uh oh. Sprout will have practically no combat. But then, neither did Limbo. But possibly that was a once off? Also, is it fair to be comparing myself to the genuises behind Limbo? Will the gods of Indie Games punish me for my hubris? Should I shoe-horn some sort of combat method into the game? Maybe I can make it match with the theme somehow." 

Of course, deep down, I know the answers to these inquiries. No, I need to make the game the way I feel the game will operate. Broad appeal can operate, but it isn't what I am performing. I'm creating a game called Sprout. A muted little thoughtful piece on the struggle with depression and what to do if you discover oneself alone and fighting an upward battle. The trick? Construct, not destruct.