Thursday, June 25th, 2020
I was able to finish out the wireframe for the Player Overview screen, and I'm pretty happy with it. I think it has everything we need to get player info at a glance.
Now I need to deal with the actual design–colors, typography, and just stuff to make it pretty and enjoyable to use. There are a lot of considerations for the design. The art style of the player and GM images will probably dictate quite a bit. Another big consideration is the fact that every team will have a different logo color scheme. So, if you commit to a color scheme that is too colorful, it could clash with the logo colors and look kind of funky.
I started messing around with a blue color scheme that I borrowed from a design on Dribbble. The designer who used it for a finance dashboard made it look pretty rad. I don't think it will work for what I'm going for, though:
A little too blue...
Wednesday, June 24th, 2020
It's tough being not super strong in a single aspect of game dev.
I'm an OK artist, if I keep the art style within super basic limits.
I can code well enough to make most of the things I'm trying to add
in work. I can also do the other stuff: design, writing, music,
marketing, etc. as well, but I'm definitely a generalist. But I
guess that's why I love creating in this medium.
But yeah, the tough part is probably most evident in the art. I
totally understand why a lot of indie devs go the pixel art route.
It's abstract enough to not have to be too detailed (or, at least
the details have a rigid structure) and it's actually really fun and
can look great. For this game, though, pixel art would just be
really wonky to pull off. Text, tables and numbers is such a big
part of a sports management sim game, and pixel fonts would make
things a total festival of buttholes.
So, where do I go with the art style? I'm not willing to go the 3D
or voxel route, because I don't know Blender and I messed around
with Maya for a while and it's way too complicated for a project
like this. More realistic art cant't scale...and I don't think it
would fit the quirky vibe I'm wanting. So, I tried a more
cartoony/comic-y style...
Almost Russell Wilson-ish?
Yeah...it's pretty apparent this won't work. I have a ton of fun
doing this kind of art, but it needs to be a little more abstract if
I'm going to make it work for more player looks and scale properly.
Also, doing shading and the whole process for, potentially, hundreds
or thousands of different player features makes my head explode,
so...
I think the best route is going to be a little more shape and vector
driven. One example of a game that does a fun job with this is MLB
Power Pros. That game had an MLBPA license and made the players
super simple anime shapey characters:
Almost Manny Ramirez-ish?
My players will have noses and different types of eyes, but this
level of abstraction has a ton of benefits: it's quick, scalable,
fun, quirky and totally will fit the design style and tone of the
game.
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020
Man. I love Figma. When I used to do graphic design professionally,
I would use Photoshop and Illustrator and just go to town there. But
now, as I grow closer to dying, I don't want to deal with Photoshop
loading up for several minutes and then pegging my computer because
it wants to like give everything a drop shadow, I guess? Figma is a
UI design framework that is in-browser (which is insane with how
powerful it is) and is perfect for designing layouts like the ones
I'm making for Pocket Dynasty Football.
Today I was able to make some progress on the wireframes for the
Player Overview screen that I sketched out the other day. I've still
got some work to do here, but it feels good to get some of the
components laid out
Player Overview screen wireframe designed in Figma (not totally
done)
Monday, June 22nd, 2020
Since this is the first update, it will probably be a little more
lengthy than most as I've already done a little bit of work. Also,
I'll preface this by saying that starting a devlog this early on in
the process might seem excessive. And it is, but so is your face!
Oh, hey. I was just kidding about your face. I just get defensive
when people get on my case about doing pointless work.
So, yeah. Right. There might not be a ton of value that comes from
early and frequent devlog updates, but I'm a believer in "fakin' it
until you make it." I feel like me writing about what I'm working on
is not just a routine or an accountability kind of thing, but it's
also a way for me to kind of "fake" making a game...until I make it.
I think that's how that works.
Either way, these updates are probably more for me right now. But
hopefully, eventually, they will be interesting to more people.
First off, let's talk paper prototyping...or, actually it's more
like wireframing. I bought a new Moleskine a few days ago and I'm
dedicating it 100% to layouts and ideas for Pocket Dynasty Football
Here are a few of the first layouts that I've sketched out:
In game layout paper wireframe
Player overview screen layout paper wireframe
Draft screen layout paper wireframe
I'm working on several things in-tandem, but it's been a nice
exercise to create some of these layouts on paper to wrap my head
around all of the components and also to get a general idea on the
art style. I've already done quite a bit of organizational
brainstorming as to what content will go on each screen, but
actually sketching it out makes it quite a bit clearer.
I'm sure there are a ton of other pieces here that I could expand
on, but this first devlog has already taken quite a bit of time. The
idea is that I just spend 15 minutes or so on this. I'll see you
tomorrow.