Devlog 1[?] - Making this lil' game about my brother

Hello, little fries! Did I mention I'm making a video game? 

I really love those "old" but interactive pixel art things, so I decided to put my skills to work on a great (well, great, so to speak) unique product: a 2D exploration video game! I named it after the blog, Fish Don't Cry. 

And the old updates I wrote for you have been lost, alas, along with the old blog, so we need to fix that!

So...

 

Welcome to our very first devlog for our little pixel art underwater exploration game, Fish Don't Cry! 

I'll start by reminding you that I'm in no way a professional at this stuff, that I know next to nothing about programming, that I'm learning as I go, and that this thing I'm doing is a passion project and nothing more. Now that that's out of the way... how cool is the idea of ​​being able to create an interactive work of art that our "readers" can interact with? HOW COOL? 

 

So, Fish don't Cry, what happens in this game? In theory, you swim and see little marine animals while exploring rich environments, full of hidden surprises, treasures, and characters. Yes, characters. Underwater. 

The protagonist of this game is (obviously, what else could he be? He was born a protagonist) my brother Seraphin. In the game, Seraphin explores an aquatic world, aided by scuba tanks: he observes the fish, collects samples, and reports the information to our ship, the Nihil, where all the researchers are waiting for him to report back. 

Basically, he does pretty much the same things he does in real life. 

I thought that the job of a marine biologist might sound a lot like a video game, and then a light bulb went on in my head: what if I actually turned this thing into a game? I really enjoy animating little fish in pixel art, drawing corals, anemones, seabeds... eureka! That's how the concept of Fish don't Cry was born. 

Compared to the "base" resolution of Solarus (the program/engine I'm using to put together the game), I increased the screen size to include more detail and make the small fish appear less huge, while also making the protagonist appear larger. 

In the start menu (the one with some basic accessibility options), the logo has been moved higher than it was before (it was behind the text, instead of above), and frankly, I like this "essential" yet somehow mysterious, look. 

 Before:

After

 
Then (and this is something I wanted to "record" because, well, we'll laugh about it in the future), the protagonist Seraphin currently has three different sprite types, depending on where he moves XD 

I was trying to figure out which one works best. One sprite is a placeholder that has nothing to do with the wizard-adventurer, who is the sprite of the "basic" protagonist of Solarus. 

One is the same we created before (Seraphin, a bit chibi-esque, roughly the same size as the wizard), and the third is a generic sub, also a placeholder, with about four movements, but much larger than the other two sprites. 

I'll probably end up using the size of that last sprite (or a little smaller), although obviously the whole thing would have to be redrawn. Oh, and look how cute the first animated corals are, with the polyps opening and closing!

Currently, there are two sizes of the same coral species (albeit with two different animations), but soon they'll be joined by dozens of different species of sessile invertebrates! 

It takes time to do something like this, but we can't wait to see how the seabed will look when it's covered with creatures of different colors and sizes.
And speaking of which... it's definitely one of the most "boring" things (at least compared to digitally creating the animals and plants), but I also have to make the rocks! 

Lots of different rocks to make up the background and, partially, the seabed.

Oh, and of course, two things that will be super useful as we progress through the game's story: the inventory (finally an inventory, yaaay! With a working cursor!) and the portraits that appear next to the dialogues!

And the dialogue window is new (and the cursor is shaped like a fish, like in the menus at the beginning). 

Aligning the cursor with the text, or even just making it appear on the screen, was a bit of a challenge. Nothing worked, partly because of the resolution (which isn't standard), partly because the little fish we (yeah, I'm not working on this completely alone...) made for the cursor wasn't centered in the image, partly because we're still not very good at programming, but I finally did it!

And that's fine for now. Talk to you again, little fries! See you next time!

The wind and the old video

Hello hello hello!

Today is a beautiful day. Yesterday it was a bit windy, and on the main deck of the Nihil there was almost nothing you could do: if you sat down to eat, you'd see first the handkerchiefs fly away, then the food, then the cutlery, and finally the plate. Perhaps saying it was "a bit windy" is kind of an understatement.

Ionia felt sick, one of the very rare times she's gotten seasick. Martine made her a ginger mocha, and, guess what, it worked! Ginger is truly an incredible herb. Or is it a spice? A plant. Ginger is, in general, an incredible plant.

Anyway, the light today is beautiful. I wanted to start writing this update this morning, but I slept in, and then I wandered around the ship, sat outside, and enjoyed the sun.

Sangreal, who is always dressed from head to toe, sometimes down to his fingertips, was wearing a sweater this time.

He's usually impervious to harsh weather, whether cold, windy, or mountain mist (we've never actually seen him exposed to mountain mist, but whatever), so I imagine it's a style choice. He's very stylish, though never fashionable: he dresses like someone from two thousand years ago, maybe even three thousand.

Anyway, I found an interesting video on the old web. You know we're studying regalechi, right? And here's a video of the usual beaching... with a twist: this time the two big fish are saved! Luckily, these two sisters were there to witness it, and despite the size and weight of the animals, as well as the fact that they didn't even know what kind of fish they were, they willingly pushed them back into the water, even involving the other people on the beach.

Here's the video, look at these beautiful beasts:

Whenever the weather is bad, my sisters want to go fishing. I understand that it's not the right time for swimming, and that with the overcast sky it's the perfect time for fishing, but today it's really too windy. As I write this, there's a crazy noise, you can't even imagine the sound, it feels like the entire ship is in a vortex, banging against everything... how do you fish like that? Your lines will surely get tangled, maybe the wind will blow things away.

And as if on cue, I just saw a red and yellow float dart out of the porthole.

Well done, little sisters, well done.

Alright, I'm going to tell them "I told you so!" and that's it, and I'll end this brief update.

Bye bye, little friends!