1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?
Hello, hello! I’m Kayleigh (Omulette), your friendly neighborhood soft egg. I’m a 25-year-old illustrator/game developer completing my MFA degree at Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD). You can usually find me knitting up little yarn friends, reading graphic novels, or doodling characters for my video game projects.
(I use she/her/hers pronouns.)
2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?
I haven’t participated in the previous couple of jams (full plates of schoolwork kept me quite busy), but I joined MFGJ in Summer 2018 and Winter 2017. This time, I’m hoping to keep things simple so I can properly submit a game!
3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?
In terms of genre, I pick up and play casual games the most. Animal Crossing (New Leaf) is my obvious favorite for its coziness and quirkiness. I’ve loved the series since its GameCube days, and I can’t wait for March 20th and New Horizons!
The most recent game I’ve finished (and adored) is GRIS on Nintendo Switch. Everything about it is beautiful and evocative, from the artwork to the soundtrack. It’s definitely one I’d recommend!
4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?
I’ve worked with RPGMaker MV extensively in the past, and released a couple titles on itch: "Walk With Me" and "My Friend Melon" (demo). Briefly tested the waters in Unity 3D for a small VR project. I’m currently working in Unity 2D (with the Fungus plugin) for my MFA thesis called "Apple & Worm’s Day Out". I’ve also switched my sprite creation workflow to Aseprite, which has been VERY beneficial! For $15, it’s a super-handy tool if you’re looking to make animated pixel art!
5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!
I enjoy lots of different fiber crafts! Right now I’m really into knitting and embroidery, but I also crochet, hand/machine sew, and needle-felt. Most don't have patterns since I freehand 'em. My favorite projects have plenty of colorwork and smooshy textures, like this little alien below!
Her name is Pleesh and she’s the perfect size for hugging.
6. What are your goals for this game jam?
* make at least one functioning minigame level
* experiment with UI design
* keep things simple!
7. Any advice to new participants?
Don’t feel pressured to make something perfect. Game jams (especially this one) are for learning, connecting with other jammers, and having fun!
8. What can the admins do to improve your jam experience?
Just keep up the awesome work! I’ve always appreciated the hosts’ engagement with their jammers, as well as the inclusivity of the community they’re building here.
9. What are some of the past works you've made for the jam? Show off your favorites!
Haven’t submitted anything to jams before, since they were very rough and unfinished, but you can find my devlogs for MFGJ at the links below!
Day 5:
Furniture tiles are coming along, though veeeery slowly. Got a bit hung-up on what each space needed and kept drawing blanks. Decided to map out the final 1:1 layout of Pan's Apartment anyway with some placeholder tiles, which definitely gave me some more direction for my next foray into the furniture sets. Melon's House now has a floorplan sketch like Pan's place did. I think my next steps will involve switching into BGM/SFX mode and working on illustrated bits while I'm away from my laptop to avoid burning out on all the sprites/tiles.
Progress:
Day 6 Goals:
Day 4:
I was probably a little too ambitious with my daily goals for today. While I didn't make much headway with the Key Items or furniture, I did manage to finish the walls and floors. Broke away from my laptop screen for a bit to make the title illustration, as well, which I'm rather fond of. Hopefully I'll get to catch up with all the little doo-dads that need attention in the next couple days!
Progress:
Day 5 Goals:
Day 3:
Plugging away and taking steps. Got immediate character selection for Pan to function in-game without any hiccups via this plugin. It was a little harder to find a solution to custom animations outside of combat (I was likely overthinking exactly how you'd achieve that), since most tutorials cover the combat animations.
For anyone curious, you take the same principles of the attack animations in terms of frames/cells. This video was a helpful resource for understanding the parameters and generally how you break up the frames, layer them to create the animation, etc. It also explains it much better and more concisely than I could. Once you import your animation sheet and get everything flowing smoothly (and scaled down by 50% to keep the sprites a consistent size), you create a new event. There's a "Show Animation" option under the second page of event commands, and from there you simply choose the animation you created and make sure it affects the "Player". I'll be using this technique on Pan and Melon when they collect key items like snack ingredients, and for "snack crafting" (...cooking) animations such as the one below.
So far so good!
Progress:
Day 4 Goals:
Day 2:
Managing to stay on-track so far! Tomorrow will involve some implementation research for MV, since I would like to include some special animations (like picking up key items) in the game. Another point of research there will be how to choose which Pan you play as. Hopefully it won't be too tricky to figure out (Google and YouTube tutorials have been extremely helpful in the past), but I'd rather give myself more time to muddle through that process in case it ends up being more difficult than anticipated.
Progress:
Day 3 Goals:
Day 1:
A bit late since I had work in the evening, but I thought I’d post progress from yesterday.
Day 2 Goals:
Day 3
It was a slow day of work. I've been having some trouble falling asleep for the past couple days so I doubt that's helping.
Either way, progress was made. Not monumental, but I think I can finally say that Vesta's room is VERY close to done.
I did change up the awkward green. Lots of brown, but I hope it's easier on the eyes. Vesta's hobbies are more fashion-oriented, so I gave her some items related to that.
Hazel's letter now has some physical form, too. (Might come back to it if there's time.)
Action shots? Yep! Made some GIFs so that the animation and whatnot stand out.
The outfit-change transition is a little more natural now.
I'll need to do some more research into how I actually add Hazel's Letter into your inventory so you can access the hint. I was burning out a bit trying to figure it out, so I figure it's a Google search/implementation for tomorrow.
Other work from today includes some practice for music composition. Nothing solid besides the bedroom theme yet. I like listening to music, but always run into issues when I try to make it myself.
Next Steps:
Day 2
I'm so slow at making sprites. Thankfully there won't be too many for me to handle.
Vesta now has a cute outfit:
And her room is coming along. (I'm not sure how I feel about the green. Might change it to wood since the green is a tad artificial.)
It also clashes with the pink tones of her wallpaper, now that I think about it.
Other progress bits from today...
I'll make some GIFs starting tomorrow. Games really come alive when you see them in motion!
Next Steps:
Day 1 (playing catch-up)
Vesta, our playable pumpkin gal, is ready for clothes!
And her room's wall and floor tiles are in order.
Also have a working BGM track for the bedroom, and re-familiarized myself with some event creation aspects. It's not a lot, but I think it's a decent start.
Next Steps:
