face

plan is to spend a bit longer in concept art mode, flesh out the details and moveset from a visual / feel perspective. Codebase is solid enough that I feel like I can conform the character controller logic to whatever poses / movements seem right

previous iteration—good for getting something modeled and moving, but lacked the chunky, wild, desperate quality I was looking for bsky.app/profile/oldm...

doodling on this again

the brushwork in the water on the top left is incredible

but a continual cycle of renewal, where the center grows old, and it's the edges that are evolving and inventing the new thing, until it sweeps in. Feels like the center of games has grown very old

same has always been true of all of the arts through history? Commercially there is a cadre that determines what is profitable and in vogue. But humanity is making important art all the time regardless

wow also hi, your work is really interesting

This makes some sense to me—curate the highlights, archive the rest. Chronological makes sense to me too, that's usually the most intuitive way for me to figure out where something is, roughly.

sounds like a DIY library for yourself? I like it and sounds like fun, but also sounds like a major system to maintain

That might be the way. Like how you maintain object libraries / zoos inside of game projects. Costs time to be organized and clear but it enables you to do better work in the long run.

In design school we had to maintain process books, where you curate your sketches and references and maintain them in an annotated book. There's a lot about that I like, because it causes you to think seriously about what you are making. But it's a heavy process.

one obvious solution is digitizing. Which I've already done, since I scan things in to share with clients, etc.

but I personally need physical copies I can pin on the wall, stand back from, stare at, ponder, etc. Digital is just too ephemeral, too easily lost, doesn't get me thinking the same way

haha but I feared this response

abyssal fugue

lovely

places

compelling style

ah man this stuff is such fun to work on

old prototype, from the vast pile of old prototypes

and I'm sorry to hear it, also. That's tough

man, this is the real stuff you're talking about. Folks talk about art in a vacuum but it exists inside of a whole life. I can relate, have a 3 year old + 1 year old, and taking care of folks dying prematurely. But the art in you doesn't die—I think it actually evolves in important ways

hey it's a journey, it'll circle back. Sounds like you're solving a problem related to the other thing you want to do. When that integrates with the earlier you it'll be powerful

👆this is something I've appreciated about your work. It seems to expand the common conception of what video games need to be / feel like / look like. And as a young medium it needs that, to grow mature and rich like other longstanding forms of art.

there are some things put all other things into sudden perspective

Kid Blocks by oldmanofthefire Just like when you were little.

u can haz oldmanofthefire.itch.io/kidblocks

kid blocks