📰 The PixelCount Post

📰 The PixelCount Post - Issue #12

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ISSUE #12 THE VALE, QUILL 22 DEC 2017 ONE BRASS
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Misaligned but Not Maligned

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After last week's slowness, this week felt like the brakes were removed and things started to pick up speed! I found myself realising that perhaps communication had been a bit lacking on my part. So that perhaps what I was working on wasn't the real pain points for the team but more my own take on them. After having a core team catchup early in the week, we made a few changes that seem to have made things flow much better. So finally I was working on some things just as they were being talked on rather than having this large delay that has a follow-up lag in finding out if it was the right thing or not. All those words to say, it felt much better and that if we can keep this up the game should be much better for it!

The one code bit I was particularly happy to look at was something that Matthew & Matt (Art & Production) had picked up on with the look of the screen and misaligned pixels. It perhaps isn't something many people would see or know exactly what it was (and I was blind to it 'til it was mentioned); but when you do see it then it is noticeable and makes things look odd. At some point we'll try and share some before and after pictures of this to see what people think. For now, it's back to work for me, with a clearer path that will hopefully lead to good results.

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Behold, this wondrous new form of bewitchery - an image graced with the properties of movement! And there was much rejoicing. In this photo, you can see we've added a rather lovely digging animation. Feel free to view this lovely image in full colour on the Twittersphere.

All shovels generously donated by:

Place of Spades
"Dirt. We dig it!"

BAH, Hummed the Bugs

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This week was meetings, playthroughs, screensharing playthroughs, meetings, chats, organisation, task tracker, making GIF's, art review, in-game book text, reviewing dialogue, creating new proverbs, listing missing art assets, naming new ingredients/flowers, new item descriptions, layering fixes, prettying regions, dressing houses, making combosprite trees, bug fixing, addressing feedback, answering questions on Discord, reading forum posts, watching new Kynseed videos on Youtube, replying to stuff on Twitter, trying to get new Kynseed followers on Twitter, answering emails, researching potential business possibilities, looking at UI artists, trying to lay out an untouched region, reviewing concept art, more meetings, recipes, chatting with community members, laughing at LA Noire on Vive, and watching awful but oddly addictive TV westerns.

I am sure I missed some things. Next week: same as above but also hating X-mas day.

The Calm Before the Steam

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To make up for last week's long-winded holiday special, I decided to let you all off the hook this week and keep my article relatively brief. (Well, brief for me at least.)

In addition to being disproportionately proud of my pun in this week's Screenshot Saturday, I've also been busy reworking a lot of our internal organization in preparation for the madness of ramping up for Early Access. We've gotten into such a routine of working on the game itself that it's sometimes easy to forget the reality of an approaching Steam release. It's hard to imagine, but soon things are going to go from calm development to escalating intensity as we prepare for launching Kynseed's Prologue on Early Access in the future.

In some ways, this last week felt a bit scattered on my end - but in a good way! Sometimes it's important to not focus exclusively on all the big tasks and, instead, to get caught up on all the little tasks that have been falling to the wayside. For me, this included things like getting our task tracker easier to use for the entire team, researching sound effect resources, writing out some internal resources and references (a team FAQ, schedules, etc.), dabbling with some new GIF software, having chats with Matthijs on musical related sound effects, discussions with our environment artist on pixel alignment, and I even got to screenshare with Neal as he gave me a tour of the code (a side of the game I don't commonly get to see!).

In addition to all this, I've been getting a certain something ready to go live in the coming weeks. More to be revealed soon, so for now you'll have to cope with my vagueries.

(Santa Matt is making a wishlist, and checking it twice.)

By the Power of Eggnog!

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Today, I finally handed in a fully reworked list of all the tracks currently required for the game. All the reverb, equalizing, and other mixing has been redone to make it all sound coherent. Also, for the sake of making it easier for the rest of the team to be able to tell at a glance which track is supposed to go where in the game, I've simply named the tracks after their intended location rather than the more 'artistic' titles I had previously given them. Those titles will probably return one day, but for now I'm looking for the most efficient way to store and archive the files. Coming up in the few days remaining before Christmas, I intend to work on some of the sounds associated with the GUI of the game. (Like the sound you might hear when switching between different menu options, for instance.)

With the holidays practically on our doorstep, I'm trying to get as much done as possible, which should make it easier to switch off while eating Christmas dinner with family, knowing that I'm not lagging behind terribly. With some changes being implemented in the team's task tracker, it's also an opportune moment to plan ahead a little so I can hit the ground running upon my return after the holidays. Already knowing what you need to do before you even get started is a great way to jump-start your work!

This will be the last PixelCount Post before Christmas, so by the next time you read one of these we'll be tired from digesting our Christmas dinners and listening to some boring uncle's long-winded speeches. But by the power of eggnog, we'll be right back at it after that. So much work yet remains! This game is gearing up to be rather large, and only an equally large soundtrack will do it justice!

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Quill Customs

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No, not a car pimping garage, but it is the time of year when Quillians have their various winter festivities. When our beloved Candlewych is visited by the quite disturbing Daddy Long Legs and Mrs Long Legs. The people of Mellowbrook host a winter dance in honour of their beloved Goddess, Freyl. And the residents of Copperpot Village have a feast dedicated to the trickster Fae, the Fel, who are said to come and steal the leftovers, your pants, and any small walnuts you were hiding under the bed for a sneaky midnight snack.

Each of the six villages have their own seasonal traditions, from wacky races to frenzied apple hunts to burning effigies while singing about Cuckoos Icumen In.

We here at Castle PixelCount hope you get in the Quillian spirit this holiday and dance, sing, eat walnuts, and incinerate outsiders.

Note: We do not endorse any of the above actions, especially eating walnuts...you sick, sick humans.

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That's some nice news! I wish i could find an early access in my xmas suop D':
"Vedito de star un fià ponati ste vacanse", see ya!

Place of Spades
"Dirt. We dig it!"

I see what you did there. 😣

And walnuts. Horrible things. 😉

Am I looking into and getting wayyyy too excited by the word steam?

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Originally Posted by Jammz

Am I looking into and getting wayyyy too excited by the word steam?

Heh, don't get too excited. We've still got a ways to go before an Early Access release. Buuuut, giving folks the option to put Kynseed on a magical list of wishes is something I'd like to make available in the near future.

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Originally Posted by BriarRose

Place of Spades
"Dirt. We dig it!"

Charlie is usually the resident pun master around these parts, but I gotta make sure I keep him on his toes lest he let his guard down. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt

Heh, don't get too excited. We've still got a ways to go before an Early Access release. Buuuut, giving folks the option to put Kynseed on a magical list of wishes is something I'd like to make available in the near future.

Charlie is usually the resident pun master around these parts, but I gotta make sure I keep him on his toes lest he let his guard down. ;)

Gotcha :up:

Issue #13 has been posted. Though something about it seems a bit off. Can't quite put my finger on it...