I made a game on Bitsy.
Bitsy was a pleasure to work in. It was so fun to get all the characters in and give them a unique personality. We had only a few days to make the game, but i wanted something quite big, so i spent over the span of a two days around 20 hours on this.
I’m so happy with it because i got to share it with my friends and teachers. They all loved it. The teachers suggested to upload it on itch.io.
SO I DID HERE IT IS :: https://alecmalykh.itch.io/everything-dweller
Coming back to Week 1, i am again really hopeful to make a game similar to this. I loved making the storyline to it albeit it was so short.
I want to learn Godot for this because it is friendly enough. I’m also so impressed on how lightweight the program is.
The idea
The idea behind the game was that i feel like i am stagnating I don’t know where i want to go. I feel like i am a good illustrator, but i feel like that isn’t enough to thrive going further. I’ve made a bunch of illustrations and all but i wish to expand. Yet where too? How do i know what is right, what will be more sustainable what will be more enjoyable. How do i know that i wont let go of my roots as an illustrator? Or does illustration hold me back as an artist? Does other form of expression even matter if it cant get me a job. I’ve been dwelling about all things before even taking action with them. So the moral of the game is to let go of that disease. It is much less painful to choose and know early on that you were wrong, rather than playing the what if game in multiple dimensions. A weaving a flux of if else conditions that each idea of mine must meet before even attempting your idea is how i feel:
Currently: My mind (25/11/05)
I want to draw, well, what will make it worth it? Well, I’m putting off my stickers i promised to make for my girlfriend. Why do you feel nervous about it? Why don’t you want to do it? In my head, i have decided that for some twisted reason, fulfilling a promise to one of my closest people is still up for debate. What am i uncertain about? I want parts of my brain to tell me: any direct movement in the realm of the task is good. Anything intention that is clearly a step to completion is good.
In my mind, i feel like i have to be a try hard at everything. Yet i also expect to easily get a grasp of the task. Those are the exact needs of a factory worker. I can tell myself: write 5 pages of thought, and i will write 5 pages of my thought. I can tell myself to write a page of narrative and i will. I can tell myself to draw on a whiteboard a nice big piece, and i will. But when things don’t go smooth, and the gears strain from incompetence… it becomes more rough. Maybe i could tell myself: Learn enough to write a paragraph about it. And a bigger problem: I debate the worth of a task. If it’s “not worth it”? Ironically, I’ll just do another task that is clearly less influential.
When i started year 2 of uni, i felt rather hopeless, and its again because of the course material that has been provided. I am disappointed that so much of uni isn’t practical and the theory seems incredibly unhelpful. Even when it feels helpful, it doesn’t excuse the fact that i am so behind skillfully, so i can seldom apply any theory.
How do i want to improve myself?
Nowadays i think Learning Godot to express myself whilst having a valid game made for the end of the year will be the best thing. On top of that, constanly drawing is a massive priority too. To scale my skill i want to share my progress online on youtube, and make educational videos on art. To improve myself as a person, i’m learning to no succumb to my emotions like the temptations to avoid a neglected task or give up so easily. I feel like emotions get in my way more than help me. Another thing i want to do is learn to complete things, which
Process
Bitsy was an easy game engine to wrap my head around. I approached parts of the game engine into my own interpretation because I don’t like to understand things as sprites or tiles, i want to understand their potential instead, so i write:
- Rooms – Places to be in, your canvas, your playground, your scene.
- Avatar – Thing you control, could be a person or UFO
- Sprites are for dialogue
- Items are for collecting / picking up / conditional / can be dialogue
- Tiles – Anything none-interactive
- Behaviour – Dialogue and Transitions
If i see that an Item and Sprites are the two things that i can add dialogue to, then that’s notable.
If i see that a tile is just an 8 by 8 empty canvas then there is more potential than just some squares. So i write it as tiles are anything.
That’s how i didn’t have to think twice about making a top down view of a car, because i tried to define elements of the game engine without accidently narrowing the potential of each part.
The game idea in itself was just a reflection on both how i see uni and the impending feeling i get of wanting to do everything, which is such a paralyzing and crushing worry i have. I can’t choose what i want to be, it might be stemmed from wanting to be choose the perfect artistic medium might be stemmed from a sense of perfectionism or maybe because i cant handle a commitment to one medium. I don’t know. I made this game to journal about what i am so scared about.
Theses are most of the assets I have used, i didn’t use any audio.
Top left to bottom right is Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter. I tried to make everything look distinct with the colors staying relevant to the season.
I used Candle to add Deltarune music. It took my game HTML as well as my song of choice (glowing snow) and merged it into one zip file.
Inspirations
Novena is a beautiful Bitsy game that opened my eyes and made the game engine feel more unlimited.
I had another dream about you last night was also quite a pretty game which didn’t feel like a bitsy game at all. I was immersed totally.
Deltarune inspired me to make my whimsy characters… including directly ripping the starwalker and pasting him into my game because why not haha. Deltarune also has lovely story telling, where most of the time it is funny and cute but there is room for more serious turns in the narrative.
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