Tag Archives: andrew hlynka

I Submitted My Indie Game To A Contest (Aftermath)

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(update 2: I’m using all the restraint I have not to swear here. I just found out my demo had a element incomplete: a level where Drew is supposed to change eye color was only half done. The judges are unlikely to notice, the eyes were barely noticeable even when they were there, but still, that’s incredibly frustrating. It’s probably too late to update the demos on the site anyway. No doubt this won’t be the first time this happens… anyhow, the demo has been updated for the rest of you to try.)

(update: Mitchell Lum kindly filled devs in that over 150 entries were in the contest this year. Not nearly as many as I expected, makes me feel much better. I still have a slim chance of winning, but you never know until you try. And given how few entries there were, I’ll be sure to have as many people as possible I know to enter next year!)

So I finally put an indie game into a contest.

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Public Game Testing (Part 2)

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So I tested my game out at a second public event, meant to promote my University and “Science” to local kids and families. Games are science, right? I did feel guilt about taking away a bit of attention from the other Computer Science volunteer who was showing legitimate educational tricks, but alas…

My experience with these events enhances my recommendation for all indie developers to find any opportunity to showcase their game, not for press but for general exposure and feedback. It doesn’t have to be at events strictly game-related either, and doesn’t have to have huge audiences. From roughly a hundred kids who came by and tried the game, I got enough feedback on the design of the game to feel more confident this time around.

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Animation Test – Drew – May 6, 2014

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So, I’ve been testing a new workflow for animation.

Previously, I was only using Photoshop. Frankly, it’s terrible for hand-drawn animation. But I recently rediscovered Pencil, a free pencil-test program, and am trying a new workflow: rough animations in Pencil, put frames in Photoshop, trace over frames making sure they look good frame by frame, and export the final for use in Unity3D. It’s extra work, but I think it’ll lead to better animation, and may be quicker too when not second-guessing myself in Photoshop. We’ll see.

In the meantime, here’s some test animations made in Pencil so far. In my opinion, it’s a huge improvement over “James,” so I’m hopeful that I am getting better.

Drew - Idle, Running, Jumping Animations combined

Drew – Idle, Running, Jumping Animations combined

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Public Game Testing (Part 1)

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I showed off my latest unannounced indie game, as well as a couple other projects, to help promote my University at a local mall. I like volunteering at events like these, but doing so over the next few months also gives me fantastic opportunity to ask general people what they think of my work.

Of course, being in the middle of a mall doesn’t guarantee many will stop to see you. The entire University probably had about a hundred people stop to see the exhibit, about a dozen of which stopped to see my work. And the results?

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