Week 8: "$1 Commissions"

At long last,  I have the Bottom of the Earth Level Connected to the Underground. Allowing the player to scale their way back to the surface, or to spelunk their way to the bottom! I do not have any progress built for the Mummy's Tomb yet. Though I did spend some time to Strip Down the Orbital Camera's Code, to simplify and make it more readable. It feels a little more responsive, and I haven't been able to get the Camera to do the Zoom In and Look Up bug. So I'm hoping that was caused by messy code that I cleaned up.

This week, I spent some time learning about modeling in Blender, I followed a tutorial on making Donuts, I messed around a little with making some low poly 'things'. Ultimately I learn this 3D stuff is Hard, and just like drawing, requires you to just sit down an take your time, until you end up with something 'good enough.'

In addition to blender, I've started accepting Art Commissions. I've set the current price to a Low Low $1 per Character. I'm hoping to get a steady flow of commissions going this month, as a "Proof of Concept." As you may already know, I had planned to return to work at the end of March, if I couldn't turn a profit. And charging that little wont turn me a profit, but it will help me to better understand the time and energy investment that commissions take. Ideally, I'd like to charge $5 per Character.

I've been brainstorming the Tutorial Level, and all it really needs to teach the player is how to Move, Jump, and Move and Jump. Taking damage, and healing can be learned intuitively in the moment. And the Slow Rolling, was added to help the less fun, Keyboard Controls, So I'm not terribly concerned about teaching that. So I feel that I can reduce the tutorial down to a Fence the Player must Jump over.

I'll have a Hub Level, that will link directly to the 5 Elemental Levels on it's edge, and have a little hill in the middle where the Void Portal will open. On the side of that hill with  be a little hut with a garden enclosed in a fence. The player will start here. I plan on having the Witch be there to tell the player how to move, roll slow, and Jump. As well as explaining some of the basic physics like "You can't control you direction while in the air." Further, the with will give a short explanation of the Story and a Call to Action for the Player. Of course, the player can ignore the Witch and simply jump her fence at any time.

Due Next Friday: build the Mummy's Tomb. Draw some concept art for the Hub Level, maybe other levels too. Start Crafting a Rough Pass for the Hub Area.

Player Here: Play in Browser