Back to the Beginning
Now that I’ve gone through all kinds of tutorials and spent a good while planning the game. . . it’s time to start making a game . . . But where do I begin? Art! I need assets to build a game. I have an idea of how everything will work but now it’s time to start thinking about how it will look!
Assets
I’ve got a ton of assets that I purchased from Humble Bundle a while back. Not really sure if any of them will fit with what I’m trying to do, but we’ll see. For now, my first most important step is finding my protagonist, the IT Ninja! This one piece is the most important asset in the entire game. So what do I need?
I need a ninja. I want it to be retro, pixel, 8-bit, whatever you call it. He needs animations, this guy has to move, jump, duck, attack in a variety of ways with a variety of weapons, interact maybe. . . I’ve got options, I can try making my own ninja asset, or use one that’s already out there!
There’s a ton of places you can find assets, some free, some paid. Let me just run down a small list of popular sites for you:
Really the list could go on for a long time. There’s tons of sites out there offering some form of asset or another. So I guess if I want to find my IT Ninja, I’m going to have to do a lot of searching . . . Let’s see what I come up with!
Results
One thing to keep in mind with these results is I do not intend to pay for any assets. So what have I come up with? Nothing. There isn’t any asset I could find that I really felt fit what I was looking for. Maybe I don’t even know what I’m looking for . . . There’s a couple I kinda liked such as the Block Ninja, or the Fat Ninja. The Block Ninja just seems like it might be too simplistic. The Fat Ninja costs money, and it has a weapon which I don’t want.
Other Options
I could always try to get someone else to make assets for me, but those usually cost money. I could try making it myself, but I’m not an artist. And not just that, but both of those options take time. So even if I go that route, I need a stand-in. Something I can use for now while trying to get the perfect main character.
The Outcome
So for now, I’ll use the Block Ninja. Maybe it’ll stay, maybe I’ll make little edits to it to personalize it, add my own tweaks. Maybe I’ll contact a friend and see if he’ll make me some art for free. But before I do that, I want to have something to demo.
Next?
So now that I’ve gotten this hugely important thing out of the way, what comes next? Actually making a game, duh. But that’s just broad, so I need to decide what my next step is. So what’s the first thing you see when you start a game? The main menu!
