Follow on Discord → The Answer Is Never! Discord
The Answer Is Never! → An indie game that I’m developing in my spare time. Last week I wrapped up a new character concept sheet for Madison Prescot. She is one of the The Answer Is Nevers’s antagonists, playing the role of bully. Madison is cruel and mean-spirited person who takes pleasure in humiliating others whenever possible.
The Answer is Never! development update. This is a capture of the rendering aesthetic currently under development. 95% of the environment is materialized with vertex color and almost no use of 2D texture maps. Why work this way? It reduces the scope of work when UVs and authoring textures aren’t something you have to worry about.
Some time ago I completed the concept art for Gregory. He is Evelyn’s father and plays an important role in her story. It’s a good feeling to start bringing this world and it’s characters to life.
In July I completed the game’s promotional banner. I found myself gathering various 3D files and rendering them to camera in 3ds Max, i.e. the hands, her head, the skateboard. The rest is illustrated in Photoshop using procedural masks, gradients and various procedural blurs applied to smart objects.
I’ve been developing, ‘The Answer is Never!’ over the evenings, but doing so in silence. At some point I came to a realization that maintaining Twitch streams, posting updates to eight different social media platforms was a job entirely unto itself. It was a distraction from the work itself. I’ve returned to a form of pure development where I will share when I hit milestones. I won’t impose a predetermined schedule on myself. One benefit of this - I have more substance to show per update.
Tonight I’m continuing the writing process. It’s hard to work this way; as a slow evolution rather than “knocking out” a task over one night. I have to let what I’ve written ‘sit’, allowing the mind time to sleep on where we go. It’s also weird spending each evening writing and typing without opening up an IDE, a development editor or a game engine. I’m using WriterDuet, and once the script is complete I’ll move the document into another format. I’m taking a unique approach that I think may have re-use outside of making a game. I’ll share an image below. I’m sure some of you in my feed will recognize this format of writing.
