Switching From Pixel Art to Hand Drawn Sprites - Indie Roguelike Game Devlog #2

Jumping headfirst into game development using Unity and C#. Everything shown in this video is subject to change, and most likely will by the time this game is finished, if it is ever finished.
Thanks for watching :)
#indiegame #devlog #gamedevelopment

[@DonRawling]

The hand drawn style is a huge improvement! Pixel art can look good, but in my opinion, hand drawn has a much broader appeal. Your game really reminds me of Binding of Isaac - one of my all time favourites. Looking forward to seeing how you develop it :)

[@zeta_cube]

I'm digital artist and now I'm improving my animation skills, and music composition for games....If you want some help I have some free time to make a contribution if U need some help on your project

[@kawaiiufocafe5399]

​@@zeta_cubei,m also studying music composition together art study

[@Ch0rr1s]

Well this was a surprise recommendation from youtube :) i totally dig the new sprite style. it looks super smooth and i totally love the animations. The humanoid Rats look so good running around. The walking animation of the frog feels a bit off though - i guess its something with crossing the legs when walking. - IMHO. But the idle Animation of the Frog is - again - so smooth and satisfying. Also props for using Krita. Best OSS alternative to Photoshop :) Cant wait for more updates, this was really fun. thanks :)

[@nursegilbey]

very true. The legs should alternate at least. Also a key feature of frogs is missing: webbed and large feet

[@zejugames5045]

I vastly prefer the hand-drawn art. Looks great!!

[@waff64]

i agree it looks best if it looks more like its made on paper like cuphead and sonic freedom

[@funnylawre]

Try tunche guys

[@kencg6566]

Great devlog. The new sprites look fantastic. Very nice work! 👍✌

[@Greedable]

Glad you like them!

[@ruuku2743]

The hand-drawn style looks really nice. Animations really shine in this state

[@marcelburdon9795]

The handdrawn style is very cute! Also, fun audio editing

[@twomur_]

the presentation of your devlog is perfect! 10-15 minutes is like the perfect time and everything you showed was really interesting and enjoyable. usually i prefer pixel art over hand drawn art but i much preferred the hand drawn in your case! it looks very clean and aesthetically pleasing so keep up the great work!!! (also frogs are one of my favorite animals so that’s awesome you changed the main character!)

[@ryutenchi]

The hand drawn sprites look great and I think you did a great job with the video edit! Looking forward to future updates!

[@umapessoa6051]

The KZbin algorithm did a great job, your dev logs are pretty good, keep doing those nice videos.

[@AlekseyLoykuts]

For curving all you need is a side movement. You've got vector pointing current direction, you'll need to find perpendicular, and add it to the movement (you can increase it to curve more, make it wavey etc.). As long you've got your original direction vector you can do a lot of stuff

[@Conefed]

Frogs have unique eyes, the new rats have froglike eyes - perhaps googly eyes that roll around

[@envo9059]

I litterally just thought about whether I should switch to hand drawn and seeing this video has helped me come to a deicsion, thanks!

[@hawkinberry]

I like the style you're developing! I'm looking forward to following your progress.

[@Paryszek]

I love how you present and explain your ideas in your devlog. I should apply some of your style into my own devlogs. Wish you best, the game looks promising. My advice is to not over think it, keep it simple and most of all keep having fun out of it ;-)

[@Rayo75]

Very nice! You're making some quick game development mindset progress! It takes a bold instinc or a lot of experience to be able to make the abrupt decision to switch artstyles after you feel like you've done so much progress, but it is the right move for sure. Love the frog and keep it up doing what you feel is more fun for you and the game itself!

[@Rayo75]

P.S. To get the spider projectiles to curve, if you're using a movement script for the projectiles, you could do quite a lot of options: 1. Rotate the projectile over its lifetime (dangerous in open spaces or if you rotate it too fast! It can come back around) 2. Keep the spawn position in a variable and, on top of applying the forward movement to the projectile itself, apply a sidewards movement perpendicular to the vector from the projectile to the variable. You can then decide if you want to normalise the speed of the projectile itself by adding the forward movement vector and the side movement vector and normalising that one or if you prefer to keep the forward movement constant. With this technique, you can also do some fancy tricks like increasing the side movement speed depening on how far from the spawn position it is to get more interesting trajectories.

[@jantaylor2000]

Really enjoyed your content! Looking forward to seeing your future progress. (The new designs look great btw)

[@DraconicSlimeCrafter]

KRITA SQUAD RISE UP XD I personally am a big fan the hand-drawn style (I'm a little biased since that's the route I took too lol); I like how bouncy everything is Also, I'm a bit sad that the Lovecraftian boi didn't make the cut with your aesthetic choice, but 'tis all apart of the game dev process I suppose Looking great so far!

[@JW-uu9je]

Agreed your hand drawn skills are great! Keep the dev log up these were fun to watch

[@nitricswight]

always nice to find a new devlog series to follow :)

[@matildemonaexe]

Reminded me a bit of Demontower from Night in the Woods with the cat sprite c: love the pace of you devlogs, keep it up.

[@whitesnakefr]

I love devlogs because it promotes small channels, amazing video

[@wibly7831]

Super cool I love the bounce of your animation!

[@equu]

The hand drawn sprites look great! I am interested where this project is going. Keep up the great work!

[@vincentrodak9734]

Great video! Love the hand drawn sprites. Can't wait to see more!

[@XaFFaX]

After the change, cat converted to frog :O. Amazing!!

[@geekpotion]

I love the hand drawn look, its an amazing job you done =)

[@mihaiioantabacaru7758]

Is looking really nice

[@jeremiahandrews4841]

it seems both you and I have been blessed by the youtube algorithm. Great vid and congrats on the new subs!

[@panpukinart]

This Devlog is so well done, I was baffled to see how little likes it has. I thought this was some sort of super well-known gamedev channel! Keep up the amazing work, hope more people discover your stuff

[@Greedable]

Thanks!

[@KaanAlpar]

Loved the devlog and the new art style! 👍😄

[@lilhoodie1]

Maybe consider giving the dash/bubble attacks a bit more visual flare, player feedback and making sure the player really understands/feels their actions is very important. Anyways, love this so far and can’t I wait to see more.

[@meersausteven]

This looks very promising. I like your art style change as it gives the game a more personal feel. You just earned yourself a new subscriber! You might also want to dye the enemy projectiles in a similiar color. That way the players won't be overwhelmed when different kinds of enemies fire differently colored projectiles at them. Nonetheless: I'm looking forward to future videos!

[@baieel]

I'm loving how the art style is now! Also, I think the spider could shoot cobwebs or something like a poisonous fang.

[@shresthpratap9819]

Just saw your vid in the recommendation, it's pretty cool will wait for the next video to drop

[@klarkcent]

Love the change from pixel to hand-drawn! Here are a few thoughts to make the theme consistent: 1. The frog could fire frog spawn instead of bubbles. This could introduce a regeneration mechanic to 'lay more eggs'. 2. Change the setting from a forest to a sewer; you already have rats and spiders and it fits with the dark aesthetic you have at the moment. 3. The frog could jump/hop instead of a dash, which is overplayed in these games. This could present some interesting mechanics with terrain later, pipes, gaps, etc.

[@franka4312]

Excellent video/work! I personally would love the DASH visual trail effect to be even more exaggerated. I didn’t notice it until you pointed it out.

[@ericisconfused]

Nice work! This looks like a really fun start. I find when I'm doing development that I like to take a different approach. I prefer to get the underlying code taken care of before I dive into perfecting the presentation. Otherwise I tend to get stuck in iteration-hell where I just keep tweaking what everything looks like w/o making progress on the underlying mechanics.

[@mattidevs4310]

Love the hand drawn sprites! Good job

[@hawkgamedev]

Great video and fantastic project, I'm working on a roguelike myself, and planning on learning a lot from your techniques!! good luck with your project!

[@DoneCosta]

your art is so beautiful. 😍😍😍

[@muhroo_]

I like the artstyle and the FROG CHARACTER. If you want to make your items pop, I'd suggest adding a shadow below I guess? to make it seems like it's floating.

[@chadzulu4328]

The characters and animations are great! Keep it up bro

[@trifreak4490]

I like the change in art style for the game, it looks quite nice. I think you should add shadows, especially for the items, as they look like there just moving north and south rather than up and down. All together though. I'd say you've got a good looking project thus far.

[@jaysonbunnell8097]

This game looks so cool! I think a UI damage indicator showing the health of the current enemy would be great. Keep it up!!

[@TheOzarkian]

I'm a beginner using unity and enjoyed your videos. Keep it!

[@justindumas2135]

Been having this same debate myself lately. Great to see someone else's solution and that it is working out for you. I agree with a lot of the comments here. The new art looks great!

[@HiHi-iu8gf]

art style looks neat i like it :)

[@bobonthenet]

I love this change! I came across this video because I'm thinking of making the same change from pixel to hand drawn in my own game and this was very encouraging! What resolution are your images done in?

[@masterfirewall]

I have not even watched the video yet but I am 100% here for it. also comment and something about youtube algo.

[@CatDribble]

This looks really cool, I feel you made the right decision

[@MissyMona]

Wow I can't believe how few subscribers you have! Good job. Maybe consider selling some of the assets you make that you don't plan to use on the unity shop :D

[@romulino]

You can move the spider webs just a little bit in the direction of the player on every tick, so it will have a nice curve effect.

[@salahchable3340]

You man I really like game development videos and how people make their game and I am really interested to see you too make your own game Til next video Entertaining and inspiring video by the way

[@ninosandlarz783]

Great video ! Changing the art style was a really good idea to make your game stand out. I have to say that some parts of the devlog like the intro and the octopus are really slow and break the rhythm of the video. Otherwise I love the content and the game, keep it on !

[@Frieml]

To get the Projectiles to curve, you could create an expanding circle on which the projectiles fly. If you want the velocity to stay the same you would have to adjust the rpm of the projectiles to fit the circles circumference.

[@durrium]

Pretty smooth animations! I dig it

[@joelface]

I love pixel art... my favourite is probably Metal Slug. A more recent game with great pixel art is called Eastward. With that said, I love your art change. I especially loved the large views we saw of your various characters as they animated in Unity. I guess it doesn't fit with your game, but I almost want your characters to be larger on the screen in game, and to have more animations, as I feel like you really excel at that.

[@RubiKeys]

since i seen you have a good artstyle on handmade assets and also a good workflow to deal with animations on it over unity, have nothing to say agains´t it. is a good change to your game i think. go ahead and keep uo the good work my mate!

[@cryptorcd9352]

This looks cool! Personally I really love switch from pixel art to the new style. Orbiter sprite looked really cute though! I wish you consider adding a little bit of lovecraftian feel the deeper you go

[@seandominique2260]

Looks dope, looking forward to following your journey. Maybe consider making the sprites a tad less bouncy especially when they are moving cause it’s a bit overwhelming.

[@AetherXIV]

the vector art looks great!

[@barret232hxc]

Frogs seem to be popular lately so you might of made the right choice. I think the frog looks cool

[@keithdfox2]

Curving the projectiles will require a bit of trig, no matter how you do it. You can either change their location offset from the launch point, or modify each's individual trajectory. I recommend just changing their absolute location due to simplicity and better control. First, determine the angle each will fire at - (360 degrees / 15 projectiles = 24 degrees) aka first projectile = 0 deg, 2nd = 24 deg, 3rd = 48 deg, etc. When the character fires, save the enemy's X and Y position as the launch point. For each projectile, you can get the offset (X position by the cosine and Y position by the sine of that projectile's angle). Multiple those results by the distance the projectile has travelled, the add the resulting X and Y to the launch point X and Y and you have the new absolute positions for each projectile. Then simply increase the distance and change the angle each loop. You may have to convert the angle from degrees to radians before plugging it into the sine/cosine functions.

[@shir0_kitsune153]

Looks really good, can't wait for the full game, or beta!

[@Conefed]

The hover and light of item was good touch

[@vellbear]

The original frog was so pixelated that I thought it was a cat

[@shadytaco6735]

This guy has pontential to be one of the bigger developers on youtube.

[@Greedable]

haha not sure about that, but I appreciate it!

[@caganlsandiwic8824]

5:48 really made me laugh so hard

[@niyazkhaybullin4618]

Wow! It's really hard to believe that someone is able to produce that kind of sprites with no prior experience in art, great job! New style looks really cool.

[@Greedable]

i do have a little bit of graphic design experience, but not any development experience

[@isaackeno8169]

I'm subscribed! Have a good day!

[@diyanski3022]

Nice stuff man

[@DaveDave-dt5ld]

The spider critter is really nice, and the animation makes it have some character, making it seem really creepy. Its awesome. And I don't mean to be that guy, but spiders have 8 legs. Currently its more like some kind of weird ant >_

[@Conefed]

I recommend aprons that also cover torso on rats

[@JakeMcNeal]

I prefer your 2d art vs the pixel art. Looks great!

[@bakesmash882]

Love it! Keep it up ❤

[@JW-uu9je]

One more thought is to apply an animation curve or lerping to your dash. So that it is not a constant speed from start to finish . But maybe accelerates in, moves fast, and then slows to a stop.

[@arcanathe4th823]

Oh, this is looking great! I've been wanting to move to hand drawn sprites. I would like to know: what size of sprites are you making for the hand-drawn sprites?

[@skyppex4076]

For curving the bullets for the spider: A very flexible way of doing it would be to have the bullet simply follow a spline. There is a brand new spline tool in unity that could be used for this. If you are on an older version of unity then there are several great free assets on the asset store you can use. So when you spawn the bullet, you choose which direction it should go in, but you don' actually move forwards. You let the bullet itself control that using some sort of speed value that you can feed it if you wish. It will then travel along the spline and curve in any which way you like. You can make all sorts of wierd loops and runs if you wan to, or just have a very nice and easy curve to it. Loads of personality in the bullets! Other ways of doing it would be through code where you have to write the curve functions themselves. Seems very difficult to get the result you want going it that way though, but its very poosible and might be a little less upfront work. This approach will probably not scale that well if your curving needs grow quite complex.

[@Greedable]

I'll check it out thanks

[@abidounesaad3780]

very good decision you're actually a good artist

[@siavashaliyari8567]

For curving the bullets : idk how you move them but in my game I move them in the direction of the right direction Aka the red axis of the bullet (rb.velocity=gameobject.right* speed); so all I need to do is to rotate the bullet slowly over time like this (transform.Rotate ( Vector3.forward * ( RotationSpeed * Time.deltaTime ) ))

[@Tey_]

this looks amazing.

[@neoclod3112]

Hahaha Those rats shooting out their groin. Nice job on the hand drawn sprites man.

[@vast634]

Curving projectiles: what you first should look up is calculating a point that moves around on a circle - around the shooter. Once you know that part, the projectile is just such a point on a circle with an increasing radius. (position angle and radius calculate the new position each frame).

[@NotTheHeroStudios]

This looks like it's going to be fun

[@dirttop6465]

For curving projectiles you could use Bézier curves, or just have the projectile motion be exponential instead of linear. Not entirely sure how to implement it but wanted to throw some ideas into the ring

[@SimonHesjevik]

To have them curve you could make the projectiles continuously rotate to their right

[@NeatGames]

Nice work! I do the same type of animation :D

[@pickstud3488]

im glad you changed the cat to a frog, i have 19 frogs.

[@TheArtkaw]

You should look at how the old Dragon Quest designed their enemies, a nice combination of charm and menace

[@Fairygroveyt]

This is soo cool!!!

[@juneorbrehm8162]

rocks from the binding of isaac? lol good video

[@coffeebug]

froggy guy gives me paper mario vibes. like it!! edit: both rats absolutely terrify me

[@KevinFrost]

Love your art style! I wish I could draw like you. I stick with pixel art because it's easier for me lol. Keep it up!

[@unn0wn224]

How to do that curve thingy: I don't exactly know how the "curving behaviour"(it's called homing i think) of projectiles should work but you could maybe first select the certain projectiles which are near the player by collision detection to do "homing" behaviour so that performance could be good ( if it beomces necessarry that is) so, how homing works in my mind is that projectiles just "movetowards" the player but they can only move with certain limited amount of rotation to not make them like go straight to player and we don't want them to stay there forever and follow player so we can delete them after certain time or like i said previously they only act within certain range of player

[@gamedevaki]

Wow, the line art definitely looks great. I'm not too familiar with animations, are they all updated by code? If so it sounds like a huge time saver!

[@parallel4344]

Great vid:)

[@moonsternine5286]

I love the new sprites! But I was wondering if you were going to make a small animation/indicator of when an enemy is about to attack? Because right now, even though it seems continuous in a set period of time, there is nothing telling you that "the rat on the left" is about to attack. Just food for your thoughts of how difficult you want it to be, if there is a loooot of enemies, not knowing who is about to attack might ramp up the difficulty "unwillingly".

[@kiara_kb8214]

Finally I found hand drawn tuto !!!

[@lydiagranholm]

For the projectiles, do you mean curve so that they make kind of a firework pattern? Like they all curve at once? Because what I would do for that is to spawn them within an empty gameobject, and then all you have to do is rotate that gameobject and they'll all rotate around that origin point. Hopefully that's a helpful for what you're picturing!

[@Smaxx]

Yep, that's been my very first idea, too!

[@ethanaspinall7683]

Awesome stuff I love the art style now and how about "Dim-Lit Forest" for the name