{"id":391,"date":"2026-01-25T14:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T20:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/?p=391"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:58:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:58:44","slug":"always-be-iterating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/always-be-iterating\/","title":{"rendered":"Always Be Iterating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I get into a video game, I mean really<\/strong> get into a video game, I like to deep dive into as much of it as I can. This includes looking at behind-the-scenes pictures, videos, concept art, and documentation of the game’s development. Seeing where a game is versus where it started out has always been compelling to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember seeing some of the early footage of Stardew Valley well before it was polished and the art improved to what it is today. I thought it was pretty amazing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that vein, I do still find myself very much in the ‘early days’ of the art development part of this project. I have considered hiring someone else to produce the pixel art, but I also think that with enough time and effort, I may be able to make the art myself. It’s just going to take a lot of iterating between now and then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"August,
August, before and after.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking to iterate on some art today, I focused on a particular piece of art that’s been needing some attention — the character art template that I’m using to make NPCs (and will be using to create the Character Creator and Dressing Room modules.) On the left, you can see the old art for August, the first NPC ingame. He looks hunched and short. After today’s iteration, his legs and arms are longer, and his feet are no longer stubs. Oh, and he has a neck now! I am sure to continue iterating on the template (meaning I don’t consider it finished), but this is definitely a step in the right direction!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

For anyone that’s wondering: no, the female version is not made yet, and yes, it is planned to be added. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Original Character Art<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"The
This little guy was
my iteration on an art asset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A quick share for people like me that like seeing this sort of stuff. Some, but not all, of the pixel art I create starts out its life as art assets someone else created. In this case, I used Snoblin<\/a>‘s Top-Down Prototype Character<\/a>. (This is a free asset, and Snoblin<\/a> has some other great assets available.) If you’re curious, you can go look at the asset page to see what the original, original art looked like. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Anyways, back to what I was saying: I think the original art asset is great in its original form, but I quickly realized I was going for a different look. So I’ve iterated on it a few times to great effect. It doesn’t even look like the original art asset anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Iterating
Progress!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I get into a video game, I mean really get into a video game, I like to deep dive into as much of it as I can. This includes looking at behind-the-scenes pictures, videos, concept art, and documentation of the game’s development. Seeing where a game is versus where it started out has always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19,18],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-dev","tag-iterating","tag-pixel-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivorsoflateearth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}