The Long-Promised Year-End Martian of the Month Update

"Eventually, you do plan to have Martians in your Martian tour, right?"

Today is the long-promised update on the Martian of the Month! So... why has it taken so long??

The truth is that the project has been on the back-burner while other pressing issues (like the various NDA projects this year) have been cooking. It is only recently that I've had a chance to come back and reconnect with the project.=!

As is often the case after time away from a project, I have returned to it and decided that I HATED a lot of my original designs. (Nobody panic, this always happens!) It is simply a product of being engaged in a project over a long period of time while your tastes and abilities continue to evolve and grow. What worked for you early on, won't work for you now, and you have the unenviable task of determining what to salvage, and what to scrap.  It is inevitable, and I believe it is actually good. By undertaking the project, one of the goals is self-improvement. And that self-improvement you gained, likely wouldn't have happened at all without the project. So it is always worth it in my mind, even if you are scrapping a lot.

And while this is happening you are also finding out what the project IS and what it is NOT.  This month I ended up scrapping some of the art, (or rather, relegating it to the concept art sections of the upcoming sketchbook for project) and have gone back to my original sketches to begin them anew (the ink sketches never lie!! They are always my guiding lights!).  And from them, I have developed a LOT of new work and more importantly, found the path I was missing.

From this a more streamlined approach to generating the art has been discovered, which allows me to render everything on a single, transparent layer in photohop, something that makes knocking them out for an in-game asset much easier. 

The first section I will be sharing from this new rework, is the "Station Pests" section: one inspired by a blend of the pestilential creatures: Rats, Bats, Scorpions, Grubs, Roaches and Mites. (Ahhhh what a lovely bunch!!)  There are about a dozen other "factions" I've sketched out like the "Station Pests" above, and I'll be sharing those next year in a series of monthly polls, starting in January.

For those wondering, "why this rough concept-art-looking method? Why not traditional pencil?" (Something many of you will remember from last summer's spread of ocean-themed aliens, shown above.) That is a question I have wrestled with for YEARS because I just love working in pencil! But the truth is, when I start laying in with pencil, I can't help by render the heck out of it.  There is no "low-render" switch for me to flip to when I start drawing in pencil. I pick up the pencil, and then enter a trance-like state. My eyes go in different directions, and my hands work of their own accord.  When I finally come to again, there is a drawing before me and I know not from whence it came. (Can the metal of a Staedtler 925 interfere with brain waves?? Someone please check...) Anyway, while I have no "low-render" switch for working in pencil, I DO have one for concept art. These little 3-color creatures (in the Station Pests layout) take just a few minutes each to scribble out. And once they have been concepted out like this, they are ready to be placed in the game as usable assets, right away.

They are the right shape, the right "personality" and the right general colors. Then, they can be tested and played with in the game, to see how they feel. Do they work? Are they fun to play against? Do they fit the world thematically? Do they offer something unique and interesting narratively? Once we decide that they do in fact work in the game, and are going to make the cut, then I can then go in and add the remaining 90% of the work of detailing and rendering and adding effects. This method is DRAMATICALLY more efficient for generating game assets than trying to do traditional pencil, which takes 10 times longer. The reason for this is pencil drawings are rendered further in advance, and then must be scanned in, masked, cut up, color-corrected, and then sized for the format. The difference for me, is something like 5 minutes vs 50. I just couldn't find a way around that.  The downside to this concept-art style is, of course, there is no physical artifact, which I admit,  I will miss. I console myself that in this case, it is worth it for this kind of trad-off because now I have more time left to do other traditional pencil work. (And of course, I can always do nice, clean drawings of these designs later if I want too as well!)

Other updates: While there is still no gameplay to share, we have a lot of mechanics working. We have a battle system, an inventory system, a load-out system and several other gameplay systems in place, just nothing I can share yet as it isn't all tied together at this point. (We are still in pre-pre-pre-pre-alpha) One thing we have been working on that I can share, is weapons:

There are several types of weapons in the game, and this is one set that has mostly finished artwork for it.  They've got a lot of "upgradable" parts, to allow for a lot of variety in the strategy and gameplay. 

This particular set is themed around the concept art of the space shark. Space Shark may, or may not, make it into the game. (We aren't sure yet, but wether or not he makes it, his weapons will endure!)

And I will leave it there for this wrap-up. Overall, I am back to having a lot of fun with the project after feeling really lost for while. I didn't make it as far as I wanted in 2023, but on the other hand, I I learned so much this year while working on this. I'm going in to 2024 excited to start painting again. Hopefully we will have some animations and gamplay to share with you in our next big update, which should happen in the Spring. Until then, thanks everyone for the support and  encouragement on this project!

-jg