Never Happy

Emo kid is so sad. So very sad.

"Glue your hand to the prison bars they said. Glue your head to your hand that is glued to the prison bars afterwards they said. It'll be fun they said."

I am in a constant struggle with being satisfied then spiraling into a deep depression over the fact that I am never happy with my weapons designs for the EDU. This is a little example (I think my second example on this site, actually) of how the weapons changed over the course of me designing the game. Some factors that get, uh... factored into the changes are as follows;

1. Color: It must stand out from the EDU so as not to confuse the player.

2. Size: Sometimes the gun covers way too much of the EDU and looks too bulky. Or it can look too thin and underwhelming.

3. Non Gun Shapeyness: The hardest part of designing these guns is the fact that they are not supposed to be a gun in the traditional sense. They should not have a handle or a "butt" to them since they are turret guns that attach to the side of the EDU's gun mount. If they looked to much like the typical rifle shape, then I failed as an artist and a human being.

4. Tool Inspired: Since the EDU is a drilling mech first and foremost, it shouldn't be wielding military equipment. It can mount guns onto it's "weapon" mount but the drilling weapons should look more like power tools.

A: The Matter Maker. The original version isn't even the original version. That is the third rendition of the weapon. I finally nailed it with the more power tool looking version on the right. I love that design and it hit exactly what I was looking for in my weapon design. Futuristic but still recognizable as a tool. I spent a good amount of time at Home Depot looking at nail guns, saws and hand drills for inspiration. The left version looked too much like a gun and not a power tool. I have been known to be called a power tool on occasion. Usually when I had too many Mountain Dews in my system.

B: The left one is obviously dumb looking. This is an example of how I usually start off a gun to get the basic design and shape of it before I proceed to making a full version. I like how the drill ended up. I added the rivet looking things onto the drill part because that's how actual drills look that bore through rock. Plus it gave it more depth when it's animated.

C: The Cat Cannon original layout. I thought it looked dumb. It kinda looked like a sad robot penis. I also thought to myself "Where's the cat shell being held?" Obviously if you shoot a cat, it's gotta be contained inside something. So I redid it and it only took me one more time to nail the look. I wanted to keep it stubby looking. No need for a big gun with a long barrel. I mean c'mon, it shoots a cat. Not a lot of recoil on cats. Trust me.

Funny thing about this gun. I always think about Les Miserables when I see it. It took me the entire movie to animate the gun while my girlfriend and her friends watched the movie. See how dedicated I am to this game. Even when a shitty overly melodramatic... I mean, award winning sweeping epic of a musical is playing in the room, I ignore it to hone my pixel craft.

D: The Sound Drill is the Bane to my Batman. It has crushed my creative spine. I will never be satisfied with this design. Honestly, I don't think I ever will. The new design has that "rifle" shape that I am trying to avoid. Ugh. Ugh to my life.

E: Nailed it. Might change the color but my first go at it and I think I got what I wanted for the Mine Launcher. Big thick stubby barrel and not rifle shaped.

F: The Flamethrower was a simple fix. The original is the third rendition and I like it but wanted it a little more gritty. As gritty as adding some tubes and a rail on top can make something. I did this to some other gun designs. Nothing to dramatic to show off.

So, fellow pixelers, if you are having a hard time nailing a design, don't fret. Move onto something else and come back to a design later. More than likely, whatever else you ended up pixeling instead, heightened your pixeling skills just a little more to endow you with the prowess to conquer the earlier design that is thwarting your every mouse click.

 "Yeah guys. You can be emo and happy. Take it from me, Spiderman 3's Jay Leno!"

That's who that is, right? I'm hip. Please agree.