benwiddowson
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🕑 Added 2023-08-25 22:06:21 +0000 UTCHappy Friday! I wanted to give a special update here on twitter today. Over the past few months I've spent a lot of time thinking hard about what we make, where it needs improved, and how to make those improvements. I will likely talk about this a lot more in the future, but the biggest takeaways I've had are the following;
1. I believe myself to be a decent writer, I seem to be able to tell stories that many people can connect with and find engaging or entertaining. A lot of japanese players were happy with how Midnight felt authentic, and that was a huge praise for me. Though I realized that my deep adoration/respect of Japanese folklore and horror may cause me to lean heavily on tropes and ideas that I may know better than the back of my hand but hit less hard because of my desire to be accurate to what I love. I may be delivering the story too mechanically as a result? I decided that for the next small project I need to focus on a story that only I can tell with 100% authenticity. Horror from my own experiences, upbringing, and influences. I think honing in a bit on this current project will help round out some of what I think my writing may be missing right now?
2. Spending every waking moment of my life working on a singular project caused some pretty bad burnout especially when followed up by the difficult but necessary changes I had to make over the last year. I wasn't enjoying work and it was making even fun projects like the mecha game turn into daily frustration. This led me back to point 1 (and will lead to point 3 as well). In order to make sure that all the energy I put into my games is fueled with that inspiration and excitement I need to keep things fresh every day. So I wanted to make sure that I spent some time making whatever cool thing I feel like that day. I spent about 6 months taking commissions again, the last 3 I haven't touched UE5 and focused all my time on the art. Once we finish moving and get settled in it's full steam ahead on UE again, but the break helped alleviate the "too many minds" problem.
3. The most common problem an artist faces is probably thinking everything they make is somewhere between not good enough or complete garbage. I want my art and games to get to the next level, so I've begun spending a lot more time working on my character design, concept art, and mood painting skills. Our next project will hopefully show that growth immediately, and Office will eventually be even better. I don't want to stagnate or just sit where I'm comfortable. the Sense games deserve to look better than anything I can presently make. So I'm putting all I have into refining my core visual storytelling skillsets.
SO, what does all this mean? It means you are going to start seeing some art that is not necessarily for a game, a lot that is, but some art that just helps show you what I want our games to feel like. Maybe some stuff for prints, art books, or other merch you can buy to help support the studio. I hope you all like it and if you aren't yet, I hope you will give us a follow here. video dev-logs coming later this year.
Thank you all for your support so far! SUZAKU will return!
