In this picture: Text: “As Yet Untitled Dino Game; 2021-2022 TAIP Funded Project; Suzanne Skaar.” Background art: screen capture of black and white pixel art dinosaur peering over green brick wall in underground environment. Different colored pipes form networks throughout the foreground and background of the picture. Pink No, Mine! Studios logo is in the bottom right corner.
I’ll be presenting at the next Tacoma Arts Commission meeting!
Join us online on Monday, September 12, 2022 at 5 p.m. I’ll be talking about my experience as part of the 2021-2022 Tacoma Arts Initiative Program Funded Cohort and progress on my first game. Information is available on the City of Tacoma’s website.
No, Mine! Studios will be at the official kick-off party for Tacoma Arts Month! The Kaleidoscope Opening Party is free and will be hosted at Tacoma’s STAR Center on October 5 from 6:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Stop by and test the latest progress on the as-yet-untitled dino game.The last public demo was at the October 2021 Arts at the Armory event. There’s still so much to do, but I am excited to share the progress made since then!
In game progress. Suzanne Skaar, 2020-2022. All rights reserved.
For those interested in being included in the game as an NPC, I’ll have audio recording equipment and permission forms on hand as well. 🙂
I received support for the research and development of game background art from the Tacoma Arts Commission through the 2021-2022 Tacoma Artist Initiative Program. (While the Kickoff Party will mark the completion of my participation in the program, I’ll definitely be working on the game for the foreseeable future.) For those who would like to learn more about this program, I’ll be talking about my TAIP experience at the September 12 Commission meeting.
You can help support this small, Tacoma-based business by liking, following, and sharing @nominestudios on the following platforms:
In game screencapture. Dinosaur walking with box labeled “fragile” covering top half of body. As yet untitled game by Suzanne Skaar, 2020-2022. All rights reserved.
Happy Tuesday!
I have been invited to talk about my project at the September 12 Tacoma Arts Commission meeting which will be recorded and posted for the public. If you would like to check out what’s been going on in Tacoma, you can find the Arts Commission meetings here. The new Tacoma Arts Initiative Program (TAIP) application should be up in a couple of months, and these meetings are a great way to gather insight into what Commissioners look for in project proposals.
In the next few weeks, I’ll also be able to share more information about a free all-ages arts party in Tacoma that No, Mine! Studios will be a part of. Mark your calendars for the evening of October 5! Although I still have a lot more that I plan to do in terms of game development, this event will be the final component of my TAIP 2021-2022 Project.
As always, thank you for your support! If you haven’t yet done so, you can like and follow No, Mine! Studios for more frequent updates on the following social media platforms:
My next live demo is at Grit City Comic Show’s Artist Alley in October, & I’ll be announcing my TAIP artist talk soon, so I’ve been hard at work on background art, secondary character design, & animations.
In game screenshot of as yet untitled pixel art dinosaur game. Small black and ivory T-rex sitting in between two buildings looking up at a green brontosaurus peering from behind building. On top of the building to the right is a sign which reads “The Very Diverse Society for Old Dude Bros.” Pink “No, Mine! Studios” logo in bottom righthand corner. Art by Suzanne Skaar, 2020-2022. All rights reserved.
In game screenshot of as yet untitled pixel art dinosaur game. Small black and ivory T-rex sitting in bush in front of brick building loosely based on Tacoma’s Armory (“The Rawrmory”). Cannon on top of roof to the right. Small triceratops sits atop a tower to the left. White “No, Mine! Studios” logo in bottom righthand corner. Art by Suzanne Skaar, 2020-2022. All rights reserved.
I’ve been looking up the history of cool Tacoma buildings I want to reference in my game and did some digging into what used to be an old theater in the Lincoln District.
When it was first built, the owner made it so that women (not men, mind you) could have a separate nursery area for caring for their kids and still see the screen. It closed in 1958, became a theater not at all appropriate for kids, then a church. It’s been boarded up for a while, now.
While I usually change the names of buildings/ businesses to dinosaur/prehistoric puns, I think I’ll keep the original name in this instance.
Pixel art illustration of Rex Theatre: loosely based on actual theater of same name in Tacoma, WA. Suzanne Skaar, 2022. All rights reserved.Screenshot of Cinema Treasures website (source for reference photos of/ details about Rex Theatre): http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/9489/photos/143052
A challenge with drawing from historical references for this game has been to not be too literal in the design process. I’ve taken some liberties with background art design for the purpose of keeping with the game’s overall style. For example, looking at my illustration and the historical photo of Rex Theatre side by side, it’s easy to see that my version is a little taller and less rounded on the top than the original. Another difference is that while the original theater had 650 seats, I don’t think 650 dinosaurs could fit into the original theater.
At least not 650 adult T-Rexes. The building itself is only 6,000 square feet, and T-rexes could grow up to 40 feet long and 12 feet high, and that’s not accounting for width…
So rest assured, my overthinking friends who also get caught up in historical details, I am overthinking this, too, and we’re just going to let some things slide. And the other details I can’t let slide will be dealt with in the game as awkwardly as possible. Like what happens when you try to jam as many dinosaurs as you can into a theater.
I’m grateful to the Tacoma Arts Commission for supporting this part of the game research process through the Tacoma Artist Initiative Program (TAIP). You can learn about other TAIP projects by clicking here.
This week I’ve been building out the game environment, adding details, and working on sound design. Here’s a peek:
7 15 2022 in game engine clip. Visual and sound design by Suzanne Skaar, 2020-2022. All rights reserved.
As a reminder, it’s not too late to add your voice to the game as a background character! Please click here for more details, or email nominestudios@gmail.com with questions.
My 43rd birthday is on July 26. While many people use their birthdays on social media these days to solicit funds for charity, I am collecting impressions of dinosaurs.
In 2021, my indie game was accepted into the Tacoma Artists Initiative Program for support while I focus on research and designing the background art. One of my other goals for this project is to include as many voices from the Greater Tacoma Community as I can in the game. As such, I want to include others’ best (and even worst) dinosaur impressions in the game’s soundscape.
QUESTION: Is there pay for participating? No, there is no pay. But if your audio clip is used, you have the choice whether you will be included in the credits or not.
Don’t live in Tacoma but want to participate anyway? Not a problem!
If you are under 18, please get permission from your parent or guardian prior to participating.
If this sounds like fun, please check out the application form for complete details(Word/ PDF). Submissions are due July 26, 2022.
Please note that submissions may be shared on social media. If you don’t want your submission shared, please don’t send it! And if you do share your submission on social media, please tag @nominestudios!
It’s been a while since I’ve shared new game updates on the website. Allergies really kicked my butt these last few weeks and I’ve been in a bit of a fog. Fortunately, we’re just a few days away from the official start of summer in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and the pollen count is only going up from here! Yay! [Wait.]
Part of my absence from posting on my site was that I was working really hard on a project for an organization that, in the end, was not set up to properly support content creators. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. Not every effort is going to pan out in the end, and sometimes, the best option is to reroute our energy, especially when we don’t have much energy to begin with [see first paragraph] and mom duties call.
[Ha ha, duties.]
I also tried my hand at standup comedy for a few months, which was more an exercise in remembering what it was like to interact with other adults outside of formal meetings. For now, I love the writing aspect of standup, but not so much the standing-up of standup. I’ll give it another go again somewhere down the line, but for now, I’m gleefully back in the safety of a late Cretaceous Era Tacoma.*
Here’s some of the game progress I’ve shared on other social media sites so far. If you want to support No, Mine! Studios in the goal of reaching a wider audience, please like, follow/ subscribe, and share No,, Mine! on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and even the dusty old YouTube.
If you have places in Tacoma you want to ensure are in the game, drop me a line in the comments below, or email nominestudios@gmail.com.
Dimetrodon High School. Suzanne Skaar, 2022. All rights reserved.Work in progress. Preview in Unity game engine of Dimetrodon High School. Suzanne Skaar, 2020-2022. All rights reserved.Environment art. Suzanne Skaar, 2022. All rights reserved.In game progress. Suzanne Skaar, 2020-2022. All rights reserved.
In game capture. Play-testing by No Mine, Studios Junior Tester Isobel. Animation and sound by Suzanne Skaar, 2020-2022. All rights reserved.
As always, thank you for your support! And thank you to the Tacoma Arts Commission for providing support for this project through the Tacoma Artists Initiative Program!
City of Tacoma Arts Commission logo.
Suzanne
*[I realize Tacoma would have been completely under water 66 million years ago and probably did not have any decent places to get falafel.]
Then the little dino is going to want a bubble tea… and maybe a vegetarian taco, too.
2D pixel art dinosaur holding a pink bubble tea and eating a taco. Suzanne Skaar, 2021. All rights reserved.
The process of building up a studio and developing a game can be long and lonely. It can especially be challenging as a mom to network through the normal avenues when many are not welcoming of children, and the pandemic has made it more difficult to depend on already limited childcare resources. Thank you everyone has cheered me on and jumped in to help along the way! I am especially grateful for the support received from the Tacoma Artist Initiative Program to focus on building up the environment of the game. [Much of the game’s background art is loosely based on real places in Tacoma, WA.]
Concept work for as yet untitled dinosaur game. “Boop’s” is based on Tacoma’s iconic Bob’s Java Jive. Suzanne Skaar, 2021. All rights reserved.
If you would like to help offset some of the costs of running a small business (business licenses, equipment, software, food …), consider buying a dino a coffee (or a bubble tea, or a taco). I do have a limited run of work up on Redbubble, as well as buttons and stickers ready to be placed in local retail stores.
New buttons by Suzanne Skaar, 2022. All rights reserved.
If there is a design on my site that you would like to purchase that is not on Redbubble yet, email nominestudios@gmail.com.
You can also help No, Mine! Studios reach a larger audience by following on these platforms:
No, Mine! Studios 