Here’s some news on what’s going on in my part of the world.
I was recently invited to be interviewed for TV Tacoma’s City Line show. City of Tacoma staff will discuss the upcoming Arts at the Armory event and more. I’ll post a link when it’s available. I really appreciate the chance to share my work and the support shown for my latest project. It has been a great chance to take risks, consolidate different areas of expertise and skills, and learn new skills.
I am continuing to have fun building environments and sneaking in nods to my adopted home city. Check out some new progress in the video below.
Work in progress. As yet untitled dinosaur game. Graphics and sound by Suzanne Skaar, 2021. All rights reserved.
If you like what I do and haven’t yet, please follow No Mine! Studios on the following social media platforms:
Good morning! Here’s a look at some of this week’s progress.
Screen capture of game progress in Unity. 2D pixel art dinosaur walking along the sidewalk past a flower shop. Music, graphics, animation, and editing by Suzanne Skaar. All rights reserved 2021.
Technical Hiccups
I’m still working out the overall music score/ sound design, and will be for some time. My laptop and some of the major DAWs are not on speaking terms at the moment, so much of this week was spent on tech boards looking up what’s going on with my audio drivers and dreading having to go out and purchase an audio interface.
I have also been arguing with the sound settings in Unity about triggering sounds only in proximity to the player, and not from the start of the scene. Imagine, if you will, the simultaneous cry of a million peeping stegos, and you understand why sound is not currently enabled in my game build.
However, I will not let technology win this war. To quote Flaming Lips:
[S]he knows that It’s demanding To defeat those evil machines I know she can beat them
Process, Workarounds and Links
For those who are interested in learning more about my process, I made the music using a combination of two free programs, Beepbox and Audacity. The program I have been using to build the game, Unity, is free for those under a certain income threshold. I then used Adobe Premiere Pro to compile audio I’ve been kicking around for a while now with new in-engine footage from Unity. As I was already subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud for Photoshop, it makes sense for me to work in this software, but the price can be a barrier for those not fully invested in the field yet. If others have suggestions for free video editing software, please feel free to make suggestions in the comments. I know there are several great options out there.
If you want to see more behind the scenes work or receive updates, please follow this blog. You can also like and follow No, Mine! Studios (nominestudios) on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.
Given I’m building a retro 2D pixel art game where a dino runs through a city loosely based on a part of the country that was still mostly underwater during the Cretaceous Period, I concluded I have spent way too much energy worrying about whether to include trilobites due to “historical accuracy.”
No, Mine! Studios 