Devlog: Making art and habitats
is it "dev" if it's mostly "art"?
What do you do if you’re a tactile artist that needs to make digital pixel art for a game? Make oil paintings of birds, apparently.
These past couple of weeks, I’ve been deep in two kinds of creative work: designing the core systems for my bird sanctuary game and getting my hands messy with some art. While the code determines what birds show up and when, I’ve also been exploring how to bring some of that to life visually through oils, pixels, and a mess of charcoal.
Designing the Habitat System
On the game development front, I’ve been working on a new habitat system. It scores the resources available in a sanctuary like food, shelter, water, and tracks objects such as plants, feeders, water features, and structures. These elements can grow or evolve over time, which I’ve tied directly into bird spawning mechanics.
In other words, birds now spawn when the environment suits their needs. The system compares each species’ preferences against the current habitat conditions and determines which birds might appear.
For example, planting a blueberry bush and adding a shallow water dish might attract a Northern Cardinal (especially if you’ve placed it near a dense thicket for shelter. They are very loud, very red, and very shy.) Different birds respond to different combinations, so designing your sanctuary will hopefully feel like solving a cozy little puzzle.
Getting that first draft up and running took longer than expected (as these things often do), but I’m pretty happy with how it now ties into the birds themselves and the photo mechanic I shared previously.
My Artistic Approach
Since backend systems aren’t exactly eye candy (unless well-formatted code is something you’d hang on the wall) I thought I’d share a bit of the visual work I’ve been doing lately, too. (Though, if anyone does want a breakdown of how an oak tree scores habitat points, let me know. I’ll happily nerd out in a separate post.)
When I start with an idea, I like to be able to feel the paper and smudge the paint and get my fingers full of charcoal. I struggle a bit sitting at a computer to sketch out my ideas so I usually begin on paper, then translate ideas digitally.
This tends to give my art workflow a bit of a blend. Somewhere between classical oil painting, rough sketchbook studies, and the precise language of pixel art.
Since the game is set in New England, I wanted to ground the visuals in birds I actually see out my window. And just for fun, I also created a pixel art grist mill since they’re such a nostalgic part of the New England countryside. (Many seem to be converted into taverns these days.)
From Sketchbook to Sprite Sheet
My workflow usually begins with a pencil sketch before moving into pixel art. I use a variety of mediums but generally either just graphite pencils or charcoal. Occasionally I’ll mix in oil paints if I’m feeling inspired. Once I have a general idea sketched I find it helpful to go back over and refine with ink. Below are a couple of pixel dinos I designed for a chatbot prototype in my last position:
And the sketchbook page those started from:
This is the same process I’ve been using to build art for the bird game: sketch, refine, then digitize. As I build out more assets, I expect to spend more time working digitally. But I try to remind myself constantly: it doesn’t have to be perfect to move forward. In fact, stepping away from a sketch and coming back later often helps me see it more clearly and improve it.
Here’s an example where I used red pencil to correct some earlier figure drawings done in charcoal:
I don’t claim to be a master of figure drawing (yet), but I keep practicing them because they’re hard. And when I improve at figures, I find that everything else seems a bit easier (for example: spherical little birds).
I hope you enjoyed a little peek at some of the sketches and paintings I’ve made recently. This ended up being a little more sharing a sketchbook than sharing game art, but more on the game art soon! Let me know if you’re curious about any part of the process or want me to dig into the game system details.
Some bonus drawings:
Love seeing your art!! (and yes I would like a breakdown of how an oak tree scores habitat points)