Indie Speed Run: Day #1

It's 3-minutes-to-2am, Sunday morning / Saturday evening, New Year's Eve-Eve.

We'd been looking at Indie Speed Run as a nice way to round out the year and ring in a bold new 2013 for a few weeks.

But there's a barrier to entry with these self-directed challenges. You have to actually set aside the time - you have to force yourself to plan, and then you have to open the website and click "Go" and that's a whole thing in itself.

But here we are!

We clicked said "Go" button six-and-a-half hours ago, and we're now embroiled in an Indie Speed Run situation.

To summarise the deal:

1. You click 'Go'
2. Your team's timer begins to tick
3. You are given a theme and an element
4. The theme is the concept around which the game will be based
5. The element is just a little thing to spice the game up

Our theme: Telepathy

Our element: Booby Trap

I was pretty concerned about this random theme/element assignment - but we came out pretty well, I think. I was concerned we'd get something like "Diaper Pie". 

In any case... Diaper Pies aside... we got straight down to business.

We're pretty character-centric - so we set about designing a character that would give us a lot of latitude later on in the development process. Something that could host a lot of subtext.

A pencil sketch on a grocery list. Just like the pros.	I've been drawing variations on this theme for a while now. The big, sad eye; the proboscis-like nose. I'm not sure what deep-seated psychological issue this is symptomatic of... but it's definitely there.
We inked it up, front and side - and gave it some color.	We wanted to create something that would work as a pathetic protagonist, or a cold antagonist. The eyes really made it, I think. They're both sad and cruel.
Modelled, unwrapped and in Unity.	Once we had modelled the character (a real sprint effort - my mouse-hand is a claw) - we started looking at color palettes. Once we'd seen the soft skin tones and the purple under the eyes, a muted backdrop seemed appropriate.

And there you are. 1 day, 17 hours, 25 minutes, 03 seconds to go until we need to have this game finished.

You'd think I could find more productive things to be doing than blogging, but I'm drinking a pre-sleep tea and you know... it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Tomorrow will be the real meat.

Update: Read the thrilling conclusion to our Indie Speed Run.

-Joshua McGrath

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