I’ve finished up both the the sketch from the previous dev log post as well as a more detailed pass on the concept art for the Mill area. With that out of the way, I have been moving onto doing the actual in-game pixel art. In order to save some time, I’ve combined both the pixeling and the “decay” pass on the art into the same phase.
You can look at all 3 passes as they currently exist (including the incomplete pixel-art pass) below:
Doing the pixel art is taking some time because there are a lot of small details which I want to get right with this area. As I mentioned in the latest video dev log, there is an important balance to strike between things having enough rust, dust, and decay, and things remaining within the overall “flat” aesthetic of the game’s art style. With that said, I think the hardest part is now out of the way and I’m onto the more straightforward implementation phase.
I enjoy detailing the pixel art much more than I enjoyed planning everything out. I think this probably comes down to me being a generally detail-oriented person, ever since I was a small child. Probably something to do with being a bit autistic. I don’t know for sure, but that’s how it is.
Looking at the big picture, this is the final major area that needs to be finished. After that, there is a bonus area that I want to add as well, although it will be less visually detailed and hopefully can be completed in short order.
I’m getting closer than ever to actually having the game finished to a baseline degree. Ideally I’d like to go back over everything and add in more details and clean up stuff that I’m not happy with. But we’ll see how much I can actually afford to do. The main obstacle at this point is how little money I have left. Although I have managed to reduce my burn-rate rather significantly for the time being, I’m about one small disaster away from being totally broke.
Anyway, not trying to complain, just trying to air out some of my thoughts here.
I feel like I should cover something a bit more in-depth here on the blog soon. If anyone has any suggestions for something to dive deeper into about the game, feel free to leave them in the comments below!
Taiji 
If you don’t mind sharing, what is your burn rate, and how much of that is for development costs / tools versus regular life stuff? Thanks.
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Burn rate has been around $2k USD per month, although I’ve managed to squeeze that down to about $1500 now. Dev costs and tools are not very much of it, it’s mostly just that it costs money to survive, have electricity, a place to live, and internet good enough to do things to market a video game.
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