I mean I definitely think Street Fighter should prioritize its gameplay and multiplayer content, as should all fighting games. Fighting game stories are kind of like a nice bonus to the main content. My issue with Street Fighter is that it has so many elements of a really great narrative/worldbuilding, something good enough to actually be interested in on its own like Guilty Gear's universe, but it just refuses to do anything with it. Interesting plot points from SFV like G, the return of the Illuminati, Seth going crazy, etc. were seemingly building towards a really cool story in SF6, but they appearntly just forgot about it favor of more of the same.

Also I think the reason they don't do the small-scale character stories you mentioned anymore is because they kind of already did that in the 90s. Street Fighter already has a bunch of established characters and a huge world, so there isn't really much left in terms of unexplored character stories. Now it's about taking those characters and involving them in a grander narrative.

It's really quite simple. People are nostalgic for the old days of video games, obviously, but I think the thing a lot of people forget is that pixel art is, comparatively, pretty easy to learn compared to traditional illustration. It's a very systematic and precise art form that tends to appeal to lizard-brained coder/game dev types like myself. Additionally, since it's basically a form of impressionism where the viewer fills in the details implied by the gestural form of the image, the finer details can be omitted, saving dev time. Pixel assets are usually very small in file size and are usually made in nice, tidy resolutions, making them easy to implement in-engine. Pixel games are almost always 2D which means new devs won't have to deal with the myriad of new issues and required skills 3D games create like modeling, lighting, texturing, rigging, etc.

In short, pixel art is just accessible.

Unity is free and runs decently well on low-end tech (at least in my experience, I was able to run it on the shitty early 2010s era laptop my high school provided for me while I was taking a game dev class).

The Fancy Pants Adventure games still have some of the best controls in any platformer I've played, and I'm convinced that if Brad Borne had enough manpower and/or funding he could make a fully fledged Fancy Pants game that would probably be one of the best platformers ever made.

Street Fighter as a series in general. There are some occasional moments of brilliance like Gill and the Illuminati or G, but they never do anything with them because they're so busy fellating the shitty-ass main villain they wrote in the goddamn 90s. Even in SF6, where M. Bison is fucking DEAD, the main villain is still associated with Bison and fucking Shadaloo, which REALLY chaps my ass given that they did such a great job setting up the best villain in the series (G) in the last game and then they just dropped him in favor of more Shadaloo bullshit.

So yeah, just play Street Fighter for the multiplayer.

I used to prefer Unity since it was the engine I started out on and used for something like 4 years, but my college recently introduced me to Unreal engine and I'm starting to prefer it, the programming interface is just so much faster and more efficient, though I do hate how "AAA-focused" it is in terms of graphical settings and whatnot. Now with Unity's recent installation fee scandal, I might need to make the switch entirely.

I think both games have their strengths. Celeste is probably the better game on average, it's level design is way better/more fair and it has significantly better music/story/aesthetics, but SMB is much more replayable and has better controls.

This sounds like a modern interpretation of those old Flash games you used to see where it was like an Osama Bin Ladin version of those ragdoll sadism games like Interactive Buddy or Kick the Buddy lol.

I'm more looking for gameplay suggestions instead of "presentation" suggestions (basically anything that isn't programming and game design) because I'm a dogshit artist. Still, making a cute little sandbox experience like that might be fun.

Thanks for the suggestion regardless, it made me laugh.

Yeah, I was definitely planning on making something really small/simple, just to get back into the feel of things.

Also, and I can't believe I didn't mention this in the original post, but the "school" I'll be going back to will be my junior year of art college pursuing a degree in game design, so while returning to school will definitely impede/distract from this project, it wouldn't be nearly as disruptive as going to high school or whatever. I'd probably have a lot of free time to continue working on it.

So I've finally gotten to the part of my summer break where everyone in my family is either at work or at school, but I've still got around a month and a half of break left because my college is weird.

This means I will be home, by myself, all goddamn day long. In these scenarios, I usually stream myself making a small game on my Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/treeese_) to help pass the time and get some gamedev practice before heading back to school, and I plan on starting up a new project/stream series soon.

So I come to you to ask: what kind of game should I make? I'm speaking in terms of gameplay type, such as a schmup, FPS, fighting game, etc. I need an idea of what to make before I can make it, so I'm crowdsourcing for ideas.

So today I accidentally dropped a big ball o' obsidian on my keyboard and broke my r and f keys, making the thing basically ruined, so I'm in the market for a new one. I'll be doing some searching o my own, but I know there's a pretty dedicated subculture for keyboards online, so I figured I'd come on here to get some recommendations from my fellow GamerKin™ on what I should get as a replacement. I'm looking for something cheap and with a number pad, but other than that I don't really have any other requirements. Gaming keyboards, office keyboards, I don't care, as long as it can play games, program, and feels nice to use. So come shill your keyboards and help a brother out, it'd be greatly appreciated.

I used to mostly listen to my extensive "relaxing music" playlist, which is jammed full of around 700 songs of about every kind of chill, ambient, or peaceful music you can think of, though lately, I've found that my ordinary music playlist works just fine, despite being full of metal and all sorts of other more fast-paced/"jamming" kinds of music.

Granted, I don't draw much anymore, and I moreso use these playlists when making games nowadays, but when I did draw more regularly, these were what I used.

Haven't drawn her in like a year or something since I've been shifting more towards game dev lately but I still like her c:

I've been concepting a fighting game where the characters are based on/are interpretations of classic tabletop game pieces/terms like the chess pieces, poker cards, the king from checkers, the dice term "snake eyes," etc. Out of all the characters, the clearest design idea I've come up with is for the Rook (the castle piece from chess). I thought it'd be neat for the Rook to be a sort of "castle/tower golem," so like a living, walking castle tower with arms and legs. It'd be neat to see your take on the concept. Don't be concerned about matching a style or whatever, I'm just interested in seeing what you come up with.

If that doesn't fit within your criteria, then it'd be cool to see you come up with a character of your own. I'm trying to pull from really iconic (and non-brand-affiliated/public domain) tabletop phrases and game terms, stuff like Chinese checkers, the suicide king, blackjack, etc.

Thanks, and good luck!

Absolutely, I have playlists for both normal "jamming" music and more chill, relaxing stuff, both of which I'll put on in the background when doing art depending on the mood I'm in.

I'm not really a full blown "physical artist," I greatly prefer digital due to the higher degree of control/ability to easily reverse mistakes. However, I have done some physical pieces in various mediums like inkwash, watercolor, graphite, acrylic, pastels, etc. for my art school, which I'm currently attending to get a degree in game design (you have to take some foundational classes like drawing and design before you can start working on your major). I don't really have any set in stone process or inspirations since, like I said, physical just ain't my cup of tea, though I guess I do tend to use video game iconography a lot, so at least there's that.

Anyways, I'll post two of my favorites here and link to some playlists with the rest of my stuff.

Here's my second project from Drawing II, it's a painting of a meme we had to come up with featuring an animal and an object from nature (both in colored pencil) atop a background that said things would look out of place in (watercolor) with the text being written in ink. I chose a bug and leaf for my objects because they're relatively easy, and the background is a Minecraft screenshot, for a similar reason (also it's funny). I was kind of lying before when I said I didn't have a process, because for both of the pieces I'm posting I'd set up the composition in Photoshop, measure out where each element is in the Photoshop document, then find that corresponding place on the paper to make things as close to scale as possible, which really helped with the rigidly shaped Minecraft landscape.

This is my final project from the same class, a completely color pastel project. We had to insert our face, our hand, a soft/furry object (a plushie of online artist AkaiRiot's OC Kelda), a transparent object (an empty medicine bottle), and a shiny object (a carabiner) on top of a work from a "master artist" (I chose the DOOM box art since it's one of the most iconic game box arts and I wanted to make it relevant to my major) in a trompe-l'œil (the objects look as if they're existing on top of the background, so they cast shadows and such) manner. I used the same Photoshop measuring strategy again, though not nearly as much.

And that's that, I'll include some playlists for stuff like my Drawing I charcoal stuff, my other Drawing II stuff, and some Color Theory stuff (most of which is digital, though some was painted).

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/dd85e9fda1356a1265b9eea328442ac6

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlists/view/45eaa72c7217c354fb6fb4ca9946161e

The Loose Cannon from TF2 is probably one of the most unique/creative weapons I've ever seen in an FPS, it's so much fun to use.

I keep forgetting to post my stuff here lol

I drew the Lamb from Cult of the Lamb because they're super cute!

I live out in the rural boonies so I don't see graffiti too often, and when I do it's usually just amatuer shit, but if you go to bigger places like Atlanta where there are a lot of abandoned buildings and talented artists, you can see some cool stuff. I don't really mind it if it's good and/or not vandalizing actively owned property.

The character design from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is probably the best example of bad character design I can think of. Even ignoring the complaints most people have about its character designs (like the oversexualization of its female characters), the character designs in that game are just ugly. They're riddled with nonsensical, overly designed anime outfits, inconsistent color choice and placement, and an overwhelming lack of visual clarity. I don't think there's a single character in that game I've seen that I can say has a likeable character design, they are positively radiating with "generic ugly overly-detailed fantasy/sci-fi anime character design" energy. Nothing about them is memorable or stands out, it's all just incoherent visual mush.

I'm putting this down here because I thought the idea was cool and I don't want to forget it.

So I've been getting in Street Fighter V lately, and as usual I start thinking about the design of the game and how it could mix with other genres, how the concept of a traditional fighting game could be flipped on its head, given a new spin. And then I remembered a little tidbit about how OG DOOM's deathmatch mode (a.k.a. the reason we have online multiplayer games) was initially inspired by the 1v1 gameplay of Street Fighter. And then it hit me: a 1v1 first person shooter, probably structured something like MGE from TF2, that utilizes mechanics from fighting games.

Imagine how cool it would be! Like just the idea of translating motion inputs into a first person perspective sends shivers down my spine. Like imagine if, to do a Hadoken, you've have to crouch, walk forward, then punch? Or a Tatsumaki could be a <- (back) -> input?

The idea needs a lot of refinement, this would not at all be an easy game to design, but I thought I'd share the idea to see what y'all think.

Aw, thanks! This may sound silly, but it really does mean a lot since it means her design has worked for at least one person.

I like to describe my artstyle as a hodgepodge of influences from various artists like Akai Riot, Scott Malin, Fizintine, Telepurte, etc. who all draw in a sort of cartoonish anime-inspired style, along with some coloring principles I picked up from doing pixel art.

Right on, thank you very much! Here's my OC Eitr, whose design is about as uncomplicated as one can get.

I remember when I first finished this piece I was sooooo satisfied with it, it was originally a simple line doodle that I promoted to a full blown drawing, and it was really a passion project for me, I was using all sorts of new techniques like colored rim lighting, making things look shiny, long hair, etc., and I worked on it for a long ass time. It was probably one of the most fun things I've ever drawn, and I was super happy with it.

Nowadays, looking back, it's not at all the worst thing I've done, in fact I'd still say it's one of my best digital drawings. But it's definitely pretty amateurish. I just chose this one because it was one of very few drawings I initially didn't have issues with after finishing, so comparatively it has had the biggest drop in appreciation from me.

I generally developed my style by studying the works of artists I admire like Akai Riot, Scott Malin, Fizintine, Telepurte, etc., all artists with a bold, vibrant, and cartoonish style that I absolutely love. I'd look at how they draw eyes and faces, how they use color and shading, how they frame their pieces and proportions, etc., then use these various elements together alongside my own personal methods and techniques. I even tried recreating a few of their pieces (just for studying, these were never posted anywhere, obviously. Plagiarism is kinda cringe) just so I could more intricately understand the methodology behind why their stuff works so well, and for someone who had (and still has) very little artistic experience, recreating an inspiration's piece can really teach you a lot.

So basically it's just a hodgepodge of influences and techniques from several different artists combined with my own flavor and/or inadequacy.

Congrats on hitting the big hundo!

Here you go, I believe I'm number 23.

I've been too lazy to actually do her justice myself, so here's one of my elemental OCs. Go to town, man. Thanks a bunch.

I didn't really start actually drawing until about two years ago in senior year of high school, but I do remember one particularly winceworthy notebook doodle I think I did back in middle school. I don't have it anymore, but I think it was a depiction of a gay vampire standing inside of a closet with a rainbow-colored vortex behind him, with the caption reading "Count Gay-cula." He might've been saying something too, something like "I vant to suck your cock!" or some stupid shit like that. Me and my friends thought it was the funniest shit in the world, because we were in middle school and "LOL! DUDE, HE'S GAY DUDE! HIS NAME IS COUNT GAY-CULA BECAUSE HE'S GAY LOL! HE SUCKS DICKS INSTEAD OF BLOOD LOL! WE'RE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS IN A RURAL GEORGIA TOWN WITH LIKE 4 TOTAL GAY PEOPLE AND HOMOPHOBIA IS FUNNY LOL" Nowadays I just look back and shudder at how hilariously insensitive it was. I'm rarely able to remember any "cringe moments" from middle school, perhaps I just repressed all of them, but this post reminded of how much of a dumbass I used to be lol. I'm not like that anymore, gay people are freakin' rad.

It's really hard for me to give a definitive demonstration of how my art's changed since the art I've been making recently is really different from what I did when I started, but here's an attempt.

Here's my first major art piece from like 2020

And here's one of my favorite projects from my first year at art school, so earlier this year.