Bringing an Idea to Life (Part I)

I haven't done anything with a blog in a super long time, and figured this would be a good starting point for a new one: My first game is Greenlit on Steam!




The story of how it ended up getting there is a strange one, so I hope you'll stick around! It's kind of long too, so chances are I'll split it into several posts, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I have always loved drawing, and had the bright idea one day to try my hand at making a little illustrated storybook that followed the adventures of two young monkeys who were trying to stop an evil bird bent on world domination.
Not bad, right?
Well, I knew that it was a pretty cliche concept, and wanted something to set it apart from other stories. That 'something' was to make a little video game that would come with the book, so that kids can read the story as well as play through the different scenes. The idea was an exciting one, so I set off on my journey to make it happen!

As you can see, I wanted things to be colourful and cartoony! I also wanted the story to seem not completely far-fetched, despite the fact that there are talking monkeys and birds (The island is based on a small island on Mexico's Pacific Coast if you want to try and find it!). While putting together illustrations for the storybook, I was planning the game and slowly piecing together what I wanted it to be like.
I grew up playing games on the original Nintendo, and my all-time fave was one called Metroid. In it, the player needed to explore an alien world and gain all kinds of powerups along the way before battling the final boss. The aspect of exploration seemed like a perfect fit for my game, so that was a starting point! Next, I needed a style of graphics for the game. Back in the NES days, everything was really basic pixel graphics, and games were restricted to only a few colours. I liked the aspect of using pixel graphics for a retro feel, but limiting the colours seemed like it would take away from the colourful nature of the story (the guys who made the old school games were masters at making games visually appealing with what they had by the way).
So, an exploration game with pixel graphics and lots of colours. Sounds easy enough, right? Sure, but at this point, I still had no idea how a game was made!