Update #5 - June 30th 2025:

Hello again, SpoiledPuppy here!

First off - just some minor spoilers ahead in case you haven't finished playing the prototype!

My, my where did June go? I'm always at a loss for words whenever I come back here for an update. Soon I'll be an old man with a full head of grey hair! Well hopefully...its all I've ever really wanted in life!

I lost a week this month since work was really busy. Summer is busy for me in general, but June really seemed packed with lots to do; family birthdays, Father's Day, vet visits - just a whole buncha stuff! With that said, I only managed to finish two screens this time around, BUT, they were very important screens and I was kinda dreading it. This month I took on creating City Hall and the Art Studio (not that anyone would know what these places were supposed to be). Ready for the before and after? Its pretty dramatic I think. Here's the before:

Both the Art Studio and City Hall were the same, so its just one pic here. I mostly designed it like this just to hurry up and get something out. That was kinda the plan with all of the art. I really just wanted to focus on getting the game working first, then I'd go back and redo the art later...well now technically! My brick work here is terrible, especially where the bricks meet up and kinda form one mega brick since they aren't offset. The doorways (in general) are just big black squares, the stairs look like nothing and well, its just a big OOF for me.

Here is the 'after' for both - 

City Hall:

Art Studio:

This is a MASSIVE improvement for me, although I still have a long ways to go. I'm having trouble with perspective a little - City Hall kinda just looks flat, like you're looking at it head on, but I feel like it works in this specific case. I tried to correct that with the Art Studio by making the roof stand out a lot more (I looked at a lot of Stardew Valley houses). I also played a bit more with shadow work here to try and give both buildings more depth, and I think it turned out well. Now that I'm looking at it, I think the City Hall entrance may need more shadowing...

For once in my life I am actually a TEENY TINY bit proud of my work here. I really love the pillars for City Hall and my Death Moth at the top (could you tell??) I think I did a pretty good job with the Art Studio trim as well (all the red bits).  These both took a lot out of me mentally, it was VERY difficult to work for more than an hour on these at a time. Hopefully my stamina will get better so I can produce art a little more efficiently. Also, this was the first time I have felt like a character in the game was speaking to me (kinda). Hahah! Kinda silly, but the lady that runs the Art Studio is SO demanding! I had to create a whole new color that wasn't in my palette for this lady! Then she wanted a mosaic style sidewalk instead of dirt and some dead trees that I JUST finished like 30 minutes ago! GEEZ!

Ok, let me come back down to Earth. 

I think I only have one more thing to update for the overworld, which should hopefully not take too long. After that, I should be able to start on the interiors. I'm hoping that means I can finish all of that in July so that I can spend August working on the dungeon! I'm unsure if I'll be able to meet my goal, but I'm optimistic! Woah, I am?? I'm never optimistic...weird. 

Thanks for reading this far and thanks for your support! As always, please be sure to share this with anyone in your life that may be interested in an old school, Zelda-like game, and please feel free to leave a comment with some feedback if you'd like as well. Any and all feedback is extremely valuable to me! Just be nice please...haha!

I'll be back at the end of July with more updates! 

Thanks again and take care!

- SpoiledPuppy