I'm bubby darkstar!! I'm an artist who primarily creates utilizing the medium of games, but I also do general illustration, comics, etc etc etc. I've been a professional artist since ~2015 and I've been creating art for over 20 years
it's a funny little visual novel/FPS hybrid game about a girl whose job is to kill evil robots. the game is mostly story-focused with lots of funny cutscenes and tons of hand-drawn sprites (literally thousands) and ever-evolving gameplay that gets weirder and dumber as the game goes along. some primary themes of the story are the value of "competency", the misery and powerlessness of labour, and the agony that comes with trying to stick to your "dreams". I wanted to make this game after my first game (subway midnight) because I wanted to see if I could take the idea of telling an actual story in a game more seriously while still including actual "gameplay" that went beyond just walking around a level where stuff occasionally happens. I decided to make it an FPS just because I figured that would mesh well with a sprite-based 2D-in-3D style (similar to subway midnight) and because it would mesh well with a game that has a dedicated and focused protagonist since we're (almost) entirely seeing things from her perspective.
Developing this game was a huge pain in the ass, mostly due to external factors. I really love the project, the story, the art, everything. but I had to work on it while working a full-time job in the rapidly declining games industry, and as things got slowly worse and worse for me it became harder and harder to work on the game. I think you can definitely tell, because the later levels are a lot more nihilistic and focused on corporate hell and the agonies of living in a world where it's work-or-die. I'm really hoping the game is able to pick up and sell better, because I would really love to continue making art like it, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to do so while also trying to survive working a fulltime job.
I used unreal engine 4 for this game (and subway midnight) purely because it's an engine I'm familiar with and I'm too stubborn to learn Godot. UE has a visual scripting language (blueprints) which is essential for me, because I simply cannot wrap my brain around coding without it
The biggest hurdle has been the business aspect of it all. I am not a good businessman nor a businessman period, and it's been an exhausting, costly, and extremely disheartening process trying to get my game published and out there in the world. I was under the impression that I had a publisher locked in for an extremely long time, and when that turned out to not be the case, it was far too late in the process to find a new one. Despite submitting applications and calling upon all the connections I could muster I didn't even so much as receive rejection emails from the bulk of them. so I was forced to release the game without a publisher and basically watch it crash and burn. I managed to connect with a new publisher this month who is trying to give shooty a second shot at finding its audience, so I'm extremely hopeful for that. but the lesson learned this time around is that you sort of really DO need to find a publisher and strongly consider the business aspect of making games if you're planning on spending years of your time making them, and going forward I will take that part of the process much more seriously and be much more assertive, just like a real business boy
my advice would be to start small, form connections, and plan ahead as much as you can. I wasted a lot of time (on both my games) because I didn't adequately plan things and I had to go back and redo big swathes of the games and reconsider entire levels and etc. again I also wish I was smarter about the business/publishing side of things early on into the project because that's the #1 thing that caused me grief and cost me thousands and thousands of wasted dollars, if you can make a solid demo first and get a publisher locked-in early then I think that's the best move, otherwise you're literally just counting on luck and that's not worth it if you're planning on spending years on a project. and yeah, if possible, try to make connections with likeminded people who can work with you on your projects. i did everything (coding, art, music, etc) on both my games and it was a colossal pain in the ass. if you have a buddy who knows how to play guitar then maybe pay him to just make a soundtrack for you instead of spending months and months learning how to use garage band lol
The games industry is a giant pile of crap right now, i think more than ever we need weird indie artists creating weird indie games, and we need to start collectively moving away from the terrible AAA bullshit that's been eating away at creativity and real humanity in this medium. i really hope that more people gradually start leaving the big companies to make some weird shit with their pals and the industry can be saved from the brink before it just becomes corporate slop all the way down
-bubby darkstar❤️
Shooty Shooty Robot Invasion on Steam
