Week 8 Devlog: Learning, Playtesting, and Pixel Art for My Stardew Valley-Inspired Game!

This past week has been a significant learning curve in bringing my Stardew Valley-like game to life. I dedicated most of my time to analyzing the results of the first playtest, diving into Unity courses, and even trying my hand at pixel art.

First Playtest: Valuable Insights

My primary goal for the initial playtest was straightforward: ensure the game runs smoothly on a Windows PC and that players can move their character around the map, interacting with collisions from objects like trees and rocks. I’m happy to report it was a success! I received some incredibly valuable feedback, particularly concerning the smaller trees and stones, which will help me refine future iterations.

Diving Deeper with Unity

I’ve begun a fantastic free Unity course on YouTube by CodeMonkey. A huge thank you to them for their amazing work! I felt it was crucial to expand my knowledge before pushing forward too much further. I’m still in the very early stages of the course, but I’m already making good progress and feel more confident in my development.

Camera Improvements with Cinemachine

A notable visual upgrade this week is the improved camera system. I’ve updated it using Unity’s Cinemachine package, and now the camera smoothly follows the main character. You might notice a yellow area in the GIF above, which is temporary. This marks an area where I haven’t yet extended the tilemap, but rest assured, as the map grows, this will no longer be visible.

My First Foray into Pixel Art

And now for something completely new for me: pixel art! I’ve never considered myself an artist, but I decided to challenge myself and try drawing some pixel assets. Below, you can see some of my first attempts, which I created using original pictures as references. I’m hopeful these efforts will contribute positively to the game’s aesthetic!

It’s 16x16 pixels!

Conclusion

This milestone has been a period of intense learning and growth. I truly understand how much more there is to know, but the incredible support from my family keeps me motivated.

Thanks for following along with this devlog entry! As always, the latest game build is available below for you to try out.

Download latest version