#game log

and why is he hot

Starling went through quite a few redesigns through the entire development process so let me talk about it a bit :3

It all started with this notes app drawing I made with my finger

Right from the start we knew his tail would be made out of tongues but figuring out how many and placed how was quite hard, I really had to girlmath my way thru

This was the first actual drawing I made of him. The story wasn't complete yet but I went ahead and designed something anyway. Here he was definitely "scarier" and his scar was also placed differently. He had gills on his neck but as you will see I changed their location to under his arms later on. We were actually considering not giving him a tongue of his own so I wanted to make his mouth terrifyingly big and empty.

Here I tried giving him bigger eyes like a fish. This was when his playful and childlike personality had started shaping as you can see from the expressions. I definitely liked this direction better but it also wasn't perfect just yet so I went ahead and did a few more changes

Short game log, MANY arts! Since I have a better direction of what I want the art in my game to be like, I've freshened up some old graphics/cutscenes!!

Before and afters !!

I've also done a little bit more animation again.

Character portraits!!

This is surreal. I’ve finally done it. I’ve built a rocket; I’ve cured myself. I’ve disabled the quarantine platform. Just one week ago I didn’t even think I would survive. And just two months ago I didn’t even know I was carrying a deadly infection.

I’ve been spending some time at Lifepod 5; contemplating how lucky I had to have been to end up in one of the few life pods still floating and end up in the shallows too. It was a rough start, but the PDA did a good job of keeping me alive early on. There’s only so much it can do on a planet like this though and with a bacteria like Kharaa. It’s been luck and in large part the Sea Emperor that got me this far.

I don’t really know where I go from here. I mean, obviously back to “civilization” for now. Someone has to tell their stories. To tell the galaxy about Bart and Ozzy and Captain Quinn and all the rest. And the Kharaa and the cure as well. I worry about what Alterra may do once they find out what is here. But they will clearly send a ship out here eventually. The Aurora already had a mission to find the Degasi. And with the Aurora and the Sunbeam downed as well, it’s only a matter of time until they send someone else out here to find out what happened. As funny as it would be to let Alterra spend all their money crashing into 4546B; it’s not fair to the people on those ships. I just wish I could do something to stop Alterra from coming back. The Precursors weren’t great for the Sea Emperor and the rest of the environment here; I suspect Alterra will be much worse.

Still; there’s no way I’m letting Alterra claim that I’m trillions in debt to them. It’s their fault I was here in the first place. If that’s how they want to treat me; I’ll just leave. Maybe I’ll come back here. Unfortunately, it’s time for me to go now. I probably won’t be able to use my PDA much while I’m on the Neptune. Or maybe I’ll be awake the whole time and have nothing to do but sit in contemplation and stare at the stars. I’ve never been great with predicting interstellar travel times — especially with these new ion drives, so I don’t really know how long I’ll be stuck on here. I suspect it will be long enough I’ll be desperate for real ground and water. Until then… well, there’s always the view.

done done done