Léonie Aonzo

Feed Me: our first game!

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Ludum Dare is an online competition, a jam consisting in creating a videogame in 48 hours (for one-man-teams) or 72 hours (for bigger teams). It happens every four months, and this 41st edition was the first one I joined.

Il Ludum Dare è una competizione online, una jam che consiste nel creare un videogioco in 48 ore (per i singoli) o 72 ore (per i gruppi). Ricorre ogni quattro mesi, e questa quarantunesima edizione è stata la prima cui ho partecipato.

The first one we joined, actually. There were two of us, in fact: my brother in arms was Davide Cortellucci, whom I've been collaborating with on a bigger game for some time.

And that's how it started, the first Ludum Dare under the name Flaming Moka (that's how we called our duo, more or less temporarily).

Cui abbiamo partecipato, in realtà. Eravamo due, infatti: mi faceva compagnia Davide Cortellucci, con cui sto sviluppando ormai da tempo un gioco più ampio.

Ed ecco, così, l'inizio del primo Ludum Dare sotto il nome di Flaming Moka (così è stato battezzato questo duo, più o meno provvisoriamente).

Il Tema

The Theme

"Combine two incompatible genres": this was the 41st LD's theme. From a racing-fps in space, where firing with a gun is the only way to move, to a rhythm horror on the notes of a music box, to a not well defined idle-action adventure, we gradually discarded unpromising ideas. We ended up with two options: a management-racing-platform, in which the player has to build different types of platforms to avoid the protagonist from falling; vs a Tamagotchi-ish pet simulator with a horror developement.

Unable to evaluate which of the two was the best compromise between novelty and ease of developement, we chose the horror-pet idea: it was easier to downsize, in case time ran out.

"Conciliare due generi incompatibili": questo è stato il tema del quarantunesimo LD. Dal racing-fps ambientato nello spazio, in cui i colpi di arma da fuoco sono l'unico modo per spostarsi, ad un rhythm game horror sulle note di un carillon, per arrivare ad un idle-action adventure non troppo specificato, abbiamo man mano scartato le idee poco convincenti. Alla fine siamo rimasti con due opzioni: un racing-platform manageriale, in cui bisogna costruire o comprare vari tipi di piattaforme per permettere al personaggio di non cadere nel vuoto, vs un pet simulator in stile Tamagotchi con derive horror.

Senza saper stimare quale possibilità fosse il miglior compromesso tra originalità e facilità di realizzazione, abbiamo scelto la via dell'horror-pet in quanto più facile da ridimensionare in caso di emergenza.

Evolvendo l'Idea

Bringing the Idea Forward

We soon encountered the first obstacle our choice laid: balancing the Nintendogs-like mechanics and the horror narrative. After half a day spent thoroughly designing a scientific setting, we suddenly came to our senses (eating helps). We needed a narrative contest in which our alien egg would not need that many explanations. Just like in Doki Doki: Literature Club, we needed to convince the player of the game's innocence, before we could pull a plot twist. And so the protagonist of our game became a child.

Abbiamo ben presto incontrato il primo ostacolo derivante dalla nostra scelta: bilanciare in giusta misura le meccaniche da Nintendogs e la narrazione horror. Dopo mezza giornata sprecata ad immaginare nel dettaglio un'ambientazione scientifica, siamo improvvisamente rinsaviti (mangiare aiuta). Ci serviva un contesto narrativo in cui un uovo alieno non avesse bisogno di troppe giustificazioni. Come in Doki Doki: Literature Club, prima di poter creare un colpo di scena era necessario convincere dell'innocenza del gioco. Ed ecco così il nostro nuovo protagonista: un bambino.

Rush: start!

The first day ended with discouragement: vague game design, sound design and graphics not progressing, even getting the UI right seemed like an invincible obstacle (even if, actually, in our experience UIs are always been one of the toughest obstacles). The next day, finally, our work got off to a good start. But each software malfunctioning, each bug, each doubt about the concept made us loose hope to finish in time (it's inevitable to have all your trusted tools break in the time of need).

The third day the assets had multiplied (all thanks to the speedpainting practice) and SFX were starting to appear. Nonetheless, we still had to implement everything, and, unfortunately, it was monday. Relying too much on Davide for programming is what prevented me from contributing enough to the game, while he was attending university. In every indie team it's of great importance that all members, even artists, have a rough idea of how code works. Expecially during a jam, in which the greatest work usually is programming. Had I known how to insert the assets on my own, we would have ended up with a much more complete game. Instead, during our rush to 4:30 AM, we didn't make it time to add a lot of already completed material.

And there it was, our game, exposed to the public without any playtesting. Too scared at the thought of some game-breaking bug, we abandoned it as it was and went to sleep.

La prima giornata è terminata nello sconforto: game design vago, grafica e sound design fermi, problemi già solo nella creazione dell'interfaccia (anche se in effetti nel nostro caso le interfacce si sono sempre dimostrate uno degli ostacoli peggiori). Il giorno dopo il lavoro è finalmente partito, anche se per ogni malfunzionamento dei software, per ogni blocco nel codice, per ogni incertezza sul concept tornavamo a disperare (è inevitabile che tutti i fidati strumenti si rompano proprio nel momento del bisogno).

Il terzo giorno gli asset si erano moltiplicati (devo ringraziare l'esercizio degli speedpainting!) e già iniziavano a prendere forma i SFX. Tuttavia, restava da implementare tutto e, sfortunatamente, era un lunedì. Dipendere così tanto da Davide per la gestione del codice mi ha impedito di portare avanti il lavoro mentre lui era a lezione. In ogni team indipendente è fondamentale che tutti abbiano un'infarinatura di programmazione, anche gli artisti. Soprattutto in una jam, in cui il peso maggiore grava sulla programmazione. Se avessi saputo inserire gli asset in modo indipendente, avremmo avuto un risultato finale nettamente più completo. Invece, nella corsa durata fino alle 4:30 AM, non siamo riusciti ad inserire buona parte del materiale già pronto.

Alla fine ecco il nostro gioco, esposto al pubblico prima di qualsiasi playtesting. Troppo spaventati dall'idea di incontrare qualche game-breaking bug, l'abbiamo abbandonato al suo destino e siamo andati a dormire.

Feed Me!

The game doesn't break! Some production errors aside, we verified, incredulous, that it was possible to play it from start to end without it crashing. Even the parameters we decided without calibrating them didn't completely sabotage the gameplay.

The first concept included different evolutions for the monster, other characters, naming the monster and multiple endings. All things we had to give up to because of time. We tried our chance, giving the player an illusory freedom, which we didn't manage to actually offer. And it worked! Only a few players, for example, noticed that a game over didn't exist.

While we were still only able to see the faults of our work, the other participants started to enlight some of its qualities. Not only did we finish in time: the game was also being received positively! We couldn't believe that someone, somewhere in the world, was exploring the little world we created. And yet, slowly, the number of players kept growing.

If you, too, want to try Feed Me, we published it for free on itch.io. There you'll find the executables for Windows, OSX e Linux. Meanwhile, here's the trailer and some screenshot!

Il gioco non si rompe! Nonostante alcuni errori di realizzazione, abbiamo constatato increduli che era possibile giocarlo dall'inizio alla fine senza crash. Perfino i parametri stabiliti a occhio sembravano non sabotare del tutto il gameplay.

L'idea iniziale prevedeva evoluzioni diverse di un mostro componibile, altri personaggi, la possibilità di dare un nome al mostro e finali multipli. A tutto questo abbiamo dovuto rinunciare. Abbiamo giocato il tutto per tutto, dando all'utente l'illusione di una libertà che non abbiamo fatto in tempo a fornirgli. Ed ha funzionato! Sono stati in pochi, ad esempio, a scoprire che non esisteva un game over.

Mentre ancora vedevamo solo i difetti del nostro lavoro, sono stati gli altri partecipanti a metterne per primi in luce i pregi. Non solo avevamo creato il nostro primo gioco: stava anche piacendo! Non riuscivamo a credere che qualcuno da qualche parte nel mondo stesse esplorando un piccolo mondo creato da noi. Pian piano, invece, il numero di giocatori saliva.

Se anche voi volete provare Feed Me, l'abbiamo distribuito gratuitamente su itch.io. Troverete eseguibili per Windows, OSX e Linux. Nel frattempo, ecco il trailer e qualche screenshot!

DOWNLOAD
LUDUM DARE PAGE

Conclusioni

Conclusions

Jams truly are important opportunities to grow. They help breaking many restraints, like that of perfectionism, the create an urgency and they give a rough idea of all the developement steps: from concept to PR. This is invaluable when you're dealing with bigger projets.

However, it's important to get the timing right. Throwing yourself in a jam too unprepared does not bring any result, rather, it can be damaging, the way the Global Game Jam has been for us. And, by the way, we wouldn't be ready for it now either. The Ludum Dare, with its already formed teams, the more benevolent deadlines and its work at a safe distance, was the baptism we needed.

Now, we have our first game.

Le jam sanno davvero fornire preziose occasioni di crescita. Superano freni come quello del perfezionismo, creano un'urgenza e danno una prima infarinatura di tutte le fasi di produzione: dal concept alle pubbliche relazioni. Questo è fondamentale quando ci si ritrova a prendere le misure con progetti più ampi.

Tuttavia, è importante trovare il momento giusto. Catapultarsi in una jam troppo impreparati non ne fa cogliere i frutti, anzi può essere dannoso,come è stato per noi il Global Game Jam. E, per inciso, non saremmo pronti neppure adesso. Il Ludum Dare, con i suoi gruppi già formati, le scadenze più generose e il lavoro da casa è stato il battesimo di cui avevamo bisogno.

E adesso, abbiamo il nostro primo gioco.

At Sundown: Illustrations

Sat, 24 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

These five illustrations narrate the journey of a child in a desolated land, while the day turns into night. The mysterious encounters along the way do not weaver the child’s determination: a final monster awaits at the end of the road…

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This work is an experiment: a mix between illustration and comics. It has been realized with a mixed technique: while the drawing happened on paper, the coloring was fully digital (with my beloved open source painting software Krita).
The separation of these two moments brought me back to a time in which I didn’t use to paint this often. Then, I hated adding color. Oil/digital painting helped me overcome my dislike (and poor skill) for coloring. Today I’m happy to see that I managed to balance these two elements way better than how I used to - not without struggle, though, as you can see below…

This work will be part of the illustration portfolio I prepared for Bologna Children Book Fair 2018!

The void: Illustrations

Tue, 26 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

These project started long ago, during a 24h Illustration workshop with Alessandro Sanna, at Urbino’s Academy. After five months, in which I worked on it as a side-project, I finally completed the nine illustrations. The result isn’t great, especially narration-wise. But most of the work was done in two days, and I’m just glad I completed it.

Most of all, I’ll finally have something to send to Bologna’s Children Book Fair!

Theme

The main idea was to portray what it was like for me to grow up in a big, old house, often empty. I wanted to contradict the common perception of solitude, which is not loneliness. The void is not empty. A single room can become an entire world… and that’s not boring at all.

I don’t think these illustrations manage to convey this clearly, but still, it was fun trying to suggest it through the overall atmosphere.

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Meteorite Landings Data visualization

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

September 18, 2017

Collision is a data visualization project based on the data of all of the known meteorite landings.
The project explores these records with two visualizations, analyzing the number of collisions and each meteorites’s mass and composition.
The visualization is built through code written using the javascript library d3.js.
The data is provided by The Meteoritical Society and distributed through NASA’s Open Data Portal. Its information is updated to 2013.

Number x date

This bar chart visualizes the number of landings for each year between 1950 and 2013, when the recordings were more likely to be accurate. A growth in the number of collected data is however noticeable up to the 70s.
The year 2013 shows partial information, since it was still being collected at the time of release.

On user interaction, for each year are displayed the total number of landings and the six heaviest meteorites, with their id.

Mass x composition

The following bubble chart explores the link between average mass and meteorite composition.
Meteorites can be divided into four groups according to their composition:

Stony (Chondrites and Achondrites, Lunar and Martian meteorites);
Stony-iron (Pallasites and Mesosiderites);
Iron (Magmatic and Non-magmatic).

Relict meteorites are instead thise whose material has been heavily altered by the fall.
The graph enlights how Stony meteorites tend to have a significntly higher mass, on average.

Photo Story

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A few days ago, a friend of mine told me about an assignment common in his university (Urbino’s ISIA): choose a photograph, isolate parts of it and create a narrative independent from the original picture. I though it would be fun to try and do the same, starting form the same photograph he chose: one of Herbert List’s photographies from Naples.

The Story

The gait of the old grew unexpectedly fast.
For the little girl who followed her in the shadows, it was more and more difficult to keep up the pace without being noticed.
Especially since they were moving further and further away from the center of the town.
What to do? The night was falling. Was that mystery really worth the scolding that would await her at home?
Curiosity prevaled. She went on.
The old woman entered a silent alley and began to descend some steep stairs, perhaps an ancient passage through the city walls.
When the sky vaulted over them again, the full moon almost dazzled the little girl.
The old suddenly stopped.
She fumbled in her bag, without suspecting being observed …
… and she brought out an elegant pair of dance shoes, which she wore with ease.
She made a pirouette and around her, out of nowhere, twirled a silk fabric. Her legs were suddenly released from the weight of the years.
The little girl could not believe her eyes. It was true then! The story that her grandfather used to tell her as a joke…
Before her amazement could end, a new figure entered the scene: it was a man. He, too, was elegantly dressed.
The two of them, wearing macabre masks, danced in spite of death.
An accordion music was grafted on their steps, first distant, then slowly approaching, together with its player.
The little girl woke up in her bed with a start, disoriented. In front of her she could still see the dancers in their beautiful dresses, the milky reflections on the cheekbones of their masks, their perfect movements. She could not recreate that music in her mind, that was yet so penetrating, but its sound still made her skin vibrate: she had not dreamed.

Somewhere Else

Fri, 07 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This is the biggest project I’ve ever done for my course of study at Accademia di Urbino. It was the most difficult project to complete and the one I liked less doing, too.
The assignment was to develop an artistic project based on one of the themes provided: I had about three months to complete a video (3 minutes minimum), a poster, a flyer, a book (60 pages minimum). I chose the theme “Necessary Utopias”…
I obviously ran out of time before completing everything :D . But I didn’t worry about this. I am just happy to have managed to complete the editorial part, which has always been my week spot: that was my real aim.

Here are some pictures of the finished work:

Concept

Somewhere Else is an artistic project that illustrates the interrelation between reality and utopia.
One of the most distinctive characters of the human being is its constant tension towards the unattainable.
Beyond the frame of screens, printed ink or voices from the street: utopian non-places multiply, evolve, vanish. Within the myth lives the key to believe in the present.
The images presented aim to guide the viewer through a path of suggestions, bringing him to reflect on himself and his conception of “present”: where do your eyes lay?

Somewhere Else: the book

Here are all the collages found inside the book:

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Somewhere Else: the animation

The final result doesn't quite satisfy me, I think its caotic conception ends up showing through... but still, it's a finished project.
Video and audio are composed by me, with the contribution of Mitch Martinez's free stock footage and the sounds from the freesound.org community.

Video made with After Effects
Audio made with Reaper

The Genoese pesto nonsense walkthrough

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In Italy, pesto sauce is a very common dressing for pasta. The word pesto, by itself, simply means “pestled”: in fact it is prepared by crushing the ingredients in a mortar. This simple yet delicious sauce was born in the city of Genova, a harbour in the North-West of Italy.

But let’s cut history short! Truth is, I came back to Genova, my home town, and out of pure boredom the idea for this blog post popped into my mind. It was time for lunch, so I quickly grabbed my camera and began to harass the cook. I guess my mother had quite different expectations when I volunteered to help in the kitchen… but, oh well, always choose wisely when you give your children a camera! Who knows what might happen.

So, back to pesto. If your going to follow this blog post as a recipe (…good luck) here’s the list of ingredients:

lots of pine nuts
seasoned pecorino cheese from Sardinia
parmisan cheese
extra virgin olive oil in generous measure
garlic (more than you would usually dare)
a pinch of salt
and obviously, basil

Lots of it, actually!

As for the quantity of pesto you’ll end up with, well… don’t worry, it’s never too much. Anyway! First step is to cut the basil’s leaves and wash them.

Then you’ll peel five cloves of fresh garlic, cut them thin and put them in the mixer together with basil and pine nuts.

What? Why am I using a mixer instead of a mortar? Our mortar has… uhm… retired a long time ago.

Where were we? Right, cheese. As for the quantities, parmisan must be 3/4 and pecorino 1/4. Grate both types of cheese and add them to the mixer, together with oil and some coarse salt, then mix again.

Meanwhile, thou shalt have boiled the trofie in salty water. Trofie are a type of fresh pasta similar to gnocchi, made of potatoes and, in this case, enriched with chestnut flour. Right before the trofie, which don’t take long to be ready, green beans have been put in the water, too. I know this is sudden: not only I forgot to add these ingredients to the list, but I also failed to document the presence of green beans! Must have been because putting them in the pan was the only thing I actually did…

Our journey is finally over: if you made it to the final rush of draining and seasoning the trofie before they cool down, then you can finally eat. Except if you’re me. If that’s the case, then you’ll want to take one last picture of the trofie before they meet with their terrible (and terribly good) end.

The last step is to spend the rest of the day writing a complete nonsense blog post like this! But I don’t fully recommend it…

Global Game Jam’s true challenge is not to create a game, it is to get in the game

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The importance of jams and hackathons is praised everywhere. Creating a game or a software in 48 hours: this is the best way to learn and get in touch with skillful people, everybody says. So, you decide to join this year’s Global Game Jam.

You reach the jam location. Being a very introverted person, you already feel like you’ve accomplished a great feat. You have lots of expectations: where are those pros who will help you dismantle all the doubts you have accumulated so far, struggling along the beginner’s path? The team making time begins. When you finally find the guts to speak to someone, you soon realize that none of them actually works in this field. Their skills don’t seem to be that superior to yours and, most of all, it is really rare to find someone truly passionate and well informed about videogames. This is the story of my first GGJ.

My enthusiasm quickly vanished. I couldn’t overcome the barrier of a different (open source) software choice, which kept me out of most teams. Several people asked me to join them, but I was scared to be the only artist in the team. When the jam theme was released, I was still without a team. I let disillusion prevail and stood aside. Nobody tells you it can go wrong, sometimes. I felt guilt: I hadn’t been able to exploit this opportunity at all. How could I fail at something that everybody says can only go well? There has to be something wrong with me then, I thought.

But that’s not it. I dream of being an independent game developer. But beginning feels somehow harder than it should. Finding your way through a field you have zero experience in is not easy. I often have the frightening feeling of being completely lost. I just projected my wish for some kind of magical, external solution upon this GGJ, and so I ruined it. Yes, maybe the whole team would have failed because of me. So what? It’s not a big deal! Moreover, I will never see them again. Sometimes it’s important to have more chutzpah, taking what you need without too many cares for “correctness”. Because what really matters is doing your best. After all, expecting to always be fully prepared for something before it happens is such a naive thought. That’s just not the way life works.

Once the jam was over, seeing what the other participants manged to come up with left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Their works were amazing! And I was leaving without an answer to my: And yet, I slowly realized that this wasn’t a meaningless experience. It was a harsh reminder of the truly great effort that this dream of mine requires. The funny part is that, in the end, this doesn’t discourage me. On the contrary, it gives me motivation. It means… it’s real.

So… are you ready for Global Game Jam 2018?

Pure CSS gallery

Sun, 20 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Lately there has been more and more talking about the advantages of pure CSS web design solutions. Why is this?

CSS over Javascript

Despite the lack of compatibility with older browsers and a still limited library of animations, I believe CSS3 embodies the future of web design solutions.

Here are the main reasons:

Good practice: each language is born for a specific purpose. Specifically, in web design it is CSS that is supposed to handle the styling:
- HTML -> structure;
- CSS -> style;
- JS -> logic.
Efficiency: for simple operations, it is lighter and faster than many other JavaScript-based frameworks.
Simplicity: one of the greatest advantages of CSS is, in my opinion, its ease of use compared to JS. This is especially true when some code reverse engineering has to be done: using CSS saves time and makes web design accessible to users with less rooted programming knowledge.
Some users prefer to disable JavaScript or rely on browsers which are unable to process it. Using CSS will grant your website to function regardless.

My pure CSS gallery’s structure

You can find the full code on Github in one of my github repositories.

This website is an example of how it can be combined with Jekyll in order to obtain a modular template. This version of the code is available on my Github profile as well.

Mixed technique: a photocopier story

Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I love, once the work is finished, to look over the previous steps. It helps me find which passage went wrong or accidentally exceeded my expectations.

This is a work done in 2011 for an unfinished project with the illustrator Coca Frigerio. She is an artist whose workshop I used to attend when I lived in Genoa. She had been a student of Bruno Munari in Milan and had developed a very unique style, born from many collaborations with other important Italian art and design personalities.

I learned many things by watching her work. Among the rest, she thought me this mixed technique based on a periodical “scan and reprise” of the ongoing work, mixing photos, drawings and collage.

We would first decide the concept and sketch it by pencil. Then I digitally assembled images that would be useful to our work, without minding the details too much. I printed the photomontage and with a large marker I underlined space and composition. The third step was to manipulate the photomontage in a more detailed way, giving coherence to the different images through a definite line-art style. Finally, we finished by adding the man and the rest of the setting. To make the sea, we used parts of another sheet where we had created a pattern using ink and water. For the land, we tore and drew over magazine paper. The character as well is cut out from another sheet. This technique allows to divide the work in phases, giving the process more flexibility and also serving as a backup. It manages to save up time and avoid that unsettling feeling of incertitude caused by the white, empty sheet. And the resulting image has a very peculiar feel to it, which I’ve personally always liked.