Blending Styles (Samer Hills, Art and, Aesthetics)

     If you have been reading this blog over the years or following me on Twitter for a long time you probably know by now how much of a 3D nerd I am and how much I love 3D modeling and computer graphics. You probably know by now that this is a topic I talk about often and how much I especially love to brag about my own 3D graphics, art style, and or other 3d/graphical-related work.

     Well, the time has come once again as I write yet another blog post about my cool 3D art style. This blog post will serve as a little preview of what to expect from my upcoming Samer Hills games. One of my biggest goals as a game developer has always been to develop my own unique graphical art style. A graphical style that is a distinctive feature to my games. One that does not look like anyone else's or attempts to replicate the style of a console. A graphical art style that is recognizable and as soon as someone sees it, would be able to tell that it's "A Samer Khatib game". After what feels like forever of development, I eventually finally achieved this "unique" graphical style that I have been wanting to create and ended up calling it the "3D Signature Samer Style" or "3DSSS" for short. This is the style that I will consistently use in all my future and upcoming Samer Hills branded games. I even wrote a post about it not too long ago actually. You can check it out here if interested: Signature Samer Style 

     

     Today, I want to talk about and showcase how I can take my newly found art style and effectively blend it with other art styles and or aesthetics. And, the "3DSSS" is designed to be versatile in the sense that it does just work and can blend together really well when mixed with any other style. Moody, atmospheric, horror, retro, bright, colorful, cartoony, etc. 

     For example, in my upcoming game "Samer Hills Toxic Turtle" (more info & Steam page for this game will be revealed later on) - We are going to go for a "Silent Hill" aesthetic and blend that in throughout that entire game. So, moody, foggy, kind of depressing and atmospheric kind of look. You know, the works. Here are some early example previews:

     Toxic Turtle will go for this aesthetic to show that Samer Hills can pull off this moody look. However, this is an example of just one game. Not all Samer Hills games will be foggy, depressing Silent Hill wannabe-looking games. Here are some examples of completely different aesthetic blends that give off completely different tones and moods:

      No two Samer Hills games will be the same and I hope to create a wide range of different experiences with each new release. By taking my "3DSSS" and mixing things up, a lot of different graphical styles can be achieved and the possibilities are endless. I can't wait to share more and really get the ball rolling with Samer Hills.

     You may disagree but personally, I think it's safe to say that I really got graphics, the lighting, the atmosphere, and the style down. With all that said and done, none of this matters because, in the end, the gameplay is king.

     Now, for the really important question. Can I design games that are actually fun and entertaining to play? That's up for you to decide. Thanks for reading and more updates coming soon.

Giraffe Town Available Today!

Giraffe Town is out now on Steam!

Get it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/941480/Giraffe_Town/

"A giraffe born with slippery feet sets out to find love..."

Take control of a giraffe who has had enough of being held back in life

by his weird feet as you slide your way through the town in a courageous

pursuit of love.

Welcome to Giraffe Town...

Ready for 2018!

     Happy New Year everyone! I wanted to do a quick blog update to talk about some plans I have for the year as well as show that I am still very much active as an independent game developer. And putting out the first blog post of 2018 is the best way to do that! Before I get into the actual update, I just want to say that doing this blog over the years and seeing how much I have evolved as a developer is something that I am personally very proud of. When I said first blog post of 2018, it dawned on me that I started this whole adventure into game design, 3d modeling, animation, keeping a dev blog, etc back years ago. About late 2010-ish. It's crazy to think about how time just flew by. I certainly didn't know if I would still even be doing this after all these years. But i'm still here. I'm still doing what I love doing and still following my dream. It's an amazing feeling and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I would also like to thank all of you who have joined me on this journey and followed my work, visited this blog or checked out some of my games. You all keep me motivated to keep going and I appreciate it so much. From encouraging comments to harsh critiques or just reaching out and saying hello. It all means the world to me. So thank you everyone. You are all awesome.

     I have a lot planned for this year and a lot that I want to get done. I didn't release any new games in 2017 but that is because I have been working hard on multiple new game projects. I said this in my last blog post - Not one new game, but many new games. 

     Putting out lots of new games. That is exactly the plan. I am very excited for 2018, this will be a big one for me personally and I really do have several new games in the works for this year as well as a ton of other ideas that I would like to develop. If you are interested in getting a small glimpse of whats to come, check out my last blog post for more information as well as a ton of screenshots from many of my new and upcoming games. 

     Other then that, I really don't have much to say at this time. Just a quick recap of what I said in the previous post. Mostly, I just wanted to show a sign of life on the blog because I know sometimes there is a long time gap between blog updates and it could sometimes seem like I have abandoned game development. However, that's not the case at all. I'm still here and i'm just getting started. 

I look forward to sharing updates and many new game releases down the road. There is a lot more to come. I wish you all an awesome 2018! 

Not one new game, MANY NEW GAMES! COMING SOON!

AAAaaaaahhhhHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Q: Woah! SAMER!? You're back!!! Did your new game come out!?!?!?!?!?!

A: No. It did not. I know I know. In my last blog post I said that the next time I post an update here on the blog, it will be an announcement for the official Steam page for my new game. But things just don't always worked out as planned okay man?

Q: So, there isn't a new game announced/coming out today!?! But your last blog post said...

A: No. Not today. No new game just yet. I know, I couldn't keep my promise from the last post but let me just expla.....

Q: Are you even still working on a new game or did you just stop creating games!?! 

A: Of course I still make games! Actually, that's what I'm here to talk about today! Lets get started :D

     Okay everyone, I have been away from the blog for a while and as mentioned above as well as my previous post, I was suppose to have my next Steam game/Steam page up for my next game the next time I posted, which was suppose to be this post right here but, as you can see, that didn't happen. I apologize for not being able to keep my promise and deliver but things happen and everything does not always go as planned. So, there has been a change of plans.

My biggest problem is that I can never just stay dedicated to one project at a time. I constantly find myself creating a ton of assets, art, mechanics for a game and then stop half way through. Then I start working on a completely different project and so on. It's like this never ending cycle of creating unfinished game projects for me. It is not something that I am proud of because what's the point if all of the projects aren't finished, what's the point if i'm actually not putting any new content out there? Right?

So do I still make games? Yes, I most certainly do. I haven't been working on A game project. I have been working on MANY game projects. To many multiple projects that I lost track of and it got out of hand and now, I am sitting on at least 5-7 maybe even 10 unfinished game projects and it is driving me crazy!

AAAAAAAAahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

     So here's the plan. I need to change my development process. Starting this month, I'm going to stop creating new games and focus on finishing those other games. I'm going to go through all of my other projects, organize them and work through them one by one and then start releasing one new game after the other.

Each game is different, some are shorter then others, some are longer, some have more plot while others focus on just gameplay, some are simpler games while some are more complex, etc. All the games vary greatly from each other. Hopefully, I will have the first one done and out by the end of this month. It will be a short toon styled game. That will be first and then i'll go from there. So, expect lots of new games from me in the coming months!

before I go, here's some WIP screens from the various game projects I'm working on:

Looks like some cool stuff right!?!

Yeah I know!

Okay bye!

UPDATE: Oct 27 2017

More new wip screenshots of new game projects in development.

Someday, I will finish all these!

UPDATE: November 2nd 2017

Even more screenshots from the above game!

This one will probably be finished and released first.

Keep an eye out for new blog update later in the month.

UPDATE: December 1st 2017

Okay,  I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is, that I still don't have a new game ready.

The good news however, is that I made a giraffe!

Look at it!

and here's some renders!

I will eventually have new games out I promise!

I really need to focus! I can't focus! :(