My (evolved) Logo. A story about Snowconesolid.

     Over the years as an independent game developer I have been constantly re-inventing myself over and over again. Improving my skill sets, learning how to create better quality graphics, mechanics and games and maturing as a developer. I created many different things over the years. Some forgotten,  some buried deep within my computers hard-drive among hundreds of unorganized folders and some stored in some of my older (completely broken) computer hard-drives, lost forever. Data and source files I created that will never be seen again.....

However, throughout alllllll these years there is one thing that has been with me since the beginning.... (Not of time, beginning of my journey into becoming a game developer that is)

      There is one thing that has appeared in nearly all my works. There is one stupid piece of art that I refuse to ever discard. One very important stupid piece of art that I am building everything around. I use this as my signature for my works. A way, for people to easily identify who the source is. A way for people to know that, "SAMER FREAKING KHATIB CREATED THIS!" 
(Whoah, calm down man, you're ego is showing again)

A stupid piece of art that is heavily associated with me. I IDENTIFY AS THIS STUPID PIECE OF ART!!!!

I'm talking of course about, my logo......
(Or mascot, icon, branding, etc, whatever the hell it is people call it. All those words are the same thing.)

Maybe you have seen it before.
(You probably have not, i'm not as famous as I think I am.) 
You know? That purple-blue-greyish cat/snail like thing?
(Honestly, I don't even know. After all these years, I still have no idea what it is or what I should call it....)

Yah! That one! Image above. That one right there!

     As a young boy I.....

(Wait, hang on a second.....)

As a young man I...

(Yeah, that sounds much better. Okay back to story time.)

     As a young man I mindlessly came up with this strange cat-like creature (now it looks more like a mouse to me). Sitting in my room at my desk with nothing but a wrinkled used piece of scrap paper and literally only 3 odd colored crayons (purple, blue, grey) at my finger tips, the start of something beautiful was about to happen. (I must of been really bored lol) I looked down at the paper after 5 minuets of random doodling and the Snowconesolid mascot was born. This "piece of art" was created with no purpose, no inspiration, no reference, no thought whatsoever. I looked down at the piece of paper and my response wasn't "what the hell is this?" but instead, my response was "woah! this looks pretty cool!"  

     When we are younger, we aren't as critical on ourselves or towards others. We don't look for the flaws in anything. As younger people, we just see things for what they are and how they appear and simply just accept them. It's easier to find enjoyment in even the simplest things at a younger age. This is why I loved it so much. The crappy stupid drawing. It was unique, original. It wasn't trying to be good art. It wasn't a planned idea that I just had to draw out. It wasn't trying to be anything else other than a silly little doodle on notebook paper. It was mine. It was me. It represented me. A person who enjoys to create things just for the hell of it. 

     I use to always draw as a kid. I still have hundreds of crappy childhood drawings all saved up in a plastic folder somewhere in my basement in a box that is probably full of cobwebs and dead spiders now. Even today, I often sketch on paper that is just sitting next to me. I have been drawing all my life. I enjoy drawing. It's a creative outlet and i'm sure millions of people would agree with this statement. So, out of all the doodles and so called "works of art"  I have made, why did I choose that weird purple mouse-like creature to represent me as an independent game developer? Because of the story behind it. The deeper meaning (oh no, he's getting all hipster again). Because of the reasons  I mentioned above. It's simple. It represents how much I truly do love creating things. Anything from sketches, to 3d models, to full games. Heck, even if a chef gave me a blob of beef to play with, I would probably just attempt to sculpt something out of it. (Okay, weird example). 

     I'm not the greatest artist. But that's the thing with art. You don't have to be. Anyone and everyone can be and already is an artist! Everything is art! (WARNING: Engaging full on hipster mode!)

     Anyway, back on topic. My mascot/logo thing is something that has been with me since I first started learning about creating games many many years ago.. As I mature and evolve as a person and game developer, so does my icon. I'd like to take a look back real quick and show how much this simple sketch has changed over the years...

INTRODUCING: The Evolution Of "Cat-Mouse-Slug-Creature" Thing! (Snowconesolid Mascot)

The Original! Born on used notebook paper... 

What a monstrosity... seriously...

The First 3D Version!

That is scary as hell now that I look back at this! This was also one of my first 3d models. So don't judge me. I was a total noobie...

The NEW 3D Version!

Now with even more polygons actual texturing. This was made a couple years after the one above. When I started to get better with 3d modeling.

The First Official Splash Screen!

Before, I would often place a 3d model of the mascot at the start of the game. But it looked off because it's just this 3d model floating around in the players face. Made no sense at all. So I decided, it's time to make an actual splash screen. Using the 3d model, I was able to create this 2d image of the mascot that gave it more defined lines and a more cartoon-ish look. The black outlines made it easier to look at. 

The Fuzzy-Washed-Out-Look!

This is the modern day version of the mascot I typically use now. It takes the cartoon-ish/child-like look from the previous one and makes it look a little older. More mature. It has a darker shadow behind it, washed out colors and a fuzzy border emitting from all around it. This version looks more edgy and cool. This version looks rock-n-roll.

The Corporate Look!

The mascot is now in black and white to give it more of a "serious" "corporate" style. The mascot's head is only visible now. From the eyes to the ears. The text only says "SnowConeSolid Productions" now. Instead of  "A Samer Khatib Game (Snowconesolid)

The Separate Colors Corporate Look!

The 3 main (and only) colors from the original mascot are separated now. I just thought it might be a cool idea?

And now, finally. After years of evolution. Years of re-inventing...

My final, sleekest, most professional looking version of the splash screen...

The Static Screen Look!

A very cinematic presentation. Simple black and white color scheme. Nice subtle shadow around the head of the mascot. Text has a nice dark outline. The center piece is layered on top of an animated static screen representing the player looking into their own TV or PC screen (or any screen really). The corners fade darker as they surround the edges of the screen (vignette) driving the users attention to the main logo....

I am personally very proud of this new version of my splash screen and love how it came out. Think I spent a little too much time on a splash screen even. But it was well worth it. My end goal was to create a more professional looking logo. One that's eye catchy, clean and recognizable. Something that somewhat stands out compared to other boring black and white splash screens. It's very me and fits my style. Suits me well if I must say! I worked.... really hard on this.

Not bragging honestly! I just really like my own logo... I don't have a big ego! Please! Believe me!!! Why am I still typing in bold italics!?!

Also, I made different color variations which are also quite lovely to look at if I must say so myself!

SEE!

     And that, is how my logo came to be what it is today...

     I think this was probably the longest post I have ever written here on the blog. Maybe even pointless. But I just wanted to share my thoughts and personal story on the topic of icons/logos/mascots/branding (again all a bunch of words that mean the same thing.) 

If there is one thing that you could take away from this post (you don't have to listen to this advice of course) - Make sure there is some kind of story behind your logo. Some kind of deeper meaning to it. What makes it interesting? Why does your logo/mascot/brand/icon (why do I keep typing this!?) represent you?

Valve Killing Greenlight...

     Hello everyone. This is kind of a surprise post, but I just had to take the time to write about this news. If you are an indie game developer and plan on submitting your game to Steam GreenLight then you might want to hurry up and do so quickly. I am sure many developers using the platform or want to use the platform have heard the news already, but if you have not this is whats going on - Valve is shutting down Steam Greenlight for good.

Source - From Valve themselves:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/announcements/evolvingsteam

Almost every other major gaming site has also covered this already such as kotaku and Polygon
I am sure that many YouTubers will also probably discuss this soon enough as well.

Anyway, Valve is shutting down Steam Greenlight and plans to replace it with something called "Steam Direct". This will be the new program that indie developers will need to go through if they want to make their games available on the Steam platform. Valve didn't release much information on the new submission process and it seems that most of the plans aren't finalized yet but if you are an indie developer hoping to get onto the platform there could be some things to be worried about. For example, it only cost $100 dollars to sign up as a developer for Steam Greenlight. This was a one time submission fee that allowed you to submit as many games as you wanted. Steam Direct aims to remove this and it sounds like Valve will be charging a fee per submission. There is no official price setup for the new fee as of this writing. Valve will be sharing more information about the new process later on.


For more information and questions not answered in Valve's news update I recommend checking out this topic about the upcoming changes in the Greenlight community forums:

Changes coming to Steam Greenlight

According to this post, if you are a Greenlight developer and still have not submit anything, you may request a refund.

For those of you interested in submitting to Greenlight, there is still time and you can do so. If you get greenlit before the changes are made, then it's safe to say that you will be able to release your game on Steam without having to go through Steam Direct or paying another fee price. However, if your game is still hanging in Greenlight by the time Steam Direct takes over, then you will have to resubmit and possibly pay a fee based on the new on-boarding process.

indies worried....

     If you are an indie developer don't worry, you will still be able to bring your product to Steam even after Greenlight is taken down. However, if you are worried, it is understandable. Actually, after reading through the comments and seeing what other developers have to said expresses that many other small time indies are worried.  I personally am worried myself since I am an indie game developer who currently has been through Greenlight once already and planned on submitting more games through it in the future. Actually, I was planning my second Greenlight campaign for my next upcoming game. The game I have been talking about for months now here on the blog. This news about Greenlight shutting down has got me so worried, that I might even launch my next Greenlight campaign sometime next week hoping that it will get green-lit and reserve me a launch spot on Steam before the big changes happen. It might become harder to get on Steam's platform. I don't know yet. We will see. 

Once again, don't get too worried. Valve themselves still haven't really given any final answers on how the new changes will work, how much it will cost etc. In the meantime, it is probably best to submit your game to Greenlight before it's completely gone. 

This news isn't all bad. Valve is obviously doing this in the best interest of their customers and developers. This is a new way to add in some sort of new level of quality control. Steam Direct could mean less poorly designed, broken unfinished games and more quality content for people to buy. 

I will most likely be posting an update about my current game project within the next week or so. 

Hello 2017... it is about time

     It is about time I finally post a proper 2017 update. So, whats going on? What ever happened to the new game project? Where is the new Steam Greenlight that was suppose to be posted at the end of December 2016? Do you even still make games? Alright, so I haven't been very active on the blog and have been doing a terrible job communicating about progress on current and new projects.

It is near the end of the first month of 2017 and I am just now going to talk about my plans for the new year. I did mean to get this post out way earlier but life just gets in the way sometimes. First of all, happy new year to everyone (a bit late on that one) 

     Anyway, although it seems like I haven't been very active, I have actually been working really hard on a lot of new things. I have a lot planned for 2017 that I want to get done and put out there, so it has actually been a busy first month for me. I'm actually working on multiple new projects and juggling back and forth between them. I will get more into that in a moment. First, I want to talk about the main project. The most important project that I am working on, "Samer Hills". 

     Whats up with "Samer Hills"? Why isn't this finished and on Steam yet? So, this is a project I started working on shortly after releasing my first game on Steam "Potato Thriller". I have been posting so many blog articles over the past few months talking about this project and even kept making promises I couldn't keep like saying I would have the greenlight campaign for the new game up before the end of last year, or having the entire project done at a certain date. Despite not keeping these smaller promises, there is one promise I will keep and that is that I will eventually finish and release this new game. Some people think that I just got bored, or lost motivation and canceled the game, but actually, the game is far off from being canceled. I have been spending most of my time working on "Samer Hills" and have made great progress on it even though I haven't really been sharing the progress made every step of the way. I won't make anymore promises and announce deadlines, release dates, etc anymore. I learned my lesson. It will be available when I am ready to make it available. But I would like to confirm that I am indeed working on the game and going to release it as my second Steam game. 

"Samer Hills" is going to be a big game. I have made a lot of progress on it and here are some more recent screenshots and images from development to showcase the progress I have been making. Also I will share some more details about the actual game. 

Environment: First, lets talk about the setting of the game. 

Lovely eyes...

I keep saying "Samer Hills" but what is it? "Samer Hills" is where the entire game will take place. This will be the main setting for the game and it is the name of an old abandoned town as well as the main characters hometown. This game will take place mainly in outdoors types of environments. So settings like forests, caves, streets, farms, etc is where most of the game will play out and the kind of areas the player will get to explore. There will also be some indoor settings like the characters house and some buildings that the player will eventually get to go to because of the game's story progression, but for the most part, outdoors settings is a main focus point. In my previous game "Potato Thriller",  about 90% of the game took place inside house/building type environments. The entire first half of the game took place in a long house type setting while the second half took place inside of a challenging tower. My new game, is kind of the opposite of what "Potato Thriller" did.

Gameplay: This game will be entirely a third person game. There will be various features like puzzle solving, fighting enemies, avoiding traps, quick time events and so on. I am doing my best to keep the game entertaining and fresh from beginning to end so I am developing it in a way where it constantly introduces new gameplay elements and throws surprises at the player. 

There will be traps, different weapons, etc. 

Story, Genre, Characters: "Samer Hills" is going to be a post-apocalyptic horror/thriller game with a non serious and more comical tone thrown in. One of the games biggest focus is on the main character himself. I mentioned in an older blog post that the game will let you see what the main character goes through on his adventure and how he changes throughout the experience. However, throughout the game you will come face to face with many other characters in the games worlds and learn more about them. The characters will be unique and interesting and hopefully memorable. That is something I really want to achieve with this project. Creating memorable characters. 

                           

Look at those blood fxs!!!

And here is just some extra screenshots from development:

When will the Greenlight come out?!?!?

     What is taking so long? I am really working hard and taking my time with this new game project. I want this game to be perfect and better than any other game I have ever created. After all, the game does have my own real name in it (so egotistical I know.) "Samer Hills" is going to have a lot in it. Especially plot. This is going to be my biggest, most polished and possibly weirdest game ever. So I am really going that extra mile and putting in a lot more effort into this game than any other project I have worked on. It has to turn out exactly how I am envisioning it to be. 

I know that there is a good amount of people who visit the blog daily to check for updates on my projects and I think that is so cool. I mentioned this before, but the fact that there is a good handful of people out there who take time out of their own day to see updates on my projects and come visit my blog means the world to me. So thank you everyone for being so patient. I will do my best to keep posting daily. I think the game will turn out better this way. I aim to deliver a really bizarre yet intriguing entertaining game with unique characters and personalities as well as a believable post-apocalyptic game world that you can get pulled into. I want this game to be a memorable experience and hopefully contribute a really unique game to the indie gaming community. 

     

OTHER PROJECTS:
     Before I end the blog for today I want to talk about one more thing that I plan on doing this year and that is getting more into YouTube. I have brought this up numerous times throughout the years. Saying that I want to start using my YouTube channel more and start posting daily videos and content, etc but never really got to it. This year, 2017, however is different. I really want to use my skills as a 3d artist/animator/developer etc beyond the scope of just making games. I want to try and do new things and expand from just being a indie game developer. What better way to share content, ideas and art through YouTube right?

     Earlier I did mention that I was working on other projects and those other projects are short animation videos that I started working on for my YouTube channel. Here is a little preview.

Looks weird I know and that is because the content/animations I will create and post to YouTube most likely will be weird.. Just like my game projects. The point is that, I love creating and I will continue creating as long as I enjoy to do so. But yeah, I have been working on a few short animations which will be going onto my channel later on in the year. At the moment, my main focus is finishing up my next game, but after that I hope to post videos on a daily basis on the channel.

Lots of new content to look forward to. I am really excited and motivated to create and share all these new experiences. I have a really good feeling about the this year and I hope to make 2017 my most productive and best year yet. I am really just an artist with a lot of strange ideas and I wan't to get as many of those ideas out that I possibly can. Thanks for reading and more updates coming soon! 

By the way, most of these screenshots I posted in today's article are more recent screens I posted on my twitter. I am not as active on my blog, but I am very active on my twitter account and post almost everyday, for more daily updates follow me here: https://twitter.com/snowconesolid (I am sometimes annoying on twitter)

Working with landscapes for games

     Okay, I know what you are thinking. My last blog post was in the middle of December. I said that the plan was to get enough of my new game finished and post the greenlight campaign to Steam by the end the month. Obviously this did not happen then I just disappeared from the blog ever since.  And now I come back, in the middle of January and this is my first update for 2017!? Talking about landscapes!!! Are you kidding me!? What  great way to start off the new year right? Okay, joking aside, I have been working on my new game, I have been making a lot of progress and I will have a proper update blog post later on to talk about my plans for 2017, give more info on the new game project and so on. But for now, I want to talk about working with landscapes in a game project. 

   I was working on a new scene for the game that features a piece of land that is split down the middle. This can work as a river for example. I was happy with the results and I thought that I just had to share this on the blog. In games or just 3d modeling in general landscapes can be very tricky to work with. The Unity game engine does have its own terrain system which has a ton of great features and tools to help you create massive terrains for your game. Personally, I hate Unity's terrain system based on past experiences with it trying to create good landscapes for my games. It can be very time consuming to sculpt in main features like rivers, you end up with these giant empty terrains that look messy, constantly switching between brushes, adjusting sizes, erasing over areas constantly to try and get something looking right is frustrating to do within the Unity engine. You get all this unnecessary geometry/increase in poly count that could take a hit on your games performance, etc. I can go on and on about the many flaws the terrain system and tools the Unity engine bring. If you are a Unity developer and have used the terrain system or even if you used a terrain system in a different engine you might understand what I am talking about.  

     I figured, instead of throwing in this giant unnecessary piece of land into the game, why not just focus on the important features of the land that the player will actually get to explore? Before I continue, just know that this is more of a personal design preference and depending on the kind of game you are making, this might not be a proper solution for you. For example, if you are working on a huge open world game that's all based on terrain like MGSV for example, then you might want to actually sculpt and entire terrain. But for my case, I am working on a linear game that is broken down into smaller scenes with loading times in between. Anyway, I realized that just focusing on the important parts of the landscape such as rivers, canyons, etc is all I really need to create. I can save a ton of time and polygons by just putting in the parts that matter, and then make it feel seamless or give it that seamless illusion in post such as covering the area with fog, decorating it with trees, foliage and other props to make the land feel more believable and adjusting the camera clipping so that the player never sees past the edges of the world. There is no need to create a massive landscape that would take the player time to traverse. That would just be filler. Just cut straight to the main parts of the game. 

     So in the screenshots I am posting I am showing this grassy type land that is split down the middle which shows the under side of the earth. This can be used as a river, I can re-texture it as a canyon or really any kind of land-form that splits. This literally only took me about 5-10 mins to model and texture in blender. It is very low poly, it looks good in the Unity engine and just works for my game. Here is a breakdown of the mesh so that you can see and get a better understanding of how it was made. 

Here is the actual mesh inside of blender. The wireframe shows that it is actually very low in poly count. The loop-cuts/edges/vertices/faces (whatever it is you call them) are very clean and form the mesh very nicely. 

Here is the textured mesh. (Still inside blender) Everything was done in blender then exported to the Unity engine. About the textures - it can be very tricky to texture landscapes because they have all these different materials blending into them like dirt and grass and wet mud and rocks and so on. If you are using a terrain system like Unity's terrain system you can easily just paint and blend textures directly onto the terrain and make it look seamless. When you actually model a piece of land like this that has very few polygons, texturing and blending can be tricky to do. What I did for this is created two different materials. Grass and dirt. I applied these to the model on the appropriate uv coordinates. The trick to making everything blend together is within the mesh itself. It is very important to make the right amount of polygons for the model. Just focus on the silhouette of the landscape first. Model in the areas that are needed then you can apply you're textures. If the model looks right without the textures and you can visualize where the grass needs to be placed or where the mud needs to be placed, then texturing will be simple because you know you have the right amount of polygons and it will look fine.

The best part about this particular model is that it is modular. Meaning that I could just reuse this river/landscape split over and over again. I can extend the river and make one huge seamless formation. I can use it for different environment and so on. 

Here is a screenshot of just a simple lighting test done in blender. 

     It won't be perfect and that's okay. Keep in mind when working on games there are so many other things to take into consideration besides the graphical appearance. Poly count, performance, gameplay, etc. The landscape won't be perfect. Mine is not perfect. Up close you can see a very straight line where the grass and mud separate. The trick with games is, you can get away with this kind of stuff because most likely the player would never even need to get that close to notice anything. Plus as mentioned before, these small things will be hidden by other game elements like foliage, fog and so on. Don't focus on making something perfect. Just focus on making something look believable and acceptable then move on. Remember there is still a lot of other stuff that needs to be worked on in a game. So never dedicate too much time to a single piece. You can get away with these things. I was thinking about how older games like Zelda Ocarina of time handled landscapes when the hardware was so limited. I looked at a couple of screenshots from various parts of Hyrule and noticed that those landscapes seem to be modeled very similarly to how I modeled this river example I am showing above. It wasn't perfect at all, but it just works and it still felt like I was in this believable game world even with some of the obvious seam lines.