The Nudibranch Diaries #2 (and general update!)
- Len
- Mar 6
- 3 min read
3/06/2025
Welcome back to my blog! I have some exciting updates on my nudibranch game as well as some general updates on my game dev journey, and I'm so excited to share everything with you guys!
First, let's get the general updates out of the way. I completed two games in Construct, one that's modeled after Gran Trak 10 and another after Tank. These were really fun to make, and I learned some new tricks that will help me out with my nudibranch game. Here's some footage of the Gran Trak 10 game!
And here's some footage of the Tank game!
It's very important to learn the foundations of any software you intend on using, so making more simple games like these is very important so you can learn how to make more complex games later on!
Speaking of foundations, I made the leap and decided to purchase Aseprite! It's a pixel art and animation software, and I'm super excited to use it! I followed a quick YouTube tutorial on the basics of both art and animation on this software, which I'll link below. It's the best pixel art tool I've used so far, the user interface is very intuitive and you can really optimize your workflow on it! Here's what I made after following the tutorial:
And here's the video tutorial I followed:
I highly recommend following this tutorial if you intend on using Aseprite in the future, I learned many good tips and tricks!
Last, but not least, I have some updates on the nudibranch game! For starters, I'll no longer be calling it the nudibranch game, because I landed on the perfect name! The official name will be Sea Slug Sanctuary unless I decide to change it in the future, but for now I really like it! Nudibranch is a bit of a specialized word that most people don't know the meaning of, whereas sea slug is pretty self-explanatory! And the word "sanctuary" describes most of the game perfectly, seeing as you're providing shelter and care to a variety of nudibranchs.
In the past, I've shared moving sprites for some of the nudibranchs that will be available in the game! However, upon further inspection, I realized that I wanted the moving animation to have more frames and look cleaner. It'll be a lot more work, but it'll look much better in the end! The animation has gone through multiple iterations because I've never really animated before, and I wanted it to look as perfect as I can get it. At first, I used a smear frame in the animation, but I noticed that it made the slug appear that it was going too fast. I landed on this, and I'm pretty happy with it! I might make some adjustments to it in the future, but I'm good for now!
I also made an idle animation, and aside from a few stray pixels I need to fix, I'm very happy with how it turned out! It reminds me of pet simulator games I've played in the past, which is exactly what I wanted to invoke.
Lastly, I made a background, a desk, and a tank with water in it for the nudibranch to move around in! The end goal is to have some tank decorations and substrate you unlock through leveling up that you can place in the tank, but I still need to make those assets. Here's what everything looks like together!
I don't know if I should make the sprite larger, since sea slugs are pretty small in real life, but I think it's a good size because I want multiple nudibranchs to be able to be in one tank at a time. I also think the wall color is a bit drab, I might pick a different color once all of the pieces are in place. Luckily, it will be an easy fix.
If you have any constructive criticism or thoughts on any of the pieces I shared, feel free to leave a comment below! And if you want to get a notification whenever I post a blog, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and submit your email in the box below! It will look like this.
Thank you so much for reading and have a great day!
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