A log of today’s activities:

1. printed from Juan Sketchbook HiRes
   1. tiff files
   2. 41 images
   3. ganged in Preview print dialogue box
   4. 9 images per sheet (layout)
   5. Premium Matte Paper (printer setting)
   6. nominally 200% scale (preview setting)
   7. Kozo paper 18″ x 12″ (Arch B)
   8. created custom paper size
2. printed random pixel art from Juan & Beanstalk 2004
   1. colors are off, maybe because enlargement?
3. printed Juan Valdez single frames
   1. PNG files
   2. 33 images
   3. ganged in Preview print dialogue box
   4. 9 images per sheet (layout)
   5. Premium Matte Presentation Paper (printer setting)
   6. nominally 1500% scale (preview setting)
   7. Kozo paper 18″ x 12″ (Arch B)
   8. blacks are a little off, maybe because enlargement(s)
4. pinned printouts to studio wall
5. want to find the other sketches
6. Lunch break
7. Learning from Chris Totten
   1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emt7BYTBYqI
   2. Level Design prototyping in GB Studio (2021) (01:19:22)
   3. rationale for prototyping in 2D, with Zelda BOTW as case study
   4. rationale for GB Studio in particular (constraints are helpful)
   5. “tool for creating (homebrew) retro RPG towns… quest system available right out of the box… block pushing puzzle built in… quest-based, puzzle-based mechanics built-in and available right out of box)
   6. Sample project available on itch.io (using v2.0 beta)
   7. started demo build with sample project GB Studio 1.0 which is flattened birds-eye POV like Zelda III
   8. His game, Kudzu, has combat systems in addition to RPG elements.
   9. shares quick demo of Aseprite to make tileset
   10. shares quick demo of Tiled to make environment map
   11. within Tiled, setting up new map, orthogonal orientation. Fixed 160 x 144 pixels is the stock gameboy window, multiples of tiles (8×8), 20 x 18 tiles for one screen, can then multiply, e.g. 40 x 36 is 4 windows (2×2).
   12. load tileset which will behave as a palette. (I’ve experimented with this last year. I haven’t yet dropped the experiment into GB Studio.)
   13. shows experiment with repeating pattern for forest creation, 32 x 16 pixels, then another with caves…
   14. 36:00 discussion of export as image and ideosyncracies of UI ritual to export at the right size. Make sure view within Tiled is zoomed at 100% so export doesn’t infer a different zoom level intent.
   15. back to GB Studio, notices that scenes in UI are like passages in Twine so scaffolding possible (explore further).
   16. paints collisions onto an imported image of a map
   17. demos the trigger UI, and explains the script “on trigger change scene” which will necessitate some “light” scripting in the Inspector UI on right had side of window.
   18. lots of manipulation of variables are needed… he prototypes NPC interactions with triggers and dialogue options. He has — partially — cleaned up the logic that comes with the GB Studio template shell.
   19. gets rushed at the end, seems this was a GDC master class from 2021.
   20. sigh.
8. Have been simultaneously finding and copying “Juan game sketches” folder full of files from Storage disk to laptop.
   1. placed into \Pictures\Fajardo, Rafael game art\
   2. copying .pict files that have no extension into a .tiff format where possible.
   3. could not make this conversion
      1. Preview opens .pict images w/o extension
      2. can save as .pict with extension or as .pdf only.
   4. PNG: used macOS Quick Actions (control+click file to bring up contextual menu) to convert. .png was my only option, and could retain original size and original metadata.
   5. converted (made new copy of) 27 files from PICT to PNG denominated “Juan Sketchbook 1” – “Juan Sketchbook 27”
9. Peter Milko pixel art tutorial, also on YouTube
   1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNGnQMPUFxw
   2. works in Aseprite
   3. how do we decide face size? 16 x 16 pixels
   4. want to have some margin for hair details so 14 pix max height
   5. at about 5 minutes in he starts sharing theory of composition to promote perception of cuteness (kawai)
10. Print the 27 images onto Kozo paper, there are some inconsistencies in size or pixel density. I used the same techniques I did this morning. I made another custom paper size for Arch B including 0.25″ margin all around so it doesn’t default to borderless printing.
11. Juan Sketchbook 1.png has an upside down thumbnail?
12. The copies of these files that I printed at home may have been converted in Preview on a much earlier version of MacOS, and so may be TIFF files on that machine (basestation)
13. Pinned up the printed images. They improve the feng shui.