iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

My bad! I didn't realize I had my settings this way... If you try again it should work now. :p

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Sure, feel free to send a DM!

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The modular set used here is based on a study I did on the high-detail pixel art style used in Vagrant Story. If the atmosphere feels familiar, it is probably that. :)

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Lastly, a quick flythrough of the test scene I used as a proving ground for the tool. It's built pretty ad hoc off of limited assets, so it's more just vibes than a believable environment, but it held up well enough as a test. #indiedev #gamedevelopment #unity

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Closeup of the vertex color painting tool in action, to give a clearer sense of how it works. #indiedev #gamedevelopment #unity

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You could think of it as using two Photoshop-like "layers" - a base color which you set across the scene, and a raw vertex color set by the paint tool. The final vertex color lerps between the two based on the alpha of the latter.

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The vertex data is saved by (approximate) position relative to the mesh origin, rather than vert index, so it's resilient to re-exporting after changes. This was pretty important, since it would be unusable long-term if the vert color data broke whenever you re-exported.

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I wanted to support a modular workflow, but this is difficult for vertex colors since those are normally set directly in the mesh. Instead, I wrote a component that sets a MaterialPropertyBlock on the mesh, which is populated with an array of vertex colors. The shader then references the array.

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Been working on a Unity tool for painting lighting directly into the scene using vertex colors. Much time was spent on Radiant Sword doing hand-painted lighting in Photoshop. This workflow would hopefully be more efficient! (Implementation details to follow...) #indiedev #gamedevelopment #unity

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Environment for a recurring event scene. I really like dark environments. #indiedev #gamedevelopment #jrpg #srpg

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A diagram I made a while back of the phases of art treatment in Radiant Sword's levels. Blockout & UVs > base textures > in-texture lighting > engine lighting. #indiedev #gamedevelopment #srpg #jrpg

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Thank you for the kind words! Unfortunately, the game is on pause right now, as I wasn't able to find other developers to help see it through. But I would love to return to it someday, and I'll continue to post more legacy screenshots from its development!

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Dillo @dillogamedev.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Thank you! That style is very near and dear to my heart, so they're a lot of fun to do.

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More of the FFT-style sprite sheets. I went back and forth on calling this one Holy Sage or just plain old Cleric. #pixelart #indiedev #srpg #jrpg

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Dillo @dillogamedev.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

More scene/environment art from Radiant Sword. Getting 2D/3D elements to mix nicely can be a challenge, but I just really like the style. #jrpg #pixelart #indiedev #gamedevelopment

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And, here's what it looked like in action, after texturing was done & lighting was applied. #indiedev #gamedevelopment #srpg #jrpg #pixelart

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Here's a grab bag of some of the texture atlases & tiling kits used in level construction for Radiant Sword. I tried to keep a constant texture density of 20 pixels per tile. #pixelart #indedev #gamdevelopment #jrpg

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Cutaway for one of the environments from Radiant Sword. Doing the lighting for this scene was quite fun. #indiedev #gamedevelopment #srpg #jrpg

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Sprite sheet I made for the Fighter, one of the four starter classes in Radiant Sword. I broke out the arms so that I could composite different FFT-style animations easily, which was a huge time-saver. #pixelart #jrpg #indiedev #gamedevelopment

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Sample spell effect from the on-hold Radiant Sword for one of the later-game fire spells. I really enjoy making these! #indiedev #jrpg #gamedevelopment

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