Ø2Ø [ YR23]

It’s a new year again.

Much like the last few New Years my wife Nimra and I have spent it with some of our closest friends. We play a game together, drink some champagne, and ring in the new year with tons of laughs, conversations about the last year's significant events, and hopes and dreams for the new one.

I don’t normally set goals for the New Year. I reserve that for my birthday, or my New Year as I like to call it. This year however I did decide to make some changes. I’m not sure if it’s age, or significant health events with family, friends, or friends’ families, but I’ve decided there are some changes I need to make in my life so that I can maximize the time I have with my family and friends.

I hope these new rhythms and rituals become normal to me and I can maintain them going forward.

Things I’m Working On

A smattering of things I have in progress.

Dire

I’ve spent this last month mostly focused on code efforts. I built out the main menu, new loading screens, some item functionality for later levels, and more sound design. Next month will be an art-focused month so look forward to some more screenshots.

Main Menu Design

Shipwright

We’re still working on the design system course, I’m pretty excited to launch it and see what folks really think. We’re hoping to be ready for release by the end of February. However, since this is really a labor of love we’re working on it in our downtime.

Global Game Jam

The global game jam is happening again, this year the Green Bay location is one of the largest locations. I’m excited to try and work on a TTRPG this time around, I want to challenge myself to try something I’ve never designed before.

Inspo Center

Another collection of random stuff that I thought was cool on twitter.

Archillect @archillect

brayden @braybraywoowoo

the switzerland of america

Antonio Freyre @merlino_games

😍 i love this game too much

NEOMECHANICA @neomechanica

Hayd_n @Hayd__n

Making low-rez city is really fun :o

MDS @mds

blobs and noodles

Gareth Davies @Spudonkey

Cowboys

Vitaly Friedman 🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈 @vitalyf

Interface Design Rules of Thumbs (anthonyhobday.com/sideprojects/s…), a fantastic guide with useful visual design tips and techniques to design better. By @hobdaydesign. #ux #design #ui #interfacedesign #visualdesign

Jacob Grubbe @jacob_grubbe

How do you design a scalable & immersive game platform for a global audience of more than 200M+ players that’s easy to maintain for internal teams? That’s what we set out to do for @riotgames. Check the full case study behance.net/gallery/160914…, or read a few pointers below!

Cinema Tweets @CinemaTweets1

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

C. Rares @rarescmp

Did some practice work over the last weekend. Excited about how these turned out. Inspired by @linear and @specifyapp. Also worth mentioning @jamesm has some dope card designs if you are looking to get inspired. 🙏 Check them out @CollectUI , @UpLabs

Archillect @archillect

Raphael Schaad @raphaelschaad

Talking about COLORS — use the words Hue, Tint, Shade, and Tone correctly with this little cheat sheet: figma.com/community/file…

Dean Harvey @theharveydean

fuji colors are unmatched

Overall 2022 was a good year, I hope 2023 has some exciting stuff in store for us and I can’t wait to experience it all.

-Billy

p.s.

• Reading: Immersive Story Telling For Real And Imagined Worlds

• Playing: Finished Spider-Man Miles Morales, back to Death Stranding

• Watching: Copenhagen Cowboy

p.p.s

• I’ve been thinking about doing another newsletter release mid-month with small design tips, maybe something a bit longer form from what I’ve posted on Linkedin. Just an Idea for now.