Posts

Conjuring Feelings Through Music

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As a small team of two, Kristiina and I have needed to develop different skills for our projects. For example, Kristiina has learned animation skills ( she has written about animation in this blog post ); I, in turn, have dipped my toes into creating music. Composing is both entertaining and challenging. You need to capture a specific kind of feeling, an atmosphere, as a combination of sounds. Sometimes, figuring the desirable sensation is tricky in itself. First of all, a song needs to suit the project. While we have been working on Bewitching Baking, Kristiina and I have discussed how both of us envision the atmosphere of the game. During our conversations, Kristiina suggested that we could aim for something calm, warm, and happy, with a little bit of soothing melancholy included. This suggestion brings us to the second challenge: subtle nuances and contradictory vibes. Happiness and melancholy may sound like a strange combination, even like an impossible mixture. Joe Hisaishi's

The Magic of Animation

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Today, I want to write about the 2D hand animations I have been making for Bewitching Baking. I will reveal how I make them. We decided to run the animations at 11 frames per second. It saves me time and keeps the size of the game more manageable. I have finished four of these animations thus far. The shortest one is 18 frames, while the longest one consists of 42. All in all, I have painted 114 frames to date. Most animations are of a single hand moving, but in some, I have had to animate both hands. My painting style is pretty realistic. To make my process at least a bit quicker, I rotoscope the base movement off a video we filmed. I import the video to Adobe After Effects where I lower the frame rate to 11 and then export the images. Initially, we decided on the 11 frames after testing the frame rate on a video. First, I do a quick line art trace of each image. Then I use the photos as a reference and start painting. I often copy the last set of hands while painting and first try to

Cozying Up a Witch's Kitchen

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 It's been a while since we last wrote anything on this blog. Don't worry: we have been working on the game! Now, I'm going to show you how I created the kitchen for Wynona. It has had a visual upgrade since we last showed it to you. What inspired us in the creation of Wynona's decor were modern-day witchcraft (naturally) and cottagecore.  The final version of Wynona's kitchen. It is the main set for the game. Here are some close-ups: Wynona has built her small altar in her kitchen. I decided to illuminate the window with the full moon. Wynona has strung an assortment of crystals that can bathe both in the moonlight and sunlight. I also painted a lace valance on her window to give the window a bit of charm and warmth. Under the window, Wynona grows chamomille, sage, garlic, basil, and lavender. While Wynona has an electric stove, she likes to use a cauldron and an old kettle. She also has a crystal ball in her kitchen. Wynona values her relationship with nature. She

Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality on itch.io

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We at  Innokas media ky  oppose police violence and both institutional and individual racism. Right now,  itch.io is raising money for BLM  with over one thousand creators all around the world participating. By donating $5 or more, you can support human rights and   gain access to a massive amount of engaging material. Half of the proceeds are donated to NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund and the other half to Community Bail Fund . Because we registered to itch.io only recently, we do not have games there yet. We would have loved to add at least some of them to the project otherwise. We are, however, glad that we were able to contribute Fairyland Familiars Coloring Book  to it. Remember, black lives matter. At the moment of writing, the bundle has raised over 4,6 million dollars.

Welcome to the Bewitching World of Baking!

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Hello, everyone and welcome to our blog where we write about the development of our games. We are a small indie team of two siblings from Finland, and we have been making games together since 2017 when we registered our company Innokas media . We have published games on mobile, both iOS and Android, and in the future, we wish to make games on desktop as well. This blog's purpose is to log and share our experiences as a small indie team and communicate with and inform our potential players of our games. Currently, we will mainly focus on the development of Bewitching Baking: a casual mobile game about a witch that likes to conjure up desserts. The game is a relaxing experience of completing different actions such as touching and sliding buttons and tilting the mobile device. Once the level is over, the game gives the player a score and tells them what dessert they have created. After this, the player can find the dessert in the recipe book found in the game. If the player has sc