Gunwale

Spooky night.

Dropping the layers for the new room I'm working on into the game to see what needs to change. After checking it out, I decided that the big boat needs more parallax. So that means splitting out the layers even more and filling in the missing bits.

Trust the process.

Today I painted some rocks and tree layer elements, as well as coloring in the boat layers.

Took a break from the detailed background stuff today to take yet another crack at the interiors. Previous version was isometric and just felt very technical drawing vs the more cosy feel I was after. Experimenting with some simple 3D shapes and sprite stacks. I like the new feel, so far.

My weekend of Gunwale boating lineart.

WIP line art for a new room for Gunwale. I'm trying to make sure that each location has lots of detail for you to look at since that's a pretty major point of the game.

I actually can't wait to color the layers and put them in the engine to see them in parallax.

That's the best bit.

A line-up of various characters.

Here are a few more characters - this group hails from the Forlatt region of Astre.

Some new character bits I did last week.

A lineup of some fantasy costumed characters from my game Gunwale.

Some of the residents of the Black Nest Castle in Gunwale. There are only really two that you'll interact with but I like to create whole worlds for them to live in, because that's heaps of fun to do - the best bit, even.

Some new character bits I did last week.

I'm experimenting with various layout designs for my dialogs. My current fave is this one which uses the cute little Greley head for the cursor. I'm thinking of having various heads to use as emojis to represent the text. It'll look super cute.

Experimenting with adding animation to Greeley at the tiller that responds to player controls.

Experimenting with adding animation to Greeley at the tiller that responds to player controls.

I'm experimenting with various layout designs for my dialogs. My current fave is this one which uses the cute little Greley head for the cursor. I'm thinking of having various heads to use as emojis to represent the text. It'll look super cute.

A flock of made-up farm animals called Groats lazing about and eating the grass.

Been a little quiet here because I've had my head down the last few weeks working on some code for the dialog system. Took me a while to get into it, but I'm firing on all cylinders now and hope to get it finished in a few more weeks.

In the meantime, here's some background Groats I forgot to post.

Just a slight change to Greeley's basic costume that's a little more summer-y.

Working on a farm down by the water today.

Pretty pleased with how Gunwale is looking at the moment.

I was looking back through the videos of Gunwale that I exported over the years since I first started playing around with the idea back in August 22.

It's come a long way even though there's still a long way to go.

A woman with pinkish hair standing in some fancy fantasy style robes.

I wasn't super happy with the Gunwale universe version of Kit I designed a few months back, so I took another stab at it. Much happier with this variant.

A sketch of a small dog-like animal with big ears, eyes, and a flooffy tail.

Gunwale Critter of the Month Club: May 2025

A Doch.

A sponge fishing boat with an awning and exposed engine in white with blue trim. To the side is its owner, a sponge diver with goggles and a net bag.

Salla Thar and the Sfon Garaki

A dockmaster in high-vis clothing stands to the side of his little tugboat.

Dockmaster Flashe and the Bally-Who

A tall athletic blond man standing to the side of a shorter narrowboat.

Marko Pepapon and the Luna-Misa

A green narrowboat barge filled with coal. A white haired woman in green stands to the side.

Roob Ironvale and the Collie Borda

A fancy red narrowboat with a young man with wild hair and a fancy satchel to the right.

Sulivan Boody and a Boody Boaty

A gold and brown narrowboat with a small garden on the gunwale. A young woman in similar colors stands to the side.

You and some of the boaters you'll meet in the waterways of Kanali.

Greeley Stonehammer (you) and the Gunwale Regis

3 rows of character designs from Gunwale showing off various ethnicities and occupations.

I love designing casts of characters more than anything else, followed closely by mechs, critters, and tech.

Here's a bunch of characters from Gunwale. I'm very happy that there's a unity of world, yet they're all very different shapes, sizes, and colors - you know, just like a real world.

Greeley cruising down the waterways of Kanali on a narrowboat with a lazy blue ball of fluff for a cat.

Me: The anti-action animator. I just want super chill these days. Done in Photoshop, Spine, and After Effects.

Also, it was originally meant to be a static drawing, but I got carried away :)

3D printed version of the Regis narrowboat alongside a rule for scale - it's about 15cm long.

I also 3D printed the model a while back. It's very cool being able to hold it in my hands. I do need to do a reprint with the details printed with a finer nozzle. I'll get around to it one day... and maybe paint it too.