KAT5 Animated Idle (Colored)

I guess this is a good time to post this.

Normally I'd just not post on a day like this so as to give whoever passed away some space.  I don't want to seem like an opportunist, but Mr. Iwata has made such a significant impact on my life as I'm sure he probably has with most of you as well, so I can't not say anything this time.

He, among many other game developers such as Mr. Tetsuka and Mr. Miyamoto at Nintendo to name a few, is the reason I even started drawing in the first place, let alone trying to stumble my way toward game design.

In Mr. Iwata's case, it was Pokemon Gold, my favorite Pokemon game of all time, that showed me that working around imposed limits means that you don't have to settle for what is expected. Gold/Silver was practically two games in one tiny Gameboy Color cartridge. Just when you were expecting the game to end, it shattered your expectations and told you that it was okay to go back and revisit all your old friends and rivals in the Kanto region. All those memories that I thought were frozen forever on my Pokemon Red cartridge were immediately brought back to life, as if they had aged with me. It was such a powerful moment when I got back to Viridian City and caught a young 'descendant' of my old friend Nido King (My main and favorite Pokemon of all time, with Nidorino being in close second) in that first little patch of grass on Route 22 right next to the city.

And imagine my nervousness as I re-entered Cerulean City's gym to find one of my first childhood video game crushes had become older, stronger and even prettier than before (I've since moved on to Ash's mom since Misty hasn't aged since Gold/Silver so she's no longer older than me and I prefer dem older womenz lol).

And then actually running into myself at the very end and having to fight some of my own Pokemon I had raised in the Red Version, that was definitely one of the most intense experiences I've had in video games.

It was my first time in a video game that I could actually visit old friends and see how the world had changed inside a game after I had left it for a few years.

And all this was thanks to Mr. Satoru Iwata, who figured out how to cram another entire region onto a GBC game that would normally have been impossible. And it's only one example of his legacy that has helped shaped me. I'm sure many of you have similar experiences! We have lost a good man, and an awesome game developer.

~

Which comes to this gif post. It's the first completely finished art asset in a game that I've been slowly and painstakingly piecing together for a little over two years now. There's still not much yet aside from early environment art and sketchy animation sprites for enemies, but I've finally figured out the gameplay hook/feel and the prototype is fully playable (If very early and unfinished) so I'm now able to work more on the art side and give the game some more character.

It's my first serious attempt at making a game all the way from start to finish. And I have to thank the brilliant and wonderful people who helped me along the way. Even if they haven't helped me personally, their work is something that has affected me on a personal level and it is people like Mr. Iwata that set a great example for the younger generations that want to follow in their footsteps so that they may later carve out their own path.

So thank you, Mr. Iwata. We do understand.