Editor-in-Chief at GameDeveloper.com, Berklee College of Music game design lecturer, BJJ Purple Belt 🤼‍♀️, hobbyist game dev, beginner pixel artist, sometimes screenwriter, fitness dork, volunteer EMT. She/her.


I had fun doing both the Lospec prompt (simulation with this palette), and the Pixel Dailies Twitter one (floppy disk) today. I reserved most of today to practice a little and then go to town on my current illustrations and code for The Tunnel, and mayyyyybe dive into Tears of the Kingdom this evening.

It took me... many, many tries to draw this stupid car lol. Why is it so much easier to draw mountains and skies and clouds than... cars? Idk. I'm sure some beginners have the exact opposite problem.

A real thing: I thought I could never ever even begin to draw because I'm just not that precise (same reason I thought I was frankly too stupid to ever learn code, or do math, learn chemistry, etc.). That I am good at things, sure, but just too sloppy and imprecise as a human being to develop these finely tuned skills.

That's obviously bullshit, anyone can learn anything. Chalk it up to the usual suspects, I guess: my horrible Catholic education in the 90s, awful culture more broadly, whatever. You obviously need to put in the at least several hundred—I have no idea exactly how many and I'm sure it varies per person hours to develop basic skills, intermediate skills, advanced skills, etc., but that's the same for everything imaginable.

fwiw, in case it needs to be said: I certainly don't think it would have been healthy to wildly overcorrect in the opposite way either, for family/teachers/coaches/whoever to have told me "oh my god, you are a SUPERSTAR and GREAT at ALL OF THE THINGS" just maybe some moderation. You can do anything, but just know, it will take a long time and a lot of work. This is ok and normal! Let's acknowledge it!

Learning BJJ has been instructive for me, and I only started it in my thirties. I can have a white belt mentality towards any new skill (it is not only ok, it is expected and totally cool to suck at something for a very very long time, just keep on the road, you'll suck less a teeny little bit with each session).


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