FMP – Art Direction Finalised

What have I done

I have finally found the design direction that I want to go with for this project. I am planning to make the environments  look like paper/card origami from the character, environment and even the sky. I am planning to make the origami style to refer to what normal within the environment, enemies and “evil” objects will be perceived as non-paper/card origami, such as toys and large more realistic objects. This design choice is to show the user what is bad and what is good. An example of this will be fire that will look realistic and will burn and damage the paper environment.

Below is two concept pieces for the project:

I am planning to do one final concept piece for this art direction, along side a few other design directions, then choose the best suited. Though I do feel that this art direction is the best, as it has allows me to create a basic but powerful story for the game, and also be visually pleasing and very friendly to children. After this, I will start to plan out the first level, which will be focusing on the basic mechanics of the game, which are moving and jumping, so I will not need to create special objects or use complex BluePrints to create the level. Then create it within Unreal Engine 4.

What are my influences?

The idea is  influenced by many sources, from other games to films. The influence for the art direction is based on many games, but the main one being “Grow Home“. I will show an image of game play below:

Link to image here.

Another major influence for the design direction is  “Yoshi’s Woolly World” which is also a side scrolling platformer, but uses a material as the main style, which is wool/ yarn. Image of the game is below:

Link to image here.

 

 

Learning and Research – Unreal Engine 4 : Post 2 – Ideas

I have had a look at the example 3D side scroller that is included within Unreal Engine 4 (4.9.2); and the first thing I think I need to change a lot compared to this example is how the camera is used. Within the example, the camera is very static and it feels like that it is too close to the character, making it hard to see the environment around, especially when jumping. So one of my major goals over the next few weeks is to learn and create a camera system that is less static to the character, is able to move back and forth, and also able to rotate pointing towards the character.

With the character movements within the example, I feel that what is given is a great start for what I want to produce in my final version of the game, all I will need to change is how quickly the character can move and maybe try to add a double jump mechanic within the game.

Finally, after looking at what I be working with, I think that it will take a few weeks or maybe just over a month to get a very basic version of the first introduction level (which will be teaching the user how to move the character around). I feel once I have made this though, the production of the levels will be developed a lot faster.

Learning and Research – Unreal Engine 4 : Post 1

First goal

I am starting to learn and gather research into the Unreal Engine 4. I am planning to learn and understand how the Blueprints system works, so that I am able to create the first early version of my games mechanics. What I need to learn is how to make an object move about in two axis within a 3D space, which will include moving left and right and jumping. I also want to make all of the physical movements to be what I am after within the final version of the game. At this point, I am not planning on making a level to be completed, just working movement mechanics for the character.

I am also going to test out how the camera could work with the character, and how to make it move smoothly with the character without being a static movement. I will do this as part of learning how to make the basic movements. This will also include basic models which I could create within 3DS Max to create foreground and background objects to fill the space to help test out the camera and camera angles.

Second goal

I would like to start working on basic gameplay mechanics and further the movement mechanics for the character. This will include some game play aspects such as basic level design and basic puzzle solving (this could include moving an physics object to a position so the character is able to jump high enough to reach higher ground). This will be the first steps to create the first level of the game, and would be used as a basis of all future levels.

I will do update post of my progress over the next week showcasing what task I have completed and any tast that I am struggling with.

What is a 2.5D game?

This is a game that contains a 3D environment, but uses 2D logic within the games mechanics (Link here to source). What this means is, a game could have graphics that are polygonal, but the mechanics of the game use 2D logic, example of this is a platform based game where the character you control can only move in 2 axises (usually X and Y), but not in the 3rd axis, but the environment itself is within all 3 axises, which adds depth and perspective. There are many example of games that have used this, one of the most popular are the Little Big Planet series and Kirby 64.

Below I show videos of both games being played:

Character Designs – Early Sketches: Protagonist and Antagonist

First of all, I will show the designs that I have made for the protagonist, these were the first designs that I have worked on which I done on the 29/05/2015. There is still a lot of development needed due to feeling like that the protagonist has no personality in the design, making the character boring. So I need to further develop the protagonist till their is personality to the look. Below are the images from my sketchbook:

Now I am going to show the designs that I have created for the Antagonist. I feel that the designs for this character are a lot better and has more personality which is what I want. The character will need to be developed more, but at this point, I feel like that it is going in the right direction. Below are the designs of the character, which were created on the 04/06/2015 and 05/06/2015.

With all of these designs, and any future designs which include both character, environment and objects, they all need to be able to be created within 3D, due to the game being 2.5D. So I need to try and show within the designs that they can be created in 3D which I try to show by adding basic shading. In the concept versions, I will try to show shading and highlights.

Independent Practice – Character Design: Reference for Antagonist

I have been started to design and create the antagonist for my game, which will be based on a British Bull Dog. I have already done some designs in my sketchbook for the character without the use of a reference, due to not having access to any at the point I designed them. I will be collecting a few images online of cartoon and real bull dogs to build up reference for creating the character further. I will be uploading images later of my current designs for both the Protagonist and Antagonist soon.

Below will be some reference images for the creation of the design of the main antagonist:

Link here.

Link here.

I also like the character design of King Pin from Dare Devil and the back story of him within the Netflix series Dare Devil, So I may use some design ideas from him design and story wise.

Link here.

Because I am going to make a human animal cross over character (human shape, but as an animal), I need to try to find the right balance of human and animal to make the character appealing to the target audience: Below is a character from Tom and Jerry which I believe is a type of Bull Dog which does stand up in some episodes.

Link here.

Independent Practice – Character Design: Reference for Protagonist

I am going to be creating early character designs for the main playable character for my game concept. I am going to base the character design on a Bengal cat, but make the character more human like with body structure.

I am going to use multiple imags of cats of all different breads and of the Bengal breed to use as reference for the concept designs.

Below I will show images of Bengal cats:

Link here.

Link here.

Link here.

Here below are human like animal characters:

Link here.

I will add more reference images as I find them.