Another Project

So, While out looking for collaborators I met with some people who liked my work and got hired as an art director.... yay? Its actually very stress relieving to have a secure job but I am not giving up on my game! Though this whole situation has me maybe rethinking how I go about making this game. I will have to think about that BUT! in the meanwhile my new project!

I will post more about this current game later but for now here are some potential characters that are going to be in it.

not necessarily the final color scheme, still playing around. 

You have a Sloth, Quail, Persian Cat, Kangaroo, Gharial, Honduran white bat, and Sun bear. I have the models sculpted and now just have to color rig and animate, but waiting for confirmation before I do a ton of unnecessary work. I think I will post the 3D models when they are nicer looking and not just in T- posses waiting to be painted and animated.

Game Concept

The Basics: you are taken to an alien world to explore uncharted lands and  learn about its strange inhabitants. All of the different areas within this world are inhabited by their own unique life forms and it is your job to seek out as many of them as possible. Each animal, plant, and environment will behave differently depending on how you interact with them, the more things you try, the more the world will open up for you to explore.

As you progress through the game your character will adapt to its environment depending on the ways you play. The more you do of an activity (climbing, swimming, etc) the more suitable features your character will adopt to become better at that ability. these newly developed skills will allow you to explore more of the world, and travel to specific places that can only be accessed with that certain skill. The more you re-play with different strategies, the more you uncover in this strange new planet.

       


World Exploration: This is a game designed for a touch device. Game play consists of walking around a 2D world (sort of like Chronos Trigger, old-school pokemon) and interacting with as much of your surroundings as possible. You interact with your environment with touch controls, first tapping on the item then you can do several different things with it. let's say you want to climb a long plant - after you have selected it, you will run your fingers along its stalk to have your character climb along. Maybe you want to shake it, then you shake the phone, or you want to attack the stalk, then you will quickly slide your finger towards the plant to attack it. each motion will be simple enough to remember but still make doing these actions quick and fun.

Your character will not be able to perform very well as you start the game, so the more of one command you do, the better your character will be able to execute it. This is not only important to shaping how your character will transform, but also determine your strengths when you interact with the animals of this world.

Battle mechanics: Animals will either run, attack or some will have their own ways of relating to you. Battle, much like everything else; consists of a pallet of touch controls. Simple enough as it is not the absolute focus of the game, but complicated enough that it is fun, somewhat strategic, and not a button masher. the abilities you gain through out the game will determine how your character fights and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Lets say you have smashed a lot of obstacles so now your character has become husky and grown horns, this will make you a strong fighter but you are also very slow. Instead, lets say you climb a lot and so you now have long limbs, you are not very strong but it is much easier for you to avoid getting hurt and you can run away in a pinch. This allows for different game play styles and makes replaying the game more interesting.

when all your commands do not need to be selected from a list, it makes the screen nice and clean with nothing eclipsing the artwork. If you can directly interact with the environment it would not only get rid of the need to select from a list what you want your character to do, but it would be more fun and would have the player feel like they were actually part of this world.

Conclusion: I hope I have clearly talked about this concept,thou I have not mentioned the story, nor listed some details I wanted to keep it as simple and clear as possible. As this is a world exploration game, the artwork is very important. I want this to be something where people start off this game and find the world so interesting, that they want to explore all of it. To see the crazy and beautiful lands and animals. As such, I have put a lot of work and research into the art for this game, to be full of fantastic color, imaginative lands and all kinds of animals. Every where you go there is something different to look at, no dull brown trees or fields of puke green grass but savannas of bright colorful life. Fields of glistening blues and purples that when you walk through, petals trail behind you. a world inspired by the most beautiful parts of our own but abstracted into something that could not exist, making it all the more fun to find out what these things surrounding you are.

More Animals

more Animals! I try to keep most animations offline, and probably even more of the scenery will be kept offline...? We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. SO lets start with...

This guy! I used a Basiliscus AKA a jesus lizard as an animation reference. It stands post, looking out for predators, as soon as it sees any sign of something close by, it will bark (warning the others) and RUN! It drags its tail on the ground to create a cloud of dust to make it all the more difficult to chase it. I really like the way this guy moves, its just fun to watch it run. on several occasions when I test out the animation, it will sync with the music I am playing So I end up spending several minutes watching my 3 second animation loops haha. 

walk - turn - attack

alright next is this little jumper, maybe the third character I animated, *sigh* how much I have learned since then. Its also one of the few animals with some sort of 'pattern' on its body. Most animals I design don't have any marks on their body (which makes animation a lot easier), I really like minimalist and clean/simple art. 

So far no two animals move the same way, thats a coincidence but I like it! the more verity, the more interesting, but who knows how long I could keep that up?

Designing Unrealistic Animals

walk - attack- turn

SO I wanted to start off by talking about the more 'abstract' animal designs. These are one of the reasons I am working on an independent game. I love designing animals that don't make sense, That won't necessarily 'work' in our world with bright colors and physics breaking anatomies. I love to design animals on a more visual basis than a practical one.

Now, any project I work on that has some basis in our world, I do A LOT of research on before I finalize anything. I find the more you find out about something, the more ideas you get to abstract from. Since this game is about adapting to different environments (I will post more about what the game actually is later) I researched animal/plant evolution and adaptation, learning why different animals have evolved to be what they are. I then started designing very practical animals that could survive in our earth. But I then had to step back, and remember why I wanted to make my own game in the first place. I wanted to step away from the cliche monsters seen in most AAA games, star trek aliens with human like bodies but with four arms, color pallets ranging from dark green to brown. work on designs a mainstream game company would probably not allow, which brings me back to this guy.

 A cubist body and limbs with a cloud coming out of its back that floats through the air and propels its self with its limbs even though they are not attached to its body. I drew it, liked the drawing, so then I animated it. Now, a lot of my monsters are more practical that this, but I try to step away from that as much as possible. the more strange and complicated a design, the harder it is to figure out how they move, and the more time consuming their animation becomes. But I still try to make them as much as possible, keeping in mind reasons I want to work on an independent project, and appreciating all the freedom that doing so brings- Sasha

First Post introductions

First post! I suppose this should be a short introduction. My name is Sasha and this blog is about the game I am working on "UNTITLED ADAPTATION GAME" wow~ sounds exciting ha? This blog (at least for now) will primarily be where I post art and perchance talk about my experience making an Indie game. I will talk later about what the game actually is But This is a pretty early stage of development, I have been working on this game for about two months now; so there will probably be changes. More to come Later~ Sasha*