Weekly Summary 9: Pitch and Evaluation

11:41 BA2a , Interactivity 0 Comments

My Pitch Document!

My game was very well received, my ideas applauded and my reasoning behind everything was appreciated.

Areas of improvement however include the readability of the information, I wanted the boxes to reflect the text that appears in game and be sort of disorientating, but for a pitch document it needs to be clearer. The snapshots from my game have a blue background, which needs changing as in the actual game It'd be different. The sewing needle page, the needle icon can be removed to make the playbourds bigger, in general titles need to be added to make the pitch read better.

With these changes in mind to make, I've also revisited my prototype, to have it as complete as possible before starting the next project. The main technical issue, aesthetics aside, is that world swapping whilst colliding with a wall will cause the player to fall through the map, players can swap to flight however and still navigate, but will have nothing to collide with. Some people who've played actually like this glitch, and see it as a disorientating experience that lends itself to the game.

I however, would like it fixed. I assumed it would be due to the fact my two game maps for the worlds are made of pieces, stretched and squashed square tiles. After combing the sprites which I thought would alleviate the problem, a new one arose. Now instead of swapping on collison and falling, you simply change movement in that same world, trying to swap again will throw you outside both maps and into the killzone, starting the game again.

At this time I've made the problem worse and don't know how to fix the original, so will leave it for the time being. So fixing a mechanic and polishing my Pitch is how I'll wrap this project up!

Weekly Summary: 8

11:08 BA2a , Interactivity 0 Comments

Adding more graphical components to my pitch doc, I revamped some playbourds with a concise yin-yang motif. One for movement and one for the two paths.

I also sketching out playbourds for the coping mechanisms, discussing how they'd be used.



Escapism would be used to find hidden areas, Lights and paths the Wanderer wouldn't be able to on their own, it'd also be used to talk with mute Notions, opening up to the marionette about threats, hidden Lights and darker, extended thoughts, feeling and stories.



Leisure is used to ward away Ennui, like a pulse, and appease especially distraught notions, giving the Wanderer Light if perked up, even if only temporarily.




I'd had the idea for a sewing needle in the game for quite a while, but exactly what ways you could use it confused me. Many ideas for platforming came to mind, but as you're able to float, it would seem a little pointless. I'd had the idea of being able to create a shield by cording off areas of the map with thread, but prefered the idea of binding enemies directly, sewing them to the level. I also like the idea of the needle sewing the player down, so they cant be teleported by Ennui or harmed by anything else. Instead of the scribble above, I decided to paint this.


I'd decided to recycle the face from a study during my workshop, however above everything appears very flat, so with further improvement...


Added some tone to the piece, which better describes the binding of the Wanderer.

Just now to put my Pitch Doc together and present my game!

Workshop 2

11:05 Workshops 0 Comments

This weeks workshop was on lighting and composition, we began with adding light to a simple sphere using airbrush settings, this is something to practice for sure.


We were also tasked to rough out some composition sketches...



Perspective is definitely something I need to practice, the second was painted over, to where it could be pushed to be furthered.

Weekly Summary: 7

16:37 BA2a , Interactivity 0 Comments

With my game playtested, with a few aesthetics to add in, I started to focus primarily on my Pitch Document and the sketches and concept pieces within. I began with tackling my splash screen, a painting that summed up my game and would quickly grab attention.


Timor- Latin for fear/dread

Other thematics assets, like title banners and page numbers...

Reflecting the colour scheme and the Ennui...


Page numbers- I was more fond of the second mask, so decided to use that, and having already decided to do so, used them as the basis for the NPC Notions.







This thematically also made a lot of sense.  I'd also drawn out Death at this point to be put in game.


I intend on putting him into Spriter, to make the mask shake erratically.


My pitch at this point was mainly being roughed out with a simple gradient background and the page numbers and titles used to lay the foundations.

From Playtesting, I added clearer instructions and arrows into my game.




Alongside some further messages dotted around the game world, to add some further flavour to the game and the general experience.



A couple of rough playbourds about world swapping and movement modes, these aren't very clear, so they'll be redone.

The mask the main character, the Wanderer, has is called Paisley. Who'll act as a guide of sorts throughout the game, pointing out where lights are within close proximity;this feature however doesn't feature in my prototype. However, she'll be largely obstructive, spouting largely absurdest nonsense depending on the root the player is taking. Collecting Lights will have her chipper and excited for all...


...Wandering to the depths or close to death will have anxious, lethargic and nihilistic.

Concept Art Workshop

05:53 Workshops 0 Comments

So I recently started attending a Concept Art workshop, to further my skills. This first week was on Value, using a template and greyscale colour palette. Following along with our tutor, we copied his of-the-season value piece of  a street. Focusing on composition, the pumpkin being the focal point and key values.


Our homework was to then pick a movie screen cap, a Master's work and to do our own peice.

I'm not sure what film its from, but I really liked the composition here.


I was really disheartened by my lack of accuracy, but this is about mapping values and gaining an understanding here. The tutor, critiquing and painting over...


...Adjusted some of the values largely on the railing and the figure, and I can clearly see the difference.

My master study was a cropped segment of a peice I adored from the Facebook group LevelUp.


I was relatively happy with how this came out, however after critique...


I can see I didn't match many of the values as well as I could've done, I'd also picked a very tough piece to copy well with many fine values and details that are hard to replicate with limited values.

My own piece I must woefully admit to having not spent as much time as I would have liked on. I'll have to practice with value a lot more and organise my time a lot better.