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Game Jam Collab- Week 4
This week we decided on a final character design, played with level design and other features such as obstacles and the sprites you collect.
Using what we had as a base, I started exploring drapery and capes, I was quite fond of the insect antennae brooch as I thought it gave our character an interesting silhouette. I then pushed the idea of tassels and sleeves.
I was then put in charge of mask design and my team mate proceeded to work on the rest of the body as this seemed to be what we were both best at. Our group held a google hangout where we screenshared and decided exactly what it was we wanted, this sketch from our programmer served as the basis, for what I designed masks for and my team mate designed clothes for.
Credit: Myfanwy Bundock
So producing a range of masks....
The very first one was liked the most, but then we turned from wooden to copper as of the colour scheme and direction we started to take our character, being more mechanised and steam punk.
However, we soon decided on a breastplate and other factors which led to us returning to wooden masks, so I played with the markings and mask shape further.
Top right is what we decided to go for, so our programmer, and later to be promotional illustrator, started a dynamic model sheet for us exploring pose and colour scheme.
Credit: Myfanwy Bundock
To further cement our game, I wrote a synopsis to be used in our pitch document. With perhaps a more florid one later, to be used on the Steam or IOS description, once a name for our collectible sprites has been decided...
"Players run through a dying forest, encroached by the
ravenous industrialisation of man. Collecting helpless sprites (*böge?*,) players lead these creatures
out of harm’s way whilst avoiding monsters, traps and pitfalls. With different
routes to navigate throughout each level, players have the freedom to forge
their own path in this continuous runner by jumping, gliding and dashing their
way through the game world."
Very loosely, I sketched out plans for our level design.
The first obstacles will teach the player basic controls such as jump, dash and glide alongside basic enemies, mechanised mushrooms, that can be bypassed or destroyed with a dash.
Soon after, the gassing enemy will appear. adding something new to keep the player on their toes.
Another new enemy will appear alongside the background here revealing a smog spewing city to contrast our green forest.
Spirits are to be collected along the way.
A fork in the road, players can jump the gap as they expect to and bypass enemies, a spirit mimic appear here pretending to be a collectible, collecting it kills the player. If players fall down they discover this hidden sewer segment, with sludge and pipes. There'll be pillars that offer protection if running under them, but climbing them and facing enemies rewards the player with another spirit.
Finally, up top a spirit mimic serves as the last obstacle alongside some mechshrooms, down below the player must quickly leap onto a platform and then again to avoid the jaws of a subterranean death squid- goals lying at the end of either route.
We've looked in quite a cursory way at the Mongolians for clothing inspiration, but decided to do some more research to find a reality to ground our characters and world in. Starting with Mongolian Shamanism, we looked at how the beliefs of these people was deeply rooted to a connection with nature and entering a spirit realm to communicate with entities there, one such type was the böge, a guardian spirit made up of the souls of smaller shamans. Perhaps our collectible spirits could be deceased shamans that you're trying to rescue. The nature of these sprites has often been spoken about during development, but bottom line is, you collect and rescue them.
Very loosely, I sketched out plans for our level design.
The first obstacles will teach the player basic controls such as jump, dash and glide alongside basic enemies, mechanised mushrooms, that can be bypassed or destroyed with a dash.
Another new enemy will appear alongside the background here revealing a smog spewing city to contrast our green forest.
Spirits are to be collected along the way.
Finally, up top a spirit mimic serves as the last obstacle alongside some mechshrooms, down below the player must quickly leap onto a platform and then again to avoid the jaws of a subterranean death squid- goals lying at the end of either route.
We've looked in quite a cursory way at the Mongolians for clothing inspiration, but decided to do some more research to find a reality to ground our characters and world in. Starting with Mongolian Shamanism, we looked at how the beliefs of these people was deeply rooted to a connection with nature and entering a spirit realm to communicate with entities there, one such type was the böge, a guardian spirit made up of the souls of smaller shamans. Perhaps our collectible spirits could be deceased shamans that you're trying to rescue. The nature of these sprites has often been spoken about during development, but bottom line is, you collect and rescue them.
We also briefly looked at the Turkic people and their umbrellas of wights and sprites, one that caught our attention was the Äbädä. A forest being with blue skin and glowing eyes, something we've pushed throughout with our main character. It has horns, green hair and the ability to shapeshift, an intresting character that could influence our sprites or main character further.
I doodled some sprite concepts, we're wanting each one you collect to look different. A range of these have been well recieved so will be furthered with iteration to go in the game. Using Spriter, I'll be animating monsters and sprites and other things that need less refined animation in weeks to come.
From here, monsters and obstacles are to be decided upon and animation cycles are to be started for our main character. Our music guy can no longer assist us, however two of our team members play the piano and are confident we can have something between us all.
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