Concept Summary.

This is a summary of the concepts for my work. Further details, designs and text explanations can be found throughout this PDF/Blog.

Swimming seedling.

Concepted a swimming type seedling for our game design document. This won't make it into the game (as with the dandelion seed), but it's relevant for our game design.

I actually got inspiration from the idea thanks to Amazon's 'recommended for you' sections. Having been looking at plantlife and seeds for a while, I'd been seeing similar things in my recommended section. This particular link caught my eye:

Grow your own Lily Pad.

While the item itself got terrible reviews, I googled the concept and came across these:

To me, the seed shoots looked like tadpoles. I liked the idea, but wanted to change it up a bit as my last design involved thin, seed shoots. So I began looking at fish fins, sticking to the idea of aquatics.

I didn't want to go overboard with the billowing, expansive designs so I took the idea of a fish fin and condensed it slightly.

I came up with these designs, attaching the seed shape I had developed to the idea of a flowing, aquatic creature.

Tempting..

BA5 Project 1

Stina and I have chosen to work together on a new project separate from Illusions. We wanted to create something very simple and understated in terms of narrative after the narrative-heavy design of our previous game. With the brief meaning we'd likely end up using Gamesalad, we decided to push for something level and sidescroll based.

I began looking into independent games like Braid, Fly'N, Limbo and so on. Each was a sidescroller in movement, but employed various gameplay mechanics to keep them unique. Through back and forth discussions, we decided we wanted to create a game around the mechanic of creatures who could adapt to their environment in order to bypass obstacles.Visually, Stina and I quickly took background and character design respectively. Knowing my creation would have to be animated (and knowing how little I know about animation), I chose to do something simple. For inspiration, I examined a fair few sources.

A primary beacon of interest was SA2's chao. These creatures develop abilities and physically when exposed to different sources, adapting and growing depending on what they are given.



Visually, I felt very drawn to the art style used in Fly'n. I discussed it with Stina many times, having felt greatly inspired by the simple representations and shapes. The forest-esque environment made me want to place our design within a similar world.

And my own interpretation. I eventually decided that these were too similar to the original Fly'n design.

Going back to my idea of adapting to succeed, I began to think about how I would represent that visually on the character. With adaptation in mind, I immediately began to think more of plants and how they change to suit their environment. I used Pokemon for the visual reference side, knowing that their grass types tend to look like plants themselves and have features relevant to their powers. Eg: Chikorita's vines come from visible nodules in her neck, and the leaves she throws are situated upon her head.

Shaymin, the second Pokemon linked, is interesting because it looks like a real creature with more grass-based features. I wanted to use this idea for my own creatures.

I wanted to go one step further than these creatures and do something directly related to a plant. Specifically, I studied seeds.

 

 

And my interpretation..

From here, I cleaned up my ideas and created new ones.

For a flying/gliding power, I looked at dandelion seeds and how they float.

And my interpretation: