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.

Reference Links: BA5 & Light Study & Research pictures.

http://www.stencyl.com/help/view/animations/

Guide on states, animations, and how to do these.

Within this painting, the main source of light appears to be coming in from above the man in red's shoulder, on the left of the painting. The lighting brings the viewer's full attention to the people in front, as it illuminates them in comparison to the muted colours and light in the background.

Within this painting, the light source is visibly coming from the background, behind the mountains. This turns everything in the foreground into silhouettes, and causing a specular reflection of the trees in the relatively still water and a more diffused reflection for the cows where they have disturbed it. As the light portrayed is that of a sunset, the entire scene is bathed in a very red/orange glow.

Also of use are some more reference pictures of seed life and animate plant life in games.

The above game is Botanicula. While the designs are of animate creatures, they clearly all have a base in familiar wildlife around today. I also uploaded some more of my gathered pictures of seedling shoots.

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: