Over the last week i have been getting all my work ready for the hand in. I have been writing comments on all the work and research that i have done over the past few months of this project. I have written all my comments in word documents and over the last few days have been converting them into PDF file format. I have just trying to finish the work to the best of my ability. Over the last few weeks i have also been working on photoshopping my character designs, both for the hand in but also for the presentation at the end of the week. 

My character designs are not finished, but are designs that i will continue in the second part of the project. I tried to colour them with japanese style colours that i thought best suited the characters.

Instead of uploading each photoshop piece i have done, i have put all my characters in one landscape frame which is displayed here.

character ideas

When i was trying to decide on look for my main character, i continued sketching other character ideas and random sketches, here are two examples of random character ideas that i drew of the top of my head.

The first one is an idea for a horse like species , which is a mix between a bunny and a fly.

The second one is one of my face ideas that i drew for my main character Ronin, which i continued to develop into another design.

changing character

From researching Lorne Lanning's views on game designs and the creation of Oddworld before christmas, it changed my ideas about creating a likable character, from then on i went about redesigning my character, but i still tried to keep the elements that i had originally wanted my character to have such as bat like features.

I still not have come up with a completely finished design for Ronin. 

Here are some examples of face designs that i did for  my main character.

Oddworld and Lorne Lanning

From the beginning of this project i have used Oddworld as an inspiration, i have always been a huge fan of Oddworld not just because the game play is great but because the story's are original and weird and all the characters and species are original and interesting. Even though Oddworlds original game, Abe's Oddysee is nearly twelve years old it has not aged at all and it is as good today as it was back then. One of the main reasons why Oddworld has such a high following of both men and women, is because of the characters. Abe for instance is a character that has emotion, and is likable for both men and women. He may not be a physically strong character like nearly all video game character but he has a lot of heart which is why he is so appealing.

During my early research period of researching Oddworld i came across a lecture by Lorne Lanning the Director/Writer and creator of Oddworld. The lecture was given at a game convention entitled 'Maintaining Vision through the Hell of production.' The lecture lasted for over an hour and really changed my thoughts regarding my character design and game idea.

Here are some examples of the points that Lanning spoke about on character design.

'The character needs to inspire empathy'

'What would a real life form do'

'The player should be able to tell what the character is feeling'

'Evolve the game character through communication'

'It takes hundred of alterations to create a great character'

'If you embody endearing dysfunctional characters people will connect'

These are just some of hundreds of points that were made about characters and storytelling. This changed my attitude towards my designs, in my original design my character looked quite tough and cool looking, and this lecture made me think how i could redesign my character with Lorne Lannings points in mind. I wanted to design a characters that inspires more empathy and is likable to both men and women. From then on i worked on getting a good design for my main character.

More old Research

Back in october and november when i was in the middle of my research i wanted my character Ronin to be based roughly on a bat like creature but without wings. From that i went and read up on bats and different species of bats looked like and how they moved. During the second year my characters were very humanoid which is why i wanted to design something that didn't move like a person.

Here are some examples of books i looked at and drawings i did of bats.

going back to research

This is an example of some more research that i was carrying out before christmas. I wanted my characters to be similar to existing animals but have very vast differences. I wanted to design creatures as if they had evolved from realistic animals. For example i wanted my character Ronin to be like an evolved bat that has evolved without wings, and that is the kind of concept that i wanted to bring to all my concept art. 

After having that idea i went and researched evolution. There isn't much pictures that i could get on evolution so i went and did research from some books

Here are some examples of pages that i looked at for research

As i did not update my Blog for a few months, over my last few posts i have been showing some of the work and research that i did during that time. As the deadline and the presentation are getting close, i am at the moment working on colouring some of my character designs for the presentation. I have a lot of black and white characters to add, but i wanted my presentation to have some more colour to it. I also wanted to experiment with colour so i have an idea of each designs colour scheme. In the next section of the project i will work on colour in more detail.

Here is an example of an enemy design which i have been working on in photoshop.

Supporting Characters

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that the main character from my idea Ronin will travel the world encountering characters who he would perform missions for, in exchange for information to lead him to find out who he is. I have already Posted early concepts for Ronin and the Oracle and i have drawn some concepts for other characters that Ronin will encounter.

These designs are early concepts and may alter

Spiv is a dodgy gang leader who is runs underground crime operations against anyone he is not in lead with, Ronin will have to perform underhanded tasks for him for information. It will be the players choice to choose whether to to good deeds or follow Spiv's violent orders in these missions.

Tatsu is a resistance leader working against a huge army which is building up in the land, Tatsu will order Ronin to destroy supplies or assassinate factions of this army. Through doing these missions Ronin will find how his memory loss is something to do with this army.

When i was starting my research in October and November one of the main Primary topics i was looking into was Feudal Japanese influence. I had a strong idea when my concept was still in its early Stages that the characters would wear feudal japanese style clothing, and fight with Samurai Style weapons. This is how i came up with my main characters name Ronin, as Ronin means a master-less Samurai. I wanted the characters to have a very japanese style colour seen such as what is seen in japanese ink paintings.

I did look at many different aspects of Feudal japanese culture such as how Samurai Armor is put on and the exact uses of it. A book that i looked at closely was Secrets of the Samurai which goes into great detail about how clothing was worn, here are some examples of pages from the book.

Even though i wasn't going to be designing any landscapes i did watch films like Shogun Assassin and the Last Samurai to get an idea of the whole environment, and also i looked what the characters were wearing and how they behaved. I carried out this research but I did not want my designs to be completely influenced, i still wanted to add my own touch to the designs.

This is an example of the research that i was carrying out during the months of november and december. I was told in my last tutorial with Marie Claire that i should look at the work of Surreal Artists as my game will feature many Surreal Elements. I concentrated on lookin at the work of Kenny Scharf and William Blake. These two painters have very different painting styles, Kenny Scharf uses a very cartoony style which utilizes very bright colours whereas William Blake uses a very Dark style with very a very dark colour scheme. Williams Blakes Paintings look very disturbing whereas Kenny Scharf's work as a much more light hearted feel.

I have posted an example of william blake and Kenny Scharf. I want my game to have a mixture of these two different styles, light hearted but mixed with dark undertones. 

over the last few moths i have been completing all my character designs. I finished most of my research in November at that time i was looking at Bats and their anatomy for the design of my main character Ronin, i did go on to look at other animals as research for my other characters but not in as much detail as i had looked at with bats. while i continued with my character designs i also continued to look at japanese colouring and surreal artists such as William Blake. I have since been working on completing my character designs. I have finished designs for seven different characters from my game idea, and a few more that are close to have finished designs. I am at the moment working on photoshopping my characters so as to add a bit of colour and so i have an idea of each ones colour scheme. I will also be colouring my designs for the presentation because i have many sketches but they are all in black and white, so i want to have colour in my presented work.