Developing a Different Aesthetic Feel

Recently I started to refine the art assets for the game Destony after getting feedback that the level art was clashing with too many bright colours  so I spent some time doing some concept art and developing the overall style so that it would be less intrusive on the eyes. I actually got really inspired by the art of the indie game 'Element4l' that really summed up a nice colour scheme that I was thinking of going for, the image bellow displays my inspiration:

Element4l Teaser

Here is the process of my concept art within Photoshop CS6. I was testing out some new brushes in Photoshop which gave me some really interesting results in the overall image and also quickened the process of my vision being made in reality. These brushes included, lightning, grass, landscape, cloud and grit.   

Started off by painting out the background using many cloud brushes as well as effects brushes which definitely save time and I see why people use them so often.

Then the mountains and foreground were added to see what the overall composition looked like.

Something didn't look quite right with the mountains, so I removed the foreground to see what it was.

After adjustments with the background, I created the character using a single rounded brush.

Here I started to create a  glare for the sun.

A close up of the ground which is fairly detailed.

A close up of the light box which it was important to balance the light so it would not disappear. 

A close up of the character without the rain effect.

Final Image

My Thoughts

The final result shows the combined image with all the assets. Overall I was quite happy with the results. The new brushes I downloaded made it a lot quicker to get the desired effects I was going for. The moodis set to be dark to emit feeling of grand intention or determination. The colours are high contrast to bring out the main features. I played around with the character design a little to see what other effects I could achieve in adjusting him slightly and giving him a more realist look.

Pros:

• The colours of the image compliment it very well due to the strong darkened sky which pops put the main character and the subdued mountains to portray distance. 
• The character pops out of the image as intended and the bold outline somewhat suits well with the dark atmosphere.
• The image serves it's purpose of showing emergency and something grand soon to take place.

Cons:

• The character lacks a lot of detail in comparison to the actual background and effects surrounding him, particularly with all the harsh straight lines whereas the environment is a lot more soft.
• The character does not fully look as if he is looking at the light box as intended.
• The mountains do not have much presence within them and could possibly do with more painting adjustments.
• The background might be too dark which brings it forward as opposed to back.

Possible Improvements:

• Nothing too striking here that needs immediately needs changing, although the character could do with less harsher lines and the gradient in the sky needs to be subdued. 

34°C to -1°C, Hot to Cold & Schedule

Just getting back from Australia and visiting my girlfriend, it is now time to get back to work, I feel that this blog has been rather regimented and structured in it's appearance so far and I want to mix it up with more honest accounts of my own personal life and my progress.

Working on my coursework in Australia, Brisbane was at times a struggle, as the heat is insane and it often can dishearten one to keep on working when it is so hot. Luckily, there was air conditioning where I was staying, so it made things more bearable.

The hand in period has just ended and being back to the UK ad seeing that the whole of the UK is plunged in snow is quite the contrast to the former heated experience of everything being overwhelmingly hot. From one extreme to another it made me really think about working conditions and what working conditions est suit me when I work. Being in Australia and working from home, I realized that working from Home is quite difficult and that working in a library or at University is a much more conducive atmosphere to gaining a better work output ratio. I also think that it helps to work when it colder rather than it being hotter, you actually are inspired to get things done when the cold keeps you on your feet.

For the next few months, I have previously created a schedule of how things are going to proceed from now on and I am quite excited to get things going. My schedule will be quite intense and I plan to keep it that way and to really challenge myself to getting things done and pushing my current talents and abilities.

As said within the schedule, this week will be all about creating a outcomes that focus on game mechanics and that will be my focus as I start to create various aspects of my final piece.

The overall project that I create has to have some meaning and some depth and to create a theory which is very easy to understand and easy to use and interpret, throughout this project, I hope to really challenge myself and what I am used to to create things that I haven't really created before. This project gives me the opportunity to discover my passion and create a basis to help others find aspects of their passion within their gaming experience.

Looking at the schedule again, it seems like a reasonable amount to ask for and I feel that if I follow the schedule as it is meant to be followed, that I will be able to really succeed within creating this project and creating a final outcome that I and many others can really enjoy so it's enough of talking (that's for the dissertation) and more time for action.

Game Comparison: Retro VS Modern

As said in my proposal, it is very important to access the aspects of the effectiveness of the mechanics and the aesthetics. Throughout this pre-production process of creating these two prototypes and comparing the art, it was obvious that the aesthetics of a game actually influence the overall experience. This will be a critical analysis of the two games and will access the pros and the cons of the different styles.

The Menu Screen

As you can see, the above images of the menu screen are fairly different in their appearance. The BlueBOX game displays an image of the character which blinks as it sits still. The font is also very different and gives off a very different aesthetic image to the users. I personally prefer the Destony menu screen as it is very modern and stands out, although it could do with an animated background or subtle movements to increase it's overall visual appeal. 

The Rules Section

The retro screen has very obvious arrows which to some may challenge the users competence, which is why they were removed in the screenshot bellow. Overall they both fulfill their purpose and display rules of the game both very clearly. The modern assets replace the older ones and have a lot more character to them.

Level 1 

Now getting to the actual meat of the game, we come to the actual gameplay of the games themselves. Yes, the framework is the exact same, although the actual experience is changed simply by a change of art, and this seeks to extrapolate and discuss this.

The first thing that I noticed was that the Box platformer character moves around in a very comical way and has a lot of comical appeal in their aesthetic appearance whereas the Destony character moves around a lot more smoothly and has a much more organic feel. Both games have a very nice feel and have a certain amount of polish. Playing level 1 I noticed that the ground was effected by the platform detection system within Destony and the ground changed to being quite rugged and bumpy in which added some depth to the gameplay.

Walking Animation

Comparing the walk cycle from the retro to the modern, playing the cycle within the game you instantly notice that the box walk is extremely limited as the box has no legs and just sways side to side. Thomas was alone goes a step further with this simplicity in which there is not cycle and the square glides across the floor.

It is clear that having a walk cycle and also an added shadow brings a lot more realism and somehow brings more visual value and a sense of fluidity.

Jumping Animation

The jump animation in the retro image is less realistic although is actually in my opinion a better jump, it gives a comical and satisfying sense within the jump, so noting this it might be best to try and add comical aspects to the characters jump. 

Crouching Animation

The crouching animation is again suits the retro side of things more as it holds that unrealistic comical sense of squash and stretch which could be used for the Destony character as well. The crouching within the game on Level 4 actually requires for the Retro Box to duck in order to reach the portal, although due to the size of the Destony character's head, the crouching didn't make much of a difference and thus the platform was lowered to allow easy access to the portal in Destony Level 4.

Level 3

Notice within the new image above that the shadow is still present when the character is in midair which is a fault that can be fixed with some research in order to only have a shadow when the character is on the ground. Within Level 3 the atmosphere really looks quite different compared to the retro version and the mechanic of jump and the angle of the platforms are effected by the extra height of the Destony character and the bumpy platforms.

Level 4

As said previously, the last platform on level 4 on the right requires a crouch manauver in order to enter the portal, although on the modern version of the game, it was not necessary as the ducking made little difference to the characters height. Although some tweaking in the characters animation could easily change this. The different of the characters and the background give this particular level a lot of appeal in the modern version.

Level 5

Within the 5th level, there are finally some diagonal slopes involved which are very straight within the retro box version of the game although within the Destony version they are still bumpy and this gives a different effect when going down the platform. This in my opinion didn't feel too different when everything was already so unstable, although in the retro version it gave a new feeling of slanted discovery.

Evaluation

Mechanics: Upon evaluating the overall performance of both games it is obvious that which one would be perceived as 'better' would be purely based on opinion. In my opinion, the manipulation of mechanic which really shined through is within the jump function within the last levels of the game. I actually found that the jump feeling on the 6th level to be highly satisfying and rewarding within the retro game, although the accuracy and the precise factor of the game is effected by a lot of the messy collision/connection detection of the art work, so I would actually say that the mechanics that are kept simple actually feeling better overall.

Aesthetics: As for the aesthetics, I would say that the overall appeal and feel of the BlueBOX platformer is a more complete retro experience than the half formed Destony prototype and that there is a lot of potential within the experience of this prototype although there is much that need to be tweaked and focused upon to bring this change. By in large I think that the Destony game has a substantial amount of visual appeal and definitely would bring a lot more interest to most audiences in my opinion and experience. The character moves a lot more smoothly within the modern version and have a lot more professional appeal. Although the sound and music I feel suits the BlueBOX a lot more, this could be adjusted with a more atmospheric and less upbeat and high sound during gameplay. Both games are fairly polished as prototypes and display the sheer potential that subtle changes within the art and sound can make a difference.

Overall, it is clear to me that BlueBOX game is more complete as a prototype and that the aesthetic experience really suits the game whereas the Destony game still has much to be fleshed out and polished before it can stand alone as a unique and cohesive experience. In saying that, the mechanics seem to be amplified when aesthetics are kept simple and upgrading aesthetics brings a lot more fluidity to a game. 

Mechanic Development: Prototype DESTONY

After creating BlueBOX platformer which was a very basic platforming game which I managed to code myself, it was time to test out the same game fundamentals with more polished art to see if it really makes a difference, so I used the art assets of the concept art and created new assets to polish the game and see how it comes across.

Creation of Level 1: replacing old art

In order to get the new game with the new art running, the process consisted with changing the art assets that were embedded within the movie clips and replacing them with the newer assets.

Creation of Level 3: shifting platform positions

Here I was changing the assets within Level 3 and adjusting the Vcam within the game.

Creation of Level 6: duplicating platforms

This was adjusting level 6 which had the most platforms so took the most amount of time to adjust and change.

Menu Screen: much more vibrant

As you can see the opening screen is a lot more vibrant and catching than the blueBOX Screen.

Rules Screen: less busy and more simple

The RULES screen is also a lot more vibrant and the design is lot less in your face than previously.

In Game Testing: The game played quite differently

Overall, when playing the game with the new graphics, I noticed a lot of differences within the gameplay, the character felt different when moving around and the whole game experience was a bit more versatile.

You can play the actual game with the link bellow:

Destony Platformer Game Link

Upon evaluating the whole game experience, it was obvious to me that the graphics do effect the gameplay, the character moved around differently and the game gave a different vibe when being experienced. Because the ground is formulated by relating the main characters spacial surrounding and then combining that with the floor, you often can get glitch effects within the interaction of the two objects within the game.

This I found to be particularly true within Level 6, when the character tries to jump on the various platforms, you can see how the character is effected by the angles of the platforms and how he doesn't just travel directly upwards.

Overall, the game does play differently and looks a lot more polished, although from my evaluation I feel it is fair to say that the overall gaming experience is pioneered by the gameplay and primarily how the game has been programmed, which is what I really want to focus on in more depth within the 2nd semester of this project. Overall, I am happy with the transfer and how I learnt so much from this process and it is time to use what was learned a create a new developed experience. 

Unite with Unity

So after a lot of browsing, I have decided that for my honours project, I will be using Unity to create my 2D platformer, it took quite a lot of convincing but after some research and actually using Unity itself, I found out how it's a really straight forward piece of software and is far more powerful than Flash is in terms of it's capabilities. So because of this I thought it was worth getting involved with and finally uniting with Unity.

This was the post that changed my mind:

Unity London Meet: Creating 2D Platformers

In the above talk which is in the link, Tom Jackson AKA Quickfingers talks about game development and how he got into it. He started out as a graphic designer within the games industry, then he moved on to designing video games starting out with using flash. His games were successful gaining millions of views, so he decided to take it up more seriously and got jobs as a programmer and designer. He later discovered Unity and stopped using Flash due to it's cross-platforming ability and it's huge database of knowledge and user help.

Quickfingers created the above game 'Boom Bugs' using Unity and changing the camera to a front on view which makes the 3D planes with 2D images on them look like it is a 2D game, he explains in detail how it is built and that it also runs on Unity's physics engine. All of these things are the reasons why i feel unity will be a great place to start in creating a more in depth game and also Thomas was Alone by Mike Bethel was also created using Unity. 

Using Unity

After playing around with unity for a while, I created a simple platformer character and also a pause menu and I found it fairly easy to use, especially being the first time. Unity is easy to use although like every game developing software requires the user to know how to code certain aspects of the game which will be my biggest struggle, although with the Unity community support and sheer determination, I feel confident that I can produce a high quality game after much iteration. 

Aesthetic Development: New Game: Destony

 After a lot of development work within my sketchbook, I came up with an idea for my honours project which I am very happy about and happy to explore in the future. After much development and concept work, it was time to finally get going with the more final concept work for the game. This process was made extremely easy due to the prior concept work that was put into the pre-production phase.

Game Branding: Logo

The logo for the game went through many iterations before it came to this stage. Before this logo was created, I followed the sketches from my sketchbook and created very block like text and they really didn't look like they suited the game or the idea of a 'destiny' theme. So after some iterations I created various different mash ups of fonts until I got to the stage where I realized that the text didn't look right because there was no light glow or positive colour to bring out the font. A lot of the attempts were with just the black glow and gave it quite a negative image. This was the final iteration 

Game Branding: Concept Art/ Promotional Art

After the logo was created, I moved on to creating the visual feel of the game through a piece of concept art. The colours weren't so clear at the start so a lot of refinements were made. In my mind I had a lot of colours which I thought would correlate well. Key colours that were often used were blue, black and white. These are the main colours which are used for the main characters outfit. The dark blocks are coloured with a very dark purple and a blue boundary which helps the user to see the block against darker environments. 

Game Art: In-Game Mock up art

Finally, to further illustrate the overall feel of the game, the only way to fully envision what the game is going to be like is to see the actual gameplay style or look. This mock up shows a very intermediate outlook of what this game will look like. I always knew in my mind that I wanted the environment to look unique and quirky as if it was in a dream world. Similar to a 'Pychonauts' feel of a game that really takes you away into a different world. The characters and the artwork also need to really mesh together well, which is what I really tried to focus on. It was also important to make sure that the colours and the features within the level do not clash too much and to dull the aspects which are too loud. In the end I think it really turned out quite well and all the material really speaks louder than words and all blend together well.

Creating the Art of Destony using Illustrator

From a sketch to a Vector art piece

I always prefer to use illustrator when creating art for anything that might turn out that it is in need of re-scaling. This is because Illustrator uses vector based graphics. This basically means that no matter how big you scale the object or how small, the actual pixels will not be rastorized in a random algorithm which loses quality. So in simple terms, it manages to preserve image quality no matter how you scale it.

The bottom section of the bellow sketch is the sketch that I used for my illustrated piece.

The first step was to crop the section of the image that I wanted and to import the image into Illustrator.

After the image was edited and imported into illustrator, it looked like the above.

Then inside illustrator, I always separate the different art pieces on different layers. Then it's a matter of drawing out each part within Illustrator. Usually I draw out each part with the pen tool although if I used the pen tool to draw each individual swirling line I would have been there for several hours detailing them. Instead I draw the outside of the object and then I use the scissors tool  cut each of the inside of each object, I do this with the control of the graphics tablet to get smoother results than a mouse. 

Developing the character was a matter of creating boxed objects and then manipulating those objects to fit his shape, this was far easier than drawing it freehand or using the pen tool.

The dark boxes were also quite simple, again using simple shapes and manipulating them for the right fit. The blue outline is an outline stroke with the weight of 1 of the box.

The sea was also created using the same technique as the purple rocks, using the scissors tool. 

As for the light box, it was created as a simple white object and the an outer glow was applied to it form the effects menu.

The clouds and the trees were drawn out with the paintbrush tool and then were also cut up with the scissors tool on the outer areas to produce the lighting highlight. This is a simple and effective technique.

Final Image

My Thoughts

I was fairly  pleased with the final outcome as the colours and the crispness of Illustrator create a clean and attractive scene. The white box also stands out as originally intended due to its glow and there is a certain amount of contrast when comparing it with the dark blocks. I like the organic feel to the image and feel that when polished and put into a game it could look quite interesting and possible somewhat psychedelic. 

Pros:

• The vibrancy of the colours bring out the characters and the environment.
• The white box has contrasting features compared with the dark blocks and this shows that there is a clear separation between the two. 
• The clouds look organic and hand drawn in a cartoon style which is cohesive with the rest of the work.

Cons:

• The background is quite noisy and can detract from the main characters and environment.
• There may be too much detail within the environment which may confuse people or create a sense of of distaste when viewing this art piece or particularly when playing the game.

Possible Improvements:

• Overall, I feel this is very close to the final art for the game. Possible improvements would be to dull the background or remove some detail within the background. Also putting a texture on top of the art would help subdue it and prevent the strong separation of line and colour.