Entertainment Design

This post is for my module titled Entertainment Design. I will continue to update the other post on 3D Production Design too.

What I post here is almost identical to my sketchbook.

Brief for Task 1:
Produce a concept design for a large-scale interactive entertainment product. (A top-level game design with visuals). The design must be consistent in style and demonstrate development in response to a specific entertainment genre or theme.
 

 So, I began the project by researching gaming genres:

• Action and Adventure
• Driving and Racing
• Fighting
• Horror
• Platform
• Puzzle
• RPG
• Shooter
• Sport
• Strategy

I also decided to take a look at what games are currently popular, and their genres:

•  Call of Duty series - Shooter
• Assassin's Creed series - Action and Adventure
• Battlefield series - Shooter
• Gears of War series - Shooter
• Mass Effect series - Action and Adventure
• Angry Birds - Puzzle
• Elder Scrolls series - Action and Adventure
• Halo series - Shooter
• Pokemon series - RPG
• Slender - Horror

My initial thoughts to this are that the majority of games these days are either shooters or action and adventures, so I should try my best to stay away from them as much as possible.

For this year, I plan to remove myself from my comfort zone, taking on challenges I'd sooner avoid.

Now, I really don't like sport and am poor at environment concept design. This, to me, makes it clear that I should aim for a game that revolves around sport, with an emphasis on the environment.

A brutal spin-off of American football,
set in the fantasy world of Warhammer.

Genre: Sport
Focus: Environment
Setting: Fantasy/Science-Fiction













So, I decided that the next appropriate step would be to look at already existing sport games:

 I feel football is a generic, almost 'boring' sport.
 I feel that I would rather use a more interesting
 sport as the basis of my game, potentially one that
 focuses more upon the environment.

As much as I like the idea of using American
football as the sport to base my game on, I feel
I'd only end up imitating the game 'Blood Bowl'
(pictured further up the post).

Ice-hockey, or just hockey in general, seems
like the ideal sport to base my game on, as
I'd like it to be as intensely violent as possible
and hockey is already quite a brutal sport.

                         

Golf seems like a particularly good sport
to base my game on, due to the huge
emphasis on the environment. It's also ideal
if I wanted to make a free-roaming sport game.

Skateboarding is another sport based upon
the environment, so is an ideal contender
for being used as the sport for my game.

I like the 'over-the-top' aspect of wrestling,
which I think could be used in conjunction
with whichever sport I choose to base my
game on. I don't however wish to go down
the fighting game route, so I most likely won't
use wrestling as the chosen sport.





So, I am aiming for a game with the brutality of hockey, the theatrics of wrestling and the environment focus of golf/skateboarding.
                                  
The next step is to brain-storm ideas.

Idea 1
Hockey game.
- over-the-top violence (decapitations etc)
- variety of playing fields, all deadly
                               - ice, jungle, volcano etc
- variety of teams/races to choose from
                               - humans, robots, ninja-pirates etc
- managerial mode to upgrade team
                               - weapons, armour, skill etc
- variety of modes
                               - tournament, multiplayer, battle etc


Idea 2
Golf game.
- almost free-roam playstyle, though still following the course
- enemies that attack (Alice Cooper mutant?)
                                - defend self with golf club
                                - monster that steals ball
                                - monster that is the hole - moves
- large, varied courses
                                - desert plains, space station, etc
- environmental hazards
                                - indigenous life, lava, high drops etc
- vehicles for transport
                                - golf caddy (upgradeable)
- various modes
                                - tournament, timed, free-roam etc


Idea 3
Sporting Tournament game.
- almost gladatorial arena
- play sports such as hockey, golf etc
- if lose, must fight gladiator style
- winning games gives rewards
                                - weapons, armour etc
- free-roam transport - skateboard?
                                - perform tricks/feats for bonuses?

Backstory:
A keen golfer is playing on his favourite course when a storm builds up. He carries on playing regardless and is met with a shocking turn of events when on a swing he is hit by lightning. The hero awakes in a different world, one in which sport and gladiators go hand in hand.

Main Character:
- late middle-aged history teacher
- passion for golf
- secret fascination for weaponry and . . . skateboarding
- loves classical music


I love my third idea and have many more ideas brewing away in my mind, just waiting to get resolved, so I think now is a good time to advance.

I've decided that I should research examples of good and bad characters to give me a better idea as to how I should go about fleshing out my own.


Examples of Good Game Characters

Abe, from the Oddworld game series, is and always 

will be one of my favourite characters. Best described 

as a 'loveable schmuck', he is the essence of the idiot 

hero. With the over-the-top expressions and entertaining 

phrases, he's a character that you never tire of.

Crash, from the Crash Bandicoot game series,
is another brilliant main character. Almost entirely
mute (apart from the occasional entertaining noise),
Crash uses gestures and facial expressions to great
effect to get his point across.

 The Tank from the Left 4 Dead game series.
Every time I hear the thunderous roar and the
thudding crashes, I am instantly filled with panic
and fear. This, to me, makes for an excellent
character; one that can instil the same intended
emotion in you, no matter how many times the
game is played.        







Examples of Bad Game Characters

 Master Chief from the Halo series of games
is like so many of the modern FPS game characters:
he lacks character. As good as the games are,
they lack that certain something that the Oddworld
series, for example, has. The lack of character
means the player no longer connects with who
they are playing.




As the saying goes, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'
This is the new, updated version of the iconic
character, Crash Bandicoot. Apart from the fact
that visually he no longer looks like the character
that I and so many others grew to love, they took
away his muteness; one of his most defining features.
In one fell swoop, they changed his character
completely. And not for the better!

Tails, from the Sonis the Hedgehog games, is just
one of so many characters added to games for the
appeal of children. These characters add nothing to
games, but provide a source of intense annoyance.
The only way these characters should be put in games
is if they are going to be killed. Preferably in a horribly
violent way . . .








The next stage is to look at examples of game styles, more specifically, the concept art for them.

Dr Neo Cortex from the Crash Bandicoot games. I'm particularly drawn to the extreme exaggeration of features to emphasise a part of the character. In this instance, it is Cortex's cranium that has been enlarged to emphasise his intelligence.








The main character from Brutal Legend, Eddie Riggs. I like the strongly verging on cartoony aspect of this design, with some emphasis put on certain features; a slightly shrunken head to emphasise the broadness of Eddie's shoulders and thus emphasise his strength.

  Concept for a Slig from the Oddworld game series. I am keen on the technical accuracy with which the machinery is drawn, combined with the fantasy organic material. Perhaps I could use the technical side of the design in my environments.











Next, I moved onto the main character design, giving myself the following brief:
40 year old Scottish male History teacher who loves classical music, weaponry and skateboarding. He is an eccentric and flamboyantly dressed character who is rather intelligent.

With this I began by working out his body and limb shapes:

I didn't feel I was getting too far with this, though I am very pleased with the arm and leg structures, so I moved onto studying his outfit.

I decided to look at the outfits of classical composers such as Mozart (Pictured left), as well as costumes of a similar era. (Taken from Blackadder the 3rd, pictures right)

 I also looked at Scottish kilts, so as to give me the option for my character to wear one (being an eccentric teacher and all).

And of course I had to look at golfing outfits!

So from here I went on to draw out the character, but quickly decided that I needed to know what his profile looked like, as it wouldn't do to have a headless character! 

 Looking at one of the facial designs, I was struck with sudden inspiration. i realised how he looked like the villain Gaston from the Disney film, The Beauty and the Beast.

So I decided that I should use Disney villains as my source of inspiration for my character's design.

I'va always been a fan of the villains from Disney films and I love the huge variety there are. I like the idea of using villains as an inspiration to create a hero character. To create the anti-hero that I'm after.

 I've decided that all what I consider to be the best villains seem to have angular or pointed features; something I shall carry over into my concepts. Round-faced characters are just far more comical.

 

The next task is to choose a head and give it an appropriate body. 

I continued to search for costume ideas for my character and decided that it was 18th century clothing that I'd like him to be garbed in, though still with the references to golfing and being stereotypically Scottish. I found the following outfits of use:

From this I came up with  a few more outfits and my final character design:

I have decided to call my character Amadeus Furnier. Amadeus from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Furnier from Alice Cooper's real name, Vincent Damon Furnier. I have also decided to add the fact that Amadeus is from America, but moved to Scotland with his family when he was very young, so grew up knowing Scottish ways.


I have also taken the time to refine the story of the game further, as it should help me understand what I need to do concept work for. Still reasonably sketchy, I've cut the story into bullet points:

• Amadeus Furnier is playing golf when he is hit by lightning.
• He wakes up in a different land where he is immediately set upon by a creature.
• Using his golf club, he brutally defeats the creature.
• The fight is witnessed by a female gladiator who approaches and insists the main character must go with her. "The prophesies told of this day!" she proclaims, "Really?" asks Amadeus, "Well, no, but it sounds a lot more convincing than 'come with me because you have lovely hair'" replies the female gladiator, "Oh, okay . . . wait, you think my hair's lovely?" queries Amadeus as the female gladiator strides off.
• Amadeus is brought to the Gladiator town of Hachenslach.
• Brought before the town leaders (Elders?), Amadeus is deemed an 'unworthy outsider'. The female gladiator vouches for him, insisting of his abilities and requests for him to be tested, "Wait, no, what?" Splutters Amadeus.
• At this point, the player must choose which challenge to complete - gladiator pit-fighting, golf, skateboarding, hockey.
• After completing the challenge, Amadeus is coerced into the town's tournament which consists of multiple games of the previous challenge options.
• At this point, free-roam mode is activated and Amadeus is allowed to wander where he pleases in the village. There are upgrade shops, training areas, people to perform tasks for, as well as the main tournament activities.
• You are informed that the only way for you to get home is to recreate the circumstances that brought you to this other world in the first place. Thereby, a lightning tower must be constructed, so you must find, win and buy the parts to build it.
• Once the tournament has been completed and all the parts for the lightning tower have been gathered, the towns-folk come together to construct the spire.
• A storm brews over the town and Amadeus is strapped to the tower. The last thing he sees before the lightning hits the tower is the female gladiator standing alone, a tear trickling down her cheek and she is hugging herself.
• When Amadeus awakes, he hears voices all around, someone near him wonders aloud why it didn't work, "Because I didn't want to go back" groans Amadeus and he embraces the female gladiator who runs to him. 
• The game ends with one of the town leaders rolling his eyes in disgust and saying "Ugh, bloody romances!"

Of course, there are more gaps that could be filled in, but for now, I feel I have enough to work with for the generation  of concepts.
I came up with the following list of things to do:

• Characters
  - Amadeus
  - Female Gladiator
  - Town Leaders
  - Gladiators
  - Townsfolk
  
   
• Environments
  - Initial Golf Course
  - Town of Hachenslach
  - Game Arenas
• Misc
  - Weapons/Equipment
  - Lightning Tower and Parts
  - Creatures

Due to the fact that I am but 1 person and not a team of artists, I shall focus only on certain things to do the concepts for. I'd like to focus on at least 2 characters, 2 environments and a couple of miscelleanous items.

I have decided that I shall work on concepts for:

• main character (further refined)
• gladiators (2-3 final designs)
• Hachenslach (3-4 final designs)
• game arenas (2-3 final designs)
• weapons/equipment (3-5 final designs)

First off, I decided to start concepting the gladiators, so just sketched out a few ideas:

I feel however that for these ideas I'd focussed too much on the gladiator aspect and sort of forgotten the sport aspect. With this in mind I decided to take forward ny favourite designs and add a sport twist to them.

Starting with the Big Guy! I decided he would be my hockey/gladiator player, so looked at ice hockey goalies as I know they use big armour and padding, so would be ideal for my character design.

From these ideas I went on to refine the character a bit more and thus came up with his final design, as well as some ideas for his weapon of choice, from which I took inspiration from researching weapons:

Japanese Kamas

I am particularly pleased with the Dragon's Jaw hockey-stick design (based on the Japanese Kamas), so I plan to take that forward and refine it further.

I moved  onto my second gladiator character design: the 'Fiesty Female'. With her, I wanted to emulate a quick character with an attitude; a gladiatorial teenager with a passion for skateboarding and blood-letting.

From here, I went on to refine the final character, deciding she should have dual bladed-golf-clubs and a bladed skateboard.

I found designing the female character rather difficult, especially compared to the male one. However, I am pleased with my final design, I feel it emmulates the character I was aiming for and I like the combination of symmetry and a-symmetry in the characeter's outfit. I have decided to continue the use of straps in my design, so I shall continue that on methinks in my third character design.

For my third character, I decided that he should be more of a grizzled veteran, so came up with these concepts:

 Rather pleased with these designs, though I felt none of them were quite what I was looking for, so I took elements from them to create a final design.

It took me a while to come up with a satisfactory head and arms, but I'm pleased with the final result. His right arm is severed at the elbow, so he has a replacement arm that can be fitted with varous tools and weapons.

I decided to put all 3 gladiators together to gather the full visual effect and make sure they worked together, which, to me, they do:

I then decided that I should create a composition with the 3 in a pose, so as to create a final piece of concept art. So I began to sketch out compositions:

From here, I went on to come up with a final composition which I sketched out and will finalise in a neat drawing, followed by painting it in photoshop.

Before I could go on though, I decided that I really should focus on the Gladiator's weaponry, as I had only a vague idea as to what they should look like, so refined my ideas and came up with these:

I decided that I should update my main character, Amadeus, and fit him out with gladiator equipment, so did more concept sketches:

I continued on with the same style as the other gladiators and thus included a number of similar aspects, such as the straps, padding and bandages. Thus, I came up with the following final design, along with Amadeus' multi-part weapon/sporting tool.

The next steps for this project are to develop concepts for the environments of the game, namely the town of Hachenslach and it's game arenas.

I have drawn out the final composition for my gladiator characters and am rather pleased with it.

I went on to concept the environment for the game and so went to research ancient towns and villages, along with medieval towns in games:

From this research I went on to sketch out a few ideas:

I then went on to research more into the arena of the town and so looked at historical arenas, as well as modern ones for reference:

Again, from this research I went on to do more sketches:

I then did 2 more final sketches. 1 for the wastelands, the other for the town of Hachenslach.

To coincide with task 1, I have also been working on task 2.

Task Two: Create a visually engaging and entertaining piece of programmed interaction using Flash. This does NOT HAVE to be linked to the large-scale design created in task one, but may be.

The finished work should make use of ActionScript 3.0 and feature animated elements of your own design i.e. not those given in class.

For task 2, I decided that I'd like to do a castle defence game, so I could focus less on the action script side of the game and more so on the artwork needed for it. I decided that I wanted my game to be based in the same world as that of my task 1 and thus looked to the concept art from there to come up with my in-game environment, scenery and avatars.

Obviously I can't show much of the work as a lot of it was Actionscripting (coding), nor the final playable piece here (though I will have a screenshot), so here is the artwork I used for the game:

Gladiator Parts - the first (and only) enemy of the game.

Constructed and rendered gladiator.

Gladiator 2 parts - Unused as I was having problems getting the game to work with just one enemy.

Gladiator 2 constructed and rendered.

The environment - based on the wastelands image from task 1.

The castle that is defended in the game, with fluttering flag animation!

The sky in the game continuously scrolls to add more interest.

The all important Health-Bar.

The cross-hair replaces the mouse icon on the screen.

 With this artwork and a lot of Actionscript (seriously . . . a LOT of Actionscript.) I managed to create a working game that looks like this:

 To play the game, all the player has to do is click multiple times (the enemies have variable health) upon the enemies and they will disappear. The aim of the game is to prevent the enemy reaching and attacking the castle. Simple yet effective I think. I tried desperately in vain to get the ballista atop the castle to fire at the enemy, shooting giant arrows when the player clicked, but alas, to no avail. With a lot of time, effort and patience, I arrived at my goal and it's safe to say that I'm pleased with the result.

I enjoyed the project as a whole, especially coming up with a game design, story and everything, all by myself and in a relatively short period of time.

I look forward to working in a team this semester, so that I can focus solely on the artwork and not have to do any coding (hopefully never ever again . . .).




Project Complete! More to come in semester 2 . . .