First sketches

I wanted to literally use the lynxie part of the name and give her lynx like hair, at the same time however i didn't want her to become a cat woman so it was a case of finding a hair style that wouldnt make it seem like it was heading towards fur porn.

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Demographic

When looking into the Wii’s demographic, its clear enough that its focused less on hardcore gamers and more on the general public, so the pressure for realism isn’t as great as it is for games published on the Xbox360/PS3 or PC. (Not to mention the Wii doesn’t have the hardware capability to push out the poly’s needed for realism).

With the Next-Gen consoles trying to break the barrier of realism vs virtual reality, the Wii maintains its universal option for variety, opening the console up to more stylised concepts.

With my game based on fighting and dancing i considered how best to utilise an interesting game play style, for me the Wii and its Wiimote's are first to come to mind.

Not only does the Wii offer a chance of dynamic game play (if done well) but it also seems to be a platform that houses a fair amount of stylised games when compared to the PS3 and Xbox360.

Inspiration in-depth.

After posting the previous post, I feel I need to expand more on why it is they influence me and why i want to create a concept with this particular theme.

So what i will do here is just summarise some of the main characters from the previous inspiration sheets and why it is i leant towards them.

• The current track of thought is that she is a female who fights with dance moves, to add on top of that i played with the idea of her being part of a bike gang similar to Akira. Add in the neon tattoo's and it creates a more underground/cult like threatening theme. So i wanted to look into female characters that had balls, didnt focus on beauty but instead focused on holding their place in a hostile environment.

• Faith from Mirrors Edge: This lead female is based purely on an athletic built and you can clearly see that from her dress code of sports vest, loose trousers, sweat bands and grip gloves. Compared to the stereotypical heroin, Faith has a smaller bust to tie in with her athletic build, suggesting that your not meant to look at this girl and think "woah, she's hot". However at the same time she remains naturally pretty in a subtle manner, and as a result focus's the player more on her rebellious attitude and looks.

• Konoko from Oni: Konoko has played a huge influential role in my thoughts behind this concept. I absolutely loved this game, and i always loved her uniform (being the TCTF armour as seen in the image to the left) as well as her "no bullshit" attitude.

This image in particular shows her completely kitted out with weapons, ammunition and a body suit of armour which in all honesty makes her look seriously "bad-ass".
In a more analytical point of view however, by having an exaggerated amount of fire power she does give off the feeling that she is stepping out of line, breaking the rules and perhaps even rebelling (which is in fact what she does), tying in nicely with my theme of an underground gang/rebellion.

• Tank Girl: Tank girl was my inspiration purely for attitude and how to position a girl in unflattering yet sexual ways. She has an almost teenage "give a fuck?" attitude, she smokes drinks and goes out of her way to make rebellious statements.
I particularly like this image because of her position, its near enough saying "you want this? Try and get it" She is confident, arrogant and even to a degree threatening. All these are elements i want to use in order to stop her from being a Lara croft clone and focus on an attitude based character.

Inspiration

To give a visual aid for where i am coming from, i have quickly put together some images of people/fashions, films and games that i feel tie in with this theme, and from which i am inspired:

(note: I do not own the rights to any of these images or concepts, all images here have been collected through search engines. If you have any qualms with what you see here, please pm me.)

Figure 1: Mirrors Edge, Fear Effect, WET and The Fith Element.

Figure 2: Oni and Tank Girl

Figure 3: Akira and Tron

Ive linked the names and titles to respected websites, fan based and official for anyone who would like to look more into them.

So basically, these are the images that first came to my mind when i was having my creative rush, and with this as a starting point i can aim to focus on a demographic that would best suit my idea, and what steps i could take to promote it to its fullest potential.

Overall its safe to say that these images all relate to a more teen based demographic with dominant women, weapons, futuristic styles and rebellious elements.

With this in mind I intend to go into further research and form a list of elements i can use to create a concept with a clear direction and hopefully come up with something new and exciting to add to an already competitive and popular culture.

Neon Pirates? Been there done that.

As the title may or may not suggest, i have decided to ditch the pirate theme and go with something a bit more original, as i felt pirates were just too damn standard.

I actually had a pretty big creative rush today covering game mechanics, themes and ideas. Now comes the hard part of writing them down.

Basically, from the basic notes a few posts back, i thought over the aspect of a dance beat-em up and how its been done before but on old-gen consoles. And to be quite honest, they had potential.... but were either slow or just lacking in depth.

"Something associated with music and destruction, similar to:

Space Channel 5
P.N.03"

It was with this interest in creating something different to our now standard craze of high realism FPS's that i decided against the neon pirate theme. Thinking back on it now it just seems cliché and dull, so i thought about what kind of character would dance and fight or even fight with dance.

The most obvious thing that came to mind for me was street dancers and bike gangs, and for the neon part, mix neon with tattoo's and you have a pretty sweet futuristic themed concept.... One that's dark and grimy, lit by colourful neon tattoos that blur and leave trails as fights take place.

Lecturer's thoughts on my latest idea....

Today, i expressed my views on the previous idea i had and how i didnt feel it would really get me to a standard where id feel happy by the end of the 16 weeks. To which he thought was fair enough, and so i then gave him my latest idea about the Neon pirate aspect.

What seemed to interest him the most was the neon concept, other than that i he didnt really have much to go on.

Which in reality was true, this literally was an idea thought up the night before. However because of this he did tell me factors i should be considering before and as im thinking through the ideas. These included:

• Looking into a demographic - no use designing a character that wont appeal to the target audience.
• Background story/narrative - For a character concept to be truely solid the artist needs to know his/her creation inside out. Consider everything that would affect the character.
• Think of extremes to get unique ideas that can then be reined in... if at all.
• Research, do lots of research into themes, look at books and films not just games.
• And lastly what kind of game would it be, also think about what platform.

Im genuinely really bad at taking factors like these into account when designing, as i pretty much think of a final outcome and go with that.

For example im doing what i said i wouldn't and that's sticking with my first idea again instead of exploring other possibilities....

However, i was so inspired to come up with something related to Neon that i just had to indulge, especially if its going to hold my interest for this projects duration.

Some very basic ideas

I have just written down on a sheet some basic ideas, kind of like my initial thoughts on what im aiming for, which i will then develop on.

As i have already said, ive been inspired by the thought of a Neon Pirate. And Neon Lynxie is female..... and well ive never actually created an in-depth female character.

So, with this in mind, i intend to do something new and make a female character, and one that isnt a Lara Croft mould.

Here is what i wrote down:

Neon Lynxie Document

Possible traits:
Name: Aleks
Age: 21
Proffession: Neon Pirate, Space Pirate?
Alignment: Good/Outlaw
Location: Inter Planet/Urban?
Use of neon tattoo’s
Leader or Solo?
Infection – A little crazy from Neon Poisoning?
Self Enhanced
Steampunk theme?

GAME IDEAS

Side shooter: - Control a Vehicle controlled by Neon (player): e.g.
Ikaruga

Something associated with music and destruction, similar to:
Space Channel 5
P.N.03

A Racer game with destruction and a neon futuristic theme:
XGIII: Extreme G Racing

Something thats addictive and competitive sells well for an indie game. This can be something as simple as a taking out waves of enemies with a score attached to your progress. Make it a multiplayer and its opened up to more competitive/rewarding gameplay.

And from the ashes emerge.....

--- ANOTHER GAME IDEA! -----

The idea I have this time is actually inspired from a girl I have just recently befriended known as Neon Lynxie on the Deviantart community.

And it was during a conversation about our locations (her being in NY and I over here in the UK) and a throw away comment, suggesting she was a Neon Pirate, due to her being over the other side of the world. Not sure how that works... but thats how it came about.

Upon saying that I then imagined a steam punk, futuristic based pirate and quite liked the idea. So I decided id look into following this idea and bending it to the brief of my uni project.

Neon Lynxie: http://neonlynxie.deviantart.com/

Deviantart: http://www.deviantart.com/

Pause for thought II.

Right, Ive given it some thought and as much as im enjoying what im doing with the Wub-Wub idea, i dont feel it will push me enough in terms of drawing skills, or enough to show in terms of development.

I'd be happier (for this project) to start from scratch, and work my way up and through a stronger, more obvious development path.

Luckily for the next week or so we still have the time to figure out what we want to do, another reason for why Id rather do something else. I could come up with something better if i stay open minded and not go with the first idea that comes to my head.

And so ends the Wub-Wub idea... for now at least. Id definitely like to continue this again at some point, got some interesting ideas.

For now though, its back to the drawing board, to come up with something that will push me towards developing my skills.

Jubba-Jubba's revamp.

Originally the Jubba-Jubba's were just goo with eye balls. However after taking into concideration a need to bring them up to scratch, i came up with the idea along with my course leader that they would be really toxic. And although thats not exactly the most intuitive breakthrough, it did lead to other ideas such as how would their eyes not dissolve etc.

This sparked the idea for giving them some kind of nucleus that basically deals with all the hostilities of the body. The Idea is that this singular nucleus is encased by a shell that can withstand the ooze's toxins, and can also produce eyes on demand so as not to keep them in the toxic fluid for too long.

Having ooze for body makes them pretty easy to kill, so by adding the nucleus, i could say that the only way to kill these things is to pierce this nugget of intelligence....

Another idea Would be that the nucleus can fluctuate to any size. For example, to reduce the chances of being killed the nucleus could shrink to the size of a pea, but at the cost of rendering the Jubba-Jubba functionless.

All of these are merely open ideas at the moment, so there is plenty room for development!

Wubba-Wubba's revamp.

Ok, here are some revamped pictures i drew in class today, i was focusing mainly on the Wubba-wubba's as they have the most potential in terms of playability.

I looked into adding story and depth to the characters as well as kitting them out in more detailed gear giving them more of a theme whilst making them more visually appealing to look at.

I also decided to look more into the mechanics of their pitch-fork rifles, because this was an idea i was particularly fond of. Plus game wise i can see it having a lot of potential for not only comedic value but also satisfying to shoot.

Whereas before it was just a simple rifle that seemingly fired a pitch-fork, the revamped one shows that it has a retractable cable to reel in the pitch-fork, dealing with any ammo issues.

I also added patterns, a more unique shape and made it look more recognisable as a rifle.

(Game Note: Perhaps the standard pitch-fork is cabled and therefore unlimited ammo, but any upgraded forks would come with limited ammo at the cost of higher attack power? Just a thought)

Pause for thought.

I've worked on my old creations for a few days now, and what at first seemed like an awesome idea, I cant help but worry about two factors to what I am doing.

1. The characters have already been designed, and although that's the challenge to improve an already existing concept, i don't feel its going to leave me with much to show in terms of development.

2. Visually these creations are very simple in the way that they are cartoons. Now, whilst this is all well and good, I don't see myself improving on my art skills. And because of that it makes me question if its worth doing for a uni project aimed at producing a portfolio built to impress.

For now I'm going to keep going, as I have already started, but I think ill keep my mind open and explore any other possible paths I could take.

Wub-Wub artwork.

*EDIT* Got the images from home in the post today! Here they are:

Ok here are the original concepts, i actually made them into comics. Showing off how Tido is clumsy, Wubba's and Jubba's fighting and how the Bonkies were revealed.

You can also see how basic the designs were and how they could be revamped quite nicely... even if i do say so myself.

Wub-Wub (W.I.P)

Ok let me just say that the names for these characters are fairly poor, and there isnt an overall name for this world yet.

Anyway, as i have stated in my previous post i have actually left the drawings back at home, so whilst i wait for them to be delivered, ill briefly explain what its all about:]

Like i said before, in this world i have created there are 3 races, all of whom are in a constant conflict triangle. Now bare with me on this because i haven't looked into game play mechanics or any kind of in depth narrative, this has litterally only just been re-discovered:P

Ok, so. The races consist of the Wubba-Wubba's, Jubba-Jubba's and the Bonkies, and not forgetting the worlds god who is called Tido.

- Now, the Wubba-Wubba's are a spherical like race of light bodied creatures that have evolved from birds and gained a sharp mind, making them the most civilised of the three races. These guys live up in the highest peaks and travel in ridiculously small airships that barely fit one. Weapon of choice is a rifle that fires harpoon based pitch-forks.

- The Jubba-Jubba's are a jelly like race which act much like a hive of ants: numerous and all linked via the hive mind. Their home land is formed from a crater made upon impact by a meteor that came crashing down not too long ago. It was around this time that the Jubba-Jubba's actually started appearing..... coincidence or not?

- The Bonkies are a little bit of a mystery, and almost seem out of place in this world i find.... but overall they are a race of crazy barbaric little tribe like creatures that endlessly swarm from a cave that was recently uncovered.

These 3 races would most likely be playable races each with their own fight style and stats etc. RTS? hack and slash? 3rd person adventure game? I have no idea at this point, but i'll get to that soon enough.

I have mentioned the world god called Tido. This guy would not be available.... or maybe he could be for a special event or something. The thought behind this guy if i remember rightly was that he slept for the majority of a year and would only be awake for a few hours. During those few hours he would wonder the land trying to befriend any of the races, but due to his huge size he'd normally cause more problems than not and anger everyone.

I thought it might be a cool idea if say you were to be fighting another faction and all of a sudden Tido appeared on the battle ground and you had to team up with the enemy in order to take him down before continuing the fight? yes, no? I think it could make for an interesting mechanic:]

So. Thats the gist of it, what i will now aim to do i think is to visually update the characters, come up with some form of narrative and then create some 3d models and see how it goes \o/

Oh hell...

....dont tell me i left them at home.... >:[ *continues searching*

*EDIT* Ok so i just got off the phone to me dear ol' maam and yes... i did leave them at home. However my mum has assured me that they will be delivered forthwith. Good job mum'mo!

AN IDEA!

Ok so I have this idea as to what I could do for my project.

Basically, back when I was about 13 I came up with all kinds of crazy stuff, and it was only at the weekend just gone when I was back home that i came across some comics I had made based on world inhabited by 3 factions all of a different race.

Now obviously because I was 13 there wasn't much thought behind how things could work logically let alone be designed for gaming, which is fine....

But now i have studied the industry and learnt about how things work, as well as improved on my art, i thought it would be pretty cool if i revamped my old comics and designs.

Im just going to go and scan some images in and then post some up with an explanation of what its all about:D

Professional Artist Portfolio's

Finding out what the industry requires from you is one thing, trying to get noticed is another.

Thats why im dedicating this post to professional artist portfolio's, presentation is everything when it comes to hooking a job, and leaving them wanting more.

If there is one thing that is now burned in my mind, its that less is better.

Show your BEST work and if the company is impressed they will ask for more. Add in work that isnt as good as the one next to it, and your lessening your chances to impress greatly.

Not only are these artist portfolio's great for looking at whats going around and whats getting noticed, but they help to also inspire me.

There are some amazing artworks out there and even though i cant begin to fathom how they have managed them... it does inspire me to achieve that level.

Professional Artists Portfolio's

- Fausto de Martini:

I have only just found this guy off one of the threads in our courses forum, and i have to say his animation for one of his model's is amazing. He's got a very sleek modern portfolio, which actually shows good use of flash. Sometimes flash can be a bit dodgy if you dont have the right plug-in, or it can lag when loading images. And its things like that, that cant make or break you when it comes to getting a job. But like i said Fausto doesn't have any issues with it and it pays off nicely!

http://www.fausto3d.com/home.html

- Andre Wahlgren:

Again, I found Andre through our course's forum, and even though im not really looking into environment, i really liked his presentation. Its very strong and clean, and you want to scroll down to see more.

http://www.pigged.net/

- Samwise Didier:

Samwise has been a huge inspiration to me for many years now, he is the art director for Blizzard. This guy has been a corner stone for WoW's visual art style, and probably the first guy who really motivated me with my art and pushing it into the industry.

His portfolio is mixed in with the other artists that work on World of Warcraft, and together have formed an impressive site to say the least, create a page like this by yourself and you'll grab attention no problem.

http://www.sonsofthestorm.com/gallery.php?artist=samwise

- Ben Mathis:

This guy is nothing short of amazing, though im not too keen on his layout, his models and textures are great. What drew me to Ben the most was his ability to create amazing low res texture maps and have them still crammed with detail.

He has shipped 10 games, and is currently a freelance artist offering numerous skills.

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/index.htm

- Jonathan Fletcher:

A 3D artist who is working into the video games industry, he's been a 3D modeller for several years now and works professionally as well as for fun.

What strikes me most about his online portfolio, is his layout, he has all of his showcase models thumb nailed as a strip across the middle. All of which show a different style (which is a very good asset to have) and once clicked on, enlarge below to show the model and its maps.

http://www.artpanda.co.uk/index.htm

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When looking at all these portfolio's it is clear to me that the key thing is presenting your best work, straight away. Make the layout of your site snazzy, make it so you want to explore it, hell maybe even play with it!

I think for me things i need to work on for a plausible portfolio would be to:

• Work on a variety of different styles - Visually and with what I model.
• Seriously improve in 3D work - there is a lot of impressive artwork out there, average wont cut it.
• Perhaps come up with a theme that defines me, make what i do noticeable be it through style, a mascot or even a name.
• Always consider what would hook you if you were the one looking to hire, more importantly get crit. from others.

All of these things are something I want to work on for this project, i dont expect to fulfil all of these things in time for the deadline as i think these are practices that will develop over the years to come. Some faster than others:]

Job hunting.

We have been tasked with searching out jobs in order to see what the required and current skills are for getting a job within the game industry.

Now i’ll hold my hand up and say i have played World of Warcraft, and for a long time now working for Blizzard has been high up on my list of dream jobs, so despite it seeming over ambitious to think i can get in straight after uni (which i dont) it marks the way for aiming high and building up to the required standards.
Blizzard actually have a really good recruitment page, and have a lot of jobs going which i didn’t think they’d have available. Some of the real eye catchers were:

• 3D character artist
• 2D concept/character artist
• 3D character equipment artist

All of which apply to either World of Warcraft or Blizzards next-gen MMO.
The main things that i notice is they have a need for people to be familiar with 3Ds max, Photoshop and as a bonus Maya and painter.Currently at uni, we are only working in 3Ds max so perhaps using this project to develop my knowledge of Maya will be beneficial.

I also had a look at Climax, unfortunately there wasn’t much info for skills required on their website but in the brief description for environmental artist they do recommend that the applicant is familiar with Maya and Photoshop.

The other company i have looked at is Lionhead Studio’s, based in Guildford. Luckily I had the pleasure of working a weeks experience there some years back as a beta tester. I also managed to arrange a tour of the studio and talk with various team members, including character artists, animators and programmers.Its shame really that, that happened whilst i was still in secondary school and showed no signs of industry knowledge or skill…..

Anyway, I have looked at their website for art based positions and found a criteria for what they call a “standard artist” position.In general they are asking for near enough the same as any other company for an art based job. A high level of artistic skills and knowledge on form, lighting and colour etc, aswell as people skills.They do however ask for knowledge with the 3D programme XSI, which is completely new to me. So that will be something to look into.

So to summarise, Software that i should really use/look into from now on include:

• 3Ds Max
• Maya
• Coral Painter
• XSI
• Photoshop
• ZBrush
• Mudbox

So yes, definitely worth considering a look at, over the next 16 weeks and hopefully continue even past the deadline.

Start of a new project. Game Production.

Yesterday we were told what the next 16 weeks were going to entail, and that to start off we had been asked by two outside parties if we could design a web-browser game for their websites.

The parties being the local police force and the Hampshire fire department. We were given the choice to do either of these, however the Hampshire fire department game otherwise known as Quench had already been started on buy our course leader and only needed models.

The Police game, dubbed Stabby stab stab was open for any ideas regarding game play and style.

Now in all honesty neither of these options really got my creative juices flowing, so I had a word with the course leader and asked what our options were. It turned out that these were options available for anyone who wanted to work on a game. (Which is in all actuality a good idea)

Though we are also encouraged to work on anything we wanted to that would help build a promising portfolio.

So with this in mind I decided id come up with my own idea and design a character and develop my conceptual and modelling skills, focusing on 2D and 3D art.

Along side this, we were also recommended that we do research into what it is the industry looks for in a post-grad student in terms of hiring.

First ever post

Ok.... so here we go, this is my first blog and my first ever post.

Hopefully This will all run smoothly.... or not, either way, by doing this I intend to record my thought process behind my uni project which is built up around game production.

With character design being a huge interest for me i intent to focus in this area for whatever the project brief is. This would basically involve the process from concept through to final 2D and 3D renders for character creation.

So, lets get this started >:]