Re-Working Bodies

I decided to go back and re-visit the body structure and design of the 4 characters I am developing.  Personally I would like to expand and flesh them out more in various angles for class presentation and to add those pieces to my portfolio, but in terms of in-game art, they may appear very different.  

Re-Designing a Character

So the other day, I was working on Chintor's concepts (one of the characters in the game) at a 24 hour coffee shop with a friend which happens to be the same friend that gave my character that name.  He looked over my shoulder as I took a break and sipped on some coffee to get me through the night as I worked frantically this weekend to piece these concept sheets for a class presentation.  To my surprise, he laughed and called the protruding chin a 'chinsicle'.  That comment really stuck with me and I thought more about the functionality of Chintor's chin.  The more I stared at it, the more I thought about how useless it was and it appeared to be more ornate and bothersome than helpful.
I then thought about what it would be like if I were in Chintor's shoes and how I would move and talk and express myself having a chin like he did.  I then realized that if he were to yell, or speak or move his head a certain direction/way the chin would in fact stab his chest.  I thought about the animations for this character and I saw how it could be difficult/ limiting due to his anatomy, so I decided to revisit the concept and make changes on that part of his face.  I think this looks better overall and the chin is not so distracting like it was before.  I think it makes more sense anatomically as well (although I'm not an expert in alien anatomy).

This realization in terms of design made me extremely happy.  I was able to re-think an idea and go back to visit old sketches and re-work them because:

Form=Function.

Before

After

Character Re-designing

So on the previous post I made, I displayed the first protagonist designs I have come up with for this video game idea.

I have since then, gone back and revisited these first character sketches and have expanded on them with a more detailed style.

I am currently make many changes stylistically so that they all sync up and look like they would belong in the same game world.

By going back and fleshing them out more, I noticed that, maybe this style is a bit too complex for the simplistic vision we had in mind from the start.

My boyfriend prefers the more pixel style of sprite art and would love to see that in our game.

I agree completely with him on this as I feel that to try and make a game with just the two of us, it would be very time efficient.  Also, I'm not entirely sure we have what it take to make a 3D modeled type game.

Overall, I think these new complex character sheets will serve as a great addition to my portfolio, but in terms of in-game art, we will most likely go back to the more simplistic renditions of these characters.  I really enjoy this kind of exploration and find myself completely engulfed by the thought of character development lately.

  

Preliminary Character Designs

Here is the first batch of protagonist character designs 

that people will be able to select from.

This is the first time I have ever attempted to make alien type creatures.
I was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone when

 I had to make these characters, but I feel like it worked out quite well.

I am still working on further defining the characters

 and I am thinking of doing away with the colored versions for now.

I will explore ways to go about doing that in the near future as I have yet to master that.

For now, I will introduce you to Astra fay, Chintor, Mr. Biggums and Speepy.

(My good friends Jerome and Alex decided to name them.) 

:D

Details

• Weapons
• Flame Throwers -??
• Huge Swords 
• Deals a huge amount of damage, but takes a while to execute the hit

•  Daggers
• Quick but smaller amount of damage

• Game Details
• Blood, guts and gore, but with super cute characters
• May add shock value depending on how it's executed

• Characters have pets! 
• Pets can help them with a variety of skill based resources

•  Leveling up must be included
• Ties into acquiring new skills

Player Options - Characters

• Character Customization
• People playing the game can play how they want.
• Choose a class
• Skills specific to the charcters
• the kind of alien race you choose will give you specific abilities as well.
• EX. Big Bulky characters can better wield bigger weapons
• POSSIBLE EXTRA - include 1 or 2 modifications to your weapon
• Similar to a dungeon crawler where you can collect items and weapons and improve