Slow Weekend

I haven't done anything big specifically out of lesson these past couple of days. I did brush up on some art practise though. One one hand I really like doing it because I can learn really valuable new things that I can apply, but on the other I hate it because I feel dumb for not working it out myself.
For example, I learnt some new stuff about perspective. I was just thinking, "Why didn't I do that before? Why didn't I notice that this shouldn't be done in this way?" At least I know now, but I wish I was a little smarter and could work these things out for myself.

Anyway, I learnt about perspective, colours (Especially good considering Futures!), lineart and depth. Good stuff.

Right now I'm going to be doing some hardcore work on GDD because there's a big document coming up for it. I'll write more about it later!

Kindrupdate

It's been a long time since I discussed Futures but I've had some big changes made to it in the past couple of weeks.

Bev and Carleen helped me get back on track with it. It finally feels like a unique idea with something new and fun. It uses sign language as a core mechanic, such as for communicating with NPCs, your pet and maybe other online players. It'll be actual sign language too, so it can be used to teach the basics. I'm normally not a big fan of educational games because they can be quite dull. I had one for my GCSEs. It was a barely a game. 

I think one of the most important things to bear in mind when looking at educational games is that the learning has to either be subtle, or made into a decent mechanic. If Kindrits was just a game where you had to answer set questions in sign language, I think it could be dull, but to use it as a fully interactive mechanic that can be used to train a cute little pet too will make it more accessible to kids.


Anyway, we have to hand in the first few pages of our pitch documents tomorrow. I think I have about 8 that are fully finished and the rest have at least all the necessary text. All that's left is a couple more pictures and it should be completely done!

Hons Feedback

I got lots of really good feedback today. Josh and Rhoda suggested making books and fabric hangings and things. I'd never considered doing that before but I think I'd love to do it. Josh recommended making a book of monsters. If I have the time to come up with a few more, I'll definitely do it!

I might have to cut 1 or 2 of my genres. It'd be a shame, but they might not really add anything new to the project.

Rhoda mentioned a big book, like a 'making of' sort of thing, which would be really nice to present. It'd be arranged by genres, and I could have it set out like, 

character profile, character image,

development work; 

character profile, character image,

etc.

That way, the finished picture is the first thing you see, then you get a nice biography with it followed by some little sketches and notes.

I asked Craig for a monitor and speakers on my booth. It might look too busy with the extra stuff, but I wanted to have a video of drawing all the characters with narration over the top so people can see how I draw things and why I chose to do what I did. It shows that I thought it all through, and with some music it could be a nice little display!

(If I get the speakers, I'll have some headphones with it so it doesn't disturb anyone else.)

As for the fabric hangings, they'd look so good pinned up either end. I could pick my two favourites and have them blown up and fancy. Can't wait!!

Just have to do everything now.

Eastern Fantasies

I began the new group last week. I got off to a slow start, mainly because of the research. I don't know a lot about Japan and I wanted to make sure it was fairly accurate aesthetically and historically. There are some sites that have a lot of good info - though some were a bit hard to find - so I've been trying to catch up now. So far, I've done Civilian, Range and Support, and I't part way through the Assassin. The colour scheme (If you couldn't tell) is black, white, red, yellow and a bit of pink.

Last of the Horrors

I really dislike this one, but there doesn't seem to be much I can do for it. That's pretty much what it does, there aren't more poses than that and it's just a shadow. Shadows don't have shading since they are shading. It makes it look flat and messy and horrible, but what can I do?? I think the final image could look okay, but there's not much I can do concept-wise.

Horror Batch

I'm having a great time with these characters, I really am. I'm a sucker for horror, so getting to do this team now has been a bit of a pick-me-up.

Time's running out so I'm not spending as long on these design sheets. I'm aiming for 1.5 - 2 finished per day. That way, I get plenty of time to do my finished pieces. This means cutting it down to 1 coloured picture, several finished linearts and maybe a shaded one if it seems to need it. I'm trying to get some essential poses and things down so there's a decent reference there rather than a set of useless images.

Anyway, here are the Civilian, Range, Support and Tank!

EDIT: Looking back, they seem a little bare. I might add more pictures, especially on the Civilian and Support.

Characters

I finished the Western Fantasies and I moved onto Horror. It's a lot harder than I thought. I did the Soldier, and now I'm on the Tank. I can't think of many (Or any) poses for it as it's just a big lumbering... thing. Also, I want to have detail on it that'll take forever to draw. I'm not going to go all out at this stage because it's too much, and hopefully it won't drag me down too much on the final image.

Looking at the WFantasies again, I think the Tank needs to be bigger. The problem is that I was relying on her summons to be the 'bigness' of her, but when they're not with her, she looks very small. I'm thinking more armour will help. Maybe I should make her something other than human, then add some extra details to make her seem a little more punchy.

I need to find the time to fix up both of those Soldiers too. Panic is really beginning to set in now.

Words Day

I haven't written a blog for a while. I'll start with GDD.

Well, we had to hand in our first document last week. It was story overview, characters and script. Unfortunately, I got carried away with the story and happily rambled on for a solid 9 pages. Some overview. It's cutdownable, but I wish I hadn't waffled so much. I always write too much or too little.

It needs more pictures, but I was able to do a couple of them and all of the writing. I did pages and pages of mechanics, with proper stats and everything. Hopefully the effort will pay off!

I started a new level today: Deluge. It's a water type world, mostly things like sewers and aqueducts. I really want the puzzles to be sort of lateral rather than the typical gamey 'push these buttons in this order' or 'put all the pieces in the right place'. I was looking at Half Life videos for some help. They're really clever; like, what you would do in real life rather than what you'd expect to do in a game puzzle.

I also want puzzles to be solved in different ways if possible. This is really hard to design because it requires not only thinking of a unique puzzle, but thinking of one that has enough depth to it to be doable several times. It's like combining 3 different puzzles into one.

I came up with one puzzle so far. I won't bother trying to describe it now, because without a picture it'll be hard to understand. Basically it's to do with water levels. I hope I can make at least 2 more good puzzles for this world.

... Levels are hard.