joshfmpyeartwo - Tumblr blog

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Revision of presentation

After a careful look at my art station and presentation slides, I decided they weren't up to professional standards and that I'd like to try revise them and make them better.

I wanted to start this off by making actual character sheets instead of the four way split image I used to present them before.

Not only can you not see them in their full resolution but it doesn't showcase all the poses I created and does not look professional.

I've opted to scale up each pose in photoshop, lay them out on colour coordinated sheets and write about what thought processes went into making them.

I personally think these look really good, and show of my outcomes a lot better.

I also wanted to create a mock up steam page and switch game box to give a visual representation of how I would want my project to be presented if it was released.

I began by creating a type of logo or cover image that would be associated with our game that could be used on both the steam page and switch game.

Using an off white background colour and the border PNG's I had used for some of my presentation slides, I was able to create this.

By getting a relatively empty steam page and changing all the text through inspect element, then screenshotting and adding our own screenshots into the preview boxes, I was able to create and accurate representation. I used the cover art I made for the banner and video thumbnail.

I then used that same cover art, moving the corners inwards and erased where the nintendo logo was to make the box art.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Collaborative project - Overview

I'm coming up to the end of this project now so I think its worth doing a short overview on working with Guy in collaboration. It was a risky thing to do for an FMP piece but I think it turned out really well.

I started off as well as it could. I immediately began to plan out exactly how I wanted the game to look by the end. Guy planning how to put everything together, researching data tables and UI elements.

When we got started, I began to write the script as Guy split his time between implementing his dialogue and UI systems, and importing my script as I was writing. This was a really nice work flow.

Towards the end of the project, Guy had finished all of his UI and dialogue systems and just needed the art from me to start polishing. This is the only point our project began to fall apart. Although I was trying to work as fast as possible,

At the end of the project, as we got some peer reviews from the game, I realised Guy had added some stuff that wasn't in the script that took away from the immersion and didn't sound like the characters so we went back through and edited all of it. And then we were done.

Overall I think we did really well and wouldn't have been able to achieve a game like this separately. We did an incredible job, and for the most part, our communication was great.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Script - research

In this project, I will be creating the script for the visual novel. I don't have any experience with screenwriting or writing in a proper script format but I do have experience with creative writing.

I'm going apply this previous knowledge to write a script. I'm not planning on creating multiple revisions but I will go back and fix errors or plot holes if there are any.

I have chosen to format my script like this as it's going to be made fore Guy to import into the game so it needs to be readable and concise, along with providing worldbuilding and prop information later down the line.

First, it's going to be incredibly useful if I have some idea of how to format scripts.

Studio binder provided me with this diagram, explaining proper screenplay formatting.

And a video version going into more detail.

This video also goes into detail of why writing in the proper format is necessary for productions.

They're written like this to produce the most efficient, readable version of writing, as it won't necessarily be read by anyone but the people working on the production, it doesn't need to be made readable for the general public.

I began to write the script, using the rules set in the video. Using bold to highlight general setting. Detailing the surrounding scene and making sure to be descriptive and keep it present tense.

This was all going perfectly. Unfortunately, this was going to be a branching narrative game, of which proper script format doesn't accommodate for.

I decided to try and create my own addition to the classical format, while still trying to make it easily transferable to Guy's dialogue system.

I opted for creating 3 options and writing their outcomes below them. For the outcomes that had more dialogue options I would add indents to help readability. I hadn't originally done this and Guy was having a hard time understanding where each string of dialogue was going.

I then started to create the story properly, basing it off the original synopsis and having conversations with Guy to discuss the direction of the plot in relation to his programming really helped. And I finally got the script done. 31 pages long.

The script

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Evaluation

AO1

My reasoning for citing my project in this specialism is that I want to be able to grow my ability and techniques in game art. I’m not only better in my specialism but I also enjoy it more. To back this I have also researched 3 practitioners from my specialism on my blog. 

Creating a dating simulator creates the need for a lot of ethical considerations because of the controversial nature of dating in video games.

The roots of my project dig into the rich culture of ancient Greece and its explanation of life through Gods and Goddesses.

I do not think considering sustainability would be applicable to my project.

AO2

I decided to pursue this concept because I think it gives me a chance to show off my skill set extremely well. I think it compliments my strengths,and is a really fun concept to work on.

I researched a multitude of visual novels and dating simulators on their story and character design as well as research into stories and characters from Greek mythology.

Although the general concept hasn’t changed, after writing the synopsis and gaining a broader understanding of the idea, a lot of my plans for the narrative and art changed course to accommodate it. All to create a finished visual novel, I created the art and story for.

AO3

For my primary research I have played and reviewed five different visual novels that I think represent the core aspects of my concept. Identifying what makes them engaging and fun to play, what makes the characters likeable or dislikeable and how to use that to my advantage in the script writing. My secondary research consisted of games closer to my own concept, visual novels that use pixel art and use mythos. Researching these gave me broader understanding on visual novel presentation and representation. Both primary and secondary research helped me to understand how to write an effective story and draw compelling art and can be seen on my blog.

AO4

During this project I put a heavy focus on art, stepping well out of my comfort zone to finish the project. Before I started, I had little experience with creating concept art and sketching in photoshop, and although I have previous experience with creative writing, I had never tried writing a script for a game. Creating the concept art and writing the synopsis gave me a lot of knowledge and practice for the specialist practices I needed to finish the art and story. I was most interested in developing my digital art skills, specifically illustrations and sketching because I want to get better at art as soon as possible.

AO5

My project has come with failures and successes. Collaborating with someone else, using practices I’ve never tried before, was a lot of work. The project has come out incredibly and I learnt a lot of new techniques that have made me a better artist, but this was only possible by learning from my mistakes. My first editions of the synopsis and script lacked engagement, but rewriting allowed me to make that script interesting. All my concept art needed planning that would require redraws and redesigns almost every minute, but it helped me create concept art suitable to build off of. All these processes are shown in detail on my blog.

AO6

All my methods to produce my final outcomes all have roots in Greek mythology and my researched visual novels. I used moodboards and research of similar games to provide my reasoning on my blog. 

I created an elevator pitch and got my peers to review it and take a survey to show how it relates to my audience.  Throughout most of my development I would always get my peers to have a look at my art and writing to get a different perspective. It helped me to think outside the box and review things in a different light, It’s all on my blog.

AO7

Finding a way to present all my work in a concise and thematic way was a challenge. I decided on adding all my research, planning and outcomes to the presentation slides to submit, using a fitting theme based on ancient Greece. I used a blue/white colour scheme with traditional ancient Greek pattern as a border, using the same colour for text colours and boxes for congruence. All my art was uploaded to the website ArtStation as a way to present it. Doing this gave me insight on how to build a portfolio. This has worked incredibly well to communicate my ideas and outcomes.

AO8

At the beginning of this project, I set out to create the narrative and art for the game up to the first date. I set this as my minimum viable product, in my project proposal. By the end of this project, I’m happy to say that I achieved what I wanted for myself and it looks better than I could’ve ever expected. At the beginning of this project I had no experience writing scripts or drawing concept art but I have grown and cultivated both skill sets. Although I had to remove a background and the final minigame, It came out how I wanted and I couldn't be more proud.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

PEGI

Our game also have to be suitable for PEGI 12. This post will be dedicated to researching what makes a game a PEGI 12, and conducting primary research through google forms, to get it peer reviewed.

Our game does contain low level bad language in the script so I'm trying to understand how much we are able to add to keep it a PEGI 12

On PEGI's website, they classify PEGI 12 games as "Video games that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy characters or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters would fall in this age category. Sexual innuendo or sexual posturing can be present, while any bad language in this category must be mild". As far as this goes, it's pretty vague in how much bad language we could use in our script so I had to do a bit more research.

After looking into PEGI's document about how they rate games based on language, it seems it doesn't matter how many swears you use as long as they're not sexually expletive and are kept to a minimum. With this in mind, I will only be using mild swears in areas I think could benefit from it.

There are also sub categories for the rating system to show what content the game contains that warrants the rating it has. Violence can be a minimum of a PEGI 7 rating. Bad language can be a minimum of a PEGI 12. Fear can be a minimum of PEGI 7 with moderate horror. Sex is a minimum of a PEGI 12. Drugs are a PEGI 16 or 18 only. Both gambling and discrimination are both limited to PEGI 18's.

Our game will obviously not contain any violence, drugs or sex. Although sexual innuendos and mild bad language are a given with the type of game we're making. Leaving room for expansion for our game in the future, in which the game may lead to some level of romance but it's not going to make it into the demo.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Culture

I've always been interested by ancient cultures and how they perceived life and the afterlife. How they chose to explain things with anecdotes and higher beings.

Our game is going to be based off of Greek mythology in particular. Specifically their religion and the gods they believed in. Our game will be set in the ground of the Greek home of the Gods, Olympus and will feature 4 prominent character from Greek mythology in the

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Peer review

Finally at the end of our project. All our assets have been added and Guy has finished the post processing. All that's left is to get an unbiased opinion on the game itself.

Getting our teacher to come play test our game was really beneficial to get the last finishing touches done on the game before packaging.

The first thing he pointed out was the spelling mistakes. It was 50/50 between me spelling things wrong and getting the grammar wrong in the script and Guy spelling things wrong and getting the grammar wrong while transferring it over to the game and adding his own parts.

After this I went back and added the parts Guy had added and looked through my script a couple more types, correcting the spelling, punctuation and grammar.

He also pointed out some strange post processing issues and that the background having bloom didn't look right with the characters in the foreground, which Guy fixed.

After fixing all this the game is ready to go.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Art

To present all my art work I will be using art station, a website used for artists to share their art and build a portfolio.

Unfortunately, all my art is in pixel art and there is a minimum resolution requirement to upload your art. I had to open up all my art in photoshop and increased the image size by nearest pixel because every time I tried to scale it up normally it would blur.

I uploaded all my character concepts and final designs as one piece and all my backgrounds as another. Adding short descriptions of the artwork and each piece in it.

Although I am only doing this as a way to present and submit my art work, it could be a really good way to show of future projects and my growth as an artist, along with being a really useful tool to build a portfolio.

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[joshfmpyeartwo]

Title Screen

As it's a visual novel, it's not the type of game that can open straight into gameplay and feel right, It needs to have some form of start screen. As the artist it is my job to do this.

I am really fond of title screens that incorporate environmental aspects from the actual gameplay, I think it adds another layer of immersion and is always guaranteed to match the game itself.

Some good examples of this

This is from dragon age inquisition and uses an animated start screen to create an instant gateway into immersion as well as setting up the start of the game really well.

I'm also a really big fan of the title screen from the last of us.

It fits environmentally and allows the player to immerse themselves immediately without giving anything away. The same goes for the last of us part 2's.

Simple but impactful. This one will also change to a beached boat after the player has finished the game, which I think is a really nice touch to make the player feel involved and achieved.

I decided to just create a sky with some clouds and make the title screen and buttons part of the clouds. I think this matches the theme of Gods and Olympus.

The sky and button designs themselves were easy enough but I needed the buttons to have some thematic animations that would suit the background after being clicked. I loved the idea of the button turning into a swirl and dissipating, as it's probably the most cloud like movements I could get from an animation like this.

To do this I started by erasing curved lines into the cloud for the first frame. For the second frame I grew that line and erased some of the outer cloud, by frame 5 I started erasing lines through the whole cloud to mimic the dissipation and then ended on frame 8 with a transparent frame. Although my first attempt went extremely well (GIF on the left), my second one (the middle GIF), if you look closely looks slightly off. It's because I didn't get rid of enough cloud in each layer meaning I had too much left by the end frames, making the dissipation seem a lot harsher. There were also a lot more angular cuts into the cloud which makes it look more like it's being erased rather than dispersing into the sky.

This was all fixed with the last one however, allowing me to send them off to guy to get put into the game.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Achievement & Attribute icons

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Phone applications

As these last little assets are on a strict time constraint, I don't have time to full map out or research what I want, so I just did what I thought would help the player understand what the application does, the best.

For the achievements app, I went with a trophy to symbolise achievement. I went with the same colours I used in the text box to keep everything thematic.

For the exit game app, I based it off of the fire exit sign, which everyone is familiar with and has been used to show the exit in multiple games already, such as superiminal and human fall flat. It was a little trickier to draw as it was hard to show depth in the door with such a limited resolution and colour scheme. I managed to use darker pixels up a pixel above the first rectangle I drew to make it look like the door was open.

For settings I went for a cog, widely used on phones and some games to represent the settings, so it should be readable enough.

Luckily for me, the God Hermes already has a widely used symbol, but even if the players don't recognise it, I hope they are able to recognise the others and through process of elimination, find the Hermes app. Also Guy has written the name of the below each app anyway.

Really happy with how this turned out, but we needed to make sure other players understood which each one meant. Watching each one of our friends play through and use the fine, it seems clear what apps do what to them which is a good sign, although not everyone has the same knowledge of technology but I hope they can piece it together.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Project plan - Finished - 01/05/2024

This is the last week of development so I need to set myself a strict list for me to follow to make sure I finish all the work in time for Guy to import his and submit the game.

This week me and Guy talked about what we could add that wouldn't take much time but would make the game feel more complete and fleshed out. We came to the conclusion that Guy would create a new app to allow the player to change the phone background and theme, as well as a start screen, so Guy is going to be adding in all the apps he's created, as well as adding a quit game and settings app.

I will now have to create art for each application and achievement in the game. I will also have to create a start screen, with buttons and a title.

And we're finally finished. Now all that's left to do is present our projects and submit.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Pixel art Characters

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Alexiares & Anicetus

In Anicetus' I put a larger on baggy, casual clothes and colder colours. I was also debating having him wear more knitwear and cardigans but I think it would look too put together.

Anicetus has a taller slimmer build. To make his poses I just slimmed down Dionyus' and redrew him to make it look more natural. I did struggle a bit with his hair. Whatever I would do just looked wrong. I had to have a look back to my mood boards and research when creating his hair. I landed on this light blonde colour which I'm not entirely happy with but I cannot find a better colour.

Here's the finished product. He looks exactly how I pictured he would, and I think his design does really well to contradict his brothers.

In Alexiares mood board I focussed on similar outfits to Anicetus but a lot baggier and more vibrant colours to highlight his passion.

I went with a shorter wider build for Alexiares, who was also created from one of Dionysus' base poses. Using a red shirt to juxtapose his brother, I coloured his poses in, making sure to keep the colours as vibrant as possible.

The finished character drawings. I am extremely happy with how this one turned out.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Aphrodite

I made another small mood board for Aphrodite, keeping a focus on more Mediterranean vibes with the colour schemes and outfits.

By moving an Aphrodite pose over to a photoshop canvas with a 160x160 pixel size and exporting it, I could transfer all of her poses to aseprite exactly like Dionysus.

Repeating the same process, I again, outlined the character and started filling in the colours, using offshoots of the concept sheet colour palette.

I went for a pink/purple colour pallet with a warmer slightly pale complexion to give a more Mediterranean vibe for her. The same is shown through

[joshfmpyeartwo]

Dionysus

The following posts are going to be detailing the processes I used to create the final pixel art character designs for my project. Starting with Dionysus.

First, I made a small mood board to capture my ideas about his character. I found a lot of pictures of guys with long dreads and deep purples and browns in their outfits, which is what I want for Dionysus.

I created the poses I think would best suit his Dialogue and actions.

I needed to transfer the poses over to a smaller canvas to pixelate it. Experimenting with different resolutions. I started with 128x128 but you couldn't make out the facial features well enough. I thought 256x256 was detailed to a bit where it didn't look right.

After redrawing the clothes on each pose and tweaking them till I was happy they would translate well, I made a new 160x160 canvas and then pasted and scaled the poses into it, pixelating them.

After transferring this over to aseprite I realised there's a lot of opaque pixels blending the outline out. I went back through each of them and added a separate layer to trace over the outline again.

I then used darker versions of my proposed colour scheme to make these. After I'd finished one pose I could add the outline of another over the top and erase the parts I'd already done, saving myself a lot of work

I also altered the ends of the trousers as the sat very weirdly originally. Overall I am extremely happy with his character design and I love how it turned out. I just need to repeat it for each character.

[joshfmpyeartwo]

2 week plan

We are in our final week of development. I am on track but I need to make sure it stays that way

Dionyus

Aphrodite

Alexiares

Anicetus

The gates

The map

The café

The greenhouse

The town center

The bar

Dionysus' bedroom

The vineyard