mayvadev

[mayvadev]

Djemila meaning beautiful in arabic was named Cuicul during its ROman occupation. It is the best preserved roman ruins in north Africa (present day Algeria) THe mosaics were excavated from 1909 from the area. The mosaics would have covered the entirety of the buildings interior and exterior.

THe detail of the mosaics is incredible and the imagery is undoubtedlt allegorical with south asian as well as african motifs imagery and christian imagery. IN what is now a fully muslim country that doesnt use depictions of idols.

[mayvadev]

1 babylonian statues

2 Walkways surrounding ishtar gate

3 detail on the tiled walls surrounding ishtar gate

4 Ishtar gate replica

The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed circa 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city

Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-reliefs of dragons and bulls, symbolizing the gods Marduk and Adad. Ishtar was a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. Adad was a weather god, and Marduk was the chief or national god of Babylon

[mayvadev]

Vessels of ancient Cambodia (Angkor Wat)

Ancient Celtic pots from Kelvingrove

The texture of the anicent celt pots was intruiging and complex I found it similar to some of the middle eastern pottery, and the cuniform of sumeria due to the repetition of the wedge shapes and I wonder hwo they would have been interpertated at the time, would the markings have had some representative purpose for the contents of the pots or perhaps the family that commisioned or created the pots.

[mayvadev]

1

Djemila, Algeria Roman ruins

2 http://byzantinemilitary.blogspot.com/2012/06/byzantine-algeria.html Byzantine gate

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Medieval Cambodia

Ancient Cambodia used to be a collection of small kingdoms the king Jayavarman II declared himself a mediator between man and god https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devaraja

Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world it was constructed nearly a thousand years ago, it was completed in only fourty years covered in 2000 unique carvings of hindu mythology. The Kmer people are still largely a mystery, or even how they built the temple.

The reign of the people lasted around 500-600 years.

Most of the city has been lost to time as it would have been made of wood and degradable materials with the grand temple using LiDAR technology the city of Angkor can be reconstructed. There was an intricate system of canals and roads, covered in houses monasteries and palaces. The dwellings seem to be laid out in a grid system in the centre and an abundance of pools around dwellings much like ancient romans. Bathing may have played an important part of their culture. https://angkorlidar.org/assets/external/Stark_et_al_2018.pdf

In the 12th century when ankor was being built, the population was nearly 3/4 of a million (750,000,000) and the largest in the world. The combined city is greater than modern day New York.

The surrounding hills and rivers are sanctified with religious carvings in the riverbeds that lead to the capital.

As a monsoon country the houses are forced to adapt to the changing water levels, raising ten meters and covering 10% of the country. The modern villages have adapted by living with the environment in stilted houses. Ancient Angkor developed new engineering skills and built huge reservoirs, 8km by 2km a massive undertaking. 48 million cubic meters of water, 200,000 would have constructed (hand dug) the high embankments. 900 years after it's construction it is still used today to irrigate during the dry season. They manged to terraform the area in order to change their harvest from only once a year to three or four, instead of relying on the natural seasons. Building a strong economic foundation to facilitate temple building and wars.  The temples would also be used as economical and political tools with administrative and religious roles. There was no currency in ancient Kmer taxation was carried out through donations at temples or workers who would devote their time or even their children.

The society was built on forced labour as well using the shrines and the donations of children into indenture.  The ashrama was utilised as a school, temple and tax office.

Romchen(?)

https://angkorlidar.org/assets/external/Stark_et_al_2018.pdf further reading on Angkor Wat

[mayvadev]

1 map ancient iraq (babylon)

2 Saddam Husseins palace overlooking babylonian ruins in modern day Iraq

3 Ruins of babylon today

4 Sumarra in Iraq

5 Possible location of hanging gardens in Nineveh ancient Sumerian city

[mayvadev]

he ‘Library of Ashurbanipal’ is the name given to a collection of over 30,000 clay tablets and fragments inscribed with cuneiform – a type of writing used in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). Texts were written by pressing a reed pen into soft clay. The characteristic wedge-shaped strokes give the writing its modern name (cuneiform means simply ‘wedge-shaped’).

The tablets were discovered in the ruins of the city of Nineveh (now northern Iraq), once capital of the mighty Assyrian empire, ruled by Ashurbanipal from 669–c. 631 BC. They were excavated in a series of digs from the 1840s through to the 1930s, and form the remains of the Assyrian royal collections of scholarly literature and archives.

Nineveh was consumed by fire in around 612 BC. But while paper books are destroyed by fire, the clay tablets were in most cases baked harder, making them among the best preserved documents from thousands of years of Mesopotamian history.

From <https://blog.britishmuseum.org/a-library-fit-for-a-king/>

http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/projectlist.html  - further reading on the tablets

The tablets where sometimes signed with something similar;

Palace of Ashurbanipal, great king, mighty king … who Nabu and Tashmetu granted mercy … gifted broad mind and encompassing wisdom. He wrote and checked as a reminder and for his reading, and placed in his palace. Whoever trusts in you will not be shamed, o Nabu!

Palace of Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria, son of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, grandson of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, and who trusts in Ashur and Ninlil. Whoever trusts in you will not be shamed, o king of the gods, Ashur! … any work of ingenuity … Ashur and Ninlil …

Palace of Ashurbanipal, great king, mighty king, King of the World, King of Assyria, to whom Nabu and Tashmetu showed mercy, and brought him up as father and mother.

Excerpts: stars, which Jupiter ... Oral questioning of scholars, according to ... Written and checked according to the original. Excerpt tablet of Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria, descendent of Sennacherib ... Sargon, King of the World ... Whoever might take it and alter my inscription, [may] Ashur, king of the gods [remove his] name [and seed from the land].

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Ancient Mesopotamia

The Book of Genesis tells of a time in which all of the world’s population migrated eastward to the plain of Shinar. Shinar, the Hebrew for “[land of the] two rivers,” is considered by most to be what the Akkadians referred to as  Shumer or Sumer, known today as Mesopotamia, or modern-day Iraq.

The Hebrew etymology is most likely referring to the rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. In fear of being scattered across the whole face of the earth, the inhabitants of the plain decided to build a city and also a tower to reach the heavens. This city would be referred to as Babel (Akkadian:  bab-ili or “gate of God”) which was also a play on the Hebrew word  balal or “to confuse” (i.e. the language). According to the Old Testament, man was then punished for building this Tower of Babel through the creation of language, designed to create division amongst mankind.

1 And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another: ‘Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4 And they said: ‘Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said: ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do.

7 Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

[mayvadev]

pixel developments

having never tried pixel art before and considering it as the main art style for my game I decided I ought to experiment with the medium. It was a lot harder than I anticipated.

I began with the basic environment, the flat in which Mayva and her family live and then decided to develop a few of the basic assets such as a bed. Then I created a basic gif of a young girl that I flipped to create the illusion of movement. All of this could be achieved inside the free web application on piskel, I was able to easily export the images in a variety of ways. As an animated gif a single frame or as a complete character sheet.

So that's what I did next I created 5 points of rotation for the grandmother. Using the measurment system on piskel I was able to create the charchters at the same resolution and size and was quite pleased with the result.

Thinking of other pixel art games that I enjoyed like stardew valley I remembered that during dialogue the characters would have a larger high resolituon portrait so I attempted to create one for the Queen.

I was paying particular attention to colour and creating a simple and cohesive pallete that could be used accross the world and the areas. For example the colours of the interior apartment carry through to the design of Mayva, as the Queen is from Roth her colours also incorporate their cooler blue colours but also the redish pink of her new home. The uncle draewn in blue is from ROth and has no loyalty to Eutoria and so has none of the colours form that district.

After creating the Queens portrait I wnet ahead and drew a few others, the uncle and a member of the order and mayva herself once she has taken to hiding at the order.

[mayvadev]

Animation Style and Process for Broken Age

My orginal design ideas included a lot of pixel art but after completing this game “Broken Age” I completely fell in love with it’s handrawn digital style and it’s quirky yet efficent animation. The characters feel grounded to their fixed backgrounds and there are a few little camera tricks used to create the feeling of a more dynamic environment. For example the cloud kingdom which plays with scale by firstly focusing on the character and expanding the field of view to show the full environment of the main area as they move towards the centre. In the underground tree area there is a panning that follows the character so it feels much closer and more intimate. Similarly with the corridors and more expansive central areas on the space ship. Also the camera faces of mom always seem to be roughly centred in the rendering.

Source:

youtube.com