randomnessgame

[randomnessgame]

-Evaluation-

In my project proposal, I spoke about wanting to focus more of the project on pixel art and Character design, I also wanted to explore dialogue trees. Whilst exploring my actual project I did some research into illustrated games and pixel art techniques to mix the two styles. I also looked into Character design and using shapes to convey different personality tropes. I used Photoshop mostly in this project to help draw the characters, their facial expressions, and the UI boxes. When shading the characters the pixel art workshop was really helpful, It definitely helped refine my pixel art skills.

At the start of my project, I wanted to do pixel art for the game base and then have all my UI elements as illustrations done in Photoshop, I workshopped this for a bit and realised that the UI, as an illustration, didn't mesh as well as I wanted to in the project, This is when I switched to doing the UI elements in all pixel art, apart from the text. I wanted to do the text also in pixel art, however, given the application I was using I could only do It in my normal handwriting, which worked well with the project regardless. At the end of the project, I didn't have time to create the dialogue trees in Unreal so I switched over to a different application to demonstrate how the dialogue would look given I had more time.

I think that the outcome of my game is still fairly good quality of work considering the struggle with lack of motivation and quantity of work, I am still regardless very proud of my outcome. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to create an unreal dialogue tree but I was able to make a model using twine of how the dialogue would work, I really liked how the mock-up came out using twine, I had a lot of fun coming up with dialogue for the characters and testing it on the website. I don't think my project meets the brief right now, as much as I'd like it to. I didn't have time to add in the randomised character part of my project in Unreal, which I said in my project proposal was what I wanted to get completed.

For this project I didn't get time to finish everything that I had expected in my proposal, I had planned to have at least a game which when pressed play would generate a random character. If I had more time to finish the project I would want a random character that I have to talk to and sit at a dining table. This would be so the player could walk up to greet them and be introduced to the random character.

Although I really struggled with motivation in this project, I still think the research into different techniques and character design was very helpful in the long run, and the skills I've learned from this project will transfer well into other projects. I could have improved the project by spacing out tasks and doing more research so I could build from that rather than just creating stuff on the spot. I also could have improved by managing my time better and thinking about specific tasks to work on for each part of the project. I didn't stick to the timetable set in my proposal which would have definitely helped with time management. From this project I have learned how to design characters with more depth and personality, begun to look into dialogue trees, learned how to use paperZD, and learned some really useful pixel art tricks. For the next project, I'm going to come up with a timetable and plan to keep me motivated and space out my work more.

[randomnessgame]

Using Twine to plan dialogue trees

For the dialogue I wanted to keep it simple, have one main dialogue path with 3 different options for each, and reactions and points received on how well the date takes it.

Half of the fun of a blind date is that you know nothing about this person, no background information or judgement on personality, so it is really up to fate on how the date will react to the things that you say.

so other than the player getting a random character to go on a date with you also don't know how the charcter is going to react which makes it also fairly random.

I started off with the characters introducing themselves and then having 3 options to reply with, depending on which option you picked the character will then react positively, negatively, or neutrally towards what you said.

Then after reacting to branch back into the linear dialogue path and continue the conversation.

-How scoring will work-

depending on whether it is positive, negative or neutral a number will be added, deducted or kept the same. This will create a score at the end of the date which will determine how well you did

[randomnessgame]

A quick demo

I used the twine

[randomnessgame]

-Making my own font-

As I was looking at fonts for my game and was really interested in handwriting fonts as I've seen other games with more organic handwritten text style.

I thought it would be fun to try making my own font with my own handwriting so I found a website where I could use a template to make a font out of my handwriting.

I made sure the font placement and spacing were correct before downloading and putting the font into unreal, I did a few tests to make sure the font looked okay.

I really liked how the font came out and I think I might use the font in other projects!

[randomnessgame]

-Title card for the game-

I love the font and the leaves on the question mark however I feel like the bud of the rose could look a little better and fit the rest of the style more.

[randomnessgame]

[randomnessgame]

-Creating Pixel versions of the characters-

I needed to make pixel art characters of the characters you can date so the player has someone to sit opposite of.

I used the template of the first character to create the other characters and tried to make the characters look as similar to the h

[randomnessgame]

Character design

What is character design?

Character design is coming up with attributes, visuals and backstory for a character which works well with the overall plot and other characters.

Character design can be executed through description or visual concept art and mood boards.

Why is character design so important?

Character design is so important for visual storytelling in most games, it helps you understand why the character would chose the choices that it does. A character can add so much more emotion to a game, and maybe make us feel more empathetic or apathetic towards a certain character.

In the article it says that the 3 main components of a good character design are: Appearance, personality + backstory and alignments

Appearance

Looking at the article, it talks about characters shapes an how they can signify different character traits.

I took a few villain's and good guys from cartoons and shows which fit these principles.

[randomnessgame]

Pixel art techniques - Part 3

Shading with lighting and background

The article then went on to say about different shading techniques and the most common mistakes when doing pixel art.

Trying these techniques myself

I went into Photoshop to see if i could recreate the demo image shading from memory using the techniques that the article had taught me.

I then did just a basic rectangle focusing on the cubes edges and highlights.

This exercise was really helpful because it made me think about where the light and shadow would hit dependent on where the light was.

[randomnessgame]

Pixel art techniques - Part 2

Basic structure of shading and highlights in objects

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Key words:

Volume shadow: light being blocked by the object itself

Projected shadow: light being blocked by the object blocking its surroundings

Terminator: Transition zone, usually a sharper transition between the two shades.

Reflection highlight: Brightest spot in the object, main focus of the light.

Highlight: Lighter part of the object where the light hits.

Bounce lights: Light bouncing off the ground back on top the object over the shadow.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[randomnessgame]

Pixel art techniques - Part 1

As part of researching pixel art techniques I had this article suggested to me that just goes through varying pixel art techniques for shading, lighting and perspective.

Light with perspective in pixel art

Within pixel art getting the illusion of perspective and a 3D object in a 2D world is somewhat much more difficult than for example using illustration, as a lot of pixel art requires block shading and very intentional lines to show depth.

The article is showing how the vibrancy and brightness of the colour can change depending on what angle the light is hitting or if the object is blocking the light.

For lighting on more organic shapes like faces its better looking at reference images.

[randomnessgame]

Character Design - 2

Happy

Idle

Angry

[randomnessgame]

Character Design - 1

I knew that for the characters each i wanted at least different expressions; a positive one, a negative and a neutral. Which gives enough of a reaction to respond to what the players input is.

Happy

Idle

Angry

[randomnessgame]

- Visual Novel games -

Monster Prom

Monster Prom is a visual novel-style dating sim.

UI - The UI in Monster Prom is all illustrated I think it fits really well with the style that the characters are drawn in and I like how theres a mini face of the character you are talking to instead of their name.

Character Design - The character design is all based on different monsters and fantasy creatures which makes for an incredibly diverse cast of characters. I love how every character is an American highschooler trope

Plot - Story focused, Character development

I like the organic speech boc and white text, id like to use this for my project.

Night in the woods

UI - Characters talk via speech bubbles

Character Design - Cute and simple, recognisable

Plot - Deep and linear story, the cute animal characters are super contasting compared to their characters and plot that this game explores

[randomnessgame]

- Game Proposal -

Even though in previous projects I have spent a lot of time trying to work on my 3D modelling and texturing, this project I wanted to go back to doing pixel art. I really enjoyed the pixel art project for our very first game, I’ts is extremely less technical than 3D modelling. Over The last year I've been doing a lot of research on Character design and colour grading, which will be very helpful for the game I would like to produce this term. All the character design I have been doing outside of school hasn't yet been used within my projects as they are all mostly first person. Mainly for this project I really wanted to try something new and go back to the basics and explore the pixel artstyle some more.

For this randomisation project I’d like to take a different approach to my usual style and focus less on the art and more on the story/dialogue and the character creation. As in some of my projects the story and concept are underdeveloped due to spending so much time 3D modelling and coding materials. I'd love to experiment more with shading in pixel art and look at using more colours and softer lines in my art. The genre/theme I would like to explore is possibly a romance/comedy. I'd like an opportunity to start writing dialogue and play with the idea of contrasting characters in a project. Games that I've been inspired by for this project are ‘Star dew valley’, the ‘ratchelor’ and ‘the mad father’. These are all pixel-art games however I will also be looking at illustrated games for my research like ‘Monster prom’ and ‘a night in the woods’. I would like to have funny and odd characters for this game to highlight the random aspect of the game but also to make the game a little more lighthearted and fun.

Before finishing this project I would have liked to have started the game with character dialogue and maybe 2-3 characters you are able to have a conversation with. For example assets for the characters and dialogue beside it.

1

11/09/23

Create a tumblr to show my work,

Research games that use randomisation. 

2

18/09/23

Start looking at character design and look at some articles that look into pixel art techniques. Develop concept further.

3

25/09/23

Start designing characters for the game, personalities, speech and visuals. How do they interact with the player and what will make the interaction fun?

4

2/10/23

Start drawing designs and coding the characters' movements. Look into unreal animations and character expressions.

5

9/09/23

Create character dialogue tree and showcase facial expressions.

6

16/09/23

Finalise all work and check over it to make sure there aren't mistakes. Publish all files to Google Classroom.

[randomnessgame]

13/09/23 - To-do List

Add more to the mind map and think about what kind of style of game would i want it too be.

[randomnessgame]

- Creating Data Tables-