Author Archives: admin

Tree

March 22, 2017

For a couple of days I was working on a tree sprite for the game. I sketched out a few different tree shapes before I decided to work on one that would only cover one game tile.

I had a hard time figuring out how to draw the leaves and in the end settled for a custom leaf-shaped brush.

Since I wanted to be able to reuse the tree’s assets to make multiple variants of the same type, I made each of the branches individual along with the leaves of that particular branch. That allowed me to try different leaf sizes. The left is the original, the middle is 125%, which is preferable, and the third one is 150%, which feels as too much. In the end, I could also use a combination of these.

Initially, I intended for the trees to be animated in the game. The problem, however, is that each unique tree would need its own set of frames. The size of the game would quickly blow up, and it would take too much time for what it’s worth.

Artbook Instead of Cards

March 21, 2017

Having been thinking about what to use for the front of the trading cards, I realized I don’t have many projects, and even less images of those project that could actually be used. I didn’t want to create collector cards if there were only going to be four of five of them, so started thinking of an alternative.

The concept I came up with is instead of using trading cards, where each showcases the best image of the work, I’d make an artbook. It’s different from a traditional form of a printed portfolio, which doesn’t necessarily fit well with video games, and is in fact often seen as a kind of video game accessory, similarly to a soundtrack CD, key chain and other merchandise.

For the time being I was thinking of an A5 horizontal book format, but I’ll do some research before I make a final decision.

Fence

March 21, 2017

In a spare time I tried drawing a fence, but it somehow doesn’t feel right to me. We probably won’t use it in the final version of the game.

Stones, Mud and More Water

March 21, 2017

I used the stone floor of the water tile and transformed it into an actual stone tile. I also created a completely new tile with only dirt. I then removed some of the stones from the stone tile and made a transition tile between the aforementioned two. To make it all a bit more lively I also made variants with a couple strands of grass.

Since I now had a dirt tile I used it to create an alternate water tile too.

Bussiness Card Concept

March 21, 2017

After brainstorming with my tutor we agreed that it might be a good idea to create a set of business cards each having a different front with an image from one of my projects, rather than creating one logo that would stand for all my work. The concept is based on the idea of collector cards, and as such the business cards would have a secondary value to that of traditional ones.

Water Tiles

March 21, 2017

Wanting to add a new type of tile I started with water, which could be used not only for in-land water elements like ponds and rivers but also for the edges of the map.

Working on Animation

March 20, 2017

I drew four most important frames of the running animation based on the sketches I did. The movement is not very fluent, but since the motion will be quite fast it won’t be as noticible, and as such it’s enough for now.

Setting up a Website

March 20, 2017

With both the domain and hosting now bought, the first thing I decided to do was install WordPress. I planned on using a template with a grid system for the front page porfolio, and a list of posts for the blog with additional page for the CV. Unfortunately this being the first time using WordPress I couldn’t find a way to achieve my desired design using the teplates, and instead decided to use a blank teplate with Bootstrap installed. I also installed a plug-in allowing me to use HTML in the content editor making things more familiar and easier to work with.

The first and current design as of March 2017 can be seen as follows:

Portfolio

Project page

Blog

From the Ground

March 20, 2017

One of the first things I wanted to do for the game was to draw a ground tile upon which it would then be possible to build everything else.

My first concept was very simple. I used only a 2D plane that I painted over and then drew a couple of what would be an attempt at grass on top.

This honestly looked really bad and I decided to try drawing inspiration from other games. The first one, which is a huge influence overall, is Wakfu. The second one I took as a reference for the tiles is Hartacon.

Wakfu

Hartacon

I completely redid the tile. I included the ground below so that it would be possible to move the tile in the Z axis as well. I also chose a different approach when drawing the grass, and was now drawing individual strands instead making sure it overlaps the edges. In order for the player to be able to easily distinguish between individual tiles I made a black outline around the top of the tile. Finally, I made three color variants of the grass to give the environment a more natural feeling.

Progressing with FGP

March 14, 2017

I made a set of sketches for each frame of the running animation of the character and made a gif for presentation’s sake.

I also tried making more card designes, but neither of the two I made are what I’m looking for. I need to find a way to get around the overly prominent symetry.

Eldar King

Space Marine Jack