Progress Log

Here I planned out potential light sources/shadow placement for my final piece plans. I developed 3 different ideas, the three portrait pieces showing personality, the three landscape pieces illustrating the scene, and a new idea that is focused on their eyes.

I grouped all of my ideas into sets of three. The first is the landscape ones, next is a new idea I came up with that features an extreme close up of all of their eyes. Next I grouped the three landscape close ups, imagining that they would illustrate part of the story where Crow and Anya are fighting, and I edited one of the Ahren pieces to make it look as if they were in the same scene watching their fight. The final landscape idea was to combine the side portrait  ideas together into one.

New assets finished:

Added 2 new music tracks and more sfx. Renamed sfx so its more obvious what they are.

Oatmeal profile

Guards neutral frames

Basic tutorial images (mobile and pc controls)

Here I’m working on character focused thumbnails, to plan out my final illustrations. For some ideas, I used some expressions and poses from the expression sheets and initial silhouettes that I liked a lot. I planned these with the idea of working on an A4 sized canvas.

 I collected references and made moldboards for the world mainly to help with my world building, in order to better develop the characters and help in choosing their outfits etc. But in one thumbnail per character I did consider doing a piece which focused on different backgrounds. The problem with this idea is that drawing backgrounds is not my strong point, and I feel they would probably overshadow the characters in this case. (1st landscape on Anya’s page, 2nd landscape on Ahren’s, 3rd landscape on Crow’s.)

The one for Anya depicts her sitting atop a car hood looking up at the night sky within the more grassy overgrown areas, Ahren’s shows them leaving their old hometown, and Crows is within the more barren desert area, where his old village used to be. Other ideas were having the characters surrounded by an element they represents them, shown in the 3rd landscape in Ahren’s and the 1st landscape in Crow’s, which used wind and fire respectively. The problem with this idea is that I couldn’t think of an element that worked very well with Anya.

The 2nd landscape image on both Anya and Crow’s sheets shows close ups of them hurt, and they match up together, as I wanted these to represent a scene within the first part of the game’s story, where they two get into a fight, in particular just after they exchange the first blows. Once again like the above image I wasn’t sure if I could fit Ahren’s illustration into this idea, and I wanted all of them to follow a theme and look like they’re meant to be in a set together.

The far right landscape image on all three sheets simply depicts a close up of them facing to the side, I quite liked this idea as I could draw them all separately, and maybe even draw some background the the space behind them, or simply leave in black and use harsh dramatic lighting on the faces. But then I could also have an extra 4th image where they’re all together in one image. The problem with this one is that it would maybe not show their personalities well enough, even with different expressions, and it wouldn’t show any of the clothes at all, a relatively large part of their design that I’d like to show in these illustrations.

I finished all of Rubio’s sprites and got the neutral sprites for the guards done.

[Add non coloured ref sheet]

For Ahren’s final design, I narrowed it down between two outfits. As much as I like the look of the first, in the end I did not go with it as even with dark colours it felt too ‘flashy’ for his character. For his hair I combined parts of the initial designs that I liked, and went with a relatively neat and short hairstyle, but with some messy flicked up parts to reflect his background but showing that because it’s messy too it represents the fact he’s no longer in that environment.

I went with the very long high colour coat and gloves, because I felt that he’s want to cover himself in the simplest way possible, so the coat itself covering his neck rather than a scarf. I also went for the grey colour scheme because I felt it fit nicer with his skin and hair colours. His eyes are also a shade of grey.

When creating the mood board and developing the silhouettes for Ahren, I wanted to make sure his design embodied his shy and reserved nature. Tying in with his plain and non welcoming poses, I wanted his clothes to be mainly dull and monotone colours, leaning on the more darker tones, but his hair colour to be lighter and softer to tie in with the soft and gentle side of him.

I also wanted his clothes to give off a more refined and less casual vibe that Crow’s or Anya’s, to hint at his origins, as he was from a much more wealthy background. And seeing as he escaped with only what he was wearing, it wouldn’t make sense for him to wear anything different, as where he is now it is very hard to procure new clothes.

Visual pointers I wanted: light hair colour, very tall and stocky frame, clothes that cover most of their skin and body frame

Name: Ahren

Personality: Soft-spoken, sensitive, altruistic, dislikes fighting and attention, weak hearted, unconfident, shy, gentle, empathetic

Back story: Ahren was born with the worms, but into a community of those who shunned them. In order to avoid being castrated his family had gone through multiple experiments in order to have them fully removed. They thought they had worked, but when Ahren was born with them, it was obvious that they had not. His parents went back into constant experiments of their own choice.

But unfortunately for Ahren, before he could even form words, he too was thrust into these tests. Which of course were all usually not properly tested before hand and where all experimental and dangerous. Eventually the scientists working on a way to eradicate the worms eventually found out that once a human hits a certain age, usually around mid teens, the worm becomes so integrated in their systems that it becomes impossible to remove them while still keeping the subject alive.

His parents and others over the age of 16 were promptly disposed of, and Ahren, along with a small selection of other young children were then ‘adopted’ by the research facility to become permanent guinea pigs. Eventually after forgoing many horrible surgeries, he was ‘cured’.

Ongoing story: Ahren eventually managed to gain the trust of the robotics organisation he was working for and they ended up helping him escape the town he lived in. After running away, he never really had the courage to live in other civilisations, and through a set of events ended up meeting Crow just as he was starting to create his gang. Being a naive and heavily influenced person, he ended up simply sticking to Crow and became a part of his group.

Likes/Dislikes:

+ Calm atmospheres + Crow  + The feeling of having a loving family (within the gang)

- Himself - Hospitals - Scientists

Strengths/Weaknesses:

+ Very physically strong + Immune to most natural ailments + Very loyal

[Add non coloured ref]

Here is the final reference sheet for Crow. This character is first introduced as a ‘bad guy’, but later on joins the main character on their journey. Therefore I needed their design to heavily reflect their fiery and aggressive nature, but their colour scheme couldn’t be too dark or ‘evil’ to fit in with the fact that they do end up joining the main cast later on.

All frames for Rubio are completed! There was also a discussion about the current swing frame, and the conclusion was to either to have 3 frames for the swing, or to change Rubios position into the middle pose (seen in the second image) and have the plane rotate. In the end, we went with the second option.

The 3rd image is some alternate colour schemes, based of of various thieves from other games and media. (Anna from Fire Emblem Fates, Lupin the Third, Gaius from Fire Emblem Awakening and Kaito Kid) This was just for fun, and also becuase we might implement them a alternate costumes in game. Maybe as unlockables, but for now if we do use them they would all probably just be unlocked from the start. 

Here is the final reference sheet and colour palettes for Anya.

For these characters, I wanted their individual personalities and lifestyles to be reflected in their appearance and clothes. Anya, as stated in her text profile, is headstrong and stubborn, which I feel can be seen in her choice of clothes, especially the boots, leather jacket and fingerless gloves, which are often associated with bikers and other rebellious types. 

The dog tags are a pointer towards her past as a solider, which is otherwise unknown, at least at the beginning of the game’s story. 

Her jeans are slightly form fitting, but are still baggy (straight leg as opposed to skinny jeans), as I wanted Anya’s fighting style to revolve more around her legs, so she needed to have good movement in the leg area. Very tight fitting jeans would probably be too restricting and jeans that were too baggy would simply get in the way. I still wanted her to be wearing jeans over other types of trousers though, as they fit in best with her casual and laid back attitude best. 

Visual pointers I wanted: Red hair, slicked back/spiky hair, strong facial features

Name: Crow

Personality: Loud, aggressive, show off, loves attention, somewhat parental to the other gang members, hot-tempered , bold, impatient, nihilistic

Back story: A ‘wormed’ human, one who has had their internal immune systems and strength enhanced with the use of worms. Was born with them.

Grew up in a poor deprived village, but lived a relatively happy life despite this. After the village was pilfered by bandits and many of his family and friends killed and injured however, his view on life became more cynical. He left the village not long after that event, and in order to survive became a bandit himself.

Ongoing story: A bandit gang leader drunk on power, believes physical strength reigns above all else, and uses his worm enhanced brawn to threaten and control the village he now resides in.

His base is within an old abandoned shopping mall, where he stores all of the goods he’s pilfered from other settlements. The previous dwellers of the once safe stronghold are now forced to live in home made wooden huts amongst the ever growing and dangerous plant life, and can only receive rations of food and drink if they obey the rules Crow has set.

Likes/Dislikes:

+ Strong opponents + Being praised + Being in control

- The "weak and pathetic” - Optimists - Those who shun "the wormed”

Strengths/Weaknesses:

+ Enhanced strength + Good leader and loyal to those he cares for + Hardly ever gets ill (thanks to the worms)

Here the the development of the colouring style and the final promotional images for the characters.