Shape block outs!
The first lesson of week 4 with Vanissa made us focus on blocking out shapes to make a recognisable silhouette for our character. I made one of a Cat NPC and a Rat character. I made sure to focus on angular shapes, especially since the characters are meant to be sharp and polygonal. I most prefer the cat shape, I like how it mostly represents the vision that I was going for with the NPC (with will be elaborated on below).
My overall goals for the characters are:
- Polygonal
- Low Poly
- Nostalgic
This lesson definitely brought me one step closer to that!
Focalising A Character
On the same day, we were given a task to come up with a character in our game using a template. Using the template, I created a character named “Prissy”, an uptight spoilt cat who escapes her house to start actively pursuing the player throughout several points in the game.
She is hairless with a slim frame and has a very elegant vibe to her. I want her to have a definite “main antagonist” vibe while still keeping the quirky charm of the game.
The word “Prissy” means fussy, respectable or prudish, which I feel is the opposite of her actual personality, but the front she puts up for her owner and other animals. I hope this drawing captures that!
After School Jam with Emma
I attended an MA Game Jam created by Emma (our old Lecturer from year 1) and the game we had to make was a short Twine Game based on an experience. I think the premise of this Jam related to some of the idea generation themes we explored in class, i.e. “make a game idea based on an experience”. We chose a game based on an experience based on a party. The goal of the game is to leave after you find it kind of boring.
You can talk with the different types of people at the party, such as the ones I drew a “Weeb” Girl and a “Popular” girl. All the characters are archetypes of people you can find at the party. The Weeb girl would be slightly offputting (and maybe a bit charming), maybe ranting to you about her latest manga or anime obsession. The Popular girl would be friendly but maybe keep getting interrupted by other people who want to talk to her, making any convos with her impossible. Either way, any archetype would have qualities that would make you want to leave a party in real life.
It was a fun experience doing this workshop/jam with Emma and her MA students!
jAKEDetonator Pt.2
jAKE’s lesson was mainly focused on making a scene out of ripped paper, collage. I enjoyed Jake’s lesson, he told us more about how to experiment with styles and the evolution of animation. While Jake did his usual fun ramble, our main task was the collage. I wanted the scene to focus on how some of the human NPCs would react to you.
As a rat, many people would react to you in a terrified way. This scene is a woman dropping her drink after seeing you on the street. Birds are flying away, presumably because of her scream or her commotion. The landscape is a vast city, based on London (where I come from) and this landscape heavily inspires me with the game.
That’s all for Week 4, thanks for reading!