Pixel Art – NPCs & Enemies
Introduction In designing the NPCs and enemies of my game, I decided to use the medium of pixel art. This was so I could make potential character portraits for the game, potential sprites for the gameplay, and to garner a READ MORE
Historical Research – Islamic Golden Age Science & Philosophy
Introduction The Islamic Golden Age was a time of prosperity for many Islamic countries, spanning North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Europe. The timeline of its existence is up for debate, specifically regarding when it ended, however the READ MORE
Field Research – Museum of Islamic Art
During my time back home in Egypt I visited the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo. Within the museum are works stretching from between the middle ages and 19th century. It includes objects and pieces from several eras in Egypt READ MORE
Pixel Art – Skill Trees
Introduction After I came up with a concept for the skill trees I realized they required some sort of logo or symbol to represent them. I decided to go about designing them in Aseprite, as they would appear in the READ MORE
Pixel Art – Protagonist
Introduction After I finished designing my Protagonist by hand, I decided I would try to design him in pixel art in order to get a sense of how to design a player character in gameplay (i.e. with correct gameplay proportions READ MORE
Protagonist Design
Background For my protagonist I drew on many different inspirations within the Islamic world, between several eras. The protagonist is meant to be a former mamluk soldier turned nomadic mercenary, as such, I drew inspiration from real-world mamluk clothing and READ MORE
Sword Design
For my game, I wanted to create a unique sword design for the protagonist. I didn’t want o simply copy real-world existing swords from the mediaeval world or use common depictions of “arab” swords. Instead I wanted to examine these READ MORE
Magic/Esotericism Research
Given the concept of my game I decided I would do research on real world accounts of magic and general mysticism as inspiration for my own magic system. I did not wish to simply rehash already existing magic tropes in READ MORE
Historical Research – Mamluks
Preface Since I decided on making my game idea based on the Islamic world during the Middle Ages I decided to do research on that region and time period. I especially targeted mediaeval Egypt as I was very curious about READ MORE