Ray and Laurent - The Scientists

Names: Ray and Laurent

Ages: 31 & 33

Ray & Laurent worked with James and Serenity on the mysterious new element 'Eden'. Although their personalities contrasted they worked very well together, with Laurent's cautiousness balancing out Ray's recklessness. Although the two worked well together they weren't particularly fond of each other. Ray disliked how pessimistic and neurotic Laurent was whilst Laurent was always Jealous of how confident and optimistic Ray was. Despite their differences though they were integral to the progression of Eden and their research helped James to develop a way to harness Eden's power.

They were the first two people approached by James when he was looking for guardians to help him destroy the world and stop Serenity interfering. The two initially declined his offer, appalled that he had used their research for himself and planned to destroy the world. However, James managed to persuade them with the notion that in his new world everything would be new and their would be endless things to study and dissect. Knowing how intelligent each man was, James decided to fuse the two together to increase their intelligence and hopefully make them work better together. Although they both became much more intelligent, their feelings for one another didn't change and they bickered and disagreed even more, their already opposing personalities now seemed even more exaggerated with Laurent becoming even more neurotic and pessimistic and Ray becoming overly enthusiastic and reckless. Driven mad by the fusion and with no regard for their own bodies anymore they start to experiment on themselves, which gives them their odd sucker punch glove arms.

Some concepts

The Scientists - mid paint

I'm really pleased with how this picture turned out. This idea originally came from a game me and my friends designed over ten years ago, although back then he was a two headed jester. Later on i took inspiration from the jester character and drew a two headed, skinny man with strange claws on chains for arms, which transformed into this when i revisited it. I like how clinical the picture looks and how almost everything about the scientists is contrasting, from their hair to their boots. Although Ray and Laurent are one of my more bizarre creations i think they fit into this game idea very well and are a quirky and unique addition.

Jimmy and Gladys - The Brother and The Best

Name: Jimmy

Age: 10

Jimmy is the little brother of Serenity. He's an adventurous child who has a passion for exploring and collecting insects and often went bug catching to look for new pets to add to his collection. When James started to destroy the world Jimmy was out collecting bugs and was approached by James who managaed to manipulate him into becoming a guardian for him. The power James granted him corrupted his mind and turned him into a hate filled shadow of his former self, hell bent on intercepting his sister as she tries to stop James.

Name: Gladys

Age: < 0

Gladys was a caterpillar that had recently been collected by Jimmy. When James made Jimmy a guardian he unintentionally made Gladys one too, who was in Jimmy's pocket at the time. She grew in size exponentially and aquired sharp fangs and a large horn on her head, along with giant tufts of hair. Unlike Jimmy, the power granted to her didn't corrupt her and she remains quite docile and tame unless provoked or ordered to attack by Jimmy, whom she is very protective over and serves loyally.

These two characters were some of my earliest creations whose colour schemes and dynamic i had had in my head for a long while. I'm pleased with how the pair turned out, although if i were to redo the picture i would probably give them each their own character sheet instead of a shared one.

Malibu - The Witch

Name: Malibu

Age: 17

Malibu is the youngest sibling of James and Annadetta and was raised by her sister after both her parents died. She is considerably younger than her older siblings and therefore can't remember her mother. Shy and nervous, Malibu is often overshadowed by her old sister and keeps to herself most of the time. She looks up to Annadetta for raising her and although her brother had little input in her life she has always admired his confidence and appreciated his extravagant gifts.

When James approached both his sisters with the proposition of becoming guardians Annadetta accepted on behalf of both herself and Malibu. Although she got on well with Serenity and was slightly scared by her brother's new form, she did what she was told by her sister who had always had her best interests in mind.
Whilst Annadetta's transformation into a master huntress was successful, Malibu found it harder to harness the power gifted to her. She was clumsy with her sorcery and had a lot of trouble controlling it. It wasn't until she was killed by Serenity that her true potential was realised; as Malibu died her power refused to and took control of her body and mind, transforming her from a novice sorceress into a skilled adversary.

Malibu was particularly hard to get right. She is based on a character i created in a game once and although i wanted her to look similar, i also wanted the character to have her own identity. Colour was especially hard to decide on since in my mind i imagined her to be wearing black and white, but when i tested that it looked very bland. I'm glad i went with purple as it's a much more 'magical' looking colour which suits this character perfectly.

Annadetta - The Huntress

Name: Annadetta

Age: 24

Annadetta is the the younger sister of James and the older sister of Malibu, who she raised after the death of their mother and father. Looking after Malibu put a lot of strain on Annadetta, meaning she had to grow up a lot faster than other children. This made her stronger, more headstrong and gave her a certain instict for survival. After James left them both to pursue his own career money became tight and Annadetta had to turn to hunting to provide food for her and her sister, over time this made her an excellent marksman. Although James left them both to fend for themselves, he occasionally came to visit them with extravagant gifts as he loved the attention and appreciation he got for doing so. This angered Annadetta who desperately wanted James to help provide for them since he became so successful, however he never did.

When James approached Annadetta and Malibu and asked them to become two of his guardians, Annadetta accepted on behalf of both of them, seeing it as her and Malibu's only chance of surviving James' process of recreating the world. James granted her the prowess and hunting capabilities of a wolf, which when combined with her already expert hunting knowledge made her into a formidable opponent.

Above is Annadetta's finished character sheet. I'm very happy with how this turned out as i was using a different technique to how i've done digital art in the past and i'm very happy with the results. Although some things could be better i think it manages to portray my ideas on what this character looks like and how they might act in the game.

Negotiated Studies Two - 'Eden' - Year Three Final Project Idea

My final project at university has finally arrived and i decided i would re-visit one of my favourite ideas from the past, which was my end of year two project. This game idea followed the journey of a recently dumped girl called Serenity whose former boyfriend decides to take over the world. The story was a little bare last year though as i focused more on costume and character design so i decided i would revamp the story a little bit:

'In a top secret lab four of the most intelligent scientists are examining a white, wispy mass that was discovered whilst in space and brought back to Earth. The science team soon discover that the unidentified object has amazing natural properties and holds the secrets behind the universe and life itself, they call the white mass 'Eden'. Through extensive experimentation the team realised that Eden can create invulnerability, immortality and immense power which the team try to harness with little success and the project is due to be passed onto other experts. However one of these scientists, James, a narcissist, refuses to allow Eden to be passed onto another team and keeps trying to harness its power and eventually he is successful. Realising the amount of sheer power at his fingertips he decides to break off his ties with his girlfriend, Serenity, another of the scientists working on the project, so that he won't have to share the power.

Serenity is distraught at the news and attempts to change his mind by following him back to the lab and trying to talk things over. Once at the lab she realises what James is planning and attempts to talk him out of it which doesn't work and instead irritates him. He harnesses the power of Eden and fuses with it, giving him the powers of a god. He lashes out at Serenity, knocking her unconscious and almost killing her. He then decides that the world is an ugly place with so much potential, and decides to destroy it and create a new world in his new image. When Serenity regains consciousness and discovers James' plans she vows vengeance on him, not only for planning on destroying the world but also for breaking her heart. Although James doesn't see her as much of a threat, he decides to enlist some guardians to help him destroy the world and stop Serenity should she try to interfere. To stop James from fulfilling his intentions Serenity must defeat each of James' guardians who consist of former friends, lovers and family.'

I think this story has a lot more substance than last years and is hopefully more interesting to potential players. It also sets the game up like some of my favourite older games like Crash Bandicoot where you have to face a series of bosses before reaching the final boss.

Now that i had my story i had to decide on how to present my work. I thought that since this was my last project i should do something fun that i'd enjoy and i looked back on past projects to see which i enjoyed the most. I remembered how much fun armature building was at my end of year one assignment and i decided to make models of my characters. I drew out my characters then worked out where joints would need to go etc, however this all proved to be a huge waste of time as trying to schedule appointments with the armature instructor was near impossible so i abandoned this idea.

With my plans dashed i felt very unmotivated and didn't know which direction to take my project in, a few weeks went by and i eventually decided to just do digital painting instead, something i hadn't particularly wanted to do since it wouldn't be as impressive as armatures. However, once i got started i started having a lot of fun and found the motivation to get the work done. The next few posts will show my progress, along with character biographies and finished pieces. Enjoy!

Game Design and Creating a Board Game

We recently had a guest speaker at university called Ian who came to talk to us about his love of board games and tabletop RPGs. Ian currently works on Dungeons and Dragons guides but is curious about what the next generation of tabletop RPGs will bring, perhaps diceless games or other new styles. Firstly though he gave us a brief history of table top games.

Apparently table top games originated from Prussian military simulations in the 1800s. These simulations involved moving figurines resembling soldiers to different locations to test out battle strategies. This idea was popularised further in the 1950s and 60s with the release of H.G.Wells' Little Wars.

In the 1970s Dungeons and Dragons was released. This game proved to be a lot more popular then Little Wars because of its fantasy elements, immersion and character progression; starting as a weak character and turning into an epic hero. Ian loved this concept and also loved how the games were open ended, where there were no limits and you could imagine anything you wanted and make it part of your story. He also stated his interest in the idea of winning by losing which is where your character may die saving the other players - so although you have lost the game you have died a hero and won.

Ian gave us an assignment in which we had to create our own board game. There were only a couple of rules that had to be incorporated, one was that the game had to be a multi-player where players had to race to the finish, and the other was that the game couldn't just rely on chance, the players had to have some sort of choice - either setting other players back or helping themselves through clever thinking.

Originally i came up with a game for four to six people, with each player controlling a character with unique skills. This idea evolved into each character having a different class e.g ranger and warrior. These classes would allow players to do certain abilities like the ranger being able to attack players far away from them - this would have fit the brief by not letting the game be decided by chance however this idea proved to be very difficult to even make a prototype of and so i decided to scrap the idea and start again.

I decided to stick with a fantasy theme but this time experimented with a map with a lot of different pathways where players could choose which path to take which could help or hinder them. This also wouldn't leave the game entirely to chance. However, this idea was quickly rejected as it become clear which pathways were more beneficial to take very quickly.

I decided to simplify my idea and aimed to let chance cards shape how the game played out. Although these cards were called chance cards, many of the cards let the player make choices that could help benefit them and put other players at a disadvantage. I simplified my map and my idea and created a prototype of my game with these new cards.

The final prototype before i made the real thing

These were my cards and tokens needed to play the game, the eight different coloured tokens are what the player is aiming to collect to win the game, whilst the cards dictate what happens. After testing the game it proved to be highly successful and very fun. A few times players who were about to win were thrown back into the game as another player received a helpful chance card and targeted them. I will add pictures of the game when i go back home and can use an A3 scanner.

I think my project was a big success as not only did my game fit the brief by being a race to the finish and mildy strategical game, but it was also very fun, with players wanting to play up to four games in a row. This project was also very fun to do and demanded a lot of creativity and thought which was a good challenge.

Working for a Friend

Late last year one of my friends who is studying film asked me to do some simple storyboards for his film. Originally he wanted one shot per A4 piece of paper but i wasn't too comfortable with this and thought it might be more efficient to do four shots per A4 piece of paper. He agreed that four shots per page was more efficient but still wanted two of the main shots in A4 which was fine with me. Below is the first draft of the first shot i sent him.

Below are some of the finished shots i did for him. Unfortunately i can't go into any detail on the story of his project as his film is yet to be finished. I was quite happy with my work for my friend, i like using colouring pencils as they make a change to digital art but sadly  these pictures aren't the best quality because my scanner seems to have brightened all of them. Nonetheless the pictures are all clear and fit the brief well.