Battle Cards

Spent some time putting together the 'battle cards' for the heroes and the enemies. The asset size (max 128x128) meant I made the choice to make the cards wider than the traditional playing card ratio to make best of the room available, the lines needed to be much thicker than I first created so be readable at that scale - the same being true of the bold easily identifiable shapes and iconography. I experimented with quite a few palette combinations for both cards but particularly on the enemy card -  red bordering green came up the best - particularly with Orcs in mind; at one stage I had metal bolts in the corners till I realised that it looked like an 'Etch-a-Sketch of Doom' :O

Zero to Hero

I'm in the final stretch on the art now and needed to create a 'Civilian' character for some of the game encounters that take place. 

I remembered the very first character sketch I did when working out the style -  at the time I developed this sketch into a basic template character on which to base all the other character classes to come and as I was trying to work out proportions it remains the only human character not to have a 'hat' of some description ;) So it seemed apt to use this guy (with some modification obviously) as the Civilian  (above right). Which got me thinking on where it all began, and as I've never posted him up before I thought I'd add the first character to created based on that initial sketch and template - the Mage (above left).

I managed to dig out that first sketch (below) which I scanned - well actually, I used my camera phone to photograph ;) you can also see the scribbles for the mages staff and his hand.

Heaven & Hell

It occurred to me that I never posted up the final Paladin Hero character. He's lived in the game build for quite some time now but every time he popped up on screen the problems surrounding his fitting into the 128x128 square nagged at me - he just never looked as comfortable as the other characters. So recently I pulled him to pieces, rescaled, simplified some of the complexity in components of his armour, adjusted some areas of high contrast which were moire'ing at scale and supplemented his tome (which although nice didn't read well at scale) for a kite shield - much better :)

Standing alongside him is the Undead Skeleton Paladin, I introduced some minor changes (tears, scratches, horned helm, icon swaps and cloak palette) to make him suitably different but readily readable as the Paladin class.

Bag of Holding

As mentioned before there's a bunch of UI elements that need creating which I've been working on in between other tasks, these are the character equipment set - most are extracted  from the characters, some are reworked whilst others needed creating from scratch.

Wild Thing

Okay so its been a while since I posted to the blog...  I've been mainly working on tile sets, backgrounds and the ui, nothing that felt substantial enough to put up, but hey I may just pull together all the icons and tiles at some point and post em up just for the hell of it ;)

That said I did just recently work on the final Hero character class - not that he's the last hero character you meet on your adventure just that its the last one I got round to doing...

I've been chewing this guy over for a quite a while now, he's called the Hunter.

In game play terms he uses a ranged projectile weapon and is accompanied by his trusty companion Wolfdog, generally the dialogue broadly paints him as being a little 'wild and scary' and prone to eating anything he kills.

I really wanted him to look like he lived off the land, the kinda guy who could and had taken down a bear or worse. I pictured him as a mix of Viking, Grizzly Adams and the Bear Man from True Grit so worked that into his design. His weapon I wanted to match with the rest of the fantastical setting so converted a blunderbuss pistol into a chunky hunting rifle to match his proportions. Oh and I gave him an eyepatch, can't beat an eyepatch ;)

Here be Dragons

I've recently put some time into the quest map as this was a part of the game that had yet to be realised in anything other than its block-out form. The format John has down is pretty sweet -  an area map scrolling over two spans worth of the mobile device, markers to denote the 'event' locations and little dots joining the markers to show  the route our heroes take at each stage of their journey.

We both really liked the idea of an illustrated map, having the appearance of a piece of parchment that had been sketched/inked and then simply water coloured, one that condensed the adventure and locations described in the quest onto each area map.  Much like a medieval/fantastical maps the parchment is filled with an approximation of the most dominant landscape and landmarks, so in the first area it is a road from a habitation through a hillside woodland and across a river. 

Playing through the game I took note of  the notable events, game-play features and particularly any location descriptions in the narrative that could be used to give each event location a sense of place, for example the first event takes place at 'The Heroes Academy' the second is mentioned in passing as being 'near the tower'. Each of these events are marked by oversize landmark which follow the same visual design for the characters - exaggerated key features; the style and palette used on the landmarks and surround also matches that seen in the game.

The far right of the map shows a small section of the next area which helps to demonstrate how the areas would transition in the game world and gives the player gets a taster of where they will be journeying to next, the next area map then being a continuation of this location...

Some area maps provided an additional challenge in having additional off the beaten track 'optional' quests, trying to squeeze these in made for some creative landscaping :)

Theres a fair bit of information needed on the border of the map screen so it was important that I kept the event locations primarily to the horizontal spine of the map. Giving the border  a clean and consistent colour backdrop - feathering the line work and bleeding the colour fill off to parchment at the edge worked really well and made good sense in the context of the illustrated map.

Creating these has been really enjoyable :D

Pocket Titans

If you cast your eye to the top right  you'll notice that the blog banner has been updated to include the swish new logo and title of our game 'POCKET TITANS' - ta-daaaa! (fanfare) :D 

We've been chasing around a title for our game since its inception, steadily over the development we managed to narrow it down and select a title that compliments the game, out of interest here is some of thinking behind the title:

• Pocket - because the feature characters are of a diminutive 'chibi' style and the game is for portable devices so fits neatly into your 'pocket'.
• Titans - because as the characters embark on great and epic adventures where they grow from small unknowns to huge, powerful heroes of legend - 'titans'

The title has a nice contradiction to it, 'Pocket' and 'Titan' being descriptive polar opposites.  Also, thinking ahead, the title is broad enough to allow us to use it when creating future games that potentially may chronicle the adventures of other heroes (or villains) in a number of different (or similar) settings.

So, before creating the logo, John and myself spent some time noting down a set of core values we felt best describe in words what our games logo should be :

• Fun - the game has a cartoon style and a good sense of humour, it shouldn't take itself too seriously, the 'Pocket' of the title
• Epic - the story is an epic heroic adventure, the 'Titans' of the title
• Incorporated Iconography - iconography that represents the game built into the logo typeface itself (also has the potential to be extracted for icons/smaller button logos)
• Fantasy - the setting is fantastical, the typeface and iconography should make the setting clear
• Game Palette and Styling - the game has a particular palette and rendering treatment, the logo should reflect this 
• Bold, Readable and Recognisable - instantly identifiable and readable at all scales, it needs to be dramatic, attention grabbing, our game isn't subtle.

I spent a little time collating a set of existing game logo's that in some way matched one or a number of the values, coupled with our list this effectively narrowed the potential for creative direction before sketching began.

Fast-forward to the end and here's the final logo below. I feel it pretty much ticks all the boxes we set out to achieve, I'm most happy with the iconographic sword that connects the two words of the title - the jewel set pommel for the 'O' and the hilt guard and blade for the 'T'.

Kindred Spirits

So Water and Shadow Spirits were up next and here they are. With all the Spirits I found it really useful to sketch them out first and then work them up as vector illustrations thereafter as its much easier to quickly get down those chaotic curves, erase and rinse-repeat until I'm happy. 

With the Water Spirit, realising the varying density of the liquid was a good challenge and forming a face within the swirl of water that looked 'natural' and at the same time threatening took a few attempts. The leg work done in creation, exporting it as an alpha layer graphic for game use was not as taxing as I thought it might be...phew.

I'd been chewing over the Shadow Spirit since beginning this set of characters, as although it sounded the coolest unlike the others it didn't offer up as many possible solutions. I liked the idea of hair-like tendrils of darkness writhing from a half seen skull so worked that up.

Twenty-five down, nine to go...  :D

Spirit of Adventure

Here are two of the Spirit characters I've been creating for our game. The Spirits are natural elements that inhabit some of the more remote areas of the game world but they can also be conjured or summoned by the more magical classes to fight in their stead.

With these character designs we wanted to construct them from their element but present them as a swirling floating ethereal  essence rather than the more typical humanoid shaped 'Elementals'. The Spirits do have a certain amount of sentience though, therefore their essence is shaped around a crudely formed face

These two are the Earth and Fire Spirits, next up will be the Water and Shadow Spirits...

We Have Explosive

After completing the Hero, Skeleton Orc & Orc versions of the Warlock character class (I'll post up that set in the same way I did the Rangers at a later date) I put together one of the enemy characters that doesn't have a corresponding Hero version...

Much to the dismay of the Heroes, these pyromaniac anarchists take great pleasure in lobbing gunpowder packed iron balls of explosive chaos in every direction.

The Dark Side

Heres the design for the Warlock character class, despite appearances he is one of the Heroes and fills the role of the unlikely ally on the Quest. A practitioner of the dark arts his shadow magic allows him to drain the life force of his foes and instil insanity in the weak of mind :O

There are a number of ways I could have gone with the design for this character, but I felt that mixing the clothing of a robed medieval monk with the more youthful emo and goth stereotypes (side swept bangs covering one eye, mixture of black and bright hues, pallor and psychological associations) made for an interesting base onto which to apply the occult symbolism.

As the Warlock uses spell books and talismans for his offensive spell casting I have outfitted him with an Arcane Grimoire and Cursed Skull Fetish. It should be good fun creating the variants of this character class :)

Paladin's Progress

After completing a spooky woodland location tile set I've moved my focus back to the characters. As you can see I've begun to work into the Paladin King sketch, here's the work so far.

The Paladin King character class key colour is yellow (argh!), initially I must admit that I was not looking forward it, but after a little thought realised I could take the yellow and make it work for me by treating it as the visually more acceptable and more applicable  (particularly for a kings armour) 'golden'. I also rather like the platinum white inlay which breaks it up.

As I previously thought, after dropping him into the vector package and comparing him to the basic character template its evident I am going to have to make some compromises with certain aspects of his scale to fit him into the wee 128 x128 square; for now I'm working him up as sketched and will hammer him into shape later.

Ye Olde Pencil and Parchment

Its been a while since I posted, partly due to working on the games location tiles and backgrounds.  I have however had an opportunity to begin pulling together the various ideas we have for the Paladin King character into a sketch.

With some of the character designs I have a clear picture in my head which has allowed me to work them straight up into a graphic, with others I have turned to good old paper and pencil and thrashed it out there. 

To be identifiable The Paladin King needed to be  far more grandly attired than the Knight so his armour is comparatively more elaborate, full plate and with a cape. Being a King it was important his face was exposed (again a differentiator from the helmeted visor of the Knight) and I worked in a crown over his helm. In terms of game play he utilizes the Paladin tropes - words of power and righteousness and melee attacks so he clutches a rather sizeable tome in one hand and...nothing in the other :/ Okay so here is where a large mace (or 'Battle-Sceptre' as I'm calling it ;) will go, I just need to sketch that up too, and adjust the size and position of that gauntlet...

So being a sketch its a rough idea of where I want to go with character, it will undergo some minor changes once I move it into the vector graphic stage, most notably I need to spend some time adjusting the scale of the various elements to fit with the style. Once he's complete I'll post him up! :)

Dem Bones...

Hot on the tails of the last is another character update, here is the Skeleton Orc Healer. 

As the 'pure of soul and benevolent' style Healer used on the Hero sat ill with the enemy races I styled them on archetypes more associated with Shamans or Witch Doctors, incorporating elements such as animal feathers, beads, bones and skulls.

I aged the 'White' key colour and corrupted the symbolism used on the Hero Healer, the 4 point cross and jewel atop her staff is parodied by the skull and crossbones and the same symbol marked on her forehead is a desecrated version daubed in some unmentionable substance across the skull - grim!

A range of Rangers...

In a break from tradition I thought I would post up three character designs in one post (the horror!).

Here are the three varieties of Ranger class, from left to right: Hero, Orc & Skeleton Orc - hopefully this provides an example with regard to cohesive single class visual design across races mentioned in previous posts. 

Green clothing over green skin for the Orc Ranger would not be my first choice of combinations but was a necessity due to the above (it was gonna happen with one of the classes! ;), I worked around the issue by grading the cloak lighter near the shadowed skin and darker near the lighter chin, I also exchanged the green body glove of the Hero Rogue for tan body armour for the Orc version. 

The Ranger was particularly challenging with regard to the inclusion of a strung and posed bow and arrow due to the proportions of the character and space available on the tile. Initially I wanted to have the bow pointed downward in a ready but relaxed position, but the distance from upper hand to floor made the pose unworkable, after some reworking I succeeded in a pose that fits the proportions of both character and tile and manages to emphasise the head of the arrow which assists in speed of class recognition - phew!