Animation style.

Animation.



The character sprites are coming along nicely. Originally I wanted the characters to have a very realistic puppet movement with the individual sections of the characters being drawn on separate layers in Toon Boom then animated by rotating and moving the individual parts. This is the closest I could get to building a puppet in 2D.

After looking at the test animations done by the always wonderful debs I found that this style of animation was very boring and difficult to exaggerate, the characters stood out far too much from the background losing the overall effect I wanted. I deserted this flat animation style and will now animate the motions in individual drawn frames. deb will do the animations as roughs and I will draw the character out frame by frame over the top. This should preserve the free flowing style I want. The character will bend and move in ways his joints may not allow although hand drawn animation can bend these rules of physics.

Sam.

(For more of debs animation work look here)

The Great City Tartarus.

The Great City Tartarus.

Taking inspiration from old greek mythology as Milton did I have named the devils prison city Tartarus although all the many areas within it have different names and their own look based on various aspects of different mythologies and religions. In this way I neither approve or disprove any religion, my devil is as much a malleable faceless force given form(s).

Story.
The devil created a prison world in the form of a small puppet theatre which is the only doorway in or out. Inside the puppet prison is a fake world which prisoners come to believe is their own real world, in this way they are tricked into staying there endlessly searching the great puppet world.

The look.
Tartarus is based on many different places, I have looked at baroque architecture as this is my feeling of what hell would look like, a place of excess and beautiful wonder with a kind of broken jumbled look about it, think an old museum with long red velvet curtains and junk everywhere. Less a place of fear and more just a place someone could get lost in forever.

I looked at babylonian and old sumerian ruins although I only took pieces of babylonian architecture in the end. I looked at specifically old english baroque architecture and prague's many beautiful buildings. My version of hell would incorporate these styles asian and european together. A mish mash of world culture to create the devils fake city.

Other areas have slightly different looks but I'll come to these later.






This was my first mood board, I really felt baroque domes should populate the main cityscape the player sees upon entering tartarus. With it being a kind of half limbo type prison I looked at willow trees being its main type of vegetation  this is certainly not a christian version of a hellfire prison and nor is this hell, my devil old scratch fashioned this realm himself so its design can bend any rules that may constrict my design.

The babylonian black and white image gave me the idea for a series of towers over the city which light this fake world (which obviously has only a fake sun.)

The Tower of Maalik.
The tower of Maalik is based upon the Islamic tale of the angel Maalik who guarded the hellfire with his 19 mysterious followers. His 19 followers are the stone angels atop 19 towers over the great city that light it. The tale of Maalik tells how he told the wicked they must remain in hell as ''they abhorred the truth when the truth was brought to them'' (from the Qur'an)

Maalik will feature in the story. I won't give too much away here but its ethically important. The tower of Maalik will be a playable area.

Another mood board collecting a few ideas for the tower of Maalik and the gardens (more later)

Concept art Depicting the main square of Tartarus, This area will lead to every other area the player will travel too and the player will need to return here a lot to cross over to other paths. While very eastern in style There will be plenty of european baroque references added, This is merely a concept rough

Inspiration.

                                   

                                     

I drew inspiration from journeys architecture Which brought together many aspects of different cultural designs. Their beautiful renditions certainly helped me think about the importance of the shape and form of buildings in regards to play.







I also drew alot of inspiration for my asian/european devil prison from Mike Mignola's concept art for the city of Pandemonium based upon the works of Milton. The domes and intricate details conveyed in silhouette are very powerful and his designs here are just stunning. I think my own city will swap the majesty and roman look for a more scottish look. Epic square cut cliffs and standing stones, While the devil built this prison and would have tartarus built in his own style the prison must serve the function of distantly persuading its prisoners that they are still in their scottish homeland, the areas they are kept will show this more than the city. After all this prison is a vast fake world with its own culture derived from as many religions as have trickster gods.

A few colour palettes for the first area. The one on the left is more for decoration while the one on the right is for the eastern design of Maalik's tower and his guardians. The european sections will have warmer greys.

Sam.

The game takes shape...

The background art is in full swing although the rooms are still being cut and changed as I solidify my idea of the puzzles. This is the wonderful work of max who will be doing the backgrounds and some of the items.
You can see more of maxs art on his own blog here.

While it looks fairly simple this room is filled with purpose within the game and has a few more bits and pieces I havent shown here as not to ruin the game. Everything in the backround will have purpose and theres alot of hidden bits and pieces I hope to include, eyes peeled!

Sam

The walking priest.

After cutting up my character and building it back as individual pieces (much like a real puppet is built) debs animated the character to my specification. Debs animation is fantastic and she picked this up really fast (kudos madam).

With the animating now in full swing I hope to get more of these up here soon. To see more of Debs beautiful work just look here.

Sam

The art team.

Tuesday!

Today has been fantastic and the game has really come together, I'll elaborate.

Today after a few leviathan team meetings the team all undertook individual roles, the team was picked with specific jobs in mind and there work has been fantastic. I while involved with every aspect of the games design and look have taken a more directorial position. Max is drawing the game backrounds and deborah is animating the characters.

Most of today I was redrawing the characters as individual pieces to put together and animate in toon boom. Toon boom gives a great cut out puppet effect animation that was exactly what I was looking for although I began animating using photoshop and then debs freehanded it. lots of experimenting to get the proper look.

The game Is now moving forward at a great pace and After a few sprites and backrounds are done I'll move on to game maker which will give a nice system of three.

Also today the game underwent yet another large iteration plotwise and puzzle wise that has really changed gameplay for the better, this is largely due to the team being able to build designs I would have found difficult and time consuming. Im now going to write out a full walk-through of the puzzles and what art pieces will need to be made then onwards! 

Week 5

The orcadian creatures.

From left to right: The brownie, the ceasg or mermaid, the giant and the wulver.