Project Have Fun: Evaluation

I think everything went pretty well. As I've had this idea in my head for quite some time I was pretty sure on the things I wanted to put in. I wasn't sure on the style choice I made but I think the final came out not looking as smooth as the Studio Ghibli game but I think it's kind of quirky with the texturing in it. The colours are probably over saturated but considering I wanted the flowers to be vibrant I think it actually turned out well. I flung the boarder on just to show what kind of frame would be on it seeing as it's a scene from a cut scene in the game you'd have some sort of boarder till show where the black is to fill the rest of the screen. I think I probably could have designed a couple of beetles to throw in there to add a bit more character in it and to have a more platform side scroller mode. 

This game would be ideal for any platform, probably animated in flash and coded in which ever way the consoles would need to be and the PC as well. I think a widescreen view is more apt for most monitors and TVs these days as well. The genre it would fit in would be side-scrolling platform. As there is jumping involved it's considered platform.

Project Have Fun: Green Vengence

Project Have Fun: Finalization

Just a check on the silhouettes for the characters. The all look recognisable to me! They all fit in the environment I made as well, check. Only problem I think I really have is the fighter enemy. I added war paint but I really don't think that's necessary.  

The level I did in the last post hopefully checks with all the environment too. It's got the backstory(plants), it's got the directional steering, it's got the items that signify a change or importance too and nothing has been added that you can't do.

I chose to do the fight at the end with the boss. I wanted to try and show the action so I went for a sort of overhead view of the flyer coming in to attack while the cutter is all ready engaging and The Queen is just standing ordering about. I know the bottom panel is messy but it's me getting the directional composition or at least trying to do it.

Project Have Fun: A Level

Now it's not terribly detailed but it's to give you an idea of how the flower minions are used so you can progress through the level. You have to remember The Queen can't do anything expect walk. Hence her lazy attitude because she can't be bothered to do anything else. I think later on in level that it might be an idea for the flower minions to maybe gather a couple of skills on the way. For example the cutter could get a grip skill where you can swing to one area to the next if flight isn't possible or the boat could be used as a glider when in the air. The flyer could get a whirlwind move to blow enemies away in which case they would be beetles as they wouldn't know if it was those beetles that killed the flowers before. The jumper could get a platform ability so you could fall on top of it on a leaf that might not hold The Queen on it and you can use the jump ability straight away to get off the leaf onto another area.

Project Have Fun: Storyboard

This is the storyboard for the opening I was thinking of to introduce everyone and also the mystery of the big shadow.

So we have the flowers just doing what they normally do in their lives. The Queen being bossy and lazy.

Then the massive shadow approaches over head and they are frozen in fear.

Once the shadow has gone you hear a scream from behind the thick leaves.

 You discover a flower has been beheaded and the trail of the things that did this leads deeper into the greenery. The witness says it was beetles but had funny coloured legs and bodies.

The Queen is outraged as she approaches the scene and proclaims she will capture the enemy that did this. An advisor insists that she brings aid with her. This introduces the flowers you'll use in the game.

 Here you see them follow the trail into the green areas as they start the journey to finding the enemy that did this.

Project Have Fun: Art style and Colour

Because I'm doing a side scroller I didn't think realism would be the best option. Most you find are pretty cartoony and vibrant and as I'm doing flowers and plants I thought it fitted this type of game better. As I mentioned earlier this can work on all platforms and that includes handhelds and phones. I'm in absolute love with this game called Ni no Kuni which was developed by Level 5 and designed by Studio Ghibli who are my gods of animated movies. When I heard they were using their style for this game I was completely excited and, well I think this is the best option for me to base my style on and also the colors as well. There is a definite pallete with the areas and although my coloured drawings of the characters don't reflect it I'll be making sure the final piece looks like how this game is.

You can still see the colourful flowers laid through out the vast amount of green and I think the bottom right is a perfect reference for what I'm going for. I want that kind of background in my levels and gives me a chance to really be creative with how the level would be designed.

Project Have Fun: The Research

I realised I didn't post this yet. Of course I have some otherwise how would I know which flowers to use and what colours to stick on them! Also the enemies of course needed researching!!

To start I'll do the flowers. I just found a bunch of different flower types based on shape and color and also I gave a little thought to how I could actually use them as a tool. You can see here initial ideas I had for certain flower. The pansy I sketched was an old fart who was always grumpy but I thought he could have the hidden talent of strength and he could move things around in the levels. You also see a tiger lily there but the one I designed as the cutter was a purple and white flower but I seemed to have lost that picture reference. There was a lotus there as well. I didn't have an initial skill for it as it was just really a sketch based off what I was looking at and trying to fashion it into a living creature with eyes and such. The white lily there was the swimmer. I probably could have done a water lilly but that would require it to stay in the water and I wanted all the characters you use to be seen in the opening. The flower I based The Queen off. The night queen as it's known. I just loved how the pink just wrapped around the white flower when it was closed. I thought it would make the perfect shape for a detailing crown kind of thing. I didn't do the open one because I thought that would be better used when she died during the level or something and you'd just see all the petals carried away in the wind. The pink flower in the bottom left was my flyer flower. I loved how the petals just merged in the centre and it reminded me of a propeller so that's how I used it.The bottom right is the jumper flower. I thought this would definitely fit a spring idea with the way it's shaped and the colours were beautiful so I wanted to use it. You see the sunflowers there as well which I just used as the nursers.

Now we have the vegetation. This is what I'm referencing for the background of the levels and in the storyboards. Just to make it seem fuller and not open and plain so they look like they're in this planet of lush green plants. 

The enemies were based on the borrowers. The new studio ghibli movie helped a lot to determine the size of the enemies to the plants and the flowers themselves. The borrowers movie back in the 90s didn't give me any of that sadly but it gave me an idea for the way they would look crossed with the beetles they would have slain.

This was a couple of beetle pictures I took for the shape reference and colours. I thought they would really need a way to blend in if they were getting away with killing the flowers so what better way then to disguise as a beetle!