Phil Fish’s devlog for the upcoming game Fez begins with a Photoshop mock-up of his game idea, made in the exact style that the game would be made in. With my cute character in mind, I started to get some ideas of how I wanted the game to look, and the kinds of colours I wanted to use, that sort of thing. So I thought I’d do the same thing. This would also act as my introduction to making tilesets for games, which is something I’ll be doing for the first time during the development of Hanami. I drew up the sketch above to get me thinking about what sort of objects would appear in the game a lot, and tried to assemble them into a small demonstration of the look of the game. It also led me to think about scale for the first time, as games are often way out of proportion. In a screenshot of Fez, a fan pointed this out for example:
However, the strange proportions are necessary based on the size of the tiles used. I worked out that Fez uses tiles which are 8×8 pixels in size, but these are expanded by about 5x when the game is played. This gives the game its very square feel, as there is little room for small details within each tile.
Games like The Archer and Cave Story use 16×16 tiles. While these don’t have to be more detailed, the opportunity is there, so for now I’m planning to create tiles which measure 16×16 pixels. By applying tiles to the sketch, I came up with this solution, which is by no means refined or finished:
I started by applying the 16×16 grid to the image, and draw a rough outline of the shapes as they would fit into that grid. Obviously, only background imagery really has to fit the grid perfectly. Objects and game items don’t have to consist of tiles, although in this case the tree seems to stand out a lot from the rest.
I mainly tried to concentrate on the tiles for the ground, as this was a single strip of tiles which were very easy to place and repeat. The difficulty was making enough that they weren’t too repetitive! I also tried to make sure they weren’t too overcomplicated at this point. Most of the tiles could be repeated and placed anywhere, but I made special end tiles with rounded corners which would only ever be placed on the ends!
As well as seamless tiles, I tried out creating single tiles. This closed type of tile is used in all three of the example games I’ve given in this post already, and make it even easier to repeat tiles into any form. In this case, each tile has an edge and stands out on its own, rather than fitting in to a bigger pattern.
I later added in a little more detail to the grass line, and made basic block-colour tiles for the background of this image. The tree is pretty much freehand at this point, and doesn’t adhere to grid or guide. I’m not sure if this is something I want to use much for background imagery, however it seemed to work well for the clouds in the very background. This image ended up looking very bright, and in my opinion a little too bright. The colours at this point are very inspired by Fez, but only for experimental purposes!
The placeholder character silhouette fits into a 32×32 square, which is a pretty standard character measurement in classic games. In terms of proportions, this means that tiles can sit at half the character’s height, representing accessibility. Tiles which create a vertical surface equal to or above the height of the character represent inaccessible areas, without having to take up too much room on screen.
Daily Archives: January 19, 2012
Early Character Development
Getting the character right is one thing I want to get sorted before starting to work on the visual feel of everything else in the game. I think it’s really important that the character fits into the world, but that world is also in tune with the character. Working on the character first also means that I can start to make sprite animations for early prototypes with placeholder level design. It will help give an early impression of the game without having to work out loads of individual tiles for background imagery!
I began trying to design a character a while ago, but for the most part ended up sketching slight variations of the same thing, and it wasn’t working well or progressing. I mentioned already that I originally wanted to make the character a portrayal of a Japanese character, and found a site called 51 Japanese Characters which really helped. The site creates these “characters” based on Japanese personality stereotypes, for example your first thought of a Japanese woman may be a woman in a kimono and sandals.
Your first thought of a Japanese man might even be a ninja.
My original inspiration for the game character came from the Kawaii (cute) character. Thinking about David Perry’s explanation of Game Cliches, I thought the harmless, cute little girl in pink would make a good protagonist, as she looks as though she can do no wrong. Kawaii is almost completely unique to Japan, and therefore would have been good representation of a Japanese personality.
Before I really knew what the game was going to be about, my character designs reflected this personality in a very cute, happy way. I started to develop a chibi-esque cartoon style, which was very simple to draw and provided enough detail to get the character across. As the principles of the game started to develop, my realisations of the character also evolved to be a lot less smiley and cute.
I started to develop this idea further, but never really finished.
Developments in character design led me to realise however that the main character should be a foreigner, a representation of someone like me who dreams of going to Japan. For a fleeting moment, I though maybe I should base the character on myself. In a way, this would be ideal. I know myself very well, and probably be able to portray my personality quite accurately! The character would be a bit of a nerd, enjoying the geeky side of Japanese culture like anime and videogames, and definitely have a natural anti-social nature. While I’ll probably be using some of these ideas, the main character won’t be completely me, and here’s why:
Me= grumpy, dull, unmotivated, spiteful, boring. No one would want to play that game!
Before, I concentrated on tying together a personality from Japanese personality stereotypes. Instead my character will represent a Western, nerd, gamer grrl stereotype. It’s the type of person who would love to go to Japan, and I could probably still think up an accurate portrayal of her. As for a name, I’m currently rolling with Hannah or Hana, as it’s a fairly popular Western name, but also mean flower in Japanese (hence, HANA-mi).
As it would be cruel for the character to be completely alone, here I gave her a cat to keep her company. Perhaps I’ll add a twist that reveals the cat to be a super-villain.
Hanami Idea Explosion!
I guess this is a little like brainstorming, only it’s more of an explosion of words. I can’t think of a better name for it, especially one that sounds as exciting!
I got this idea from Gabriel Verdon at the beginning of his Devlog for The Archer. He begins development with a quick introduction to the concepts behind the game, and his objectives for the finished result. As a quick introduction to the characters and settings for the game, he takes a simple statement and pulls apart separate words to explain further details. With the ideas I’ve got at the moment, I guess my opening statement would be:
A lone girl travels empty streets collecting cherry blossoms.
To make the statement a little more specific, I thought I would expand it to:
A long girl travels through the empty streets of Japan collecting Cherry Blossom after Hanami.
It’s still quite a vague overview, but I’ve left room for improvement ^_^.
Notes:
-Hanami- Gameplay is based around environmental obstacles. The player must find blossoms in hard-to-find or hard-to-reach locations, although I’m not sure yet whether this will be with the aid of special abilities or if the challenges will be fairly similar the whole way through. This will ultimately depend on what I manage to program.
-Feel of the game- There will be a conflicting sense of both loneliness and serenity throughout, achieved through lack of player communication and a peaceful setting.
-Symbols- Japanese written characters (Kanji) will appear throughout, as well as traditional Japanese symbolism such as the Sakura blossoms themselves, which are an ephemeral symbol of mortality.
-Music- I would like the music to sound like a typical “game soundtrack” (repetitive, electronic, catchy yet annoying.) But I also want to base it one traditional Japanese tunes, to help the game feel authentic. Throughout the project I will be listening to a lot of Gackt and Nobuo Uematsu for inspiration, but no changes there really!
-Movie Influences- Studio Ghibli’s so-called “Blue Sky, Green Grass” films- Laputa, Porco Rosso, Kiki’s Delivery Service… but also My Neighbours the Yamadas for a little insight into Japanese life, and anime like Angel’s Egg and Cat Soup for the sense of journeying through strange, lonely worlds (these second films also add a sense of darkness, which is something I’m currently toying with.)
-Game Influences- The Archer for its incredible use of Game Maker and beautiful concept and asset artwork, Ninja Senki for its Japanese themes and simple graphical style which create a great example of everything a platformer should be, and Nevermore 3 for its representations of isolation and loneliness in a beautiful world.
-One thing I really want to get across is problems with communication in a foreign place, and a lack of understanding of signs and symbols. I want there to be minimal dialogue throughout the game AT BEST, the player will have to rely on their own interpretation of symbols, imagery and gestures in order to get through the game. Some will be more complex than others!
-Verdon goes into a lot of details on his post about the inventory system, and how it acts as a means of providing higher-resolution details of items and characters which don’t appear very detailed in the actual game. This is definitely something I will consider! There will be items and pick-ups to help the character along, however I’m not sure what these will be yet.
