In my group we discussed and iterated our main ideas for the game - focused on the given theme of "Escape". We decided on a platformer of sorts in which the player would be chased by a large, unkillable force or enemy. I was given the main role of Concept Artist as well as animation and asset production within the group, alongside another concept artist, background and UI artist and two developers.
Originally, our idea was very Limbo Esq with its art style - 2D hand drawn greyscale textures with the only colour in the game being the player character.
Above are some initial concepts I came up with for the game, focusing more on mood and atmosphere. I wanted the player to feel like they were being forced and pressured into continuing the level - an almost claustrophobic feeling.
This idea then deviated into a multitude of potential art styles. Our group felt like using handpainted textures would be rather difficult to create a seamless and consistent world for our game so we decided on opting for pixel art as our style. Pixel art is definitely going to take much more time to create, but will allow us to be much more modular with our assets and put less strain on our animations.
(Above image may seem a little blurry) I decided to explore our potential art style as well as our range of environments the player will be in. I also played with the idea of the Tar infecting the area, which then lead on to the theme of the game being about pollution - with Tar playing a much larger role.
The games narrative would portray the Blobfish as an endangered species, having to leave the comforts of its home to escape the ever growing and hostile pollution. The aim of the game is to escape the chasing wall of Tar and avoid the pollution as you collect items, defeat bosses and find a new home!
Below is the logo I created for the game:
^ Misc sprite exploration including our checkpoint system.
I developed the spikes further, iterating various sizes to allow our level editor to pick and choose and to avoid too much repetition within the level.
^ More misc grassland exploration, looking at ways to create various decorative objects utilizing our chosen art style.
I created and experimented with tileable textures. I tried to stick with the earlier designs I made but I soon realised that the contrast between the tones was way too high. I corrected this by adding more softer highlights to the dirt textures, allowing the player to focus more easily on the character. I also made edge tiles and much darker tones variations for use further down the screen for a nice tonal gradient.
I designed an enemy for the game based on sand worms. Since our group had decided on a material tier system for the enemies, I thought utilizing the Crystal tier in a non defensive manner would be unique - providing the player a chance to fight back the once considered immortal tier. Staying true to this, I concepted that instead of the Digger enemy dying from the player's attack, it would simply retreat into the ground and reemerge after a short period. Above are my initial silhouettes for the creature.
I tried to give the impression that the digger uses the Crystal as a drill-bit to burrow itself. I felt happy with the outcome of this quick concept and I did not linger on it as I wanted to get stuck in with the pixel art.
These are all the enemies (so far) that I have pixelized for the game. Many will not be used, but having the concepts there as a way to think about possibilities is a nice thing to have. I will also animate all of the enemies, creating Idle, Walking(If any), Spawn and Death animations at minimum. The player character will also be animated by myself - I want to bring a certain charm to the game through its animations, whilst also focusing on creating contrasting personalities between the player and the enemies. Whether this be through movement styles or simply how they react to things!
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