Character: Initial Ideas

In today's briefing we were given three cards; one red and two blue, to base our character design on. 

My three were:

• Weaponry
• Mutation
• Air

Trying out different combinations for my three words; weaponry, mutation and air, my first thought was to decide on the type of environment and genre of game I wanted. I've been leaning towards platform games, these games can be action/puzzle/speed based.

I put together an influence map of a variety of platform games from different generations, some with different game mechanics. 

For my character, I wanted to incorporate the mutation as a "splicing" power. This mechanic is more of a power boost element i.e in Mario with the mushroom/fire flower, but this is taken directly from the enemy (and lasts a certain amount of time). 

Before seeing Justin, I started to do some quick drawings. My main plan for this project is to do a style out of my comfort zone and do something more creature based than human.

These are few rough doodles I did, thinking about the type of shapes I want my character to have.

My influence for my sketches come from a few game and anime characters. Noticeably the head shape and mouth.

After talking to Justin he gave me a few ideas of how to incorporate "air" into my project. We both agreed that if I were to include it into the mechanism of the game it would over complicate things and just doing it for the sake of it, so I'll be focusing on using it for the character and environment.

If I were to use "air" for the character I can relate it to emotion, the examples Justin gave me were:

• Since the air can have something dramatic like lightning, the character can be very short tempered
• Can also be "free and not tied down", like a free spirit. A character that's more like an airhead.

Another thing we discussed was the game format. Originally my idea was to go down the platform game route, but the idea of an open world has opened up new possibilities. A platform game would be a bit too restrictive for narrative. I feel this will be easier to decide on once the environment has been developed.