On day one, we met into our game design groups and began an ideating process, where we split off into sub-groups and started listing some solid ideas.
These ideas consisted of:
- A Lone Samurai side-scroller, who makes a connection with a young companion, bringing him hope in a post-War world.
- A side-scroller journey into the brain network: an exploration of mental health.
- The Pizza Escape: an isometric 3D platformer telling the story of a slice of pizza trying to escape a giant human with rats as smaller enemies.
- Belfast 3200: a side scroller in a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi-heavy future version of UU. Think Cyberpunk meets Mario (meets Belfast).
- Robot Puzzle Platformer
- Finding the Lost Cat: a young girl loses her pet cat and must embark on a quest to bring her home.
After we pitched these ideas, Brian encouraged us to think realistically so that we could deliver a vertical slice that was successful and not dampened by an overambitious, complex narrative or idea. Hence, we decided on the robot platformer. Given the theme of ‘Isolation/Connection’, one image came to mind for some reason, so I sketched it out in my notebook:
I didn’t know who this protagonist was, but I liked the silhouette. I was immediately inspired by the prospect of a lone robot in a post-apocalyptic world (for more on this, see my Mark 15 character design post).
I did this as a general concept:
I thought the idea of the city was interesting, too, and the potential colour palettes this could work with.
