Year 2 semester 3: Game development reference gathering

Group task

we had a task were we had to chose 3 pieces of media each with different artsyles and discus different aspects of them like what it does right and wrong and if the artstyle adds anything to the story, i feel this has opened my mind to stuff i never though about like the artstyle reflecting the story and just because somethings have the same artstyle doesn’t mean they have the same style.

This came up on Youtube so i thought i would watch it to get a better understanding of the game development process

thought this had some interesting info for how to do 2D characters in a 3D world.

Gameplay/Game Idea

we’ve agreed on making a racing game that involves a time traveling mechanic that effects gameplay by changing the vehicle you’re using in game or changing the time period of the race track you’re in. At this time we are still deciding if it should have AI racers or a time trial game, i suggested have AI enemy’s spawn and attack the player with the enemy’s being time police or something. The premise of the game is that a mad scientist sends a lab assistant back in time to collect time for his time travelling experiment so the way to collect data is by completing laps around a race track while collecting optional collectables place around the track. a gimmick we came up with is to have the vehicles change be it by collecting a power-up or by lap and then the gameplay will change depending on what you’re riding.

 

new idea was to present the game like one of those police dash cam shows but one of the game designers said that would be too difficult so it’s jut going to start off with the player character already speeding away from the police

this idea is similar to the different machines in the game Kirby Air Ride

can’t make a racing game without brining up Mario kart, Mario kart 8 (deluxe)  also has a vehicle changing gimmick which effects gameplay though it’s not drastic changes like what we’re going for.

Artstyle

for our art style, we are looking to have a graphic novel/ wacky cartoon look to everything. using Wolf Among us 2 and Boarderland as the main inspiration since it uses cel shading to create it’s art style

 

Hi Fi Rush also has a good artstyle, probably going to for something more similar to this

Also want the art style to a Saturday morning cartoon influence so looking at Nickelodeon cartoons for reference

Character designs and inspiration

someone Aaron suggested we based the personality and design on for the mad scientist character is Billy Connelly, which i like the idea

Aaron did some concept art for the mad scientist character and he said it looked like Frank Zappa, so i looked him him and i think he’ll make for a good design for a mad scientist character.

Another suggestion was Barney Gumbel being the inspiration for the lab assistant/ player character.

 

 

thinking of giving the lab assistant a mechanic jumpsuit to wear

Character sketches

quick sketch of a character design for the mad scientist which i will name “Dr Insaniac” (combination of insane and maniac)

 

Concept art for the player character, wanted to make the player character a mechanic that’s more of an underling to the Scientist character

 

Ref images for police character

wanted to make a visor for the time police helmet in the shape of a police badge, also looking for ref images of police uniform and the kind of accessories they would wear

got some UK police uniform to see if there’s anything i can add from them, UK police look too friendly so probably won’t take too much inspiration from them

Ref images for time police vehicle

need ideas for what to have the time police chase the player on

 

need images of a bike engine

Sketches of time police bike

 

AI generations of character

character i’m making is an enemy in the game that’ll slow down or stop the player, this character is supposed to be a member of the time police stopping the player character from messing with time and making it unstable.

Ref for police accessories

some ideas for what to add to my time police character and inspiration for time travel-looking equipment to make

images to inspire time travel tech

some AI art because it’s hard to find any images on bing or google on what i’m looking for

Sketches of time officer

some sketches of what designs i came up for the time police designs, most of them i copied a bit much of the AI images but i was getting fed up so i drew a thumb i though the nail looked like the visor so i gave it a body and liked the design so going forward i’m basing the helmet shape on my thumb.

 

 

Vehicle reference images

Want something stupid and absurd to be the time traveling vehicle that the player will mainly use, want it to be like how a DeLorean was modified into a time machine in Back To the Future.

Looked up “Nose in the shape of a car” on image generator and got this,  made me laugh so i might use this in our project

just looking for weird red neck contraptions, there’s a sub reddit for stuff like this but i forgot what it was called.

just came across these while looking for ref images for race track decorations

 

Environment reference images

want to do a track set in the past in the prehistoric era but since we’re making a racing game, i want to blend it with a race track so here’s some images of what the past probably looked like.

i like how rocky and mountainous this is kind of makes the world feel bigger even when it has large creatures roaming around.

need stuff to populate the environment like plant life, so need some ideas of what all prehistoric plants would look like.

looking some more flower looking plants  to help cover the ground

now here’s the race track reference images, not looking for the whole stadium, just getting a ruff idea on how they’re designed.

though i would get an image of the starting line just to be safe

 

and need some more elements from race tracks to decorate the environment like tire stacks and barrels, also these stuff can double as a way to help direct the player to where they should go

incase i want to add more futuristic elements i got some images of what the future could look like

i think something with more elements of nature could be more unique than just cityscapes

one of the game designers suggested taking inspiration from the road in San Francesco

also got reference images of neon lights for our future city

 

AI garneted images

got some generated images of what my idea is, that being a mixture elements of the future being in the past

 

we’ve settled on out game switching between the future and a Victorian era that functions similar to a level from Titan Fall 2

Concept art for other games

i wanted to look at how concept art and style sheets are made in a more professional manner so took a look at these websites.

The Art Of Crash Bandicoot 4 It’s About Time : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

took some pages that i found the most useful

 

 

Concept Art (slycoopernet.com)