To start, I think that the opportunity to work with the games design students helped me to understand the flow and communication that is needed for multiple departments in a real life situation and working environment. Whilst I have worked with other ‘studios’ internationally during my time in college, it was never to the depth and understanding this project gave me. I think it’s noteworthy to address this early on, as it impacted my work and my overall capabilities to attend meetings. Throughout the early stages of this project and during the middle, I struggled a lot with very real personal issues, this meant that I wasn’t particularly present during the pre-production phase and part way through the production phase. But that didn’t stop me, I had made it a point throughout this process to keep my group updated on my situation to the extent I was comfortable with, so we were all on the same page. Despite this, I tried my hardest to contribute to the group where it was possible.
A Miro board was made early on in the project. Miro is a website where multiple people are able to contribute to a single ‘page’. This made it easy to keep track of where everybody was at all times, and stay updated on the stage the project was at. For the animators, we wanted to keep track of assets such as:
Backgrounds
Characters
Animations
Environment
This was the final updated version of our Miro board:
When starting out, our group came together and brainstormed ideas on what we should focus on for our game:
After a lot of talk we fell into what would soon become ‘Acumen’, a dark-fantasy roguelike. We wanted it to take place in multiple environments, consisting of a forest (day and night), lush cave, and tree-tops. The idea for the game was that there was going to be multiple endings based on the choices you make throughout it. The world itself is decaying, and whether or not you choose to save NPC’s directly influences the speed of the decay. At the end of it all, you will be judged for your actions.
With this in mind, the 3 animators present for the project came together to discuss what aesthetic direction we should take the game in. I had compiled a mood-board on Pinterest filled with the style and aesthetic choices I thought we could make for Acumen, and we all agreed that it would be perfect for the game:
I began to sketch out a style sheet for the group to follow. I didn’t make it as the final draft, but I wanted to get the gears in everybody’s mind turning, so we could all come together and decide what we liked and what we disliked. For this process, I used the mood-board I had mentioned previously, and drew this: 
What we all agreed on from this was the thin, ‘rubber hose’ limbs with large gloves and accessories. We also liked the idea of thick shadows that would appear where cast shadows would occur. An animator on our team, Rae, then moved onto create the final style sheet for the characters:
Drawing by Rae
The other animator on our team, Niamh, also made a style sheet for assets such as rocks and fauna.
Drawing by Niamh
Colour is something that I struggle with innately, as I’ve come to realise that I see colour as very dull. This was an uphill battle for me, having to constantly turn to my team in order to find hues that work together as to my perception, they look very different. Nevertheless, I pushed through and tried to use it to my advantage. The colour palette I made consisted of dull and neutral tones, which helped with the genre we had picked, as dark fantasy usually utilizes a dull and desaturated palette. To help me build this I used existing pictures that I had come across to build the colour palette.
These were some images that helped me build the colour palette:
This was the colour palette:
This was eventually changed, and this became the updated colour palette:
Colour Palette by Rae
Near the beginning, I began to draft up some concepts for potential characters for the game. My process was solely focussed on messing around with ideas and not putting too much effort into the final product. These designs consisted of a travelling merchant, some ‘corrupted’ enemies, and any other idea that came to mind.
I really liked the idea of a non descript travelling merchant atop a large moose or forest animal. I also really liked the idea of the decayed birds being limp, like they’re bodies are so rotten they’re unable to hold up their head. Throughout the process, I tried to stick to the style sheet as closely as I could, so that the design could be fully represented.
I offered to take up the task of creating the background, leaving the character creation to the other artists. I had planned to get all the backgrounds done before a certain period of time, but was unfortunately met with a circumstance that forced this process back. The backgrounds I had made eventually fell to the side partially finished, as my group asked me to focus on more dire assets. I will go into depth on these assets later, and focus on what was done in terms of the backgrounds for now.
At first I created a background concept, this was to gauge the harmony of the colours and the visuals we wanted for the backgrounds to have. After I had sketched out thumbnails for the piece, I used the mood-board I had made, I created this: 
What I liked about each piece is that it really shows off how much the world can change based on your decisions. The first image depicts the neutral forest, and the second shows how lush it can become if you decide to help it. Finally, the last image shows how eerie and desolate it can become if you allow the corruption to spread.
When it came to actually making the background for the forest, I wanted to test the depth of the trees within the game itself. So, I grabbed a screenshot from the game and began to mess around until I got this:
The main purpose of this part was to see how the background would look in relation to the game.
Then, I moved onto making a background for the forest in the daytime. I wanted to make it really bright and vibrant to later contrast the dark that would come to push the dark fantasy narrative. The dramatic shift was supposed to throw the player into an eerie feeling, taking away the comfort of the warmth they were used to.
This is how far I was able to take the background on my own:
Making this came with an abundance of struggle. I was having a very hard time finding colours that worked together, mainly, I struggled with finding the right hue of blue, as even when messing around with it through sliders I couldn’t find a blue that was vibrant enough to match the vision I had for it. I was very lucky to have an attentive and understanding team, so when I reached out to ask for help choosing colour, Rae was kind enough to help me. The final product into this:
Colour correction/lighting/Character art by Rae, Trees/Background by me
Rae not only added in a blue she thought worked very well, but also went the extra length and added in lighting to see how it would look. I think the outcome was very beautiful, and I couldn’t have done it without her.
The plan was to use the same background but shift the hues and saturation into a deep, corrupted purple tone. I was also planning on adding cracks along the trees, along with other things that would push the corrupted feeling. This idea never came to fruition however due to time constraints. I really wish I was able to get around to do so but for now, this was the concept of that idea:
After this background was done, I began to draft up thumbnail concepts of the backgrounds to come:
Something that was vital for the visual progress of the game was tilesets. I was asked if I could go on with starting the process as I was co-ordinating the backgrounds, it made the most sense for me to tackle them in order to keep consistency throughout the game. It was an arduous process, as I struggled with learning how exactly I needed to format them in order to port it directly into the game. Talking with a member of the games team, I learned that not only does the overall canvas size need to be in the same proportion (e.g, 70×70), but also that the tiles themselves need to stay properly aligned within the squares, this includes the distance between them. The same games student was also very kind, and helped me format my file in a way that was translatable through all the other tilesets that were done.
The first tilemap I did was for the forest and the treetop. To keep the look of the dirt consistent, the treetop was recoloured to be less purple. this was the result: 
Whilst I think I managed to capture the repeating pattern that is necessary for a tileset, I think there is much room for improvement. For one, I believe that the contrast between the particles of dirt could be higher for more visibility. I also think that I could have done individual tiles, so the rounded look gets carried throughout if they’re used singularly. This is an example of a single tile not having the roundness consistent throughout:
For the wood in the tree top section, I wanted to keep the design consistent with the background, so I transferred the style of the engraved bark.
Learning from my previous mistake of not having a sounded singular tile, I made sure to implement and design one in this tileset. I had noticed when looking at the level, that there were a lot of thin single tile areas that acted as branches. So, to accommodate that, I made a single one that can be used.
For the final tileset, I made one for the cave level. I really love the outcome of this, as I think I managed to make the rocks interesting and repeatable. It was the accumulation of all the lessons I had learned from the previous tilesets I had made. If I had to redo this tileset, I would add more fauna throughout the rocks to make it fit more within the lush cave criteria we had set for ourselves.
My main tasks in terms of animation was creating a porcupine enemy, and also creating idle animations for NPC’s. The Porcupine was a bigger challenge than I had initially thought, and it was thanks to a lot of feedback and trial and error that I managed to make it what it was.
The design of the porcupine had already been made by another artist on our team, Rae, and it was her sketch and design that I worked from. This was her sketch, and I wanted to try and stay as true to it as I possibly could. To do this, I broke it down into its core shapes.
Original drawing by Rae, Overlap/study lines by me
From here I animated a walk cycle for the porcupine, and went to get feedback from my group and the lecturer. This was the initial animation:
This was the feedback:
With the feedback I had gotten, I wanted to implement it into my animation. However, I wasn’t satisfied with my original rough outline. Not only did I feel like it was flat and jarring, but mainly lifeless. To combat this, I went and brushed up on my fundamentals. Looking at it through a newly acquired analytical lens, I realised that I had forgotten about a core principle, solid drawing.
With the idea of solid drawing in mind, I returned to the porcupine and reimagined it’s walk with the feedback I had been given:
This newer version had a lot more personality and weight behind its movement. I approached my lecturer again for feedback and was told this:
So when moving forward I tried to lessen its pause to remove the implication that it was injured. I then finished it with all the feedback in mind.
I think that the pause is still very noticeable, but I don’t believe it gives off the impression of being hurt anymore. If I had the time to change it, I would make the pause less severe in its walk. I wanted to keep within the style, so I made sure to make the back legs shaded in cross hatching.
Moving onto animating NPC’s, Rae suggested we trace over her design in order to keep the style consistent, and focus solely on movement. This means that Rae should be credited for her amazing design and art work, but I did animate the movement for the idles. I was in charge of animating the bird and badger. The bird and badger weren’t entirely finished, and I wish I had the time to keep going ahead to add them. But regardless, I am really proud of what was done in the time frame given.
Niamh had already done some animation for other NPC’s at this point, so I wanted to use her style of idle animation as a reference in order to preserve consistency. These were her animations that I referenced heavily throughout:
Original drawing/design by Rae, Movement and animation by Niamh
What I noticed is that the movement is very subtle, as the characters bob up and down slightly with an overlap of movement, such as the fox tipping its hat and the cat waving its tail.
For the bird, my main struggle was the scarf. I wanted to give it the effect of cloth flapping in the wind, and it took a long time to achieve it. In order to get it done, I looked into the ‘wave principle’. What the wave principle is, is a series of arcs that show the effect of drag and momentum. In order to achieve this, I also looked into a youtube video that explained it in simpler terms for my to follow:
How to animate HAIR & FUR in wind!
This was the most completed version of the bird:
Original drawing/design by Rae, Movement and animation by me
Whilst I didn’t manage to get around to colouring the animation on the bird, I asked a friend to help me pick out some vibrant colours that could match. I then coloured it, and this was the product:
Original drawing/design by Rae, Colour by me
For the badger I wanted to keep within the same style of the Bird I had done before. Unlike the bird however, I was unable to finish colouring the animation or even create a colour palette for. I really liked the movement in this animation even if it is subtle. I think the fact that it’s not overly dramatic adds to the shyness I wanted to convey. This was the result for the badger:
Original drawing/design by Rae, Movement and animation by me
Overall, I think that despite my hardships through this project I came out on the other side with not only a better understanding, but appreciation of collaborative animation. I am very proud of what I have done, and I wish I had more time to achieve more, not just for me, but for the group I was working with. I would have liked to do more in terms of the background, and be more present for the idea generating phase. Nonetheless, I am proud of the work I have done, and I am appreciative of the members of my group that helped me throughout each step where possible, and were very kind and understanding of my situation. I will take the lessons I learned here, such as improving animation and communication, with me into whatever project I go into next.
This is the Demo video for the game:
https://1drv.ms/v/c/84f18e8834e99295/Ed8fcYngOXhFrgDW6Tk3oQEB42_7okzjXGMtNiy1OunJCA?e=o0jpQ1