Enter the Pixel
I have been kicking around the idea of an environmentally driven game involving the evolution of Jellyfish for about half a year. As a more mechanics driven game designer, image/style are usually one the last things I nail down in my process. Jellyfish are simple creatures and it crossed my mind that a minimalist art form may compliment their natural symmetrical beauty.
Pixelart. My thoughts a few years back were that “pixelart (was) pointless,” simply: “Why not make a game look as good as possible?” This discomfort with the art form evolved into a love/hate with my first real experience engaging with the medium in McPixel. The graphics were crude and dated looking, but it was these very aspects that complimented and often facilitated the games’ hilarity. Later, (the amazing) FTL would illustrate to me that pixelart was a lot more effective and versatile than I had originally thought.
Enter the Pixel. I’m not an artist (trained or otherwise) and I have 0 skill with any program aside from MS Paint; which conveniently requires no skill… at all. I think I might need the tiniest bit of technique. So- I google “how to pixelart,” and find this great pixelart tutorial. It’s a simple cube exercise and it shows how one needs 4 colours to illustrate (what should be perceived) as one colour on a simple 3D object. So- I give it a shot “HOLY SH*T! That’s a nice f*cking cube.”
*erhem* The style resonates with me. So tonight, I’ll start playing around with some imagery on MS Paint.
An Idea Grows Tentacles (Some are Japanese)
The concept piece actually came together pretty quickly. I used the moon jellyfish as my inspiration. A jellyfish native to where I live that (thankfully) doesn’t sting (I’ve swam into them).
Version 1. I just want to get the general shape right. They aren’t exactly hemispherical. I think the pink and blue are working.
Version 2. Adding some translucence. I really think I out did myself here, the pink structure through the jellyfish *muah* (like I said I am not an artist, so this is kind of a big deal for me).
Version 3. Adding some small tentacles. I deliberated over this for a while. I never want to be in a situation where I am subtracting through addition; hippocratic oath stuff.
Version 4. With the tentacles as small as they were, putting the little tentacles on the back side of the bell was pretty scary. I worked out spacing system that seemed to help.
Version 5. A jellyfish has some thickness to its body in some parts, so I tried to capture that with some internal separation.
Version 6. A leap of faith. I now move outside my comfort zone and make a major addition to the jellyfish. I add 4 large tentacles connected to the center of the jellyfish. I think they look great! It’s later pointed out the me that the tentacles look like d*cks… I go back to work.
Version 7. Despite my best efforts the tentacles have become more Japanese, the condition is worse than I feared.
Final Concept. Vindication! It appears the jellyfish is cured; we’ve got a concept!
This jellyfish is a little too advanced for where our character needs to start. I’m going to move backward to a simpler form, but we have an aesthetic.
Enter the Pixel
I have been kicking around the idea of an environmentally driven game involving the evolution of Jellyfish for about half a year. As a more mechanics driven game designer, image/style are usually one the last things I nail down in my process. Jellyfish are simple creatures and it crossed my mind that a minimalist art form may compliment their natural symmetrical beauty.
Pixelart. My thoughts a few years back were that “pixelart (was) pointless,” simply: “Why not make a game look as good as possible?” This discomfort with the art form evolved into a love/hate with my first real experience engaging with the medium in McPixel. The graphics were crude and dated looking, but it was these very aspects that complimented and often facilitated the games’ hilarity. Later, (the amazing) FTL would illustrate to me that pixelart was a lot more effective and versatile than I had originally thought.
Enter the Pixel. I’m not an artist (trained or otherwise) and I have 0 skill with any program aside from MS Paint; which conveniently requires no skill… at all. I think I might need the tiniest bit of technique. So- I google “how to pixelart,” and find this great pixelart tutorial. It’s a simple cube exercise and it shows how one needs 4 colours to illustrate (what should be perceived) as one colour on a simple 3D object. So- I give it a shot “HOLY SH*T! That’s a nice f*cking cube.”
*erhem* The style resonates with me. So tonight, I’ll start playing around with some imagery on MS Paint.