FMP – Evaluation

Forsaken Paradise

This is a story of two characters that try and discover what has happened to their broken world and save it from darkness and give it the light which is hope.

Link to the game below (Window Version)

https://hollowparty654.itch.io/forsaken-paradise

I was designing the environments, the map, the poster and the coding aspect. I’ve managed to complete them in a smooth render style and that I am pleased with the outcome. What I add is that some areas are at a low resolution and that it needs to be changed and kept within the same resolution. One of the weakness that I have is a large amount of work that I do and that it tends to be too much. From this experience, I’ll limit the amount of work due to the fact that I can focus on one design and try to make better. My strength is to make simple idea effective and focuses on the detail that needs to be added. Also, even if the design does not work well, I’ll still experiment and produce different variety before publishing the final version. If I were to improve, I would need to make sure that the focuses on my time management a bit more and limit the amount of work.

The game has a simple storyline that all players are able to follow and the mechanics work beautifully. With each battle, it neither easy or hard but rather fair so that the player is enjoying the game and challenge themselves to be better to progress with the story. The art style is very unique to view upon for the audience and it is easy to identify what it is and what it is showing. Even though players will encounter some art error where they start to walk over the tree is because the image size and it will cause the game to lag if I implemented into the game. I would rather have some bug than a laggy game to present the audience. It would have been easier to set it up as a tileset but I would like to go for a different approach to see what I can experiment on the software and play around with its mechanics.

The poster shows a beautiful line less art that has different shades of blue. The bright colours are juxtaposed against the dark colours making appealing towards the audience. If I were to redo a poster again, I would look at the different variety of layout and what colours I would be using.

Research

For what I conducted from my research is a lot of references from real life and look at different environments and what style they would go for. The amount of photography I showed gives me enough inspiration for how I want the game to be looking like.

In a game world like this, the majority of the design would come from real life images and adding a twist to it. I would examine a spaceship that looks very rusty and polishing it with a modern look that would be appealing towards my audience. If there was a specific decorative object that I would like to include in my game, I would go out and explore the different type of tree and exploring how they would form during the time.

The only difficulties that I would find if I wanted to get a piece of object that I would have to wait due to the seasons and since I want a specific object. I would have to go to the internet, instead, I will be looking into real-life scenery to further expand on primary research to prove that I went into depth with my game.

I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum where they show a video game display and how developers were showing their own concept of art. I found that very useful as I can have an understanding of how organised their structure of work is. By looking at how the layout is, I can have a better feeling of how I should construct my work.

Artist from different RPG such as Mad Father, the Witch’s house and IB all show beautiful artworks and how they use the colours are very effective. Even though they all are horror games, they still use bright colours to portray how innocent the scenario is and how the character would do in the situation. IB shows childish like style artwork of how they show this innocent girl, and she is trapped with inside a nightmare world where chase her with different types of phobia and personify them as a person.

Planning and Time Management

Throughout the game process and how it functions, I do believe that I managed it very well but I think that there are some things I could have added and spend more time on the extra time such as a second poster and a HUD. However, the amount of work that I have done is plenty of showing my development.

I believe that some coding aspects took longer than it should have and that I needed to be prepared next time so that it is I can do the process more quickly. I was trying to figure out the parallax mapping size as the software was duplicated the images and I didn’t know how to fix the sizes. However, after a couple of day working out the maths, the map would fit itself but I do believe it could have been sorted at a later date.

I mainly focus on the major part of the game which was the environment and once I inputted the environments into the software, I started coding straight away and I knew how I wanted the story to portray itself. I found that very helpful, and I was able to get a lot done during the time that I have.

Developing and Modifying Work

In the beginning, I was using simple trees that formed other RPG because how they used their trees works effectively. However, that may not be the case for me due to the art style that I have. I may need to create them bigger to adjust and make them look unique to fit my art style. Rather than designing one tree, I looked at a variety of different trees that would fit within the selected environment for the game. I also changed some layouts of the environment that would be easier for players to walk around and that it is not complicated.

For each environment, I’ve conducted 3 different layouts and I’ve explained why I have created different layouts for each environment. Also, the map design has 20 different variations and the one that I selected was presented on a treasure map that would be later digitalised in Photoshop. Finally, there were 6 designs of the poster but I only chose one to digitalise only because of the limited time that I had left.

With all of my ideas shown in my blogs, I believe that I produced many ideas that I could use for the game and with the selected choices, I was not displeased with my action of picking the design.

I had one particular choice that would be in the desert layout where the character would have to go through a long route to get to the spaceship and go towards the evidence. However, it would take me a lot of time to code it and I believe that the audience would find it boring during the gameplay, so I shrink down the size and change the route to be much easier. I do want to point out that the design of the poster was originally going to be two characters next to a bonfire and behind them is the city sunken in with the sand but since there was a limited amount of time left, I had to go for a simpler version of the poster by making it line less and I knew that this method would work effectively.

For the environment, I played around with different texture that would blend well with the water, grass or cliffs. By adding a clipping mask on the selected area, it blends well with the other environments. I try using different shades to fit the colours for different environment stages to see if I like the colours applied to it or not. If I do not like the colour, I’ll add highlights to boost the quality of the design.

For the map design, it took me a day to completed as I wanted simple and to show my understanding of how to design a realistic map based on other maps in real life. For the environments, it took me 2 weeks as I needed to go back to the design to make sure that it is refined properly and I apply extra detail to make more appealing towards the audience and even though the audience won’t see the design, I will put details towards that are just in case if the audience wants to see the entire layout. The poster, it took me 3 days as it is very simple but it needed to be done correctly as the design needs to be symmetrical. Even though lineless art is effective and simple, I needed to consider the colours that I was going to use and uses the different shades to show the tint and shadow of the colour.

Materials, Techniques and Processes

For my sketchbook, I used a 4B pencil to make the design clearer to see what I have portrayed for my game. It is easier for me to do ideas development on sketchbook as it allows me to give out a variety of design and explore what could be added into the game itself. I also did a collage of what the environment should look like and I used coloured paper and images to display my layout. I did different techniques to demonstrate my understanding of how I want the design to look like and have a proper feeling of when the audience is going to look at.

I had no difficulties with using the materials whatsoever as I knew what I was doing during the process stages. Despite the fact that there weren’t any difficulties whatsoever, I would still like to include a colour version on some of the design to convey my ideas and explain my reason for it.

With colours of the poster design, I didn’t realise that it was going to be effective with the use of blue and black as they juxtapose against each other. This makes a really good contrast between the two colours by making it appealing towards the viewer’s eye. On the other hand, I used the final design for my environment and used them as templates following a grid layout so that when I get to code in the game, it will make the interaction easier.

The Final Outcome

Overall, the game mechanic works beautifully and that the story is easy to tell. The player is to follow what to do, and they will be able to enjoy the game itself. The environments are appealing and the use of colours that have been used is effective and make it enjoyable to watch. People are able to download the game without any problem and it has an easy function on what to do next. The reason for this approach of action is that I want other people to gain access to the game themselves and play through it. If they have any comments that they have, I will be able to make sure it is fixed and I can patch up the game so that they can enjoy the game more.

The game itself is completed and it is upload online in a window’s version. I do have some complication with it the teachers asked if it was imported as a Mac file. Even though it is possible to do that function, it will export it as a bigger file. What I mean by that is, the game that I exported is at 900 MB but when I exported in a Mac file, it exported at 7 GB which some website to upload your game won’t allow it. Which then leads to my research that most people would prefer to play in a window computer rather in a Mac. However, the game is functionally and I do have something that would advertise the game itself which is a poster. Also, there are some bugs in the game where you would walk over the trees itself but if I were to do that, it would lag the game and I won’t have exported the game like that. If I were to have another go at designing the game, I would find another way to make the image smaller or input the images as a tile sheet so that it does not take a massive amount of memories.

The game and the poster was made in the highest standard that is clear for the people to see. There are some areas that are at a low resolution but it works well with the game because I need to maintain the size of the game which below 1 GB for itch.io and Gamejolt which website where you can publicly upload your game.

To conclude this game, it shows potential with the mechanic and the story brings interest as the player will be asking of what happens next. I feel like I’ve managed with the time that it was given to me and if I were given more time, I would add an interesting mechanic and storyline to the game that would boost the quality. Even though there is a lot of products that can easily show what the game is about, I wish I could have done more so that I can show to my audience that there is a variety of achievement services such as posters, website or trailer.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Throughout this project, I have a better understanding of RPG Maker MV now and that I can be producing my own game using my own art style. I do believe that the way of how I design posters are getting better by using line less art to present the game and using the composition to keep the shape align with each other. The poster makes sense of what it is telling the audience and the selection of the typography is bold and powerful to captivate the audience’s eye. They understand that I have for the environment has a slight improvement in the layout and making it unique than other games. The most improved in this project is how I design trees and that I have a better knowledge of the structure of trees and how they would look like if they were inputted in different environments. There are some things that are my downfall to my project and that the texture of the environment. I wish that I had a better understand when it comes to designing texture as they enhance the quality of the game slightly. Even though it is pseudo code, I wanted to know the advance version so that I make the game unique and make it special. One of my weakness in this project to know when something is too much. What I mean by that is, at the beginning of this project, I wanted to create so many things for the game but because with the time that was given to me, I had to remove them and focus on the ones that are important to show for the audience.

Overall, this project has given me improvement in my art style and more knowledge of coding has been shown to me. I really like how the layout is presented and it is easy to understand where you should be going inside the game. If I were to do this again, I would look at all different types of environments and expand what could be added into it and learn some JavaScript to produce plugins for the game.

Conclusions

In conclusions, I am happy with the outcome of the game and it looks easy to play and you are able to have a basic understanding of what is an RPG. If I were to do this project again, I would like to add some elements that I discover in the museum that I research and combine together to show my understanding that I have used my primary research well. Also, if there are some areas that need to be fixed such as the low resolution, I will make sure that some objects such as houses or trees are inputted into a tile sheet to prevent more memory size for the game to be exported.

From this project, I’ve learned how to expand my knowledge on a decorative object such as trees, rocks, houses, cliffs, plants etc. With the plugins that were given to me from Yanfly Engine, I was able to use their codes and input them into the game. Even though it is not my code, it helps me understand the variables and how to translate them into a simple version of the English language. The lineless poster demonstrates how effective it is and by that, I want to be experiment more of this style to get even better in my own art style. The three months that was given to me was acceptable has it gave enough time to code the game to the best of its ability.

Throughout this project, I was able to create something that I enjoy the most which are creating a game. Even though it is my first official game, there are some areas that I feel is empty but regardless of that, it is a good attempt of making a game and with this knowledge now. I will have a better chance in making a game at a faster but more effective way.

FMP – Coding the Game

Task

In RPG Maker MV, you don’t need to use JavaScript but mostly pseudo code. This is to help newcomers the basic of how to code using the format that they have given to you.

In the coding process, the player will go through a conditional event where they would need to do something to trigger the event. This will allow the player to explore what’s in the environment and what could they give them. I do want to mention that it has a lot of statements to allow the player to gain access through the next level.

Within this event editor, I am able to use create cutscenes and make them look professional. There is a large variety of options that would help boost the quality of the game.

Inside the environment, you see a tinted space around the scene and that is the event that would trigger with this scene. I’ve planted events all over the environments so that it would create a story

In this section, it will help me activate some event and trigger cutscene that will allow the game to progress with the story and allows to keep track where everything is. I can create more switches to create more cutscene for the game if I wanted to.

This would be important for the players as this would help them along with their quest. It doesn’t have to be a focus on the offence or defence or magic. It is something that would be essential for the player and have a better experience when playing the game.

On this setting, it helps create a balance with the battle scene and I can make sure that it is fair for the user. I need to make each stats fair to make the game more interesting.  The experience points are equal to the player won’t feel that the game is easy.

There is one environment where I would not apply any pictures on top of it and that is the forest scene. The only reason for that is the size is too big. If the parallax map is too big, it will cause the game to lag and apply the picture would take more frames to progress. However, it could be the case that my laptop is at a lower specification and that the Mac should have a higher one. It is worth a try but if that does not work, I will write down in my evaluation that I attempt to add it in.

During my testing on the desert level, I found a secret area that allows you to go through and see the other half of the level. I will need to restrict that before uploading the game.

Looking back at my critic that someone has said that the story was not clear enough and that it needs some direction of where the player should go. With that said, I inputted a quest journal system and a map window plugin that would appear on the top left corner to guide where the player to go. I believe that this method is very simple and that it is effective for newcomers to haven’t played an RPG.

When setting up the pictures that would either to tell a story or bind that picture into a map, certain pictures will start appearing in another scene which they should not belong and you would have to make sure that the size is mathematically correct so that it within the game screen or the game level itself. There was a glitch where the beach scene would be flooded with different types of houses or trees that shouldn’t belong there. The only thing that I would say to prevent this is to number them and deleted them in the other scene so that it would not affect them massively. If two pictures were set to “picture 1” but they had different images, it would be best to separate them and add a different tag which will be easier to code later on.

When I was having a problem with the parallax mapping when I could not figure out the size of it, I tried importing everything as a tile sheet and start producing my own environment. Placing the objects onto the scene raise a concern as it started to create an erase space for some area and I did not want that into my game. So I went back to parallax mapping and realise that whenever the size was, I would times it by 48 because that would be the setting of the every RPG resolution.

Overall, I ensure that I coded the game and the cutscene are more fluid so that it is enjoyable for the players. The criticism that I receive from the testers made me a better game developer to focus on small details on how to improve the game. The only bad thing that I would have to say is that the forest scene is very large and I won’t be able to use the picture as it would lag the game. If I were to improve, I would split the forest scene and code it separately so that I can experience the game with no lag.

FMP – Poster

Task

 

I will be using Photoshop to make my own poster in order to make the appearance bold and this software is the one that I am more comfortable with. Importing the scamp version into the software and making it a template so that it is easier to outline the shape. With the rule of the third composition, I will make the shape even and that I can make it symmetrical.

Once I go the shape outline and replace the line with the matching colour, the appearance is starting to build itself. However, in my mind, I was looking for a night time theme and the orange slightly ruins that theme. The mountain themselves are fine but will need some adjustment with colour. The only concern that I have now is the figures as I believe it is badly designed. Perhaps later in this development, I will change the figures to make the poster better.

With the new improved colour, blue has proven to be appealing to the poster and the brings a juxtaposition against the dark colours which is effective. The clouds are included to form a face. This is to present power and to show that it is to be fear and the two figures are there to stop him at all cost. I also receive feedback about the face section that there is a weird cloud in the middle and that it looks unnatural. Even though it is meant to be a face, I will hold on that matter and see how the end process goes.

Later on, I added the moon and reduce its size to be appropriate inside the shape. The dark circles help increase the design of the moon and it is simple to understand.  However, the figures are very blocky and you can not tell if that is a human or not. I might play around with silhouettes so that the poster can improve even more.

Looking through my colleague’s character sheet, there is a full body version of it and I use that as my advantage as it comes from the game. Once I apply the solid colour to it, it has made the design even better and more appealing towards the audience. I do want to point out that I am using the darkest colour upfront so that it is easy to see what over there in the distance and creates this illusion that it is far away.

Next, I wanted to include trees but since I’ve designed a couple in the environments, It would be best to use them as it would save more time than creating another one. I stick to the normal colour scheme that the poster was showing and ensure that it is lineless to keep that consistency. With the tree at hand, I inputted into the shape so that it is creating is a layer to present the figure of the game and by doing that will make the poster more interesting to look at.

Typography

Futuristic

Finally, it comes down to the tile of the game which is “Forsaken Paradise” but I want to make sure that the title is bright enough to see and it is bold to allow the viewer to catch their attention. Using this font has a unique element to it as it is slightly slanted at an angle and added some edges to make it look cool. Now even though it looks cool, I still wanna play around with the typography before making my final decision.

I had enough experiments with this font type, however, I thought it would be nice to have a shadow as it will make the letters look 3D and that could boost the quality of the poster. Even though it has a nice touch to the poster, I want to try on another font as it might work better.

Graphic Art

In my opinion, this is one of the least favourite fonts to use in this poster, as I don’t feel it fits well with the theme and that typography does not go along with the genre of the game. Some of the letters in this typeface are more suitable for a racing game.

Glitch City

The Glitch City typeface looks very appealing and I like its boldness. The spacing of each letter is readable and the lines make the font look very awesome. I might have to rearrange the word to make them aesthetically pleasing.

I slightly changed the size of the font and the layout looks amazing. The layout shows a unique way of presenting the game. The texture of the font is exclusive and has a complex pattern that would make it more interesting.

Evaluation

Doctor Glitch

Overall, this is the font that I have chosen for my final poster.  It works well with the shadow layer and the glitch makes the letter more appealing. I sampled two colours from the poster and I used them in the title. The only concern that I have was the structure of the face for Zaker because I wanted to show that he is looking over at you, however, I removed the cloud as it looked odd on the sky.  I realised that the silhouette of the enemy is recognisable and works really well with the rest of the image. I was wrong that without the cloud in the face section the illusion of the enemy figure will be gone. If I had more time to make improvements, I would have to make sure that I will add more detail to the lineless art to boost the quality of the work and will try to think of a new way of doing the face silhouette and blend it with some of the environments I have created for the game. 

FMP – Game Tester

Task

During the making of my game, I’ve asked a couple of people to play the game to know what I need to change. I will mostly take constructive criticism as it will allow me to develop the game to be better. The feedback that I got, not only will help me to improve the game but also it will be allowed me to understand better the mechanism of the game itself and how to portray the story with a clear structure.

Tester 1

Pros

• Very interesting story
• Game mechanics work well
• Both environments and character are designed very well

Cons

• Some bugs
• Low resolution in some areas
• Few grammar errors in the dialogue

From this person’s response, I am pleased to know that the story is appealing and that the art style piques their interests. With the bugs, it will be an easy fix as I can easily amend those problems as well as grammar errors. I can agree with some low resolution of some areas so I will go back to Photoshop and try fixing the resolution problems.

Tester 2

Pro

Cons

• The first part of the dialogue needs to be explained more and needs to be more interesting. It does not make sense or adds up to the game storyline.
• The images at the first storytelling is a bit lazy / more effort needs to be put in.
• If the Elder is saying that they found “???” almost dead, there needs to be a sprite of her looking like it at the start.
• The story needs to be explained in a more logical way.
• The character keeps walking over some trees, houses and pretty much everything else.
• Some bugs
• Once I approached the Elder, the game stopped/crashed
• Needs to be more clear on what to do
• Needs to be more clear on how to trigger the cutscene
• Needs to interact with more stuff (e.g. houses, objects and others)
• Inputs from the first environment appear in other environments
• In the desert, the cutscene will loop.

Even though there were no pros, I appreciate that there is a lot of cons in the game which allows me to improve it. Looking at some of the cons, the majority of them were linked to the story that it is not making sense. In order to do that, I will need to polish the script once again and make sure that the flow of the story is interesting and clear to the player. Some of the images are a bit lazy and need some adjustment, with that being said, I will report to my colleague and tell him what needs to be done. With the bugs in the game, I have that under control and it will not be a hassle to fix them. I didn’t want to point the direction of the game, therefore, there is no clear instruction telling the player where they should go. With this problem, I will be including a quest plugin that will be showing in the pause menu and the top right in the game, so that the players will have a better understanding on what to do next.

Tester 3

Pros

• The game was presented really well and looked near professional.
• The game plot is intriguing.
• The cutscene was great at the beginning and was great throughout.
• The characters were inventive and well thought of.
• The game runs smoothly.
• Beautiful art style

Cons

• The item like buttons was hard to locate but it is a minor issue.
• Typos
• A few moments were too rushed.
• The Elder was slightly too small and was hard to find.
• Currently, no soundtracks

With this constructive comment, I’m glad this person enjoys the game story and the art style. I agree with the cutscene that it is enjoyable to watch but I do want to change the dialogue as I think it is plain and I want to make it exciting for the viewers. With the elder, I will be making sure that the sprite is at the appropriate size. In some of the cutscene, there will be moments where it is too fast and that makes the game feel rushed, so what I might do is make a code that makes the event wait for a few frames in the game to make it more fluidly.

FMP – Desert (Digital)

Task

The desert level is a vertical map and will probably be one of the difficult maps to code due to the fact that it has different floors and that is something that I have not explored within the software itself.

The level has a large space of emptiness that is showing in this template but with the concept of art that I will create, the whole level will be filled with lots of objects to be seen. I don’t intend to have a statue in the desert but rather will replace them with fossil and a spaceship.

First of all, I included the outline and added extra land to the playable area in the scene. When it comes to the lower floor, I applied a darker colour to indicate that the floor is beneath the ground and the player can go down and explore what’s there. The areas that have a brown colour will be covered with rocks, which I will be experimenting on.

I placed the rocks on them to create nice lines. As the rocks go higher, the colours go brighter. The different shades of brown that I used on the rocks help to blend with the sand as well. Even though this is a short section of wall, I will be applying them to create a longer wall.

Later on, I started to apply the desert trees and the different style of cactus into the desert level to fit within the chosen theme of the scene. The cactus shows diversity in size and that helps to boost the quality of the environment itself. Also, I do want to point out the gradient of the lower floor, which has a dark blue colour to imply the sense of shadow and indicate that the sun is coming from the left-hand side. Personally, I would change the colour itself and use a similar colour to the default colour of the sand. I do not want push the number of colours too much so that it could complicate the level.

On top of the hill, I added a darker colour so that it is easy to identify which area is high and which is low. With the little splatter, I might add a bright colour rather than yellow to spice up the level a bit more and gives a sense of uniqueness.

There is a slight adjustment to the gradient colour where I chose a darker colour. Unlike the last gradient choice, it is a slight improvement but still not the ideal choice that I want though. I will try using a brighter colour next time.

With the new improved colour of the gradient, it shows a better standard and it fits along with the tone of the original colour that has been used on the sand. Once I was happy with the colour, I use the splatter brush tool and use on the new gradient to keep it consistent with this level design.

I have finished the colouring the land of the desert. The hill area had some adjustment on the top right area and the reason why they do not follow the same colour scheme as the bottom area because it looks unnatural and it would not make sense in the lighting direction.

Finally, I imported the fossil and the spaceship into the level. I made sure that I changed the size of the spaceship and change its location. The only reason to make these changes is that it gives the character not enough space to interact with the ship and thus needs a larger space for it. Overall, I am pleased with how the decorative objects have made the environment bloom and it really entices the theme of how a desert would look like. The patterns on the sands work well and it really makes the ground more interesting to look at rather than having a solid colour. If I were to do this level again, I would make sure that I will redo the cactus again as it came out blurry and trying different ways of how to make the sand more appealing.

FMP – Town (Digital)

Task

The town level is the main attraction of the game as you have seen it in multiple scenes in the game and I would need to make it to the players so they could experience something that will be remembered.

With this town level, I might rearrange some of the houses or increase their sizes to make them look well in the environment. The number of trees will decrease as I am planning to design my trees on a bigger scale.

Firstly, I outline the shape with a thin black line and coated it with bold colours. With the pathway, I used the same technique that I did with the beach’s pathway due to the fact that I want this game to a consistent style. I added a water patch because it will be later formed into a little pond next to the mountain. I will be adding also rocks on top of it so that the players can’t walk over to the water patch.

I applied a grass texture in a light green colour to boost the quality of the scene and make it more appealing.

Within my concept art, I added a mountain to my design as I thought it would be interesting to see it at a town level. I design it at a curved angel as it gives a unique look and the mountain would attract the others with its appearance. To add on I used the gradient tool to apply a darker green colour on the top of the mountain. I have taken also the opacity of the gradient down so I can distinguish the top of the mountain from the ground. I am pleased with the outcome as the colour pallet is in tune with the rest of the scenes. On the little pond below the mountain, I applied small rocks around it to give an extra touch to the game. I added also transparent light blue strokes to the water to make it look more realistic.

Next, I applied some trees that I have already used in the desert area. I rescaled some of the trees and flipped them horizontally. The brown colour of the cliffs corresponds well with the trees from the desert.  I’m very proud of how the desert tree has been produced in two colours and I used one of my photographs, taken during the holiday to make the initial drawing of the tree. I added the trees as I wanted the players to have a sense of direction of where to go. I place the trees on the left-hand side to prompted the player that the desert is near that path.

Afterwards, I thought about using the shadows of the game software to add a sense of realism.  A gradient tool on the grass has been used to imply the sense of the air perspective. Also, the mountains will need to have a gradient of its own to show that it is high up and that by doing so will create an illusion that the mountain is tall. Then once I was happy with the gradient, I got rid of the black line and smudge the colours together to make it seem like that the light direction is going upwards.

Then I added a house that I did on a separate PSD file. I designed the house in bright brick colours and it also has a distinguished blue tiled roof. I wanted it to stand out in the environment.  I am really pleased with how the bricks have been formed and the colours that have been used are very effective.

I notice that some areas of the pathway are too thick and that is something that I would like to improve. I cropped the pathway in half to make it thinner. Unfortunately, I noticed that the grass texture appeared on the path area as well and I sorted out the problem. I added more decorative objects such as bushes, flowers, trees etc. to improve the aesthetics of the scene, which enhanced the quality of this level.

Finally, with some adjustments, the town looks lively and attractive. The red house is meant to be broken. The design is presentable and the cracks on the wall are visible. Also, unlike the blue house, the red house is a prism based house. I broke it apart and added detail onto it to develop a sense of perspective. I could consider this scene as an accomplishment to myself. Then, I have designed a modern house to separate the style and make it more unique. I have chosen a simple colour swatch as I did not want to complicate its design. The bushes are very beautiful as their colours are blended smoothly. I spread around some trees to enhance the natural scenery, however, the players still have enough space to walk around. I personally love the town environment as it has well-balanced composition and attractive colour palette. If I were to improve on this level, I would be producing my own grass texture to enhance the quality of the work.

FMP – HUD Concept ART

Task

In this task, I have been assigned to designing the HUD and the battle scene of the game. Rather than having a simple design of a HUD which will make look boring. I want to make sure that the game has an interesting approach towards the gameplay.  However, since I know the basic structure of the software (RPG Maker MV) and importing a complex HUD design will be complicated but I still like to try if I am still able to do it. I will still be making a simple design to help along with my ideas.

 

On the first page, I settle down with some simple design of how I want the HUD design to look simple so that I am able to import it into the software. I will be digitalising two design if one does not work within the software. HUD is an information box where it tells the players how is the status of the player.

FMP – Script V.2

FORSAKEN PARADISE

 

Scene 1

LOCATION: Town of Ikarus, INT

TIME: Midday

The screen fades to black and then fades back in, revealing a character lying down on the beach, unconscious. She is then picked up by a strange man. The camera cuts to a room with the same woman lying down and another man standing over her. When she wakes up, She is surprised by the new surrounding and tries to leave.

ELDER CHIEF

 “Where am I?”

ELDER CHIEF

 “You are in the town of Ikarus. You’re safe now, don’t worry”

IFERA

 “But…I…”

ELDER CHIEF

 “Come here, a tale awaits you. I know that you have a lot of questions and I will answer as many as I can.”

IFERA

 “What happened? Do you know who I am? How did I get here?”

ELDER CHIEF

“You were nearly dead, we brought you here in hopes to save you in the hope of saving you. Some fishermen were out doing their daily run when they saw you washed up,; they brought you back here as fast as they could. Come this way”

IFERA

“Umm… Ok… “

ELDER CHIEF

                        “Oh no, don’t be shy, I’m harmless. Promise this old man won’t hurt you, I promise.”

IFERA

“It’s not you, don’t worry…. It’s … the fact that I can’t remember anything.

ELDER CHIEF

“After you were pulled back here you were badly injured, you have a really bad head wound. I’ve seen this before, just stay calm, and it will come back slowly, there’s no need to panic.”

They both leave the room and the chief shows her around the town.

IFERA

 “What happened here?”

They keep walking around the town.

ELDER CHIEF

“After the rich left, everything went downhill, no one could maintain the cities after the outbreaks, people just moved away, settled anywhere they could.”

IFERA

“What outbreaks?”

ELDER CHIEF

“The dinosaur outbreak, they broke out of their cages and went on a rampage.

IFERA

“Dinosaurs?”

ELDER CHIEF

“I suppose you don’t know what they are. They are massive creatures that can cause destruction. Some are harmless, some are … very dangerous.”

IFERA

“Really?”

ELDER CHIEF

“Yes, but it’s highly unlikely that you will run into one.”

IFERA

“Worried about the unknown …”

ELDER CHIEF

“Don’t worry. We need to get you sorted first. Do you know about Astral legacy?”

IFERA

Raise in confusion.

 ELDER CHIEF

“It is said to be one of the numerous artefacts,. It is said that they have the ability to bestow the power of the gods.”

 IFERA

“Where is it?”

ELDER CHIEF

“It’s situated in (forest name) – in one of the temples.”

 IFERA

“If you know where it is why don’t you go and get it.?”

 ELDER CHIEF

“It’s dangerous around artefact areas, there are many scavengers trying to get them, but they (?) are unable to withstand its power, plus, we don’t want to risk the lives of our people.”

 IFERA

“I see…”

ELDER CHIEF

“Ooh no, don’t be shy, I’m harmless. Promise this old man won’t hurt you…”

 IFERA

“It’s not you, don’t worry…. It’s … the fact that I can’t remember anything”

 ELDER CHIEF

“After you were pulled back here you were badly injured, you have a really bad head wound, I’ve seen this before, just stay calm, and it will come back slowly, there’s no need to panic.  Move to start

            IFERA

“I…just…. I need to go”

Ifera was just about to leave the village but suddenly…

 ELDER CHIEF

“If you are going for the artefact, there’s a path through the mountain there, but it’s a one-way route, you’ll have to walk around it to come back, be careful.”

Ifera turns to head off, but before she takes her first step the chief tells her.:

 ELDER CHIEF

“No matter where you go, no matter how much trouble you get into, there is always a place for you here.”

SCENE 2

LOCATION: Desert, EXT

TIME: Afternoon

Ifera goes towards the forest. A as she climbs the steep path, the mountain starts to crumble and a rockslide blocks her path. She starts to get anxious. She then remembers what the chief said, that there is another way to the forest and back, but takes longer. So she turns around and sets out for (desert name). Before she goes to the desert, the player is introduced to a save point,; this usually happens before fights and big events within the game,. Then she heads to the desert. It is a long journey to the desert and Ifera starts to get tired due to the heat. As she continues to walk, she saw sees a shiny object that is from a far distance and she hurries to see what it was is. There is something trying to get in, covered in robes, and wearing a mask. She tries to turn and walk away, but then she hears a cry for help, she then goes to help, she beats the scavenger in combat, she see a release button and pushes it.

A tall man crawls his way out from the pod,. He was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with white slim fit trousers, black boots and half a robe, it which (?) was quite small, only going down to his arms. The strange man seemed stressed and out of breath. There’s a brief pause,; the strange man catches his breath and makes himself presentable.

?????: “Thanks for that, I’m Hollow by the way,.  And you are?”

IFERA

“Oh… It’s no problem…. I’m Ifera…. nice to meet you.”

The sand cloud behind them clears, revealing a half-sunk city.

HOLLOW

“Huh… looks like it really did all go downhill then”

IFERA

“What are you talking about?”

 HOLLOW

” Look. That city, it’s ruined, I bet all the cities are like that… what the hell happened?”

IFERA

“I… don’t really know…”

HOLLOW

“I know roughly what happened,. The rich people left, and when they did, clearly the others weren’t able to keep everything operational.”

            IFERA

“Operational?”

            HOLLOW

“Yeah, like keep everything running, so that it all works well, but clearly they didn’t know how.”

            IFERA

“Oh…. Well I’m heading over to the forest over there to get some artefact that apparently can give some power of a god or something.”

            HOLLOW

“Wait! Are you talking about astral legacy?”

Ifera: umm iI. Think… So, if that’s one of the tablets then yeah I guess.

            HOLLOW

“They’re just myths, there’s no way they’re real.”

            IFERA

“Well why don’t we go and find out if you’re right.”

            HOLLOW

“Sounds like a plan, we should head out now, it’s going to start getting dark soon.”

            IFERA

“Right, so it’s kind of over in that direction.”

 

SCENE 3

LOCATION: Forest, EXT

TIME: Dusk

Ifera and Hollow embark on their adventure together, going through the desert with no trouble, the desert was a very easy walk, it started to get cooler and cooler the more the sun went down.  As the sun finally dipped behind below (?) the horizon they entered the forest, they wandered through the forest aimlessly, barely being able to see 10 meters in front of them.

HOLLOW

“Ifera, look, there’s a path here, it’s made of stone.”

Ifera catches up with Hollow and they decide to follow the path to wherever it leads. They stop and stand in awe at a tree that dwarfs all the others.

IFERA

“This tree has to be special, the path leads up to here and does not carry on anywhere.”

HOLLOW

“Or maybe we just went the wrong way and are supposed to go back.”

Ifera knocks on the tree, it has a deep echo to it.

 IFERA

“There’s gotta be something inside, I can feel it.”

HOLLOW

“I’d say let’s head back, but it’s up to you.”

The player is then given the option to either go back and find something else or break a hole in the tree.

If you choose to go back then you go back to the start where they found the path, Hollow then says he was wrong and they head back.

If you choose to break the tree then you will find the tablet within the tree.

Hollow then punches a hole in the tree.

HOLLOW

“Hold on, I can feel something inside.”

Hollow then pulls out a tablet from within the tree.

 HOLLOW

“This is it, it has to be. How does this thing work?”

 IFERA

 “I don’t know, pass it to me.”

Hollow passes the tablet to Ifera. Once the tablet makes contact with her it awakens its power. Ifera remains in full control, the tablet then turns into a gem that is planted within her chest. Shortly afterwards, a group of scavengers approaches both of them, clearly, they want the tablet. Hollow and Ifera fend them off with ease. She has found a new power to overwhelms the scavengers.

IFERA

“That was easy.”

HOLLOW

“Yeh looks like that tablet is the real deal.”

Ifera then changes back into a human, and the tablet then reappears in her hand. Hollow then looks above the treeline. He sees some smoke coming from the distance. There’s nothing for miles, except the town. Hollow and Ifera turn and run back to the town as fast as they can,. When they get close they see a tall figure standing above the chief of the town. As they get close they can hear him threatening the chief, demanding to know where Hollow is. He then turns around and spots Hollow and Ifera. As he turns they can see that he has four different coloured gems embedded within him, similar to how Ifera has hers in her chest.

?????: YOU!!!…. YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!!

 HOLLOW

“You’re not the first person to threaten me, and you won’t be the last. Just put it in my dropbox and leave me alone.”

?????: HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME! ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO SUFFERED AND DIED ARE ON YOUR SHOULDERS.

HOLLOW

“Ok, well I don’t exactly know who you are so all this rambling isn’t really helping?????: So pathetic, you can’t even remember the ones you harm.”

 HOLLOW

“Wait a minute, are you Evindal???”

 HOLLOW

“Tarron???”

HOLLOW

“Grath….Grrrr…..???”

HOLLOW

                        “Hold on wait, I got it, Nylian.”

HOLLOW

“Zakar?”

ZAKAR

“ Hmph”

HOLLOW

“Hahaha! Got it right….. Oh no!”

IFERA

 “What’s wrong?”

HOLLOW

“We are screwed”

They engage in the final combat sequence, Ifera activates her tablet, activating its power.

ZAKAR

                        “Hmm, it looks like you got one as well, huh, USELESS!!!!

Hollow and Ifera lose badly to Zakar, he is far too powerful and overwhelms them. After the fight, Zakar goes to the chief and turns his head back to Hollow and iIfera but keeping his back to them.

ZAKAR

“There’s a storm heading your way

FORSAKEN PARADISE

FMP – Script

Forsaken Paradise

 

—————————————————————————————————————————

 

We worked collaboratively on a story about Earth abandonment and all wealthy humans travelled to the Moon in hope for a better life after an epidemic of dinosaur rebirth. The essence of the game is the returning of the main character to a deserted Earth and that’s where the story begins.

The world is set on a deserted Earth, where most people have left the cities and went into the suburban area to stay away from the dinosaurs. The area has now been infected with a type of virus to cause trees to grow on a rapid rate and the land has corroded, which gives people limitation of the land. They do not know if there are other lands, but part of the environment is constantly changing which cause the inhabitants’ place for people shrinks down severely. Despite all these tragic events, they have managed to adapt to living in this new environment.

The Earth is deserted after the dinosaur outbreak and all wealthy people managed to escape to the Moon. Once they have reached the planet, they started to build a new colony. A few years later, the excavation of the moon starts since people are trying to look for a new mineral to further advance their society. Unfortunately, they are not aware that the materials they use will cause a huge accumulation of energy, which leads to the planet explosion.  The Moon has been destroyed and soon after the explosion, only one human managed to come back to the ruined Earth, as he escapes the disaster with one of the spaceships.

There are two playable characters, a male and female. The woman washed up on a beach badly hurt with no memory to what happened. She was found by the fishermen and then taken to the chief’s home, where she was nursed back to health. The woman wakes up in a room and is confused about how she got there. Instinctively, she leaves the room to find out where she is. The chief finds the lost woman as if she has no direction to go to and he explains what happened. He asks for her name, but the woman could not recall her memory whatsoever. The chief gives the name Ifera.  

Once the woman finishes her talk with the chief, she leaves the town with some guidance from him that she wants to go to the forest, where there is an artefact, a stone tablet that contains hieroglyphs which could potentially bestow the power of the Gods. Before she could leave, the chief tells her that there will always be a place for her. As Ifera goes through the forest, she was stopped by a rock slide and she panics, not knowing what to do next. However, there are multiple paths to take her to the forest and one of the options is the desert path. She turns back to the town and goes to the desert.

Her journey is tough, as Ifera must walk a long distance but when she sees a shiny object from afar, a glimpse of hope appears on her eyes and rushed to look at what it is. Upon arriving at the shiny object, she sees a crashed space shuttle, where a scavenger is trying to break into. She is curious and decides to beat the scavenger to get access to the shuttle by herself. Ifera is winning the battle and try to open the shuttle. The woman sees a button and press to activate. A male figure comes out from inside. He seems stressed and exhausted however, he greets Ifera and says, his name is hollow.

Hollow explains everything about how people abandoned the earth and left the poor without nothing. A group of scavengers attacked them but only to be beaten by Hollow and Ifera. Both are heading towards the forest to find the stone tablet.

The tablet is hidden inside a hollow tree. The moment that Ifera touches it, the tablet glows and transfer its power to her body. Suddenly, Hollow saw smoke that was coming from the town and both Hollow and Ifera rushed back to the town.

Arriving at the town, they witness the destruction and it was a shock to them. Then a large figure that was standing in the middle of the town. It saw the main protagonists and clench its fist in anger. The chief shouts at Hollow and Ifera to leave but immediately gets punched by the large figure leading to its death. “I am Zaker and you will pay the price for what you have done Hollow”. Zaker rushed towards Hollow and Ifera and Hollow engage to battle.

They fought with everything they can, but they were unsuccessful as he was too powerful. Zaker did not finish Hollow as he wants him to suffer. Zaker mutters something about the Moon but Hollow could not hear the last remaining words of what the villain had said.  

The next day, Hollow is woken up by Ifera poking him to tell him important news, that everyone was gone. The villain took the entire village throughout the night. They were both very upset that they have failed to save everyone. Both Hollow and Ifera sought out to find other villagers and stop Zaker for his evil deeds.

The soundtrack will have a gentle melody for the passage that will be used for cutscenes and walking around the environment and by doing so will ensure that the player that they are safe. Perhaps a Slavic piano instrumental so that it feels like an introduction. Finally, the soundtrack for the battle scene should intensive but also enjoyable to listen on repeat so that the player does not get annoyed after a while. These choices of music may change depending on the development stages of the soundtrack of the game.

 

 

—————————————————————————————————————————

 

Character

 

Ifera – the main character

Hollow – main character

Elder Chief – main NPC

Scavengers – SV*num

Zaker- villain

 

---

Script

 

A black screen slowly fades out, revealing a light brown colour with some drawings of a civilisation, one ripe with life.

 

Narrator: there was once a world blooming with life.

 

It moves to the next page,

 

Narrator: it was said that they had dinosaurs in a place called a zoo, where all the people would go and see them.

 

The page turns again

 

Narrator: but one day one angry dinosaur wanted to leave so he made a big hole in the cage and he left.

 

The page turns again

 

Narrator: The dinosaur was so bored with the food he wanted more, so he ate as many people as he could.

 

The page turns

 

Narrator: not long after all of his friends tried to do the same

 

The page turns

 

Narrator: after this, all the people left to find a new home

 

Page turns

 

Narrator: People have always wanted to move to the moon, so that’s what they did. After a few days, the rich people left all of the poor on the planet, they who? went to the moon and lived happily ever after.

 

Page turns

 

Narrator: but that’s what they thought,.  After doing experiments on the moon, they made the moon explode. The End

---

The screen fades to black and then fades back in, revealing a character lying down on the beach, unconscious. She is then picked up by a strange man.

 

The camera cuts to a room with the same woman lying down and another man standing over her.

When she wakes up, She is surprised by the new surrounding and tries to leave

 

Ifera: “Where am I?”

 

Elder Chief: “You are in the town of Ikarus. You’re safe now, don’t worry”

 

Ifera: “But…I…”

 

Elder Chief: “Come here, a tale awaits you. I know that you have a lot of questions and I will answer as many as I can.”

 

Ifera: “ What happened?

Do you know who I am?

How did I get here?”

 

Elder Chief: “You were nearly dead, we brought you here in hopes to save you  in the hope of saving you (?)”

“No, sorry, I don’t,”

“Some fishermen were out doing their daily run when they saw you washed up,; they brought you back here as fast as they could.”

 

Elder chief: “come this way”

Ifera: “umm… ok… “

 

Chief: “Oh no, Don’t be shy, I’m harmless. Promise  this old man won’t hurt you, iI promise.”

 

Ifera: It’s not you, don’t worry…. It’s .. the fact that I can’t remember anything.

 

Chief: After you were pulled back here you were badly injured, you have a really bad head wound,. I’ve seen this before, just stay calm, and it will come back slowly, there’s no need to panic.

 

They both leave the room and the chief shows her around the town.

 

Ifera: “What happened here?”

 

They keep walking around the town.

 

Chief: “After the rich left, everything went downhill, no one could maintain the cities after the outbreaks, people just moved away, settled anywhere they could.”

Ifera: “What outbreaks?”

 

Chief: the dinosaur outbreak,; they broke out of their cages and went on a rampage.

 

Ifera: Dinosaurs?

 

Chief: I suppose you don’t know what they are. They are massive creatures that can cause destruction. Some are harmless, some are … very dangerous.

 

Ifera: really?

 

Chief: yes, but it’s highly unlikely that you will run into one

 

Ifera: *Worried about the unknown* …

 

Chief: Don’t worry. We need to get you sorted first.

 

Chief: Do you know about Astral Legacy?

 

Ifera: *Raise in confusion*

 

Chief: It is said to be one of the numerous artefacts,. It is said that they have the ability to bestow the power of the gods.

 

Ifera: Where is it?

Chief: It’s situated in (forest name) – in one of the temples.

 

Ifera: If you know where it is why don’t you go and get it.?

 

Chief: it’s dangerous around artefact areas, there are many scavengers trying to get them, but they (?) are unable to withstand its power, plus, we don’t want to risk the lives of our people.

 

Ifera: I see…

 

Chief: Ooh no, don’t be shy, I’m harmless. Promise  this old man won’t hurt you

 

Ifera: it’s not you, don’t worry…. It’s .. the fact that I can’t remember anything

 

Chief: after you were pulled back here you were badly injured, you have a really bad head wound, I’ve seen this before, just stay calm, and it will come back slowly, there’s no need to panic.  Move to start

 

Ifera: i…just…. I need to go

Ifera was just about to leave the village but suddenly…

 

Chief: If you are going for the artefact, there’s a path through the mountain there, but it’s a one-way route, you’ll have to walk around it to come back, be careful.

Ifera turns to head off, but before she takes her first step the chief tells her.:

 

Chief: No matter where you go, no matter how much trouble you get into, there is always a place for you here.

 

Ifera goes towards the forest. A as she climbs the steep path, the mountain starts to crumble and a rockslide blocks her path. She starts to get anxious. She then remembers what the chief said, that there is another way to the forest and back, but takes longer. So she turns around and sets out for (desert name).

 

Before she goes to the desert, the player is introduced to a save point,; this usually happens before fights and big events within the game,. Then she heads to the desert.

 

It is a long journey to the desert and Ifera starts to get tired due to the heat. As she continues to walk, she saw sees a shiny object that is from a far distance and she hurries to see what it was is

 

There is something trying to get in, covered in robes, and wearing a mask,. S she tries to turn and walk away, but then she hears a cry for help, she then goes to help, she beats the scavenger in combat, she see a release button and pushes it.

 

A tall man crawls his way out from the pod,. He was wearing a white short–sleeved shirt with white slim fit trousers, black boots and half a robe, it which (?) was quite small, only going down to his arms.

 

The strange man seemed stressed and out of breath.

 

There’s a brief pause,; the strange man catches his breath and makes himself presentable.

 

?????: “Thanks for that, I‘m Hollow by the way,.  And you are?”

 

Ifera: “oh… It’s no problem…. I’m Iifera…. nice to meet you,.”

 

The sand cloud behind them clears, revealing a half–sunk city.

 

Hollow: “huh… looks like it really did all go downhill then”

 

Ifera: what are you talking about?”

 

Hollow:” look. That city, it’s ruined, I bet all the cities are like that… what the hell happened?”

Ifera: “I… don’t really know…”

 

Hollow: I know roughly what happened,. The rich people left, and when they did, clearly the others weren’t able to keep everything operational.”

 

Ifera: Operational?

 

Hollow: Yeah, like keep everything running, so that it all works well, but clearly they didn’t know how.

 

Ifera:oh…. Well I’m heading over to the forest over there to get some artefact that apparently can give some power of a god or something

 

Hollow: wait! Are you talking about astral legacy?

 

Ifera: umm iI. Think… So, if that’s one of the tablets then yeah I guess.

 

Hollow: They’re just myths, there’s no way they’re real.

 

Ifera: well why don’t we go and find out if you’re right

 

Hollow: sounds like a plan, we should head out now, it’s going to start getting dark soon.

 

Ifera: right, so it’s kind of over in that direction.

 

Ifera and Hollow embark on their adventure together, going through the desert with no trouble, the desert was a very easy walk, it started to get cooler and cooler the more the sun went down.  As the sun finally dipped behind below (?) the horizon they entered the forest, they wandered through the forest aimlessly, barely being able to see 10 meters in front of them.

 

Hollow: iIfera, look, there’s a path here,; it’s made of stone.

 

Ifera catches up with Hollow and they decide to follow the path to wherever it leads.

 

They stop and stand in awe at a tree that dwarfs all the others.

 

Ifera: this tree has to be special, the path leads up to here and does not carry on anywhere.

 

Hollow: or maybe we just went the wrong way and are supposed to go back

 

Ifera knocks on the tree, it has a deep echo to it,

 

Ifera; “There’s gotta be something inside, I can feel it.”

 

Hollow: I’d say let’s head back, but it’s up to you

The player is then given the option to either go back and find something else or break a hole in the tree

 

If you choose to go back then you go back to the start where they found the path, Hollow then says he was wrong and they head back.

 

If you choose to break the tree then you will find the tablet within the tree.

 

Hollow then punches a hole in the tree.

 

Hollow: Hold on, I can feel something inside.

 

Hollow then pulls out a tablet from within the tree.

 

Hollow: This is it, it has to be. How does this thing work?

 

Ifera: I don’t know, pass it to me.

 

Hollow passes the tablet to Ifera, once the tablet makes contact with her it awakens its power. Ifera remains in full control, the tablet then turns into a gem that is planted within her chest.

 

Shortly afterwards, a group of scavengers approaches both of them,; clearly, they want the tablet. Hollow and Ifera fend them off with ease,. She has found a new power tp overwhelms the scavengers.

 

Ifera: that was easy.

 

Hollow: yeh, looks like that tablet is the real deal.

 

Ifera then changes back into a human, and the tablet then reappears in her hand

 

Hollow then looks above the treeline. He sees some smoke coming from the distance,. There’s nothing for miles, except the town. Hollow and iIfera turn and run back to the town as fast as they can,. W when they get close they see a tall figure standing above the chief of the town,. As they get close they can hear him threatening the chief, demanding to know where Hollow is. He then turns around and spots Hollow and Ifera. As he turns they can see that he has four different coloured gems embedded within him, similar to how Ifera has hers in her chest.

 

?????: YOU!!!…. YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!!

 

Hollow: You’re not the first person to threaten me, and you won’t be the last. Just put it in my dropbox and leave me alone.

?????: HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME!. ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO SUFFERED AND DIED ARE ON YOUR SHOULDERS.

 

Hollow: Ok, well I don’t exactly know who you are so all this rambling isn’t really helping.

 

?????: so pathetic,, you can’t even remember the ones you harm.

 

Hollow: Wait a minute, are you Evindal

 

?????:…..

 

Hollow: Tarron?

 

?????:…..

 

Hollow: Grath….Grrrr…..???

 

?????:…..

 

Hollow: “Hold on wait, I got it, Nylian.”

 

?????:…..

 

Hollow: “Zakar?”

 

Zakar: *hngg*

 

Hollow: “Hahaha! Got it right….. Oh no!”

 

Ifera: What’s wrong?

 

Hollow: “We are screwed”

 

They engage in the final combat sequence, Ifera activates her tablet, activating its power.

 

Zakar:*hmmm* Looks like you got one as well, huh, USELESS!!!!

 

Hollow and Ifera lose badly to Zakar, he is far too powerful and overwhelms them. After the fight, Zakar goes to the chief and turns his head back to Hollow and iIfera but keeping his back to them.

 

Zakar: There’s a storm heading your way

 

FORSAKEN PARADISE

FMP – Environment Concept Art

Task

In this part of the idea development, I’ve been looking into the environment section that would be displayed in the game. The environments that I am looking into is a beach, town, desert, and forest. The reason why I have chosen this is that they show different features that would distinguish about these environments and since I want to input a fantasy style of these environments, I need to make sure that the design concept is unique and make the design memorable to make the game more interesting.

Layout

Before I start to produce the environments itself, I need to think about the layout and how it is going to look. By doing that I will give a sense of uniqueness and expand a variation of those specific environments. I will be doing rough sketches and implementing the paths and objects that would be easy to spot by other people. The ones with the ticks will be the one that I will be experimenting on my sketchbook.

Collage

These collage experiment will give off the vibe of how these environments will look like. I believe that I shall be present at the beach and the town with different mediums as I believe that it is the easiest design to present and they show a variety of decoration of the environment.

The first-page consist of coloured paper, which I cut up, scrumble them and stick them on an A4 page to present my beach level and so far, this is what I wanted for my level to be. I did not attempt to add more details only reason is that this is the introduction level and the character will not see much once the cutscene ends with this level.

As for the town, I use images that would fit best for the town environment as I think that pictures work best for other people. I personally believe that the layout is suitable for this level and you can understand what is happening throughout the town. The amount of decoration (trees, brushes, etc) are used evenly and gives the players enough area to walk around the town and view for what they have to offer.

Beach

With the beach aspect, even though I want to go for a bird’s eye view but also experimenting with a different perspective and to see if I can input into the game but I personally believe that would ruin the visual aspect of the game and it would be weird to try that perspective. I did the design at a small portion as the story shows very little screen time on that environment so I  prefer to make it very simple but detailed at the same time as it is the introduction of the gameplay.

I will be also showing a different perspective of the beach to diverse the gameplay and to make the introduction interesting to look at.

On this page, it shows the different layout of the beach level with a different perspective which is interesting to view upon. The first level shows a simple layout with the amount of land is suitable and the distance between the sand and the water is appropriate. There are not enough details at this level will be shown very little screen time but should be enough to let the player know where they are at when they start the game. I made sure that includes some decoration such as bushes, rocks, trees and etc to give the beach more of a lively touch to its appearance. I would select this one as my chosen level as it is simple and it would appeal towards others.

Next is the second level of the beach where I use another perspective view. I know that I want to use a view from above but I do want to visualise how it would look like in the actual software. From looking at this perspective, I do not feel like this method would work well with the storyline, in the beginning, the main character gets washed up and there is another character who would help them. The problem with that is I feel like the character would be squashed with the environment and the character will only have a limited amount of space, which is not good for a game itself. Also, the waves will be difficult to animate as it is in a diagonal direction and I would have to spend more time learning how to animate from a diagonal direction, which I do not want to do due to the time restrictions. I believe that I should keep to the top view perspective and try to experiment with the different layout.

Next up, we have the third level that is in a horizontal direction and even though it is acceptable to do so, It is not my favourite with all these beach levels. Some people might disagree that it is so much you can do with this level. The waves are achievable to animated as it is horizontal but I feel like the introduction should be done in a vertical way.

Finally, the last level which shows similarity to the first design but I added a wooden wall rather than rocky wall to spice up the appearance. It is a nice approach and I thought to add totem to the design but there is a slight problem as it does not fit the description of the story where the world is corrupted and the design should not be clean but rather ruined and I feel like that the design is going to make this environment feel complex.

Town

The town design should be particularly large as the player will start playing the game as soon as the cutscene ends.  Since they are near the forest area, I need to make sure that I include features of nature such as trees, bushes, grass and etc.

With the first level of the town, it portrays how a town should look like and it is simple to look like. The layout is very appealing, however, it is seen to be used throughout many RPG and I do not want to replica the structure. I want to create a unique layout and I want people to remember this complex layout rather than to keep seeing the same structure over and over again. I do want to include that depending on the tree that I will be adding will be the same throughout this level because it is iconic and used throughout all RPG.

The second level shows a massive house in the middle and showing different entrances that go towards to the other environments. I do have my reason for this as the story shows a corrupted world and people moved away from the major cities and move somewhere they can live safe. They build this massive house so that many people can live in and that they can feel safe. However, I realise that there is nothing much you can see in the town making it very boring.

Finally, this is the selected level that I want for my game as it shows a unique structure of its layout and it has enough decoration objects that would make the players interested and appealing. In my opinion, it will be spacious for the payers to walk around and explore the town itself. The layout offers easy access to where the gamer needs to go.

Desert

When I was designing the desert scene, I looked into how the similar environments look like originally and they all had a large open area. I didn’t want to make it an open area as that would be very boring for the player and I want to implant some decorations objects ( plants, rocks, etc) to make it look visually appealing. With this level, I made sure that there is a lot to explore and the area looks challenging enough for the players. To make the level even more interesting, I included a spaceship as it was part of the story and I feel that it would bring the curiosity of why it has been added. The use of dried up trees and bushes works effectively and the way rocks are placed works well as it makes the player feel like they are close to a canyon. I really do like the fossil being implanted as it fits along with the story and it gives off the feeling of what happens around this area.

The second level is presented with the spaceship in the middle and the pathway goes around making it longer to get to the spaceship. I feel like that would be a hassle for the players as they would have to go the long way there and come back the same path they took, which makes the game longer. Even though I want the spaceship to be seen, I do not want the player to go through the pain of walking too long. Next time, I’ll make a path so that along your way, you’ll be able to encounter the spaceship in order to progress with the story. I do want to point out that I don’t feel that the cliffs and the rocks are designed the way that I wanted and it looks very rough and uneven. I know how to draw the cliff of how I want to but I still want to go back and redesign how the rock would look and perhaps changing its size will be good.

 

I’ve come up with the idea of the cliff overlapping the map for the third level. Even though the concept is interesting, there is a problem when doing a parallax mapping. You are able to draw out the map and import the image to the files and make it playable, some of the objects such as trees or houses will be a problem due to the fact that the player will be in front of those objects which can make it unrealistic. There is a solution to that and that is to make it a separate picture from the map itself and once I import the map to the software, I’ll be able to place the picture on top of it to give it a realistic effect. Even though those steps are achievable, I still think that it would be a hassle for me because it will require me to spend a lot of time doing this way and I feel like I won’t be able to finish the rest of the other environments. I like the layout of the map but I still want to rearrange some things to give it simplicity.

This is the selected choice of the desert map that I want in the game. The number of decoration objects is used evenly and the layout is very interesting to view upon. The players will not have the hassle to go around the area as they need to go up in order to get to the next level and I made sure that the players see the spaceship and it is along the way. I also included some more interesting plants such as the cactus as they would give off the vibe that the players are in the desert. In the structure of the first level where it has a cliff and a pond in the middle, I like the idea to have the water, as I could challenge the players there. I thought that was an interesting approach to the design. Perhaps in the digital development, I will explain how I would import that section of the cliff from the first level into the new map.

Forest

The first level is situated in the woodlands, there are many trees of the same kind and a path that leads to the hidden place with the ruins.  The area with the ruins is very simple and I want to improve it with more details in order to achieve a complex look, which could enhance the player’s experience. The hollow tree in the top right corner, in my opinion, is too big so I could consider another scale size later. 

For the second level of the game I wanted to have a similar theme but the path will be different and the player will feel like he/she is in the maze. The ruin section in the bottom right corner has been presented schematically in the drawing as I was trying to cover the floor of the building with black to show that it is broken and old and the building has been improved by breaking some sections of the walls and adding details to the broken area. I really like the new improvement of the ruined structure but I feel like this environment is empty and I should create an open area in the forest to make it more interesting and appealing towards others. I may rearrange the structure of the pathway to make it more complex.

Finally, I am pleased with the final outcome with the new environment and it looks much better than the other two. The open area of the forest give more life, which is very good and I can use a large range of decoration object to make the area more appealing. I added a lake area on the right-hand side of the map to make the level interesting. I know that the ruin section at the top right looks very small but I do want to go into more depth to it so I’ll draw a close up of the ruins on another page.

With the ruin section, I wanted to blend the building and nature together and create, which will emphasise on the fact that nature has taken over this area. The message that this environment portrays that whatever mankind has built will lose its power and nature will overcome. I do like the idea that there is a slight pillar to the building but it seems to be old, which will make the player wonder why has this area been left alone for a long time. The hollow tree is at a size that is appropriate and the style is suitable for the environment.

Decoration

This is the broken house that is implemented into the town section. The reason why I have a close up with the house is that I can focus on the detail of the cracks and make it really effective when I do digitalise this house. During the digital development stage, I will change the wall slightly giving an interesting appeal in comparison with other houses.

I wanted to expand my initial drawings by focusing my attention on different types of trees. This has improved my understanding of how they would form forest and create an atmosphere at this level of the game. I designed different trees that would be suitable for different environments and my aim was to get as many details as possible. According to the game concept, the forest and the town section will be dominants, as they are seen a lot in the game and I want to focus on those design. In many RPG, the concept artists would use the same tree throughout the same environment but I believe that I would mix two trees as an experiment of how they would work. The tree that I made for the desert is the one that I am very proud of. I spend some time with the dried up tree and focused my attention on the branches to make them more attractive and stand out well. When I do get to digitise this tree, I will be making sure that I select the right colour for this one as it is very outstanding and it will make the desert level more interesting to look at.

 

Finally, I wanted to go into detail with the cliff and I used tracing paper on the top of the image to help me get the good structure of the cliffs, which turned out a bit weird as an outcome and I may not use it during the production stage. So I grabbed an example of a cliff that showed its sides and attempts to replicate the details. Personally, by doing this type of exercise I improved my understanding of the complexity of the drawing process To me making cliffs was not an easy process as it was difficult for me to replicate their shapes and texture. I now know that adding some details like shading will definitely enhance the appearance of the cliff and it will be more appealing when I have finished the town environment.