cloudy with a chance of cockroaches

As the workload piles I am determined not to let it get me down, after a brisk run this morning I approached my work with the attitude that I shall not let it defeat me!
I am powering on with the dissertation taking breaks only to draw with specific concentration on my final year project. I can't help but want to draw more concepts but there is lots of other work to be done, I am updating this blog to just really say that more is being done and hopefully after the dissertation is done I shall be getting on with things at a better described steady pace.


For all you people that have been so faithful to following this obviously amazing project here is a lovely present for you, a desktop background to show your support for Pax Insectica.

Poster Time.


Did I say you only got one?

"In his belly you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years."

The further I delve into this project I must be honest the more I enjoy it. The work has been a challenge, but in the challenge lies a great reward, just because when I encounter a problem and then fix it I feel very awesome indeed and amen to that feeling! 
An update has been long overdue and it gives me great pleasure to unveil these latest concepts for the town centre big bug. (he has no great name yet, so if you want you very own input on the game submit a suggestion after this post)

First.

This is a basic idea of what the bug will look like, bright stand out colours and a large tongue to over-exaggerate the rather slobbish nature of the character. With a padded area to make it more than an obvious fact that he sits forever in the same place in town, eating whatever is unfortunate enough to land near or on his tongue.

Second.

I didn't want to give too much away however this image does a lot for me so you might as well be filled in. You will be required to be swallowed by this bug for a reason and navigate his insides. This quite simply put is a cut away with the body layer's opacity turned down to give an idea of what might be done at first in the game.

Third.

Finally this is the same insides seen in the previous concept, the only difference being that it is surrounded in strong darks. Basically it is another idea I have been considering in order to surround the player with a bit more of a sense of enclosure and to make the player feel a bigger connection to the importance of the puzzle.

So I hope you have enjoyed the concepts, and you have a slightly better idea of where the game is headed in visual style and sense of play and how puzzles may be constructed. Fun stuff right? Try not to get too excited folks, there is plenty more to come and I can't wait to update you all very soon!

"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

As I sit here listening to some most wonderful Ludovico Einaudi embracing a new day filled with the endless designing opportunities. I am pleased with what has been created so far and can honestly say that I am enjoying where this project is going. I am currently doing slightly rougher concepts for the other levels to flesh out the game and hopefully white box (for you not sure of what this means it is very simple, basically very simple graphics as a place-holder to concentrate on the tech for a bit) it so I can then work a little stronger on the engine.


This is really only a small post to let you know I am still working, I am still alive and this project fills me with only the greatest joy, I want to see it thrive and with a high level of input it certainly will! Way hey!
I leave you with this still very rough but good layout concept of the Kingdom environment.

do not underestimate the power of the photoshop

It's been a great experience trying to create these environments for the game, especially as it's not the easiest process in the world. I have been working first and foremost on Blattas home, the reason for this being the first environment i work on is because it serves as the games hub screen and has a lot of importance. So I shall show you a few pictures that were taken first and then the slightly more refined images last.

This is the picture as it is without any editing, as you can see I played with depth of field to get the right feel for where the players focus should be held to. The colours where chosen to give it a warm feel, i am not sure whether they work. However I could have been simply looking at this image for too long. Nevertheless onto the next...

With this image you can see a few changes, i distorted the camera to give an inward fisheye lens effect. I like this because it creates the kind of feel i am going for. As if you are looking in on this tony room from an outside perspective. It all seems so small an delicate. There is a vignette to give more realism to the light.

Again, same drill, has a slightly darker vignette and flair added to the lightbulb giving it that slightly more realistic glow, still not sure on that to be honest. Though i do like the darker vignette, only because i think it gels the image together a bit more. A home inside a pipe probably would be rather dark.

This last image is really the same as before but there is no lens flare from the lightbulb which i think i rather prefer. I hope the image isn't too dark and i do think it needs more work. Hopefully when more images are completed all the environments will look brilliant when put together.

So this keeps you all up to speed and you know how the images are shaping up, it has been brilliant fun so far and i am confident that it will continue to be a testing but brilliant project. As ever i will appreciate feedback that is given.

I shall keep my chin up and keep in focus the awesome finish line. Until next time eh?

there is always time, time to be crafty

So what has happened recently? Well there was just a huge hand in, the epic pre production document and a lovely pile of concept stuff that went with that and also the first two chapters of my draft dissertation. Since then I have been doing work but taking it a bit easier so as to not stress out too much. I am eager to get on with the game because I enjoy doing it and I want to see it succeed. So here are a few shots of what I am thinking the environments will be like, imagine more colour and great composition and some more depth of focus implemented in different ways.

Here are the shots, but yeah basically all the assets will look like this and hopefully it will be the coolest looking game you will play all year!

So I guess that is all I am showing right now, but it keeps you updated. Obviously this is great because I love the whole crafty side of this project and it provides a much needed break from animating. Listen to me, I am actually talking about procrastinating from my own work by doing more of my own work that I enjoy more.

Until next time!

imagination vs the waking world

I have been sitting in my room for days now without really looking out the window at the awesome snow fall. As a result a whole heap of work has been completed the entirety of the Pax Insectica concept bible is complete. I have to print it off and compile it all and then it is ready for it's submission. There is a whole lot of development that has happened in this project and it has safely come out on the other side quite nicely I think.
So now comes the next part, painstaking animation and building it all carefully into the game engine, testing and hopefully making a game worth talking about.
I want to thank all my great friends for their support and this next leg of the journey will be great fun.
For now it's back to work.


Oh and the above concept was something I was working on for a front cover section of the Pax Insectica concept bible. Just something for you to enjoy, it features (from left to right) Unlce, Blatta and Rasputin.

venture with me into the lost world

Snow is so fascinating, and I find is an amazing thing to look at I find it amazing that England is currently blanketed in the stuff and when I look outside it steals my attention. So instead I have been embracing the cold that seeps into my room and wrapped up warm as I can and have been working at an exponential work on all that i have to complete.
I am of course happy to tell you my hard work has not been in vain, the dissertation soldiers on and the concept document should come together nicely, I never thought I see myself type this...but I am enjoying what I am producing!


Here is some art to look at, should give you an idea of the direction that I am taking:

Still not sure about these colours yet, but basically the assistant is based on the look of a dung beetle, the character is quite small and will always be near his master Rasputin, the only times he is seen alone is when Rasputin has sent him on a mission. I wanted to give him a strong figure while also looking too innocent to be completely independent. When he appears completely in shadow I wanted him to have this great silhouette.

This is Rasputin, the concept is based very strongly on a praying mantis, I wanted his height to be a big factor. Making him so giant that he has to stoop to stand in almost any area, I wanted his look to be that of someone wise and yet tired as if he has never had his way and is always in want of more.

I wanted to save the best until last as I really enjoyed doing this concept. This is Uncle, he stands casting a perfectly sharp shadow over his nephew Blatta. I chose to look at Victorian dress for the character, this is due to my interest in how powerful it makes the character look while giving him still a sense of comedy. I like him being fat because it splits the approach in the animation he can almost appear as two characters, the stupid and loveable Uncle but also the glutinous and evil minder.


So there you have it, a little look into what is going on behind the scenes at the moment. These are just some of the concepts and I realise the lack of the background, I guess this is because it keeps your focus on everything I want you to see. But mostly because I haven't set on what I would put in the background (you got me I'm not very good at all that)

we tear it down just to build it up again

As promised in my last post here are the long awaited (and equally not exciting) game engine shots each with exciting information that points out either the bleeding obvious or the downright helpful!

Here is a great example of how to not size things correctly, one of the first and best mistakes to date. Practice makes perfect and you can thank my lack of photoshop and exporting for the web for this monstrosity, scary but cool.

Second try was a vast improvement, you can see that there is a white line around the character, I discovered this was due to it not being a transparent image, if you make the image with a transparent layer underneath it and then save it as a .png24 for web devices, voilà! No white lines and it looks like it belonged in the game all along.

This just points out adding in new frames to make a walk cycle, where it all goes how boring the engine looks and basically how it all works. You can see for yourself and think "hey I could probably make my own game, but I'd rather read his blog"

Last although certainly not least this is simply to show you the importance of cropping, if you notice the character is off to the left (yeah that is my drawing for you) if it is cropped fully meaning the character appears central it generally just helps with lining everything up in engine.


So there you have it! More kinks need to be ironed out and plenty more of this needs to be done, i am a little afraid that time will run away with me. But I aim to remain confident and to one day soon be able to show you all a working copy of this game which you can try out. For now keep checking back and I will deliver exciting new concept art and more fantastic news from Pax Insectica.


Goodbye!

a blessing in disguise

Happy Christmas!

(more work to be updated very soon, with special guest ... game engine shots!)

roads? where we're going, we don't need roads

So animating has been great fun but i have descovered a problem, when putting my stuff into ags i realised a few things, instead of saving the animations as .gifs it is better to save each individual layer/frame as a .png and make sure that the transparency is on and there is no white background. The problem being that if there is a white border shows up around the character and it looks horrible! Also the character needs to be drawn in and animated on the very bottom middle of the page in order for it to be centered in the ags editor. It is good finding out these issues now by doing a build early because i haven't tackled too many animations yet. I will have to re draw all of the animations and that way i can improve on them there and then, and i will keep this updated to say how that goes.

Have checked the background in the ags editor to make sure that the character can interact with it and the colours are okay and it doesn't look shabby and the resolution holds up just fine and dandy! Each small build is a new step to a working Pax Insectica!

In the meantime my lovely friends, enjoy yet another concept of the main character Blatta.

i shut my eyes, in order to see

I was recently lent a book on animation, which has helped me phenomenally! I have finished a walk cycle for blatta, it is a little clunky and certainly rough round the edges but in all honestly i can say i am pleased with it. Might need some cleaning up but overall you get the idea. Made him walk at a steady pace, as he is an insect and naturally they don't move too slowly. Still so much more work to be done on other characters, but this is fundamental work that should be gotten on with and it's a joy to do it and really work hard at it too.


One step at a time.

wise men and cups of tea

I have been posting here a lot lately, after getting into level design and animations i really can't help it because i want to keep this updated with what i have done. So if you saw my last small animation (Blatta scratching his head in confusion about what to do) then this animation should fit nicely. It is a simple static boil on the character which gives an overall feel for how the character should look in game. It was a very wise beardy man called Rhys Thomas that told me it would help gel all the animations together, so this is for him to critique as well as you all!


Put the kettle on!

pipe dreams, to wonder where a non-conformist, mild mannered cockroach lives

This is a concept of a screen appearing in the game, it is the front door to the main character's (Blatta) house. There is a grating underneath that is covered by leaves which will require moving to get down there. The image is compiled of different photographic elements and then played around with in photoshop. These images will probably have a faint black line around parts of the scenery to add a drawn feel to them, though as yet this is still undecided.

to itch a scratch, a scratch that needs itching

So i have been busy animating in photoshop once more, working primarily with gifs as i know that these will export to ags (adventure game studio) for when i put them into the game. I am looking over all the animations that will have to be done and it is fair to say it will take a lot of time but it is so rewarding if done to a fine polish.

If you notice this animation has a slight boil effect on it, this was not intentional it is merely due to me not drawing exact with a tablet but i like the effect so i may keep it. It would be nice to hear feedback on what people think about it. (that is you people, because you are wonderful!)

Without further ado, here it is... A simple animation, basically it is the main character (Blatta) scratching his head with his antennae when he is unable to perform an action. (a useful animation as it will be seen a fair amount in most point and click games, usually through dialogue)

Blatta Confused

I see your interesting picture, i raise you one perspective!

Here are just a few pictures that myself and my good friend Dave went out to take the other day, the aim was looking at places and objects that will form game screens and assets. It was interesting and more are being taken to get a good feel for the overall vision of the game. Enjoy and feedback is always welcome.

If we build it, they will come

So, have been doing lots of research for this project and things are moving along rather smoothly, the story is pulling together. The other day headed into town to get some inspiration, took pictures of lots of different things, which i will post here. Gave me a lot of inspiration for environments in the game and a feel for what the main character will encounter.

I also got to work on the logo that you see above, which features the concept for the main character "Blatta" the name refers to the latin for "Peace Insect" i am hoping to stick with it, but i am open to changing it too.

I will continue on with working more on character design and environments and as ever will continue to post on here so all you lovely people get a good update on where i am at.

mein name ist blatta

Have been doing my best at trying to nail an art style for the characters of the game, i am enjoying sketching and experimenting showing different characteristics through posture and expressions. I shall continue to refine until i settle on a style i am pleased with, so far i feel i am improving.

I saw the fruit and it wasn't half bad!

I recently purchased a fantastic new little program, it's called Artrage 2.5 and i have to say that it was worth every penny that i can't afford right now. To draw and sketch in it with my tablet is probably the best thing ever at the moment, and i can quickly manage to draw a lot of concepts that i am happy with. I am trying to get the bulk of character design sorted as i am happy with the idea and i think the story works too. The characters are interesting and if i can nail the animations after the characters are settled in designs then i will be on my way!

I have been working on concepts of the main protagonist of the game, Blatta the cockroach. He has been working out well and the more i draw him the more i feel comfortable with working with scale on making him larger and smaller inside the environment.

I am also working on the concepts for the slug nuns characters, these are obviously early concepts and still require a lot of work. I am trying to show how they are paraded around on their snail steeds, rocking back on forth on their small unstable chairs. Hunched over and shrouded in dark clothing, i wanted to show that they have an eerily serene face, devoid of any real detail.

In between working on concepts for the different characters that are in the bulk of the game, i have been playing around with environments. I am still trying to settle on the overall feel that i want. But i was keen to have weird and wonderful architecture that prompts you to really take in your surroundings and get the most out of looking around you and exploring. But yes, it is all still very much a work in progress.

they bite off the heads of males when mating, wow

I haven't done a cartoon doodle in quite some time, this is the best i have done lately. I really should draw bugs more often, it's fun.

the machine is your friend

I don't think i ever expected to be in the position that i am now, i am actually contemplating my third year of uni. It actually seems rather incredible to me, i think only because i doubt myself so much, and yes i know i shouldn't but a lot makes me believe that i am not destined for the games industry. I don't know where i am destined for but i will be trying my hardest to create a game that i truly am pleased with in my third and final year.

I have been working hard taking down notes every time something pops into my head, sketching down ideas for characters and environments and i am pretty sure i know what kind of game i want to make. I have also been looking at games engines that are suitable to help me easily implement my designs into a program that can let me stitch a game together. I am sure this is now going to be harder than i expected, but i have said it before i relish a challenge. Besides this could push me to go way beyond what i feel is my limit and that is only good right?

I would say something about what i want to create but i think it is better to hold off just a little while longer, i will say that i am studying short stories that can be adapted into the type of video game that i am making. This should be the most stressful, and yet interesting year of uni yet. My teeth are bared, my fists clenched, my eyes are staring into the darkness but i can see a faint light and that is what i run towards!