Character Development und Design

Style

• Pixel-Art
• Art-Driven Character Design --> The Characters do not change during the game.
• Humanoid Character Design (physically similar to humans)
• Zero-Dimensional Characters
  • only discrete emotional states - character's emotions are not important for the players to play the game, but it's interesting to know about the background stories (e.g., Moot is sad because of lonelyness).
  • the character's emotions do not cause any further actions in the game.
• Specific Avatars
  • Characters have background stories, which help the players to become aware of the current in-game situation.

Silhoutte

Major Dom: The Silhouette mainly shows Major Dom's huge head and body (exaggeration), which is in a triangle shape. That symbolizes, that Major Dom is an adult (similar to male adults on planet Earth).

Moot: Slimy structures can be recognized very well. You can see the slime flowing and spreading to all directions.

Proportions

Both characters are characterized by an interesting body shape

Major Dom:

• Seems to be an adult. But Why? Just like human male adults have more like a triangular body shape, Major Dom has it as well.

• Already existing example for Major Dom's body shape: Aliens in Movie "District Nine" src

• That means Major Dom's basic shape is a triangle!

• Why did we choose these shapes?

  • Our target group does not only consist of children. Students and adults can also play our game. That means that we also need to have one character, which seems to be an adult, so the players can identify with it and do not feel like a child while playing our game.

Moot:

• Head and Body are almost the same height. That gives a childish appearance.
• Why did we choose these shapes?
  • Our target group does not only consist of students and adults, there can also be children playing the game. Therefor we need a character, which seems to be funny. Additionally we added the black hat, which makes Moot even more dynamic because of the combination of rounded and edged shapes. It consists of thicker outlines, because it should be kept in comic style. The hat is made out of vibranium, which makes it a sharp and leight weight throwing weapon.

Lines

Clear and consistent structured strokes in different strengths build the character's outline.

Feedback of Fellow Students: Keep consistent lines over the characters -> we chose to be not consistent, because different body parts need different strengths to express itself.

Major Dom: The current design's lines seem to be inconsistent, therefore the line proportions of the body and the head should be more consistent or even more different in thickness. Why? Thicker lines match to the strength of Major Dom's Alien Body, thinner lines match to Major Dom's clear and structured mind.

Moot:

Feedback of fellow students:

• Either no lines at all, because it gives the flowing slime boundaries (in which directions to flow) or a bit thicker, so it matches Major Dom's lines.
• Lines should be thicker near by the shadows (e.g., thicker beneath the neck as on the head).
• Connectable to sound effects, “Moot schlabbert durch die Gegend."

Shapes

Major Dom:

His basic body shape is a triangle! Why did we choose these shapes? Our target group does not only consist of children. Students and adults can also play our game. That means that we need to give them an adult character, so the players can identify with it and do not feel like a child while playing our game. The triangle also seems stable, strong, structured, protecting and active.

Moot:

His basic body shape is a circle, which gives the character a cute, friendly and childish appearance. His black hat gives the character some edges, which seem to be mysterious. In combination, that seems funny, smooth and calm.

Expressions

Major Dom Is always friendly and happy. He smiles a lot, even when he fights aliens.

Moot has different facial expressions:

• Angry (standard)
• Sadness (tells players about sad background story, only in one idle frame visible).

Personality

Major Dom:

• Confident
• Friendly
• Clear structured
• Clever, smart

Moot:

• Sad
• Mysterious
• Seems angry (but is not)

Posture (Körperhaltung)

Major Dom:

• Confident
• Open minded
• Ready to lead and explore

Moot:

• Defending
• Shy
• Confused
• Insecure

Colors

Brainstorming with Fellow Students combined with our Team's thoughts:

Major Dom:

• Embed shadows more consistent.
• Differentiation from each other.
• Use color contrasts.
• Omit or emphasize the second eye.
  • Why? The association of a none-typical alien is already given. A second eye would make a "typical alien" out of Major Dom. That means, it makes more sense to omit the second eye to keep the exceptional alien design.

Moot:

• Green slime fits Moot's sad background story and appearance, because the slime can be associated to "trash", which can also be associated with sadness (Moot grew up alone on a lonely planet).
• Smallpox can intentionally arouse disgust (flesh colours, festering slime wounds).

Camera, Controller

Camera

• Both players can always be seen in the same screen
• Camera zooms out, when one play goes out of screen view, so both can be seen at the same time on each screen.

Controller

• Both of the players use different screens.
• Direct Control: Player steers the character by using their laptop's keyboard (mainly: WASD, SPACE, 'G').

---

Enhanced Versions

Major Dom

• A clear structured silhouette with strong exaggerations is very important to the character's recognition value. That is why we decided to give him bigger aerials and freedom to move his arms.
  His right muscular arm stands out (strength and masculinity), his left arm rests behind his back (smartness and focus).

• A view design versions ago, we added hair to his head and a beard.That throws noteworthy details into the big picture and gives Major Dom more personality.

• We chose to make the head-lines thinner and the body-lines thicker. That gives each body part it's associated "strength".

  • Body = strong lines (1pt) = Major Dom's body strength
  • Head = thinner lines (0,5pt) = Major Dom's clearness, cleverness and structure

• We recolored his Space Suit, which gives the character's design stronger contrasts.
  Darker background colors (base color of space suit) make the accent colors (yellow, blue and orange) glow.
  The three accent colors can be found complementary to each other in the color scheme circle. That is called the "Complementary Contrast", which proves the established and needed higher contrast in colors. The light and accent colors were also intensified to build up even higher contrasts.
  We also added more consistent shadows. You can find them everywhere on the character.
  The second eyeball on his left side was erased to keep the none-typical alien design.

Major Dom's Design History - From sketch to pixel-art:

The following vector graphics serve as base design only. The characters will be implemented in pixel-art.

sketch

colorized and 3rd/4th eye on each side bring more of a "typical alien design" stylistic

silhouette (v1)

thinner head strokes

color decicions and 3rd/4th eye erased, because

silhouette (v2): unique and identifying body pose

pixel-art (v1)

pixel-art (v2): lower pixel rate to adjust it on the level design

Moot

• His body is made out of slime, which means that liquid flows all over his body. This slimy liquid can be recognized by the big slime drops.

• A view design versions ago, we added a black hat. It gives Moot funny details, mysterious personality and edges. The contrast between rounded shapes and edges brings interest and makes the character more dynamic.

• We chose to make all of Moot's lines a lot thinner (0,5pt). That gives his slimy body a stronger glinty, shiny look. The flowing slime also gets more freedom to move around. If the lines were 0pt, the slime drops could not be differentiated from the body. The hat's lines are thicker than the body's lines, so that the hat keeps a strong comic-style and can be seperated from the character. Attached to Moot's background story, the player can imagine that Moot has found it on the way.

• The glowing green base colors make the accent colors (grey, white, shadow-black) outstanding from the rest of his body. These three accent colors can be found under the name "Light-Dark Contrast" and effect dramatic, threatening, thoughtful, melancholic and mystical. That proves Moot's background story even more. We also added more consistent shadows and erased the strokes from it. This effect looks smooth and consistent. His green body effects in hope, stability and harmony to other people (the player).

Moot's Design History - From sketch to pixel-art:

sketch

colorized

with accessoire: mysterious-serious black hat

thinner strokes

silhouette

pixel-art (v1)

pixel-art (v2): lower pixel rate to adjust it on the level design

Alternative Versions

The following character inspirations were available for selection:

We also tried it in different colors but decided us for the other color pallette:

Mood Boards

Main Characters

Major Dom:

Moot:

Enemies

(From this state: enemy design was not further developed in pixel-art, because they won't be implemented in the game's first version.)

Legionary:Colossus:

Fundamentals of GameDesign

Design Practice Questions

1. Are the game’s characters primarily art-based or story-based?

   • Primarily the characters are art-based, but they have background stories of how they became the alien they are today.

2. What style is your art-based character drawn in: cartoon, comic-book superhero, realistic, gothic? Will your character be exaggerated in some way: cute, tough, or otherwise?

   • Bother characters are designed in Pixel-Art
   • Major Dom: tough, strong, smart
   • Moot: cute, friendly, funny, mysterious

3. Do your art-based characters depend upon visual stereotypes for instant identification, or are they more subtle than that? If they are more subtle, how does their appearance support their role in the game?

   • With Major Dom we took a stereotyped alien design, and transformed it in a subtle way. So, he does not look like the standardized alien anymore.
   • Moot never looked like a stereotype alien. He has always been subtle. That brings interest and attention from the players, because he has one very special attack, which stereotype aliens have not.

4. Can the player tell by looking at a character how that character is likely to act? Are there reasons in the story or gameplay for wanting a character’s behavior to be predictable from her appearance, or is there a reason to make the character ambiguous?

   • The players can guess, that Major Dom can shoot with his laser phaser. With that we wanted to give a small hint for the game actions. Players can imagine that they would have to shoot enemies.
   • Players cannot imagine, that Moot is not only the little sidekick of Major Dom. He is able to use a very special attack, which the players will find out about while playing the game.

5. If the game offers an avatar, does the avatar come with a sidekick? What does the sidekick offer the player—information, advice, physical assistance? How will the sidekick complement the avatar? How will the player be able to visually distinguish between the two of them at a glance?

   • Moot seems to be sidekick, but actually he is a player character too. He can also fight enemies.
   • Only together as a team, they can shift the gravity. That means, that Moot is an essential part of the game.

6. With a story-based character, how will you convey the character’s personality and attitudes to the player—through narration, dialogue, gameplay, backstory, or other means?

   • Because the characters are mainly art-based, we will give some small hints about the background history and the characters on the way.

7. What about the avatar will intrigue and interest the player? What about the avatar will encourage the player to like him?

   • They both have different interesting methods to fight enemies and use specialised items. That's why both players want to figure out, what each character is unique about.

8. How will the avatar change and grow throughout the game? Physically, emotionally, intellectually? or will she remain essentially static?

   • Both characters will remain essentially static.

9. Do the characters correspond to any of Campbell’s mythic archetypes? or do they have less archetypal, more complex roles to play, and if so, what are they?

   • Major Dom: Hero (wants to explore and lead the community in a good way)
   • Moot: Trickster (lives outside of societies norm, brings the funny kind of chaos and humor into the game)

10. What sorts of sounds will each character in your game make? What sorts of music are appropriate for them? How will your choices of sounds and music support the way you want the player to feel about each character?

    • Major Dom
      • Steps sound heavy but precise.
      • His voice sounds very situational aware and open minded, clever and smart.
      • Laser Phaser shooting sounds
    • Moot
      • Steps sound slimy and inaccurate, a bit uncoordinated.
      • Does not speak very well, but can say one sentence "I am Moot."
      • His voice sounds slimy, as if he was chewing a slimy gum.

11. How do the character’s grammar, vocabulary, tone of voice, and speech patterns contribute to the player’s understanding of the character?

    • Both characters speak English.
    • Major Dom speaks fluent (in grammar, vocabulary).
    • Moot just speaks in short sentences.

Spritesheets

SpriteSheets (v1.0)

Major Dom:

Row 1: Walk and Idle Moot:

Row 1: Walk and Idle

Enhanced SpriteSheets (v1.1)

Major Dom:

Rows:

1. Walk
2. Idle
3. Jump
4. Die
5. Push and Pull Objects (e.g., Boxes)
6. Fight (get gun)
7. Shoot
8. Shot: Red-Fire
9. Shot: Blue-Water
10. Shot: Purple-Haze

Moot: Rows:

1. Walk
2. Idle
3. Jump
4. Push and Pull Objects (e.g., Boxes)
5. Die
6. Fight from ceiling (swinging slime arm)

New Pixel-Art Style and SpriteSheets (v1.2)

• We decided to scale down the character's pixel rate. This way the character design fits better to the rest of the environment.

Major Dom:

Example Animation - idle (all animations can be found in MajorDom_AnimationCycles_Low_Res.aseprite)

New Animation Spritesheet including gravity-shift and talk. Download

Moot:

Example Animation - idle (all animations can be found in Moot_AnimationCycle_v3_Low_Res.aseprite

New Animation Spritesheet including gravity-shift and talk. Download

---

Downloads

NPCs

• Colossus - Adobe PhotoShop
• Legionary - Adobe PhotoShop
• Enemies - Adobe Illustrator
• SpriteSheet (.aseprite): Colossus (last state)
• SpriteSheet (.aseprite): Storyteller Alien

Playable Characters

• Major Dom - Affinity Designer
• Moot - Affinity Designer
• Color Pallette: MajorDom.aseprite
• MajorDom_AnimationCycle_v1.aseprite
• MajorDom_AnimationCycle_v2.aseprite
• MajorDom_AnimationCycles_Low_Res.aseprite
• MajorDom_WalkCycleAnimation_v2_with3rdEye.aseprite
• Moot_AnimationCycle_v2.1.aseprite
• Moot_AnimationCycle_v2.aseprite
• Moot_AnimationCycle_v3_Low_Res.aseprite
• Moot_IdleCycleAnimation_v2.2.aseprite
• Moot_skizze_test_v0.1.piskel
• Moot_skizze_test_v0.2.piskel
• Moot_skizze_test_v0.3.piskel

Tools and Gadgets

• collectible_frame.aseprite
• collectible_nose.aseprite
• collectible_reactor.aseprite
• collectible_stabilizer.aseprite
• collectible_thruster.aseprite
• SpaceShip.aseprite

Figma

• characters_moodboard.png
• SGF_figma_characterDesign.fig