Games Development - Art Asset Development (Task 2)

23/10/2024 - 13/11/2024 (Week 5- Week 7)
Katelyn Tan Kye Ling (0354148)
Bachelor Of Design In Creative Media (Games Development)
Task 2 - Art Asset Development

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LECTURES

Week 5 - Game Development Chapter 3 (23/10/24)

This week Mr. Razif gave us a tutorial on how to put background in a game. We added a player and an obstacle, then we learnt how to make the background and obstacle move towards the player. We also made the player able to run and jump over the obstacle and once the player hits the obstacle the game will immediately stop. Lastly, we were taught how to add effects like explosions as well as sound effects.

Week 6 - Online Class (30/10/24)

This week's class was online. Mr. Razif started of today's class by talking about our task 2 art asset development. He showed us examples and what we need to include in the document. 

Pointers:

- Suggested us to draw most of our assets as it showcases our work as well as ownership.

- Draw main characters first.

- Draw the whole character in parts so you can move each part individually instead of constantly drawing each sequence all over again.

- At the end, have an example of all the assets in one picture.

Fig 1.1 Example of Image Sequence

Week 7 - Online Class (6/11/24)

Today we had class online as well. We learnt how to make a 2D game today. First we revisited from previous chapters on how to make the player move left and right and jump. For this game we added a platform for the player to double jump onto. We then also learnt how to make a door animate when the player goes near it. Lastly, we learnt how to collect coins with points accumulating as well.

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INSTRUCTIONS

Out of my 3 ideations, I decided to go with the first idea as it had both exploration and a storyline. I also liked the visual references more for that game. Students will be given the task to produce the art asset for their games. This includes characters, environment, items, props, obstacles, power ups and HUD design.

Thought Process:

Firstly, I listed out what I was going to include in my art asset proposal. I wanted to start with the characters first but I felt that having my story and gameplay laid out first would help me then decide all the characters I need.

Story & Gameplay

My story was the same as my ideation, there wasn't much change as I liked the plot. I only changed the ending where no matter what the Sally still had to fight the monster. Monsters are evil so whether or not Sally succeeds or not, the monster would still try to attack her.

Fig 2.1 General Game Flow

Fig 2.2 Game Flowchart

Characters:

I went with a 2d pixelated art style. I thought that would be the easiest type of drawing but after asking a friend who teaches graphics and animation, he mentioned that it is one of the hardest to work with. But since I've already chose this style, I decided to just learn it. I first started to watch YouTube videos.

Some of the tutorials I watched:

After that I was trying to find a platform to draw pixel art on and found out that I could use adobe photoshop, plus it also has frame animation timeline to edit my animations.

Sally: 

Sally is the main character of this game. She is a simple 12 year old girl that loves adventures. She lives alone with her dad and is an only daughter. Sally wears a simple outfit suitable for outdoor activities (red shirt and long blue pants) in the game as she is on a camping trip with her dad.

Sketch:

Fig 2.3 Sally's Sketch

Character:

I started to try and draw my main character. It took me a long time just to draw it and do its Idle animation as well since it's my first time working with pixel art (Fig 2.4).

Fig 2.4 Sally - Attempt 1

After that I tried to do its running animation with a sword as well (Fig 2.5). 

Fig 2.5 Running Animation with a sword

Then Sir said the running animation looks stiff. I also mentioned that I did not have much time to draw the other characters and sir said we can actually do the animations later and just draw the characters idle first. After that I quickly started to draw my other characters.

Later on while I was doing the other characters and familiarising myself with pixel art, I felt that my characters needed more flavour. Like adding some shadow, so that's what I did for my characters (Fig 2.6).

Fig 2.6 Sally Final Attempt

Sally’s Mother:

Sally’s mother comes in the form of an angel. In the game, her main role is to give Sally a blue flame sword to help her fight off enemies. She also warns Sally about what’s about to come.

Sketch:

Fig 2.7 Sally's Mother's Sketch

Character:

I went for a bright and welcoming colour for Sally's Mother as I want the character to be clearly distinguished as someone who is there to aid Sally.

Fig 2.8 Sally's Mother

Sally's Father: 

Sally’s father loves adventures as well which is why Sally herself likes exploring so much too. He always brings Sally to campsites to spend time together and bond. He is a very good father figure to Sally.

Sketch:

Fig 2.9 Sally's Father's Sketch

Character:

Fig 2.10 Sally's Father - Attempt 1

After that, I did another 2 more versions of Sally's Father as in the story, Sally has to later on identify which of the following 3 fathers is the correct one with all the clues she collected throughout the journey.

Fig 2.11 Sally's Father Final Attempt (Different Versions)

Roger (Villager/NPC):

Roger is a villager living in the forest. He was standing outside his house setting up a fire when he suddenly met Sally. He is very friendly and his role in the game is to warn and teach people about the sounds that he hears near his house at night.

Fig 2.12 Roger's Sketch

Character:

I also went for very warm, welcoming, neutral colours for the villager so that he looks much more welcoming. I went for a bit of a ragged type of clothing since he lives in the forest.

Fig 2.13 Roger Final Attempt

Swampchomper (Enemy Mob): Swampchomper is an evil monster that works under the final boss that attacks bypassers at night. It is allergic to light hence why it lives in the swamps and is a muddy green colour and only comes out during the night. To kill this mob, Sally has to use her blue flame sword and attack it.

Sprites:

I did not draw my mobs due to time restrictions so I got them off a website. (All assets that are gotten online are listed in the document below.)

Fig 2.14 Swampchomper Sprites

Fig 2.14 Swamchomper Sprites

Character:

Fig 2.15 Swampchomper Walking

Soul Reaver (Final Enemy):

Soulreaver is the final enemy of this game that feeds off human's souls (hence its name). He was the one that captured Sally’s Father. The Soulreaver has a purple electric sword that does more damage than the Swampchomper. Sally has to defeat the Soulreaver to successfully escape with her dad and complete the game.

Sprites:

I did not draw my mobs due to time restrictions so I got them off a website. (All assets that are gotten online are listed in the document below.)

Fig 2.16 Soulreaver Sprites

Character:

Fig 2.17 Soulreaver Idle

Art Style:

Since I didn't have time to draw the small little details in my game like the decorations and background, I found many of them online. I took quite a long time to find them as I had to find the style that fits with my game. I also watched people playing pixelated games to get inspiration of what I wanted my game to look like. (All assets taken online are linked in the art asset document)

Scenes:

For all the scenes, I edited them in both photoshop and illustrator. I used my UI(s), art styles, background, and characters to showcase all of them and how they would look like in the game. All of the images of the scenes are displayed in both the slides and the document.

Audios:

I picked one music soundtrack for each stage. Each chosen soundtrack fitted the vibe of the environment and what Sally had to do during that stage. For example the final battle soundtrack is more upbeat to make players feel more intense. As for the sound effects, I chose different sound clips for different movements while some of the movements like attack and damage have the same sound across all characters. (All audios taken online are linked in the art asset document)

After I recorded my presentation and finalised everything, I only noticed that some of the sound effects were unnecessary. Like the dialogue pop up sound effect and the jumping one. Since this is a horror game, I felt that the jumping wasn't so necessary as it might to too loud and bubbly. I also watched some other games to see what jumping sound effects they used and some didn't use any. Therefore I decided to take these two sound effects out of the game.

FINAL SUBMISSIONS

Art Asset Document:

Click here for art asset document.

Video Presentation:

Presentation Canva Slides:

Games Development - Art Asset Development (Task 2)

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FEEDBACK

Week 7 - 5/11/2024

-Running animation looks stiff and rigid

-For the scenes, just a rough idea of all the assets put together

-Background best is piece by piece then put together

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REFLECTION

Experience

My journey with this assignment has been both challenging and rewarding. If I'm being absolutely honest, this assignment was one of the most hectic and toughest assignments. There were many parts to it and lots of designing to do. It's very ironic to say that I'm bad at drawing as a student taking a design course. However, that was the case for me. I struggled with drawing the characters and that was why I chose an art style I thought was simple. Initially, I underestimated the complexity of pixel art and thought it would be an easy to draw. However, I quickly learned that pixel art requires careful attention to detail, especially when animating characters. Though it was tough and the time restrictions had me rushing a lot, I still felt that it was actually pretty fun. The part where we had to do each scene and put the art assets together made me happy as I could see everything come together. Throughout this assignment, I’ve faced various obstacles, like technical challenges and limited skills, but each step has contributed to my growth as a game developer.

Observation 

Through the assignment's progress, I observed that creating the game's art assets —such as player movement and obstacles—requires careful planning to ensure smooth gameplay flow. For instance, while creating the pixel art for Sally, I had to refine the design multiple times to make it appear more polished and dynamic. Additionally, balancing the time constraints with the complexity of the art style was a challenge. Despite my initial struggle with pixel art, I observed that the more I practiced, the more I started enjoying the creative process. I also realized the importance of developing a cohesive art style early on, as it influenced the consistency and aesthetic appeal of the entire game.

Findings

Through working on this project, I realized how much patience and persistence game development really takes. I also learned that it's okay to start small and improve as you go. There were times I felt stuck or didn’t know how to make something look right, but I found that by experimenting and getting feedback, things gradually started to fall into place. This project taught me that the creative process isn’t always smooth, but each struggle is a step forward in learning and growing. Lastly, I really start to admire and appreciate game developers so much more. Only by going through the process myself and experiencing it first hand made me realise how much time and effort it takes to just do the planning of the game. Let alone this was an individual assignment which means there were less manpower and much more work to complete.