The story: Part 1

For this project we could choose to either do one large project or two smaller projects. I decided to do two as I felt that I would benefit the most from doing two totally different narrative ideas. The first will be set in an apocalyptic world in the future and the second will be a Viking based game.

For now I'm just going to concentrate on the first idea, and write down all the ideas floating around in my head so far.

The player will start out as a little girl of around 10 years old. Her name is Aimme and she's an orphan. She lives in a world of destruction and death and must survive on her wits and her speed.

The story first begins around 350 years in the future- mankind has finally pushed the planet to it's limits, and one man made disaster too many results in the earth tipping on it's axis. The oceans rose up and swallowed much of the world's existing land mass and exposing new continents that were previously covered by the worlds vast seas.
Rips in time occurred and portals opened to alternate dimensions. These spewed out great quantities of "magik" with devastating consequences, much like radiation. There are 4 grades of portals- the first and largest destroyed everything within a 200 mile radius and mutated and melded life together within another 1000 miles after that.
The other grades leached out less magik, with the weakest allowing life forms from other dimensions through. Most of the smaller portals closed after a few decades, with the larger ones taking centuries.

Fast forward now to 400 hundred years after the initial catastrophe. The human population has recovered some what, but technology has been lost and people survive by finding what they can to defend themselves and their families. There are only a few major cities in existence, and these are run down and perilous places; areas that most decent people avoid.

Humans have also had to learn to live along side, and indeed survive against, a whole new horde of creatures, animals and other sentient beings, which were either created by magik radiation or came through smaller portals.

The game would begin with a cut scene of a small village being attacked by giant creatures- twisted and deformed, they are the last surviving mutants created by the larger gates magik. Aimme and precious few other members of the village make it into the surrounding forest, where she hides in terror until she can no longer hear the beasts.

Cold, hungry and terrified that the beasts will hunt her down, Aimme begins to move further into the forest until she can go no further. Curling up in a mossy hollow under a tree she falls into a fitful sleep.
The scene would then cut to the next morning, where Aimme is woken by strange noises. She opens her eyes to find a strange little creature watching her warily from the tree above her.

This is where the game kicks off, and the player takes off on an adventure through out the world with the little critter in tow. This creature grows and evolves depending on the amount of experience it gains in life and the decisions you make. It has four different evolution paths, ending with a different final creature. It's appearance differ depending on the element (earth, fire, water and air) you choose to expose it to the most. Aimee will also age and grow through out the game, causing her appearance and costume to change according to her surroundings.

I'll finish this post for now, thank you if you have managed to make it all the way to the end. In my next post I will go into more detail about how the characters change throughout the game and why I have chosen to have them develop so much over the course of the game.

Introduction

So I've decided to do yet another online "sketchbook" in the form of a blog for my newest university project.
This first post is just going to be my project statement/plan, and then on to the ideas going around in my head and the art work that I've done so far.

North Wales School of Art and Design
BA (Hons) Design: Digital Art for Computer Games

Name of Student: Rachelle Fryatt

Negotiated Study: Series of illustrative concept art pieces

Subject: Digital Art for Computer Games


Rational/Working Statement:

I intend to create a set of highly detailed concept art pieces that will illustrate to the viewer several things including: story line, character designs, environmental designs and game play. I will also develop several high quality concept pieces depicting the characters within the games and the development that they would under go through out the game.

Aims:

I aim to create game art which will allow the viewer to follow and understand the narrative and characters of my project. The final concept art pieces will also be finished to the highest standard that I can possibly achieve, and will be used in my portfolio to send off to clients and game companies that I would like to work for in the future.

Details/Content:

My main aim for my sequential images is to illustrate to the view how the characters will change, develop and evolve through out the game.

The game will include the following themes throughout.

• A dangerous and untamed futuristic world covered in wild jungles, forests and
landscapes
• Evolution and change

These themes will be the most important aspect of my final concept pieces and will reflect the environment and obstacles that they player would work their way through within the game.

These themes run through the narrative and so it is essential that they are reflected in the final images. The game art will enable me to bring to life some of the characters I have designed in my sketchbooks.

Specific Skills:

2D digital based concept art (Photoshop / Painter)
2D traditional drawn concept designs (pencil, ink and guache)
Good communication in professionally explaining ideas and concepts

On to the ideas and art!