Final Evaluation

During this project we were the given the brief to create concept art for an entirely new game that we were to create. Our only limitation was that it had to relate to the words 'Adventure Quest'.

When we were first told about this limitation my mind first went to games that corresponded to it. These games were ones like Final Fantasy X, and Legend of Zelda. These two games were prominent figures in my childhood and it made sense to draw similar qualities into my own game as if it had positive effects on the child version of myself, it would have similar effects on other likeminded children. These qualities ended up being elements such as: magic, magical weapons, more fantasy styled characters, designs that carried personality, simple combat and puzzle solving elements.

It was here where we began researching existing games to help form ideas. Looking into games of my childhood, and games I hadn’t discovered until I was older, this helped me gain a baseline for the quality of video games from their visuals to their writing. Being able to find the precise points which I enjoyed of games helped me form the beginning ideas for 'The Plundering of the Sunshine Islands' (POTSI). I also researched concept art and its purpose to get a better grasp of what it’s entirely used for, as well as the variations artists go through to get to their final idea. I also got the chance to research artists and illustrators, I like this as combing traditional art, or art used purely for still images and combining it with games is a good way to distinguish your game, and have a good reminder on what makes a strong visual image and how it can affect the mood and feeling of a game.
During this I was reminded of my all-time favourite game 'The Curse of Monkey Island', and my favourite movie series 'The Pirates of the Caribbean' (The first three only though) , these two franchises ended up being a big influence on my game as my whole concept focuses around a group of pirates.

For the second task we started drawing up concept art. I started with drawing some game art, and then did pen sketches of the first rough ideas for my characters. I liked this part as it let me get out some of the ideas blocking up my mind and freed up some space for ideas to grow further. It was also good as I started experimenting with mediums once I got base ideas down; I was able to use watercolours, paints, alcoholic markers, fine liners, pencil, and ball point pen on the traditional side.
We also went outside to take photos of the natural environment to help inspire the environments of our games, this was helpful as seeing how buildings looked in their environment and how environments can vary from street to street helped our environments become more realistic.

As my plot developed and I started writing down more about how I wanted the game to go, I was also able to solidify the characters, and their personalities more. It was decided from the beginning that I wanted them all to be individual, flawed, and very varied both visually and in their personalities. I wanted them to have differentiating chemistry character-to-character to make it more realistic, I even decided who would end up being better friends with who, who would argue more with someone else, and who would mediate fights between certain characters; although regrettably I didn’t have time to write this in before the hand in date.

It was at this point, as I had a sturdier plot and set of characters, that I started transferring them to a digital medium. I designed every character in Paint Tool Sai, and even found the time to begin sculpting their digital models in Sculptris. Putting them into a digital format was really helpful as sketching happened quicker and more efficiently and I was able to make their colours how I had originally envisioned instead of using the alternative colours in my marker set. I was also able to interchange certain elements of the characters round to fully explore the variations in each characters visual design.

And after looking into the ethics of games, I finally had a game concept I was happy with.
Essentially my game is about a group of 5 pirates each escaping the law or a person for their separate reasons travelling together to stay alive and out of trouble. You start the game learning they are very skint and in need of financial aid and their usual tactics of playing poker, gambling, and selling their skills to anyone who needs them, just isn’t cutting it so they decide to pirate again. But these pirates don’t just steal from easy targets like most, they go after people who can be classed as genuinely evil or dishonest and correct the balance, while also scoring as much money as they can get so they are at least improving the world. The main reason behind this is that the characters are all rebels in a small way; they have had problems where to be morally correct, they have had to break the law, but they are always the good guys because they have always saved more people than have harmed which is one thing they could never go against.

To continue, as they explore the island the start seeing the cracks in the surface as all the merchants and workers look slightly on edge and people are talking about disappearances; when you look into it further it turns out that over the past few months the workers have had friends and family and fellow employees mysteriously disappear, most of whom having spoken out about something they didn’t like, or how it could be changed shortly before they’ve gone. So, in true good guy fashion, the crew start exploring, they ask around, fight the enemies, try talking/bribing/threatening their way to find where these people are hiding. Eventually they find out that in the mysterious mountains, there lays a door which leads to the company headquarters, and the big boss. They crew find the missing people, but before that they must go head to head against the law crazy big boss to defeat him. He believes in supreme law power and that regardless of the effects it has on others, if the law has been broken it must corrected. This deranged mind set has lead the families of some of the missing people being killed, or starved but he believes it’s a ‘rightful end’ to the crime. It will also turn out he was behind the downfalls of all the characters as prosecuted against them, guaranteeing their downfall. He will be defeated and good will triumph.

I am proud of the ethics I have demonstrated in the game, where as long as what you did can be classed as morally just and saving more people than could be harmed, laws can be changed; Which is also very pirate-y and fits well with my characters. On the negative sides of ethics though my game would include items such as: willingly breaking the law, use of weapons, mild swearing/insulting, harm to animals, themes of depression, themes of alcoholism, and theft. These ethics are what changed the age rating of my game from a once kids game (5-13 years) to a teenagers game (13-19 years).

If I had more time to develop it I would: work more on the story and make it more complex, work on the themes of the story better to relate it to modern day issues, develop my characters further visually as I felt some were lacking, design and improve the boss character as I ran out of time to give him a sturdy image and personality, and make more finished digital designs and rendering as I had some ideas I didn’t have time to communicate to heir full extent. Also, I would have liked to explore traditional drawing mediums more and natural images as I feel I spent too much time on character drawings and the mediums I was familiar with.

But overall, I like the idea I came up with and I think, if I had been given the chance, it would make a fun and interesting game that would hopefully be as memorable as my childhood favourites but as smart and interesting as the new games currently available.