Boxes, computers and aliens – oh my!
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A lot of nothing happened this last week in terms of work for the space shooter. I was supposed to create props for the game that would serve as guidelines for the visual style the other graphic artists in the group should be going for and looking back to whenever they would create props of their own. Embarassingly enough I only produced two props, basically. Firstly I began To design the basic design of a box to but in the game. The design of this box, with sharp lines and distinctive corners, would similar to the floor tiles function as a framework for the aesthetic various objects in the game should have. At first the saturation of the colors on the boxes were too high and because they all happened to be the same colors the game used for its color code (green for health/durability, purple for energy, yellow for danger etc.) I was worried that the player might be confused when they would not gain durability upon collision with the green box or take damage upon collision with the yellow one. I therefore decreased the saturation on the boxes, giving them a fainter hue. I wanted the boxes and containers on the ship to add color to the otherwise sterile white rooms and corridors but if players go out of their way to bump into the boxes expecting a service the box will not provide I might have to make further changes to the colors. The other prop I made was a computer, an object the player will encounter throughout the game – mostly for unlocking doors or trigger events.
I used the same texture and colors as I had used when I made ‘H.A.C’ (Handheld Artificial Companion) for the game’s User Interface; which is just two metal bars opening and closing, with a blue hologram screen just like the computer. After a couple of days worth of wasting valuable time I had to pull myself together for this weeks sprint. I was assigned the job of making the second enemy the player will encounter in the game. The new alien is unable to duplicate itself but compensates for it by being able to extrude its tongue in an attempt to ensnare the the player character. If the player character is ensnared the alien will start to pull them in and eat them if they come close enough to the mouth. When the player is in range of the mouth they will take damage. The tongue will also damage the player over time if they are ensnared.
While I said in my previous post that I did not want the first alien to have any visible mouth, teeth or claws that would make it look like something the player would associate with animals that would not be capable of cell division, this alien clearly oversteps my previous boundaries. The reason for this is mostly because it had to look different than its predecessor as well as conveying its core funktion – that being able to eat the player and extrudeing its tongue to catch them. This alien is more violent and should look the part. The longest time I spent on this animation was when I was trying to decide it’s color scheme. I used a spring green base color for the body and used complementary colors for the details but I thought it looked too much like the first alien. They are not supposed to be the same or look too similar to each other. I played around with the color balance tool in photoshop to try and add more tones of red and blue. The alien still has its green body but also looks different enoigh, in terms of color, not to be cunfused with its cousin. The two fangs should be enough for the player to tell the difference, but you never know. More to come in the future! /Erik Ögren  |
