1. The Wasp enemy
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We, Group Mimic, are making a shoot ’em up game for kids where you play as bees. One of the enemies is a wasp, and I was assigned to draw it. As an enemy the wasp is quite annoying, following the player avatar around and shooting projectiles. So I wanted the wasp to look like an annoying character that takes joy in trying to ruin for others. One other important aspect was that the wasp should look different from the bees (that looked more soft, round and orange), so that you could clearly distinguish the two from one another. I started making different sketches in my notebook. And one of them I liked very much, so I sketched it in photoshop. Then I decided exactly where the lines should go in a second, more precise sketch. Then it was time to make the final line art. I choose the brush that me and the other artist of our team had agree on and I tried to make a nice looking line art. Thereafter I coloured it, trying different colours too see what best suited the wasps character. I choose a yellow/brown for the body, an orange nose and red lips. Because I wanted it to be colourful and fun.
I was pleased with the result. The wasp reminded me of some weird evil enemy from the game Cuphead. However, my team members had some other opinions. They advised me to make the wings pointier, because that might suit the character more, and I agreed. Also, they thought I could get more of a cartoon look, and that it would look more suitable in the game, if the line art was thicker, and I agreed to that as well. But, then they told me that they thought that the nose looked like a carrot that had been attached to the face, and they didn’t like it. I was almost offended by hearing that. I agreed that it kind of looked like a carrot, and that it looked like it was attached to the face, but I really liked that! The nose was the thing that gave it a lot of character. Reluctantly I changed the nose in very small ways to get different other versions. After a few small changes, that did not take very long to make, we found a nose that we could all agree looked good. I, personally, didn’t think it looked ’better’, but it looked good as well, and since my team liked it better we went for that one.
I can always draw without limitations as much as I want to on my own, but this is team work. We will have to compromise our own style sometimes. The result of the game is the most important; that the game will look good, and coherent as a whole.
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