Blog post 1 – Dragonfly
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I’ve chosen to discuss the design process behind one of the enemies of our game, the dragonfly. Note that this reflection will be about the design of the appearance, and not the animation. I should preface by shortly introducing the game concept we in group Mimic chose, which was A Game of Beelonging by group Ouroboros. A Game of Beelonging is, like all the other concepts, a shoot em’ up game. It’s primary target audience are kids in the ages 7-8. It has a rather cartoonish style, and most importantly its aesthetic goal is that of belonging. To feel like part of something bigger. In the game the player controls one bee and its swarm, and the plot involves a grave threat against the bees’ hive from a bear. The player has to fight their way trough the level, facing hostile bugs such as the dragonfly, before eventually facing the bear which serves as a boss battle. Back to the design of the dragonfly! First and foremost it needed to fit the artistic style of the game, which we decided was going to be on the more humoristic side, additionally to the cartoonish style of the original concept. One of the main features of this was to add expressive faces to the bugs. Apart from being more visually desirable, we thought this would inspire the players to feel that sense of belonging we wanted them to feel, considering it’s our aesthetic goal. While keeping the aesthetic in mind, and considering that the dragonfly is a hostile bug in the game, I aspired to make it look mean in a way that would be perceived as a threat to the feeling of belonging between the bees in the swarm. Additionally, I wanted it to have a clear contrast visually from the design of the bees to make the player feel more of a sense of belonging and sympathy with the bees. This also lead to the choices of a more blue-green color theme, as opposed to the warm orange-yellow of the bees. I also chose to have more pointy and spiky elements to the design, as opposed
to the bee’s design which is on the rounder side. In design theory spiky elements and hard edges are generally seen as more hostile, and rounder shapes are generally perceived as more welcoming and gentle. Furthermore the dragonfly attacks fast, and has the ability to charge across the screen into the swarm. I tried to reflect this in the design by making it look agile and aerodynamic.
After a few sketches, I first came up with design #1 which was after feedback from the team and my own revision changed to design #2, which is also the final design (so far). One of the strengths of the second design is that the front of the face, and thus both eyes, are visible. This gives the dragonfly greater potential to more apparent facial expressions. The inital sketches were drawn with pencil on paper, the finalized designs were produced in Photoshop CC.
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