Assignment 3: Part 1 – Krista by Mikaela Moberg

The character

This is Mikaela Moberg‘s character Krista. Krista will be the protagonist of an Action Platformer such as Megaman. The perspective the game will be in is fake 2D. The game is set in the 18th century and in a country resembling France but in a alternate world where magic takes the place of technology. The character Krista is a sporty teenager raised in a family that have a negative approach to magic, they are conservative and scared of this new thing. When Krista is turned into a werewolf and becomes a magic creature she must run away from home. She sets on a journey to her relatives in another city that are more accepting to magic. Her journey to get there is what will be the game. The game will be developed for portable consoles like PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS.

Character background sheet:

Name – Krista

Gender – N/A

Age – 14

Physical – Fit, sporty, werewolf

Movement – Standing and sometimes on four legs

Appearance – Sporty, youthful, worn clothes

Intelligence – She is street-smart

Religion – Searching, fear of magic

History – Recently became a werewolf and ran away from home after having an argument with her parents

Psychology – Used to be adventurous and open but since she was transformed she is now carful and shy, fearing her strength and the harm she might do to others.

Obviously she wrote a lot more about the background of the character but this is the way I interpreted what I got.

Key words about Krista’s appearance:

• Sporty
• Street smart
• Youthful
• Werewolf
• Big hair
• Big eyes
• Big noes
• Purple
• Turquoise
• Pink

Components of her clothing:

• Tunic
• Wide pants
• Fingerless gloves
• Fabric boots

The world

The game will take place on an alternate Earth, in a country that resembles France in climate and architecture. The time it is placed in is the beginning of the 18th century. The big difference between this world and ours is that instead of technology there are magic. The magic of this world is hard to master and therefore most occupations revolve around mastering one specified field of magic. The world is both harmless and dangerous and during the game the player will encounter both of these sides of the world.

In the world there are many magical creatures, these are the mythological creatures common in ancient mythologies such as the nordic mythology. However there are some restrictions on theses creatures. Humanoid creatures such as elves and dwarfs does not exist and neither does creatures from the afterlife such as ghosts. The magical creatures can be both kind and evil.

Visual style

The visual style of the game is simplified realism and cartoony. The style of Krista is influenced by Legend of Zelda (Skyward Sword, Wind waker) and Kingdom Hearts. The key features of the graphic in these games are bright colours, hand drawn textures and simplified characters with geometric shapes. In this style hair is modeled as any other geometry and usually very blocky looking. It is a very child friendly style and it is often used in games for children. It is also a very good style for portable devices because the character will stand out from the environment very well with the bright colours and big geometry. If the character was less simplified and had more small details these would be hard to see on a portable device.

Wolf references I got from Mikaela

Texture reference

Hair reference

Hair reference

Texture reference

Competition

The competitors for this game would be other action plat-formers such as Shantae, Megaman or Castlevania. As far as I know there aren’t a lot of these games being made right now so it might not be a problem to compete with already existing games, most players are always looking for something new. The game is child-friendly which makes it compelling for a big market of both children and adults.

Risks

One of the biggest risks is making the texture, I have very little experience with that visual style, it is not something i have tried before and I have not played any of the games Mikaela set as references. I am also quite inexperienced in hand drawing textures and I am not the best 2D artist. However I think that I will be able to do it since it is a very simplistic style and that there are many pictures of the game on google. If I do enough research I think it will be fine.

Another problem that may occur is that I put too much of my own preferences into the model and that Mikaela therefore is not satisfied. To stop this from happening I will do my best to follow the references as much as possible.