Re-designing Enemies
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In a similar fashion to last weeks post about “constant falling”, this post will discuss a current topic related to the production of the game “Revenge of Teddy” (name is probably here to stay) in correlation with my role as a graphics artist. This week I have been re-designing and making prototype sprites for three enemy designs for the game.
A while back I had already re-designed the enemies that were provided in the original concept document for the game once, as my group seemed to want to go in a more vague, less specific sort of direction compared to the more narrative heavy original. The first re-designs were inspired by common and cliché nightmares and fears, such as clowns, spiders and syringes.
The first enemy re-designs were however criticised for not having narrative consistency. Specifically a clown enemy was pointed out, as it didn’t work with the “fear of school” theme, which still had some remains from the original concept. Because of this feedback me and my group agreed to solidify our theme and define the main character in more detail, which brought us back to the original “fear of school” theme.
When I started re-designing the enemies for a second time I could have stuck with the original concepts designs that looked like school kids in school uniforms. They did have some ominous eyes and postures to represent that they where what Timothy fears, but I thought that the nightmarish representation could be exaggerated more to make the message clear even in the midst of gameplay.
To make the enemies represent fear I made them ghosts, as ghosts are associated with scaring. The nightmares are also haunting Timothy, which flows well with ghosts haunting mansions and such. Ghosts would also be easy to animate in the falling environment, as they were not restricted by gravity in their movement. I made some rough concept art for three ghosts with school related clothing, weaponry and white eyes to contrast with Timothy’s black eyes, as well as a ghostly tail instead of feet to make their ghostly appearance clear.
The first ghost is green and a bully that shoots at Timothy with a slingshot. The form of the character is straight, pointing up to emphasise how it shoots one straight projectile upwards at a time (it is also the most straightforward enemy, which adds to the pun).
The second ghost is brown and throws paper planes around itself. This one was tricky, as it had to be able to spin around, while moving around the screen, while throwing paper planes with both hands at the same time, while also falling. I emphasised spiralling patterns in the design to make the spinning movement natural, which included spiralled eyes, a generally spiralled pose and soft bending arms.
The last ghost is almost red and significantly bigger than the others, as the motif is a teacher. The teachers movement is simple in the game, as it only follows the player. Therefore the sprite was also the easiest to make, as it is a rather straightforward position compared to the others. In the pose the ghost levitates head faced upwards while waving a stick and holding a book.
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