Sunday, 15 June 2014

Conceptual Presentation notes

Okay over the semester, I've found a variety of images that have inspired me. My career is game design and won't change due to how I love games and the enjoyment I get from building them.

Over the years I've played various that have inspired in some way, for example the game "Okami" was an inspiration for my Masters project "Sun's Requiem". The unique Japanese ink style visuals was something I aimed to apply to my work which was successful in regards to the toon shader and lines in Maya. However I consider this projects final result unsuccessful but despite this I gained some skills and learned from my many mistakes.

In regards to games, the ones that inspire me the most are the visually unique games with fun gameplay and absorbing narratives.
The images I've posted up here are from games I consider eye catching, inspirational and are motivational in fueling my creativity.

Now what I aim to do from now own is work to furthering my skills in Stencyl and build an independent game to publish on the app store. I will always appreciate the old 2D arcade style games which is one of the reasons I love stencyl so much. First I will work on the game I've been developing in game design and draw from my many inspirations to create a visually unique game. 


Sunday, 1 June 2014

Inspirational Images 10

Today's inspirational images are from variety of different areas including character design, main title and level design.


Image 1: Character concept art. What I find inspirational is the characters facial expressions and cutesy design. Each character has a unique design and is mainly shown on the faces.

Image 2: Main title screen from "Final Fantasy Dirge of Cerberus". What inspires the most about this image is the layout, the title, typography and the content. It works well for the game which is dark in a majority of the levels.

Image 3: This image has inspired me in finding a good text book resource, which is mainly for level design. Having some more skills on creating high quality level design is vital and something I should look into grasping.

Image 4: Character concept design. I find this inspirational for creating ideal characters or monster designs. The subjects are like designing the most is monsters, as there's no limit to what strange or creepy monsters you can create.

Image 5: This is from an ISO game. What inspires the most about this is the character design, level design, vibrant colors and the on screen elements like the counter and lives.
This is well developed game and the placement of the counters have been put in places that aren't getting the way of the players.

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Inspirational Images 9

Okay today is kind of a mix of different images like in previous posts. There isn't a specific focus but I will mention in-game items, an interface including a score system and a game with amazing level design.


Image1: A wide range a various in-game item icons, which I find inspirational in regards to the game I'm developing for the game design subject. It appears to be a game focusing on pirates or adventuring by sea. I like the variety of the icons and the visual style.

Image2: Not as plentiful as the last image but I do find the most inspirational part of this image is the detailed visual style of each item which isn't over the top toony but more stylized for fantasy theme.

Image3: This image contains huge variety of the icons for a game interface. What I like the most is how vibrant the colors are and the chosen colors all work well together.

Image4: Currently I've been working on developing a score count interface in Stencyl which is why I find this image inspirational. The overall design layout is well designed and fits well with the overall context.

Image5: A concept image from the game "Pandora's Tower". I've recently checked out game-play videos and what I like the most is the detail gone into developing really impressive level designs. Each one is unique from the rest and will test the player out with either new monsters, platform mechanics and puzzles. I find it really inspirational and wouldn't mind playing it myself one day.

Sunday, 18 May 2014

Inspirational Images 8


The main focus today is on app/mobile games. While searching through pinterest, I did come across a pin of Deponia which I've only seen on the computer. Despite this, I decided to include it as I feel it deserves a mention.

Image1: "Deponia", from what I what I'm aware of isn't an app game but I do appreciate it for several different elements such as: the story full of quirky humor, good character development especially the main character who is a jerk at the start, visual style and game play the requires you to think outside the box.

Image2: "Crazy Boo" is a an app game that I find appealing in the fact that it combines 2D and 3D visual elements together really well. This can be a challenge to achieve but when successful, can result in amazing visuals.

Image3:This is an online game from miniclip.com. This is mainly to show the UI elements which are really nice, but what I also find inspirational is the level design. The colors and background elements suit the overall genre, which I believe is a side scrolling shooter.

Image4: "Darklings" a game made in the Unity game engine. What I find appealing about this game is the character designs and the visual style, which defers from other games out there.

Image5: "Lighting Boy" is a game that has inspired me through it's visual style. It's the quality I aim for in the current game I'm working on for game design. In order to achieve visuals of this quality, I'd need to work on my digital painting skills. However right now I'm focusing on mastering Stencyl.


Sunday, 11 May 2014

Inspirational images 7

Today the focus on inspirational images is In-game UI (User Interfaces). I've seen many different UI designs mainly in RPG's games, which is my favorite genre. However it can be noted that other genres have some form of UI in game whether it's a map or an inventory system.

Image1: This is a map UI set up from a "The Legend of Zelda" game. IT not only contains a colorful map of the game world but it's also got short cuts for tools and a collectable counter. I actually like this set up for the reason it contains more than one display element.

Image2: A photo Album from "Epic Mickey 2". This UI contains an in-game photo album in a book design layout. It contains the two main categories for the two characters who each have their own specific photos and a controls down below. What I like the most is how simple its been set up and the album book layout.

Image3: "Gambit Lab Games" UI that has a nice design down below containing the controls, inventory selector and book option icon. There's also another icon on the left side which has sort of significant purpose. I've never played this game before but I can tell it's most likely a point and click adventure. I have actually played one of this genre before called "Deponia" and find having the UI at the bottom does make things very convenient.

Image4: "Lord of the Rings: War in the North" UI interface. This UI is an inventory displaying current armor obtained. This is main aspect in RPG where an inventory will have a main menu with several sub-menus showing such things as items, equipment, character stats, map and save/load options. If a game contains this and much more in a user friendly manner then it's a good UI to navigate. Personally I find this UI has a nice navigation layout compared to some that can be very confusing.

Image5: UI from a Minecraft mod. This is a UI for the crafting aspect and being a mod, it's the PC version. This is a simple and friendly UI for crafting but what I do find a pain in regards to minecraft is having to memorize the crafting recipes. I have only played the xbox360 version and this isn't an issue in certain game modes like creative mode. However apart from this, I find the UI for Minecraft very friendly and well designed.

Sunday, 4 May 2014

Inspirational Images 6

Okay for my past posts on inspirational images, it's mainly been on 2D games. For now on I'll include inspirational images on 3D games.


Image1: Concept art from "Journey". I find this game unique in game play mechanics and level design. What I find the inspirational about it is the overall experience from playing the game myself. It successfully gives the feeling of going a perilous journey which at first is just navigating around each level but in a later level, the player has the stealth their way past centipede like rock monsters.

Image2: "Shadow of the Colossus" has been one of my favorites for a long time. It's visually amazing, the atmospheric sounds give the impression of how alone the player character is in the land full of giant monsters. The monster AI is also well done as the colossi have their own unique behaviors, which must be observed in order to discover a method of defeating them.  

Image3: "Terra" is a game I've never played but I did find this concept art of an environment really amazing. It inspired me to look into going further with level/environment design.

Image4: "Skyrim" concept art which shows various in game environments. What I find inspirational is that each location was unique apart from some dungeons which did look a little similar to each other. Overall it's a visually amazing.

Image5: A concept art from a monster in "Diablo". Personally I'm a fan of monster concept art like this and it inspires me to further build on my digital painting skills. I do have a magazine full of tutorials for this so I might do one as part of my technical skill development.

Inspirational Images 5





Image1: Tomba on the PS1 is a game I played years ago and  was able to play it again recently. This is a side scrolling platformer with a quirky mood to it. What inspired me the most was the game play mechanics, level and character design.

Image2: This image is from http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/21/first-gameplay-video-of-alientraps-apotheon-is-gorgeous-coming/ and is called "Apotheon". What inspires me about this game is the visuals and level design, which I find unique compared to other games like it.

Image3: This is an image on character development. It's part of a tutorial aimed at developing character sprites for games and I find it a great source of inspiration.

Image4: This is an image on loot designs from various games with pixel art. To this day, I still have a fondness for older games like earlier Zelda and final fantasy games.

Image5: Here is an image on weapon design concepts from various games. What inspires me is the wide range of unique designs of each weapon and the art style used in these concepts.


Sunday, 27 April 2014

Inspirational images 4


The main focus of my inspiration is level design. I want to aim for high quality level design with nice aesthetics.
Image1: Is a tutorial from deviant art on digital painting. This is one area I lack skills in and wish to change that in order to make nice visuals for a 2D game.
Image2: This inspires me from how unique each level design looks. They all have amazing visual quality and possess a very unique style.
Image3: This is a game design concept from the more recent "Rayman" game. Very nice aesthetics and colors are chosen well which adds to design.
Image4: This inspired from the amazing visual quality. Despite not being as bright like some other level designs, it works for the games style which seems more like a serious game.
Image5: A nice old school style that matches the character sprite design. Its very nostalgic of the older games from years ago.

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Inspirational images 3.

Okay currently many games influence me a lot. A number of old 2D games over the years are good examples of inspiration, especially in regards to what type of games I would want to develop.

Image1: The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past, is an RPG series I find very inspiration for it's amazing narratives, game play, design and mechanic. It is very easy to immerse yourself and just explore the in game world like crazy.

Image2: A game made from Kemco. This company make mostly RPG's for the App store, which I've been playing recently. I love that each game has it's own narrative, characters and mechanics. Most of them are turn-based RPG's but there is a 3D one.

Image3: Yoshi's Island on the SNES system. I find the boss fights well designed due to fact each one id very different and each require it's own method of defeating them. Also love it's colorful and unique level designs.

Image4: The Final Fantasy series. I have been a fan of this series for a long time and continue to enjoy each one. The earlier games are 2D turn based RPG's, each one had it's own mechanics and game-play. Some have sequels but even these have their own mechanics.

Image5: Bubsy is a game I played years ago on the SNES. I love it's quirky humor, level designs and that the character has a lot of death animations. The character expressions are over exaggerated which adds to the humor.



Sunday, 6 April 2014

Inspirational images2

Here are some inspirational images I found through Google search.


Image1: Gives an insight into brainstorming a game concept. Show all the different elements, concepts and mechanics that are developed when creating a game.

Image2: The heart of a serious game design. Shows the theory, content and design, which act as the heart for all game designs. These need to be considered and planned out if aiming for a strong game.

Image3: Inspirational for character concept art. Shows the sketch to the colored version of a character. Even includes a top view, a couple of expressions, weapon design and the height.

Image4: Environment concept art. This is usually included in game art books, which show a number of environments. Inspires me to try out digital painting and focus on developing skills, which will help me in 2D environment creation.

Image5: A personal favorite. Okami is a game that despite being 3D, has a very artistic ink paint style. This game has been a big inspiration to me for many years and is a good example of unique game design that uses traditional art design.



Sunday, 30 March 2014

Inspirational images 1

Here are some images from pinterest I find inspirational:






Image1: Game play images from a game called Reaper. I like the visual style and level design, which inspires me to add this sort of level set up in my own games.

Image2: Concept art and after it's been applied to a mobile game. This is inspirational for character development from concept art to a character being applied to the actual game scene.

Image3: An informative image on educational games. I find this an inspiration in the benefits and even concerns of developing games for education, which I could apply to my own games.

Image4: Demonstrates the game Roller Rally's progression from concept to level design. I find the level design really nice and is unique compared to other 2D games.

Image5: An image of character concept art. This shows various actions the character can perform in game. I find it a really effective way to plan out the actions and the number of animations required which in this case is a lot.