Starting Art Production

Overview

When the sprint week challenge was announced in the summer of 2016, we began developing new game ideas. We had a number of high-level goals for our new arcade game project:

• A game with immediate appeal. Players must understand how to play right away and be excited about the concept

• A game that is a worthy homage to classic arcade titles

• A clear vision for the gameplay and overall game design that was fully fleshed out before we entered production

The result was a fun, colourful “rhythm” based game in which players must ward off zombies in a flashy 70s disco club. Fast-forwarding to the end of sprint week, we believe we accomplished our goals with Disco is Dead. Our game won the Sprint Week challenge and received special attention from the judges for being fun, unique, closely tied to the theme and generating a positive audience response.

Disco is Dead (2016) Sprint Week Winner

The success was a huge relief at the end of a long week, and thus became the basis of our capstone project. But while the results were phenomenal, our new development process raised important design topics for debate.

Pre-production

To begin, it is important to consider that the project falls within scope while also identifying the core mechanics. The most important gameplay mechanic is the character “slapping.” The players will be performing this mechanic constantly during our game, and if it is boring or uninteresting, the design has failed. To ensure that the game is fun, we will be implementing unique juicy visuals and feedback.

The game’s art style will be heavily inspired by the bold, beautiful colour palettes ofTransistor and Hotline Miami, and the stylized look of Guacamelee, Streetfighter and Skullgirls. All asset creation will be conducted with my experience in Adobe Photoshop, Flash and After Effects. Disco is Dead will be targeted for the PC to be accessible for users who enjoy casual, artistic games.

Guacamelee (2013) – Style reference

Perspective reference

The technical team developed multiple player perspectives: isometric, side scrolling and a front view. The front worm’s eye perspective is the perfect angle for dramatic, action-packed boss battles. The isometric perspective, on the other hand, is relatively unconventional in infinite runners, and counter-intuitive to our design. The art team’s lack of experience with isometric views is an arduous task that will slow down the entire project. Thus, the side scroller deemed to be the best solution that promotes a positive player experience, opportunity for beautiful visuals and provides enough room to anticipate enemies. Infinite scrollers like Canabalt are commonly known for their sidescrolling perspective.

Screen Mockups

During pre-production, the team had established 3 main inherent interests: unique settings, diverse characters and a stylized visual appeal. As the art director of the team, I developed multiple character concepts and screen mock ups. It is crucial that my character sketches were unique and reminiscent of the 70s. Rather than diving straight into model sheets, I created a full page of varying faces to choose from.

Character concepts

To establish an authentic 80s feel and the buddy cop vibe, we referenced numerous franchises including Rush Hour, Black Dynamite, 80s comics, films and TV shows.

Art Style

I wanted to ensure that the game has an unprecedented, stylized look with exaggerated features, while capturing the essence of comic books. It was important that the main characters also convey emotion during gameplay. However, the level of details in their facial expressions are limited by the small scale of the sprites. Instead, the character expressions will be emphasized in our comic-styled cinematic cut scenes, as well as event-based close-ups.

Zooming in on the player characters would limit the negative space on the screen, reducing the areas of interest and incoming enemies. So I settled on a wider perspective to show off the neat backgrounds and allow the players to foresee their targets.

To further emphasize our intended comic book style, I had to consider the overall look of the main gameplay VS the cutscenes. While comic-styled backgrounds are cohesive with our theme, it may be difficult to maintain consistency in line-weight and textures throughout art production. Thus, the comic style will be restricted to our interactive cutscenes, highly inspired by Infamous 2.

Infamous 2 (2011) – Cutscenes

Technical

During pre-production, we established that the game will incorporate procedurally generated levels rather than predefined levels. In this respect, each playthrough will be a unique experience each time, similar to Temple Run and Canabalt. Given the lengthy duration of the levels, it would be counter productive to create thousands of assets for each predefined level. Instead, we will be creating fewer, more polished assets that will be recycled through the levels.

Ambience

Within the main gameplay, I hope to achieve an immersive experience that feels “alive.” This would entail adding unique elements like wind, rustling trees, fog, lights and other types of ambience. 2D games like Guacamelee and Child of Light feature beautiful aesthetic elements that are miniscule but create a significant impact on the overall tone of the game. Every moment in Child of Light contains some background element that is animated or atmospheric: sequential shafts of light, fireflies, swaying grass, etc. My goal is to ensure that the background elements in Disco is Dead are not simply static images but are animated, emotive and lively.

Child of Light (2014) – Ambience

Team Management

Overall, our team’s project management history and process remains to be efficient. Calendars and production schedules enable us to keep track with deadlines, meetings, and project goals. We use Slack to communicate casually, while Facebook is our platform for professional and intrinsic communication. Google Drive is our main medium for file sharing, concepts and inspirational images with the team. Within team meetings, we are dedicated to sharing ideas and finding solutions to problems, while allowing others the chance to speak without interruption. Creative exercises at the beginning of the meetings help us go through the motions of being creative thinkers. The entire team will read over and contribute to our design documents to gain a better understanding of the game and find potential risks sooner rather than later.