Sprint Blog 1

Starting off with a strong mood/reference page provided by my Developer and similarity comparisons for style and gameplay in other games, I helped envision the concept world of Kickoff. Before beginning, the idea of the world was to be dreamy and composed of pastel scenery of pink clouds and colorful skies, including POIs having contrasting elements like a suken city with buildings, cars, and bridges, along with a shipping port full of cranes and container ships.

Building off of my Developer's pre-concept, I had made everything almost the same as what was provided to me, a few city buildings, and crates with a crane and a shipping shed. After submitting my Jira card and waiting for the verification, I started giving more thought to the composition of the Kickoff world.

Though I had done what was asked and shown approval in person before coloring, I was not delighted with my work. Even though I knew I had some creative freedom with the design of the city and port, I was hesitant to make some creative changes. But staring at my work, I decided I could add more and do better.

My original concept didn't feel dynamic enough. Sunken City didn't seem like a city, and certainly not too sunken either. To make it seem as if a whole city was built to sink, I added the tops of buildings popping out from the ground. To add more depth to my background, I included a few more buildings along with powerlines, because what is a city without powerlines? Cars and trucks for shipping yards were added to fill in the empty scenery in the middle of my foreground. It finally created a good balance between positive and negative space

Though I was debating on the world concept as a whole, I assume you noticed that the shipping yard hardly changed, and seeing it now, I hope I can speak with my team about adding more buildings, especially next to the shipping yard shed and crane. Even though I do wish to add more, I am proud of this concept for the shipping yard. I hoped to succeed in contrasting the colors of a serious shipping yard with a dreamy pastel cloud, and I feel as though I have achieved that.

shipping ref 

My next task was concept art for enemy 1, which is described as a "flying helicopter ball shape robot with claw feet holding onto handles of a tube weapon." This one, I was given more creative liberty with. I spent a while understanding how mechanical claws work and how they would wrap around something, and decided to go with the simple 2-claw that can grip onto the handles of the tube weapon.

 Honestly, this enemy had a really good reference page; the main one I used for concept was these helicopter-like robots that really had the vibe I was looking for. I spoke with my Developer beforehand and was told that the faces HAD to look cute, so I recommended digital faces. For some reason, when thinking about the design of this robot, I was thinking about BMO from the famous Cartoon Network show Adventure Time.

Reference enemy 1: jAy on Pinterest

The arms are supposed to contradict the legs; the legs are the responsible ones for shooting, and are more useful than the small, stubby arms, which gave him the cuteness I was aiming for. The face is based on digital pixels to deliver a cute smile while holding a deadly tube weapon

No information was given on the type of weapon the tube weapon is, so the concept for it was not done with the robot. To contradict the color of the ground enemy 2, I decided to give him a slightly muted turquoise to complement the gray parts of it, such as its feet, propeller, and face. This concept was the easiest one to complete, and I believe it s because I wasn't given much detail on its weapon, so no research on types of explosives or firearms was needed.

For my next Jira card, it was finally for enemy concept 2. Burst-fire tank, who is a very happy ground enemy, but not that happy to see you. I was told to create something similar to the reference provided, but knowing that this little guy is a burst-fire tank, I looked into what kind of weapon is best for burst firing. Landing on the anatomy of a minigun, I decided to give him actual mini-guns that drop down from his inner body when he is ready to attack.

enemy 2 reference

Relatively, the design is similar to the reference provided. I wanted to make the metal plates on the legs bigger and thicker to act as shields for it. In theory, it would hunker down and cover itself with its metal plate legs if shot at or attacked, since it is a mini tank.