Audio recording for the game

Diary week 21/04/2014 - 25/04/2014

Audio recording

This week I was transferred to the audio team, as they needed some extra support. My task was to record some voiceover sounds, retro style, that can be assigned to the female characters in various situations ( happy, sad, anxious, hurting, relaxed - just walking, etc). I have spent quite some time recording 3 different versions of each sound, delivering 19 audio files in total.

I have found this recording session very interesting and slightly challenging. I have never done anything like this before, and even though it might sound very easy, there is a lot of thought that needs to go into it, before you actually start recording. I have done some research initially, to get an idea of how these various sounds were portrayed before, in various games, took reference and tried to put an original stamp on it, using my Romanian origins, and hence the accent. Even though there are no actual spoken words, I believe the accent is easily noticeable and it puts an interesting spin on the character itself.

All these recordings were done using the Audition software, and in a soundproof booth, but will all be edited before implementation by Matt Fenn, and hopefully they will fit in well with the game.

Feedback from the client - 20/03/2014

Diary week 17/03/1024 - 21/03/2014

Feedback from the client

This week we had some feedback from the client, and it wasn't all good, in the sense that they disagreed with our idea of using teenage characters in a fire fighting game. So, we basically had two different options: keep the characters and change the entire concept of the game, or keep the game idea and recreate a new set of characters.

It wasn't exactly pleasant, especially because we were quite far down the game production, but we did understand their point of view, The Fire Department did not want children attempting to fight fire, that was not the message they intended to convey through this game. 

So this being said, and time being very limited now, we had to regroup and reorganise ourselves.

We have come up with the idea of creating a fireman character that will actually fight the fires in the house, and for this, I had to come up with some very basic concepts, in  less detailed pixel art.

This is what I have produced for this:

front view of fireman

side view of fireman

  In order to create this, I have done some research into Devon and Somerset Fire rescue service uniform,  so I can reproduce as accurately as possible the badge and colour scheme.

Johny jump cycle - week 6-13/03/2014

Diary week 6/03/2014 - 13/03/2014

Jump cycle for Johny

My task for this week, was to touch up the main character after it was modified during the animation cycle. The jump cycle was created by Tom, and I was handed over the Photoshop file, with all the individual frames. Because of the individual warping done to the arms, legs, etc, the whole character has lost resolution dramatically, so basically, I have traced around and repainted each individual frame.

The final result looks like this:

However, after this was done, we had feedback from the client, and we might have to redo the entire set of characters. So will hold up work for the walk cycle until things are being clarified.

Pixie in Pixel art - 17-21/02/2014

Diary week 17/02/2014 - 21/02/2014

Pixie in pixel art

My task for this week was to create a pixel art version for another character. I have chosen Pixie, as she is my favourite out of the ones remaining, besides Johny. I feel that she has the most character. Using the same steps as in the previous week, when pixelating Johny, I have come up with the following version for Pixie. 

Pixie pixel art version.

For the game, I have saved this file as a .Tiff format, as wee needed the transparency aspect of it, when importing it in the game engine. (the programming team are using Game Maker Studio).

As I had some time left, I have also created a pixel art version of the Football girl as well.

Below is what looks like:

Football girl pixel art version

Johny - walk cycle 10-14/02/2014

Diary - Week 10/02/2014 - 14/02/2014

Johny - walk cycle

For this week I was asked to do touch ups on the sprites created for Johny's, (the main character) running cycle. I have worked on two instances, but while doing that, I have realised that, because the first 3 frames were mistaken, (the arm placement was wrong), I will probably have to redo all the frames, so I have stopped until the whole sprite will be redone.

However, here is what I have done for key frame 5 and 6.

Johny frame 5 running cycle

Johny frame 6 running cycle

                         

So, due to the extra time I had, I thought that it might be a good idea to design an idle position for the character as this will be needed as well at some point in the game. And this is what I came up with.

Johny idle position

I really enjoyed this, and I am starting to find it easier to create Pixel art. As long as I follow the rules and keep the consistency with colours, and sizes, everything should look as desired. One extra tip that I have learned when creating the idle position, was to define the size of the head, torso, arms, legs, etc, as when the character turns to face the player, it should keep the size consistent. Hopefully I have managed to achieve that. 

Johny Pixel art week 31/01 - 6/02/2014

Diary week 31/01/2014 - 6/02/2014

Johny - Pixel art

For this week, I had to transform the main character into a pixel art one and make him look like he is the main character (e.g. apply a colour overlay, or make him stand out in one way or another).

The pixel art chosen for this game was the 16bit style, so this is how Johny, the main character looks

like:

The size of the character was decided by the team, in order to match and fit the environment. So the size I have worked with, was 128x160 pixels.  I have kept the colouring to 3 shades per each colour, (base colour,  shading and highlight) to follow through with the 16 bit Pixel art style. The outlines were done in a darker shade of the base colour for each part of the body/item of clothing (we have all decided against the black outlines, as that would have made the characters look much harsher and the game itself is aimed at a young audience - 11-12 years old school children). 

As this was my very first attempt at pixel art, I had to do some research into the subject and I have found some really good tutorials on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GECdvBzkaCs. I found this very useful and have taken into account Zack Finfrock's tips when I have built Johny. 

If everything part of the body / item of clothing is kept on a separate layer, it was pretty easy to go back and add the highlight / shading to it.  I have also found very useful to have a separate layer with the colour palette  ( the different values of  each colour used for the individual items), so whenever I needed to go back and modify something, I could just use the colour picker and keep everything consistent. 

Character concept art Week 27-31.01.2014

Diary week 27/-1/2014 - 31/01/2014

Character concept art ( 3 more characters)

During this week, my assignment was to customise one of the characters I have created (Pixie), and to be more exact, I have been asked to add some glasses to see how she would look and also, to add colour and create a digital version of the other shortlisted characters.

As the starting point for the characters, I have created a Photoshop version of them, where I have done each item of clothing and each feature on a different layer. This was all with future customisation in mind. So, if, in the future we will decide to change Pixie's hair colour, we will be able to literately just drop in a different colour into the masked hair layer.

Below there are pictures of Pixie with shades as well as spectacles, and also, the team have requested me to create a digital version of "Football girl" as well as the "Running Dude".

Pixie with shades

Pixie with spectacles

                     

Football girl

Running dude

The "Running dude" is not quite finished, as I was rushing it a bit, but the idea was conveyed. We now know what he would look like, in colour. Of course, all parts of the body (clothing) have been created in Photoshop on separate layers, so any further customisation will be easily approached. We haven't yet decided on a colour scheme, but as I have just mentioned, that wouldn't be difficult to change and adapt.