January - May 2020
Game Design class
art direction, concept design, character design, illustration, animation
In my second-to-last semester of university, I took a course on game design and spent the semester working on a team of eight to produce a playable game. I served as Art Lead, in charge of the two other designers/artists. I was also the primary illustrator and sole animator of the team. Toward the beginning of the project, I also did mock-ups of levels and UI to give the other designers a jumping-off point.
The concept: players are in charge of protecting galleries in a museum. The game begins with the day phase where players must set up their defenses in anticipation of the arrival of the thieves. The night is the active phase of the game. Thieves sneak into the gallery, and players must click on them when they appear in the guards' flashlight beams to capture them and protect the art.
Because of the theme of the game, I did three versions of the splash art for daytime, sunset, and night.
The image to the right is early concept art with a parody version of Rembrandt's The Night Watch behind the Doberman guard.
The following are slides from our Design Specification presentation, an early assignment intended to ensure we had a clear and consistent artistic vision. Due to time constraints, the final style was somewhat simpler and our asset library was less extensive than we originally hoped.
Color Palette
The switch between day and night was a core feature of our game, and I used a complimentary spread of colors to evoke the combination.
We divided the levels into four themes or "galleries," each with a different aesthetic.
Character designs and animations.
doberman (guard)
doberman turnarounds
fox (thief)
fox turnarounds
doberman walk cycle filmstrip
fox walk cycle filmstrip
We also needed something to get the foxes out of the way once they had been clicked or "captured." For simplicity's sake, we decided on having the thieves "poof" out of existence.
Initially, we were planning on a pixel art style, so I actually animated the guards and thieves twice.
