At this point, I've completed my senior capstone project with everything I intended to originally finish, including 7 characters, 7 courses, and a cover. I would've liked to do much more, but but sadly did not have the time. What I did with the minimal extra time I had was create a few pages for a mock-up game manual. There aren't a lot of pages since I never designed the game in depth, but I thought it would be fun. After all, most games don't come with colorful manuals these days, only generic slips of paper which show you the controls and nothing more. Thought it would be a fun thing to bring back. In addition to uploading the final products, I thought it would also be interesting to upload a bit of the original concept art in sketch form. I had a few ideas for character designs and track thumbnails that weren't able to make it into the final cut:
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For the final content update, I have the remaining two tracks listed below: From left to right:
Creepy Castle - A green, abandoned castle in the middle of the mountains. Lots of straight roads and sharp turns on this track. Mystic Mountain - A track that takes place high above the clouds. Race through the winding temples of the mountains buried in the snow. I wanted to do more content such as weapons, vehicles, or even a screen mock-up, but I'm starting to get down to the wire. I may include them some day just for kicks, but for now, I'm finalizing a mock-up manual, which won't be too detailed either. The manual will mostly be visual based and include lengthier descriptions of characters , tracks, and controls. Until then, I've met my quota and I'm pretty happy with the results of the project. Everyday, I'm getting closer and closer to the goal of 7 characters and 7 tracks. Today, I have 3 tracks and 4 characters to share. All the remaining content after that is nearly halfway finished. With that out of the way, let's get to it! Characters(From left to right) Dee - The titular main character. Although his name is in the title, he's a light-weight racer with excellent turning and acceleration, but lacks in the speed department. I wanted to break the "main character is always balanced" trope. Plum - A professional wrestling bunny. Being the third and final heavy-weight character, she has great speed, okay acceleration, and poor steering skills. Polarax - A snow wizard from the mountains. Polarax is another light-weight character with great turning, decent acceleration, and bad speed. Dooey - Dee's younger twin brother. Being just barely big enough to classify as a medium-weight racer, Dooey is mainly balanced. While he isn't bad at anything, he isn't the best either. TracksDooey Gardens - Owned and operated by Dooey, this track goes through a scenic garden filled with ponds, hedge mazes, and dirt mounds that will teach players how to turn and boost. Dusty Desert - A track in the middle of a valley with crumbling monuments and roads. Although the monuments are part of an abandoned movie set, players interact with many of them throughout the track. With a few twists, this track is made to test more advanced drifting skills. Balloon Bash - Marty's "home" track, which is a skyward monument held in the air by massive blimps and hot-air balloons. Being heavily inspired by Hot-Air Skyway from Crash Team Racing, this track is the "Rainbow Road" of the game and is the toughest one to stay on, having barely any guardrails. With 5 tracks and 7 characters, out of the way, I am beginning to reach the end of my project. With the final 2 tracks in the works and nearing completion, I will be able to compile all my progress together in an instruction booklet mock-up and hopefully create a cover in the near future.
I'm somewhat behind schedule since I've been hopping around, getting a few things done while preparing for others. For this update, I have three characters and two tracks to show: Characters(From left to right) Vanessa - a treasure hunting dragon. She's a medium-weight character who is pretty balanced all-around, but doesn't excel in anything. Marty - a party planning pinata. Being one of the heavy-weight characters, Marty has great speed, average acceleration, and poor steering. Beatrice - a bee who mines for honey. Another heavy-weight character, she excels in speed but can't steer very well. Tracks(From left to right) Honeyhive Mines - A giant beehive turned into a mining pit and racetrack. Being Beatrice's home track, the mines include a lot of sharp twists and turns. Moth Grotto - A large wooden fortress in the middle of an abandoned jungle. The track starts low on the ground and goes pretty high into some cliffs. Creating tracks is very time-consuming, so I only have two to show off this time. I do however have 2 other tracks nearing completion as well as 3 more characters on the way.
When I was a child, I loved to draw. I would spend entire days drawing characters I saw on television or would even create my own characters. When creating characters, I often had a certain theme in mind, such as space aliens, Halloween monsters, or jungle animals. After creating a cast of characters, I wouldn't know what exactly I wanted to do with them. I eventually came up with a solution that strung my ideas together: video game mock-ups. Aside from drawing, one of my favorite pastimes was video games. I always loved games with colorful characters and environments that seemed to focus on imagination. Games such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Super Mario 64 usually served as inspiration for my own characters, so why not put them in a similar game? Something to note is that I didn't do much beyond designing the characters or the cover art for the ideas I came up with. I'd write out other elements that were time consuming. For my Senior Capstone Project, I would like to recreate this process that I enjoyed so much as a child. After years of experience with graphic design, character design, art programs such as GIMP, and academic writing, I would be able to create a thorough game mockup.
The game I've planned to create is called Dee's Grand Prix. The game would be a kart racer heavily focused on imaginative environments and racers much like the Mario Kart series. Not only will I be visually designing the tracks and characters, but I will also be designing more technical aspects and elements that would affect how the game is played. Additionally, I plan on having a diverse cast of characters where players would be able to choose who they like best, who they identify most with, or which they feel suits their style of playing. For the Capstone Project, I plan on creating a minimum of seven characters and seven tracks. Character sheets will be much simpler than track mockups but will include more information. If I have more time by the end of the semester, I will design more aspects of the game such as weapons, karts, and an instruction booklet. I believe having a passion project such as this is a great way to add an art portfolio (which I still need to create at this point) as well as show discipline for a creative medium. I already have several aspects of the project planned out. As I finish some elements, I will update this blog with new content I have created. |
AuthorCommunications major, Computer Science minor, illustrator, programmer Archives
April 2018
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