My Character - Illustrative Synopsis

1. The Main Character -

My main character goes by the name of Rango who is a humanoid Dingo that is mainly an Anti-Hero meaning he only thinks of himself but does have a strong bond with his brother.

He is a theft that used to work for the Millitary but then turned to crime after seeing a gold mine they had to guard during the war for Nirvana, but he also has hate for the main antagonist called Thomas Jefferson for killing his brother and Rango is seeking revenge.

2. The Primary Antagonist -

The main Antagonist of my game goes by the name of Thomas Jefferson, a multi Millionare Tycoon that wants nothing more than to rid the world of Rango and his Brother (Which is the only one he managed to kill.
He is basically modeled after the Penguin from the Batman comics and is using a run-down mine to smuggle drugs into the USA. (The image above it just a reference image)

3. Sleath Gameplay -

The gameplay is heavly based on Gears of War style gameplay with the mix of Devil May Cry hack and slash. The player is put into a basic Third Person View with the ability to change the camera to a hack and slash camera or stay in a third person view.

4. Reward for the Player -

The reward at the end of the game is that the player is able to start the game a new in  New Game + Mode which means all the weapons and skills they have gained from the last playthrough they get to keep but the enemies become tougher and even their looks change. Another reward is that the player can play as Rango's brother as an unlockable skin in New Game + Mode but the story will be altered.

5. Hack and Slash Style -

The game may have a focuse on Thrid Person Shooting but the game is mainly an Hack and Slash game because during some points in the game the player is stuck in a large area which forces them to fight in a Hack and Slash styled fashion. The style also means that the game is incredibly gory and is more suited to an older audience which I was targeting with both the design of the game and the design of the character.

6. Tag Line -

My game is an Action packed Hack and Slash, Gears of War styled game with many unique gameplay elements such as the 3rd Person over the shoulder view which hasn't appeared in a Hack and Slash game.

Meeting Joel Simons of FlickerPix

A few months ago we were visited at Shiny Money Studios by Joel Simons who the founder of Flickerpix and also animates for the company to talk to us about he's career in animation. He is most noted for creating the short animation movie called Macropolis which which had won and award for Best Animation at the 10th Annual IFTAs 2013. He arrived to talk to us about what Flickerpix was about, how he started the company and also some of the animations that he had created over the course of time that he has been with Flickerpix (The Flickerpix Studio is based in Holywood). During the talk he showed off some of one his models that he created for one of his animations which gave me some ideas as to what kind of design I wanted my character design to look like.

Flickerpix has worked on an number of short animations, mostly consist of childrens animations but they do create animations for adults using the same style as they do when they create the childrens animations. The form of media they use the create their animations is mainly Claymation which was brought on by Joel himself who used to animate in clay years before he began  his company Flickpix. However, Flickpix has done some 2D short animations for TV shows such as Jedward's Big Adventure and also Advertisements such as the Progressive Adverts.

Flickerpix has been partnered with many clients in the past such as the BBC, Channel 4, UTV, CBBC, RTE and so on. They have worked on many animations with many of their clients, the most notable animtation they have done is the animation for C4 Paralympics for Channel 4.

Outline Storyline with Breakpoints and more

Whislt discussing the game idea to my client I made some drastic changes to the story to fit in with the new layout of the game that was discussed in the Power-Point Presentation which I did a couple of weeks ago. The first drasic change to the story was that the main character, Rango, would have some motivation to kill the main villain of the game which is why I placed the story about Rango's brother being killed by the main villain another plot point within the storyline. Another change I made to the storyline was the setting which was supposed to be set in a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean but was changed to a Desert setting because I felt that the harshness of the Desert would make the game gritty.


Gameplay Rules in the game haven't changed since the game is designed to be a Hack and Slash type game mixed with a bit of Thrid Person Shooting elements but some gameplay aspect to the game I have added that originally wasn't suppose to be within the game. I decided that the environment should be a more destructable so that the gamer playing the game can use the environment to their advantage to solve short puzzles or to just say a water tower and destory the legs so that it would fall down onto the enemies. Another new gameplay feature would be the damage system, this has been completely overhauled as it was at first just a standard health bar but now the gamer can actually gain health by simple collect adrenaline points which helps boost the character's health and even upgrades their strength meaning it gives the gamer's the ability to use stronger attacks and shoot faster. The last change I made the gameplay is the combat, the game's combat was originally just a standard hack and slash much like Devil May Cry but then I decided to add some thrid person shooter aspects to the gameplay and soon it felt more unique and the gameplay was more enjoyable because the camera was able to move around without camera view being blocked by an item within the game.

The platforms in which the game will be based on will be decided by my client which is still to be confirmed but the only known platform at this very time that has been confirmed to be getting the game is the PlayStation 4 and the Wii U. No other platform has been confirmed as of yet. I would like if the game was released on all platforms but the client, Shiny Money, wish to keep it simple.

Powerpoint Presentation

For a part of my studies into creating my own character I had to create a powerpoint presentation to present to my employers. Whilst I was creating my presentation I began to do some research on different characters to get a feel of how they are developed and what makes them appealable characters, this would help with my character's attitude and apperence. For the examples in my presentation I choose:

 Crash Bandicoot because even though he can't talk fully he is still a likeable character because of the way he reacts to dangerous situations by just treating it like it was an every day job.

Duke Nukem was the second character I choose because of his comedic attitude but he also uses immature humour which many people says makes him feel like an 80's cop which many people like due to how childish the lines are but it still makes the character look cooler then they already are.

Grayson from Bulletstorm was my last character I choose because his apperence fitted what I was going for in my character but with a mix of Crash Bandicoot. Grayson's apperence was one of his features that many people liked about him but his attitdue was the main reason why he was so likeable.

After choosing the three characters that inspired my character's creation and moved on to my character himself. I started by developing a quick bio for the character, I talked about the age, gender, job description and so on and also developed a quick back story to how the game beings.

Once I finished talking about the main character and his motivation, I then moved onto the villain who I also made a quick bio but since I didn't draw any concept art for the villain I decided to grab a picture from Google images as a reference in the powerpoint presentation to show what the idea of the villain and what I believed him to look like.

After I finished creating my powerpoint presentation I was ready to do the presentation. Through my presentation I talked about in depth all the back-story, the reasons why I choose the design for the character and even the main story of the game that he will be appearing in. At the end of the presentation I thought I did good but I could have fixed up a few parts in the powerpoint presentation such as the villain's bio and what sounds that will be in the game.

Research of Game Companies - Iconic Characters - Naughty Dog

The second company that I'm doing research on is an American Company by the name of Naughty Dog. Naughty was the creator of many iconic characters, one of which that actually inspired my character design for the video game I have been working on. As I said, Naughty Dog has so many characters but I will only choose from about 3 characters.

Nathan Drake -

Nathan Drake is the most famous video game character on the PlayStation 3, he is also a mix of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft since the Uncharted series is inspired by games like Tomb Raider and films such as Indiana Jones. The main selling point of this character is that he is everything a person wants to be and also the character of Nathan Drake is incredibly likeable because of his additude.

Crash Bandicoot -

Crash Bandicoot is one of the many iconic video game characters that even though they aren't around anymore they are still memorable for what they did for gaming. Crash first appeared on the PlayStation One which was released during the early 90's and with the help of Crash actually made the PlayStation One the must have console during the 90's. His appeal comes from the gameplay style of his game which is similar to that of a classic 3D Mario game on the N64 which many people loved and Crash improved the formual.


Jak -

Jak was the first new IP in the PlayStation 2 generation and his games were incredibly popular amongst PlayStation fans. He was a character that was slowly developed over time and became a just as popular as Crash and helped the PlayStation 2 to survive and many people still see him as the perfect character and at first his selling point was that he never talked in the original game but later on started to talk which was unique for the time but it made the character seem like he was growning up along side the many fans that have played his games which makes him sort of like a childhood friend almost.

Research of game companies - Iconic Characters - Nintendo

As a part of my work I have to research several different companies and how they work and also what icon characters they have created in the last years to give me an example of how to develop my character idea.

The first company I started the research on a Japanese Company by the name of Nintendo, this company has been developing games and creating consoles since 1974. Nintendo has developed consoles such as the Color TV which was a Japan only system at the time and the NES, their also made over systems like the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Wii and most recent Wii U.

Nintendo is also a company that actually developers thier own games for their own systems, one example is the most famous character in the history of gaming, Mario. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto created Mario for a video game called Donkey Kong, though at the time Mario wasn't called Mario, his actual name was Jump Man but Nintendo later changed his name to Mario to suit audiences outside of Japan. Mario is an Italian plumber who wears red and blue clothes with white gloves and goes on adventures to save a princess named Peach who was kidnaped by a Dragon-Dinosaur creature known as Bowser (King Koopa in Japan).

Mario-

As you can see he is very cartoony in apperence which is very appealing for kids and children of a young age. The attitude of the character is a happy and friendly character which children can respond in a postive way to, also most of his games are set around cheery scene but his games sometimes has dark scenes but Nintendo still manages to create a cartoony atmosphere.

Princess Peach-

Princess Peach is a more female-friend character, she is basically your typical Princess in trouble kind of Princess which the player and Mario must save her from Bowser. She is cheery much like Mario but does fall into the catergory of "Help me please" kind of girls which can come across as stereotyping.

Bowser (King Koopa)-

Bowser or King Koopa (Depending which country you are from) is the main villian of the Mario games series. His appearence is menacing with his spikes and horns, this is so that the people playing the game are able to tell which character is the villian and which one is the hero. Nintendo went for a sort of dinosaur/dragon idea which is why they have a princess, the games are pretty much like a fairy tale story about a Prince saving a Princess from an evil dragon but this time the Prince is actually a plumber.



Character

Hi guys, I know I haven't been blogging in a while but I've lost my password but thankfully a computer seems to have saved my password and I was able to log in.

Well, for this post I will be showing you a rough photoshopped image of what my character will look like:

This character is a mix between a cartoony/realistic style for the lastest Shiny Money game I've been working on.