ÁO is my thesis to achieve the Bachelor of Arts. Within this work I collected and visually worked out ideas for a 3D game. The visual development in the field of character design and environmental design played a major role in this.
The game itself takes place on a very special island. In reality, it is a huge turtle and home to a few animals as well as some human inhabitants, whose ancestors come from Japan and China. Unfortunately, their host has become very ill over the years and it is your job as a player to travel to the head of the turtle and cure the illness. To achieve this, you carry a very special item with you. It is a flute with which one can influence the plants close to it through playing certain melodies.
Here you can see my final version of the character. With the design I wanted to convey a rather androgynous appearance. That way every gender can relate better to the character, because it's easier to identify yourself with the figure. In order to achieve that the character has round as well as sharp shapes, wide shoulders and an hourglas-shaped body.
The Mask is related to the Hannya masks from Japanese Nó theatre. But it also represents the Oni, a deamonlike crature from Japanese folklore. The people on the island wear those masks to scare evil ghosts and demons away. They also loke to wear red, which is a colour of protection.
The Mask is related to the Hannya masks from Japanese Nó theatre. But it also represents the Oni, a deamonlike crature from Japanese folklore. The people on the island wear those masks to scare evil ghosts and demons away. They also loke to wear red, which is a colour of protection.
Above you can see some of my environment designs. I wanted to convey the general feeling of the game by exploring shapes as well as colours. One of these shots was also transformed into a fake screenshot, in which you can see the interaction between the player character an a plant. The other one shows the infection a bit more. In this, the character is sneaking around in order to avoid being cought by the enemies.
To conclude my work I decided to design an exemplary level.
01 The character enters the level
02 The character climbs the tree
03 After playing the flute, the tree will extent a branch
04 By walking on the branch, the player will discover a hidden path
05 After following the path, the player can use a ladder
06 Now the player can get to the temple and take a double gourd
07 There are fruits the player has to collect with the double gourd
08 All enemies can be lured to the carnivorous plants
09 After that the player has to climb the tree again in order to get to the other plants
10 The second plant can be found behind the tree. 03 must be repeated
11 The last plant is over the carnivorous plant. 03 must be repeated
12 The gourd is brought back to the temple and the ghost of the statue will fly into the flute
01 The character enters the level
02 The character climbs the tree
03 After playing the flute, the tree will extent a branch
04 By walking on the branch, the player will discover a hidden path
05 After following the path, the player can use a ladder
06 Now the player can get to the temple and take a double gourd
07 There are fruits the player has to collect with the double gourd
08 All enemies can be lured to the carnivorous plants
09 After that the player has to climb the tree again in order to get to the other plants
10 The second plant can be found behind the tree. 03 must be repeated
11 The last plant is over the carnivorous plant. 03 must be repeated
12 The gourd is brought back to the temple and the ghost of the statue will fly into the flute
In order to find the right design for my main character, I sketched a lot, turned these sketches into silhouettes and sketched further - until I found a design that was fitting. In general the main character of my story should give an agile impression. Running, climbing and swimming should be believable options for this figure and that has a lot to do with the way the whole silhouette is designed.
At one point I had the general look af the character, but some details were still not clear. So I created some variations based on references, to find out what was lacking. The first figure is also my first design which I changed slightly in each variation. The resulting design is now a mix between some aspects of the variations you can see above.
I decided to make some closeups of the textiles of the main character which show some patterns of the garment. Each represents a part of the island. Our main character is meant to be a balancing figure, so he/she wears symbols that represent many aspects that can be found on the island. For example the patterns on the arms represent plants. Other patterns resemble mountains, villages and the soul.
To assure a productability of th egame with a small group of people, I decided to give all characters masks. That way the facial animation does not have to be considered. Therefore I designed some variations to get a feeling what fits and what I should avoid. In the end a neutral faced mask semmed to be best, so it wouldn't distract if the character is in a certain sitiation that requires emotional expressions. For example: if the character is in danger, but the mask is only showing a smiling face, the situation loses all intesity. I also decided not to use masks that represent animals, because the people of the island should be seperated from the wildlife.
The character should be able to interact with various items. Some of them are always with the player, others have to be collected. The flute is one of the more important objects and will always be aviable while playing. Others like the lantern can be useful in certain situations. Many will be there to fulfill a certain task, like the double gourd. The ship is meant to be the final object with which the character interacts. It just helps you to get to the head of the turtle.
On the way to the head of the turtle, our main character is meeting various other creatures. One is a villager, who will give you good advice. Another is a little white fox, that will help you if you are lost. But also a poor tiger, that has been infected and will now try to hunt you down.
The turtle is one of the most important elements for the concept, because the whole game will be played on her back. She is ancient, wise and sadly very sick. I attempted various approaches for her, but in the end I chose a rather classic design. The most difficult part was it to develop the right head-eye ratio. When the eyes got too big, the turtle looked not huge enough. In the end I chose a design, that mostly resembles the Galápagos tortoise.
There is also a huge variation of plants on the island. For example there is the Bodhi Tree, which will help the player to get to paths that would otherwise be unreachable. Another plant is the inflating Bamboo, that will inflate it's leaves after a particular melody. That way the player can jump onto it anf jump extremely high. There are also entwine plants, that will grow after playing the flute. The player is then able to climb up on this plant. Lastly there is a huge carnivorous plant, which can be used to trap enemies iside. The player is also capable to hide in these plants.
The infected areas on the island normally turn into a blue and purple tone of color. There are also pink outgrowths which function like seeds, spreading the infection further and further.
The statues are based out of the legend of the eight immortals, that are said to be living on the Island. In this case these immortals are statues and the player has to fulfill tasks in order to call the ghosts if the them. They will then help in the end to cure the turtle.
