Wk05 Title Screen Concept Phase

I looked at a lot of title screens from old Sonic the Hedgehog games to brand new games like Saints Row 4. The common attribute I found with almost all of them was this dynamic background that had changing environments to preview what the game world looked like. I didn't want to see this aspect for my game's title screen because, unlike I had originally thought, I don't feel as sure with what environments I want to put into my game. I was looking at going for more of a minimalist title screen and so I turned to Skyrim. The only effect that Skyrim had with its title screen was the fog that grew and spread out from the bottom left corner. I decided to make my effect a little more detailed than that with having my hand change forms to the different materials you can absorb in the game. The change corresponds with whichever option the player has selected on the title screen.
I also liked how in Prototype 2 the environment on the title screen faded to black as it got closer to the edges. I created a smaller version of this with my options on my title screen.

Although I love the way the title screen came out, there are still a few aspects I want to change. I want to give the hand a slower transtion between each form and possibly put an aura around the hand and the title. Other than those changes, there are a few details I'd just want to clean up with the effects.

Wk04 Mood Board Final Phase

 I chose to do edits to three of my mood boards. Although I felt the mood board for my title page was great, I didn't like the image because it had the person (Midas) turning the statue head to gold rather than the person turning into the stone material of the statue. I went after class to get some help and managed to come up with this. The blue that was once gold represents the draining energy that flows through an object allowing Zosimos to absorb it. I felt as though the smoothness of my texture could be a little better, but for a first timer with photoshop, I think my image came out very nicely.

My Weapons and Abilities mood board was the hardest to figure out what to do with, All the images were so different and I couldn't really figure out how to connect them. I decided to use the color wheel to organize the images into a circular shape. I used the color pallet to create these circular rings that I placed around the background. After looking at it, I felt like that was still not enough, so I turned to the color pallet again to brush on spatters of color to fill in the empty background. By doing this I was able to give my image the rugged abstract feel I was looking for.






My Story mood board I felt saw the most improvement. These images had no background, but their colors were all very similar and connected them well. I wasn't sure what to do for the background, so I thought, why not use one of the images? I put the Area 51 image as the background because that's where the story originates and I added these cool distorting affects to the other two images so they didn't look plain on the background. The last thing I did was add these crimson scratch marks around the background too make it look bloody and dangerous. It gives off much more of a abomination/monster-esque feel to it.

Wk04 Mood Board Concept Phase

These First three mood boards I thought were the most successful at conveying an actual mood. Left 4 Dead's colors give that gruesome feeling with it's many shades of green and red blood color behind the title. The greens all blend into each other nicely while the red and white sticks out the most to pop out grabbing the attention of the viewer.

Character Development I thought was my best blend because there was no color, only shades. It reminded me of the lizard example we saw in class. Along side the images, it gives a despair type feeling to them.

My title mood board I thought gave an interesting feeling. the gold and light grey color given off in the center pops out at the viewer. It gives the viewer this feeling of immense power (which I hope to keep but with different colors/textures).

My last two mood boards I thought were the most unsuccessful in conveying a feeling. The colors didn't mesh well. Although some color patters were similar to certain images within each main image, they did not flow evenly with all the other aspects of the image. For example: the Story mood board has a lot of open space with the blank white background. The Weapons and Abilities mood board has a gradient in the background, but the images within the gradient aren't similar too the gradient.

Wk03 Game Pitch Final Phase

Touch is a game in which the main character Zoe (short for Zosimos) has the ability to absorb different substances and use the powers that come with this absorption to do either good or evil.

The story begins with a man with a blank slate for a background. He's been living on his own, surviving on what he can traveling in the deserts of Nevada after losing big in Las Vegas. He ends up unknowingly walking into Area 51 where he is greeted by the military. After doing a background check and finding out this Zoe has no ties to anyone, they abduct him and begin conducting experiments on him. These experiments give him his powers and he manages to escape. The story from here goes into the hands of the player. Zoe is constantly on the run from the military while trying to find his purpose in life with his newly acquired abilities. Is he a savior or a hell-bringer.

There are a total of 6 different substances that Zoe is able to absorb in the game. Each substance form has a weakness and each has it's own unique abilities. Zoe can use his fists in all forms however.


1. Diamond à Weakness: diamond àdiamond shard(s)/fists

2. Molten Rock à Weakness: water à fireballs/flame wave/fists

3. Metal à Weakness: acid à weapon morph: sword, axe, hammer/fists

4. Rock & Concrete à Weakness: metal à rock throw/fists

5. Wood à Weakness: fire à blend into forest areas/grow to reach areas/strangle/fists

6. Skin à Weakness: everything à hide in crowds/pick up weapons/fists

The game has a strong focus on character development. Zoe becomes whoever you want him to become. The game will have a karma system similar to Fallout 3 but an upgrade system similar to Prototype with a dash of Skyrim. Your choices affect how Zoe is perceived in the world. He can make different friends and different enemies depending on which path you have him go down. The other important part of his development is whether you want Zoe to be stealthy or a powerhouse. Upgrading his Stealth powers helps him to stay under the radar easier, but it often takes longer to get through certain areas. Upgrading his power will make it easier for Zoe to tank through enemies, but gets him noticed easier and causes his enemies to throw out the bigger guns. 

Wk03 Game Pitch Concept Phase

 I had some trouble coming up with this idea, but walking back to my room Wednesday night I felt inspired. I remembered one of my favorite childhood TV shows, "Ben Ten" and I was able to come up with this game pitch. The main character has the ability to absorb any substance he touches and can become that substance. Whether it be lava, rock, steal, diamond, or tree bark, he becomes the substance and can use special powers that go along with the substance he has absorbed.

For example, if he absorbed steal, he can transform his arms into swords, or if he absorbs lava, he can throw fireballs, absorbing bark allows him to blend in with his surroundings.










I wanted to make this game have multiple environments so that the player will have many different materials that their character can absorb. There will be forests, volcanoes, ice trenches, cities and more.












The other aspect of the game that I wanted to institute was chance. The plot line for the character is that he was a harden criminal whose punishment was to be experimented on with alien technologies in Area 51. The experiments led to his powers and aided him in his escape. Now he has a chance to use these powers for either good or evil and which ever path the player chooses, will affect different events in the game.

Wk02 Rock, Paper, Scissors Final Phase

This is what my final poster came out to be for my version of Rock Paper Scissors.

Wk02 Rock, Paper, Scissors Concept Phase

The image to the left is a picture of my ten thumbnails. When I started out my drawings, I had thought about doing a traditional title at the top of the page. As I progressed in my sketching, I transformed the title into different shapes, placed it at both the top and bottom of a page, and even made one design without a title. My favorite title placement is on thumbnail #7 because it's really big and pops right out of the middle to really grab your attention. I stuck with the same images throughout my sketches because I found three online that I really wanted to work with. These three images tell a story (and the original idea for this story came from 4chan or tumblr). That's why instead of "intro" my thumbnails say "story" because I wanted to give the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors it's own unique twist. In many of my thumbnails I gave the story more room than the rules because I felt that it would be more important than the rules. Everyone knows how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors but from this poster, I want them to know what they're playing, but I'll get more into that later. I felt that only using only three images would keep the poster from being over crowded as well. I didn't want the poster to feel covered in pictures, but I didn't want it to be flooded with words as well. Thumbnail #3 is my favorite when it comes to the images  because it shows the progression of the story with arrows as well as having the actual story encased within the images. My favorite out of all these have to be thumbnails #3 and #7 because of the reasons above. I didn't really like my first two because I felt they were too bland and my last two felt too crowded. Thumbnail #5 I thought had way too many words and I felt #8 was just a Legend of Zelda-type version of #3. I'm not 100% sure if I want to use #3 or #7 yet, but I'm leaning towards #3 and would appreciate any feedback!

With regards to the images, I looked through a lot of the ones on Google. There were many that had the real-life hand symbols and cartoon versions of hands. There were real rocks, papers and scissors that had their cartoon counter-parts as well. I stumbled across an image of a comic which made me remember the three images I had seen a while ago searching various funny pictures on the internet. Eventually I was able to find them and I knew that I wanted to use them. The actual pictures are all part of one image, but I separated them to allow myself to move them around for the actual poster. What makes these images different, is that they tell a story. They each have their own personas and represent a different situation. When Paper beats Rock, it represents friendship and playfulness. We've all had a moment when we've felt miserable and want to interact with anyone, but a friend or family member "beats" our mood by making us happy again. Scissors beating paper represents jealousy which "defeats" the playful attitude Paper has to bring. Lastly, Rock beating Scissors represents revenge; Rock "beats" Scissors to get back at him for killing his friend. I thought this was a more in-depth way of looking at a simple game so I felt using these images would be something cool to try.