Mid Term Reflection

In the end, I was pleased with the results of the project. The digital drawings came out well, and with better character art and backgrounds the game could succeed as a visual novel with its layout and art style. As I add more mechanics the look will change and new concepts will need to be done, but for a very basic planning phase it works well. If I could do the project again I would add more to the backgrounds of the dialogue screens as they look a little basic, and could use more details. In terms of chronicling a game's development from concept to inception, the screens work well as they show the development of different aspects that will be fundamental to it once it is programmed.

Visual Novel Concept Screens 2

The last three images in the presentation were done as mock dialogue screens. The top two are from conversations that may occur during the game, and the last is a monologue from the main character's perspective. The text box was created by combining lines for a box effect with a transparent gradient, giving it depth on screen. As the lines of dialogue change, the characters' expressions will change depending on their mood and their reaction to your choices. The backgrounds will stay consistent, with day and night versions of both. Monoluges will be a series of static images that will change depending on the line of text.

Visual Novel Character Concepts

Here are the annotated designs for the four main characters of the visual novel. After doing the game over and menu screen I drew them in order to ensure that I had a grasp of what the characters would look like when I did the mock dialogue screens. I was mainly aiming for a variety of outfits and to make the characters look distinct. The arrows on the pictures point out things that will change when the art for the actual game is done.

The sketches came out well. The anatomy is off in some places and I might change Ned's name and remove his facial hair in the final design, but as of now the designs are solid and I feel they will do well for the project.

Visual Novel Concept Screens 1

Here are the first two parts of the mid-term project: The menu screen and the game over screen.

The Crossing (Tentative title) is a horror visual novel/ choose your own adventure game inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, the horror anime Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, and to an extent the web series Marble Hornets. The main menu was mostly inspired by Higurashi's habit of doing close ups on the eyes of the characters which is used for a disturbing effect during a lot of the more unsettling scenes. The eye in the center combined with the splatters and red lighting in addition to do some dark edges on the side makes the composition look dark and unsettling, in the tradition of standard horror movie posters and covers.

The Game Over screen was more inspired by the Resident Evil games, whose death screens have a similar feel to them. Since this screen would only load in the event of the death of the player character, the splatters are much more prominent, and would make it the goriest screen in the game as due to the nature of the gameplay most of the violence would take place off screen and be implied in reactions and descriptive text.

Mid Term Project Proposal

For my midterm project I want to submit a series of concept art related to a visual novel project I plan on working on with several friends. The art will be done as examples of how the game will look, albeit with my art for the project rather than the art of my friends that I will actually use once the programming process of the actual game begins.

Here are the 6 Images I will be submitting for the class:

1. A rough draft of the menu
2. A rough draft of the game-over screen
3. 4 pictures of the characters hand drawn with elements explained via text in photoshop
4. A monologue screen from the main character's perpective
5-6. Two examples of in-game conversation

The target for the presentation would be people I plan on involving in the project, to give them an idea about how the game should look and how they should plan their parts of it. The idea behind the project is distinct since a lot of other people in the major are doing portfolios instead of wholly original work, and  the style is that of game screens instead of just compositions and concept art. All of the pieces are going to be made in photoshop, in some form or another. The main inspiration for the screens in question is the Phoenix Wright series, a similar form of game whose look inspired the aesthetics of the project. The art style is obviously anime influences as most of my drawings are.

Narrative Images

Here is the completed version of the narratives:

The three images are characters from the same story. The text on the top is a monologue from their perspective on the value that is most important to them, displayed in the large word at the bottom.

Malefic is a character whose life has been controlled and used for the benefit of countless people. Because of that, his main goal is to life by his own means and not be controlled by anyone. The pursuit of freedom and escaping his past are his two main motivations.

Judith is a strong willed character whose main motivation is help her people recover from the incidents that occur in the first part of the story. As a fair and just ruler, she embodies the virtue of honor.

As a monster hunter, Leon is a character who constantly puts himself in danger, and would be willing to give his life if necessary, to help protect other people. He embodies the virtue of sacrifice. 

The narrative itself is in a tryptic format using the three primary colors (Red, blue, and yellow) to tint each of the three characters. The colors fade to black and into the next color, representing the unity of the three despite their different outlooks. The repeated background texture enforces this. I could not think of a background that would unify the three very different texts, so I thought the texture would work better for the composition. It also puts more focus on the characters, who need to stand out instead of the text. Without a background image they are more of a centerpiece and less of a part of the background.

Overall I was happy with the composition. The lineart on Judith could've been done better (the leftmost hand trips me up a bit.), but the other two characters were drawn well.

Color Corrections

The first set of images done for the color correction was mostly done to make the bottom original image a bit more dramatic and less blown out. The picture was too light so I added more dark regions, creating a much more dramatic look.

The second set had a different issue. The darks on the bottom were overpowering the lights, so I changed the levels and tones to make more details stand out.