Current progress

Ok, so I have been madly working on the game design document.  I am SO close to having it completed.  Just got a couple things to finish up.  We are hoping to connect it to a wiki so it can be easily viewed by the team and by others following our progress (assuming they actually exist).

The artists have been working on getting some solid levels done.  We have one picked out that we are cutting up so we can use it for the alpha level.  It is going to be awesome.  I've been put in charge of getting a logo for the game.  I've been sketching out some ideas... it is a little tricky since we don't have an official title for the game yet, but I'll figure something out.  It's a good time to do this because all the other artists have some pretty specific roles for the alpha (Evan and Becky are working on cutting up the level.  Cory is our technical artist and will be taking their work and bridging the gap with it into the engineering world.  Kyle is doing a walk and jump cycle for the hero. And Diana is working on animating the laser).  I'm available to help any of them that need extra assistance and while they are working, I am working on the logo, menus, and website skinning.

Things seem to be going well and I'm pretty confident we are going to have a wicked awesome alpha level.  We will inevitably run into some more bumps on the road, but things are going pretty smooth right now!  Hope that lasts! (Ya I'm not THAT naive...)

More Polish

Ok, so I got the value pass done.  Basically it represents an idea of where color/texture is going to go.  I gave him a yin-yang feel to reflect the bi-polarity of magnets.  I added value to the top of his head to highlight the horse-shoe-magnet-based design.  I think he is super cool and darn cute.  I was going for more of a cute, likeable character.  I felt it is important for the player to connect with the robot.  If he was too big/powerful, it wouldn't really match the narrative and style we are going for.  Here is the value pass:

 

I also worked on a couple more backgrounds.  I did three,  but one of them is seriously awful.  Hahaha.  Beyond repair.  So that one isn't going to make the cuts.  No human eyes should ever have to look upon it.  I did two with the same level design to play around with different backgrounds.  The foreground needs more attention.  I would like to add further detail to the gray "boxes" in the front.  The magnets also need to be made a little more visible/obvious....but this is about exploration, so I'm not too worried.  Here they are:

 

More to come! Stay tuned!

 

Rendered Character

Since we are all getting a character developed to a nice good ol' fashion silhouette in vector, here is mine.  I'll be doing a value pass then a color pass next.  But here is the final silhouette.  Personally, I think he is beyond awesome.  I'm really happy with how this is turning out.

Concept Art

Ok, as promised, here are a few concept sketches.  This isn't all of them, but I figured I get in what I could.  I'll go from early to more refined.  I am currently working on a more fleshed out silhouette in vector.  I'll be doing a value pass, then a color pass to move it in a direction for production.  (We aren't going with all of the ideas, but we thought it was a good idea that each artist gets there own favorite work in vector and through color pass stage.  Then one (or a mesh of several) will make it as the actual 3D character).

Here are some rough, exporation sketches:

 

Here are a few more fleshed out sketches.  A couple a bad guy designs, then the last one is the silhouette I'm going to do in vector.  I think he is super cool.  I designed the head after a horse-shoe magnet.  Look at me using inspiration.  I feel like I'm on one of those sweet reality/competition shows like Face-Off or Project Runway.  "Here's your weird inspiration, now make a work of art that reflects it!"

 

I'll be sure to post the more fleshed out character in vector.  Go MagnetBot!