Divisive Creative Directional Development [28/05/2023]

It's the end of Week 10 in university time, and I'm starting to hit the point where my ideas and desires are totally bursting out of my head, and I just can't stay in one position. I've had problems committing to a creative vision on passion projects like this for a long time; a nauseating side-effect of perfectionism. However, right now, to me, this only proves just how much potential my ideas have, and all I have to do is do them justice through trial and error. You can't say something doesn't work until you've written it out and tried it.

STORY AND GAME DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
This week, I spent a lot of time talking to my friend and now Homolupus co-writer, Liv, through all the things that needed to change and be set in stone in the project. It helped immensely just to get everything I had out of my head and to talk to someone who understood exactly what the project needed. Through this, I've finally been able to work on my Game Design Document (GDD) to the point where it is almost completed. All that's left to do is fully write out my art direction goals and, potentially, re-write everything else in a haze of destructive inspiration. I won't actually do that, but I know now that everything has been planned and placed exactly how I want to break it and rebuild it, and exactly what can go and what absolutely has to stay.

Reading over it all, I think the biggest issue with what I've got is its lack of attitude and artfulness. Homolupus should be punk, new, and avant-garde in its own way, and following the rules won't necessarily bring that to the game. For one, "Missions" (aka quests) are not working. The game needs a linear path that is forward, poignant and cuts straight to the heart of the game instead of skirting around it. It is, at its core, about being a werewolf and finding a family, and surviving that way detached from the human experience. It is about the very idea of being "weird" and "outcast", so it has no need to follow any kind of storytelling norms. It should be experimental and unorthodox; cinematic! Perhaps more like an interactive film experience, stringing scenes of character and theme together in gameplay, not the other way around. Even that is complex enough code-wise to teach me a few tricks. I originally wanted Homolupus to be a graphic novel or a webcomic, and whenever I think of it, I still very much think of it in that format. So why wait to tell that story in that style, and why make this game a proof of concept and not the real thing? Games are an all-encompassing form of art, and I can tell any story that can be confined within a ratio of pixels. TLDR; conventional video-game story-telling structure is out, and expression and abstraction are in.

ART DEVELOPMENT

Just small pieces this week with little commitment while trying to write out the GDD. Plus, you've probably noticed the new game logo! Here's the original font link: https://www.1001fonts.com/got-heroin-font.html. The rest are some new Cliff outfit ideations (getting very, very close to a final design), and some layouts and paint-overs of Cliff's Apartment, which may not even be a location in there game anymore (But will be repurposed and redecorated for the Prototype)

Next week's (Week 11)'s goals are:

    1. Completely complete the GDD

    2. Decide exactly what will be in the prototype and get working.

    3. Have all the code and mechanics bases of the prototype up and running and done, ready for assets to be made and added in Week 12.

It's slow, and it's not where I wanted to be at this stage, but it's progress. Much love!

    -   Monkeydog

Hello! And the Progress Thus Far (PART 2/2) [22/05/2023]

THIS IS PART 2 OF YOUR INTRODUCTION TO HOMOLUPUS!

In this post, I'll cover what I've got so far in terms of character design and environment design. The art direction of the game is one of the most important things for me to nail. I have boiled down the essential three components into; TONE, STYLE, and CHARACTER. If it doesn't serve these purposes, it's purposeless. Therefore, it's going to take a lot of trial and error to make my artwork feel right for this game.

CHARACTERS

Cliff is the protagonist of the game and the player character, so he is the most important asset to 100% nail design-wise. I first started loosely sketching him around this time last year, just to get a very basic idea of his face, hair, and personality.

These sketches helped me lock in the personality type I wanted to strive for in the character; a bit curious and naive, but also determined and emotional. Overall, I wanted him to be charming and charismatic, but still have a bit of an offputting weirdness to his expressions and looks, like making his hair eternally wiry and greasy and giving him a bit of a funny, lopsided smile. I then further developed these sketches to include his whole body.

Even with all this ideation, I still don't feel like I'm quite there yet with finding the spark in the character. That boils down to three things. 

1. Fashion; despite drawing from many different influences, I'm still trying to find the style that fits the characters best. Is it punk, grunge, goth or visual kei? Is it leather, denim, fur, mesh, or wool? Is it simple and cool or over-accessorized and decorated? Finding that balance is the next step for me, which will require going back to the drawing board and deciding, through rapid sketching and ideating, what fits best for Cliff.

2. Defining Features. Something's still off about Cliff's face. I want him to be recognizable and memorable, and that comes down to giving him something that makes him truly unique and interesting to look at. It could be a scar or tattoo, an item of clothing or accessory (which comes down to Fashion), or something else entirely. It's something that can't be forced though; it has to come naturally out of the story, character, and game.

3. Lycanthropy. This is one of the tougher things for me to decide; how much lycanthropy visually manifests in the character designs. Should characters have constant ears, tails, or claws? Should they be furry or hairy? Or is Lycanthropy less visual and more mental? Here's what I want for sure; short tails (small enough to hide under pants) made of skin and bone that extend from the base of the spine, perhaps a natural occurrence of atavism, and are a defining but secret feature of the werewolf. Also, I'm trying my best to design the characters with their hair intentionally covering their ears. Perhaps underneath, they are pointy or furry, but that's something we may or may not see as players. The real question is how much I want these traits to change with a high LH, as an outward representation of the inner state. Perhaps creating a transformation guide would help me understand that and how it would factor into gameplay.

I also started to model Cliff in Maya using a free model from Sketchfab as a base, but this didn't go very well and as such I would like to start over building the model from scratch. I would also like to switch to Blender if possible especially for character modelling.

Other characters I've started sketching, still unnamed NPCs like Cliffs Rescuer (currently nicknamed Lang), are also starting to take shape. I'm keeping them simple for now until core design tenants are set in stone with Cliff's design, but I'm still making sure I know roughly what they'll look like.

ENVIRONMENT

For my prototype, and thus for my opening 15 minutes, I need to figure out exactly what locations need modeling. I decided to start with Cliff's Apartment, where he would end up after escaping from the hospital. The process started with laying out the floor map/blueprints and deciding where Cinemachine Cameras would be placed inside the house. Then, I put together a mood board on Pinterest specifically for the style and decoration of the apartment.

I chose to model the design on the right, as I imagined it could look like a sort of NYC loft. Then I began to model the apartment in Maya. This started with a one-sided cube with the normals facing inwards for the interior, and then extruding faces to create inner walls. I then started furnishing the apartment with free models on Sketchfab before realizing that the apartment was absolutely huge and far too spacious to fill with enough detail and interest. 

So I went back to the drawing board and decided to go small. I started modeling the bottom left design as I liked its simplicity and modesty, and also because it was very similar to the apartment of someone I know, which meant I had a good sense of scale for the room in my head. Although, after beginning my furnishing process, I again have run into the same problem; the apartment is now too small to be interesting enough to explore and investigate, as well as being too tight and condensed to place Cinemachine Camers in good angles.

Therefore, my next step is to attempt to model the top left design; a perfect medium between both designs. I know now to go small enough that the apartment feels small, but not too small that it doesn't offer mystery and curiosity. Perhaps the best thing for me now would be to plan out the story of the apartment; how long Cliff has lived there, what he would fill it with, and whether someone else may have lived there before. The alternative is to change the location entirely, but I'd need a good reason to do so. The good thing about using Cliff's apartment for this particular scene, in which Lang explains Cliff's situation to him, is that it lets Cliff packs his things before leaving yet also lets the player have a taste of exploring locations and getting to know their player character more intimately by invading his private belongings and his living space. 

That's all for this part, see you in the next update!

Hello! And the Progress Thus Far (PART 1/2) [22/05/2023]

WELCOME TO THE HOMOLUPUS DEV BLOG!

I'm Jake, aka MonkeyDog Soft, and this will be a continually updated blog on the state of my 3rd Year Capstone games development. I will try to post weekly with progress on character design, level design, narrative design, coding, and more. However, this first post will be a grand explanation of most of what I have done so far, having been brainstorming and planning this project for over a year now (And still not knowing what I'm doing).

STORY 

My writing process could best be defined as "manic". Here are some pictures of my brainstorming work to prove this.

So I'll try to transcribe this as best I can.

Homolupus is a narrative adventure game that takes place in a world where Lycanthropes (or Werewolves) descended from an alternate human species from homosapiens, live quietly among civilization either in packs or alone, surviving by the skin of their teeth in their cold concrete jungle. However, times are changing and the presence of werewolves is becoming more known to not only the public but the forces who want them hunted to extinction. Cliff was born different from other children around him but was raised to never, ever let his dangerous emotions come out. That is until one night when Cliff wakes up in the hospital after an accident he can't remember, with doctors and nurses circling in on his true nature. Just as Cliff's fear of being discovered begins to tip over the edge, a stranger with a peculiar, familiar scent comes to his rescue. Through this stranger, Cliff discovers the underground world of other Lycanthropes like him, and the fight they face to survive. This is only the first 5-15 minutes, the rest is a work in progress~!

GAMEPLAY

I could describe the gameplay to you in text, or you can just take it straight from my pitch deck presentation :)

This may seem all fine, but actually, there's a lot I'm still yet to figure out. That's especially true for the actual moment-to-moment gameplay, and actually making this fun. There's still something missing that I've yet to really discover. But that's also the joy of prototyping and experimenting to find whats right!

This is Part 1 of 2 posts, join me in the next post for a look at the current status of my character design and environment art! And if you can, please comment with any suggestions or questions!