GAME JAMS
With a team of myself and two other, under the name Neato Burrito, we have entered 3 games jams so far; Ludum Dare 48, Computing Cafe game Jam and (most recently) Mini Jam 83: Dread.
Mini Jam 83: Dread
With the theme of 'Dread' and the restriction of 'Dice', we brainstormed the idea as I roughly designed the character. With our choice to add a pixelated filter over the game to give it a retro look, my focused was aimed at more distinguishable shapes as apposed to any fancy looking costumes.
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(Check out the entry here)
Designs were sketched out during the brainstorming process once the theme and restriction to the jam were revealed. Smaller sketech (Right) were then sketched to exagerate the main shapes/ blocks of colour for the character once the idea of a pixelated filter was decided on
While I was in charge of the full process of creating the main character of the game, I was handed the model of the Dice Boy (antagonist of the game) to rig and animate.
Run! Skelliboi
Starting out as the enter to Ludum Dare 48, 'Run! Skelliboi' is a infinite runner game we later went on to finish and release onto the Google Play Store. Though I had helped create the concept of the game, my workload was a lot lighter during this jam due to curcumstances around my job and technical defficulties preventing me from being able to join.
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(As we are updating our data use policy for a new feature, the game is currentley unavaliable on the Google Play Store)
With the theme of 'keep it alive', we were discussing ideas for the premis of the game, I sketched a random inmage of a running skeleton which somehow ended up as the main theme of the game. With the game being based on this inside joke, we dcided to include various jokes and popculture into the game through the skin mechanic which (with my limited time avaliable to work on the game) became my primary focus
With the game being based around a weird inside joke of a game that shouldn't have really existed, a few of the skins within the game are designed after internet characters/ memes. These include character like pink guy, doge and sanic but my personal favourite skin in the one shown above based the the meme 'Here come dat boy' (called 'dat boi' within the game). With an animated unicycle and wiggly arms, I find it really enjoyable to watch him maniclly cycle through the game and I'm proud that I was able to replicate the gif within such a small pixel count and the limitation of a 4 frame run cycle.
When designing the icon for the game, with it already containing characters from internet pop culture and the group being aware that this is yet another free to play game with advertisments, I decided to lean into internet steryotypes of mobile games. The first desgin choice influenced by this decision was the semi-real skull used to poke fun at the countless scam mobile game adverts seen on social media. The second desicion was to have the classic 'portaite of man screaming to the side' mobile icon with the eyebrown meant to resemble smudged sharpie (as skulls do not have eyebrows).
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Other design choices (not influenced by jokes) were to have the background resemble the graveyard level with it being the first level designed as well as the inclusion of the teames names on the gravestone (though these would be blured outto add sharpness to the skull)