Challenge 2 Prep

We passed Challenge 1! This week in concept art land has been interesting. I've still been collecting research and sort of feeling out different ways to go with the platform fighter.

Based on critiques in class, the chef fight theme still seems to be pretty popular. But, one of the group concerns is that the game could not be the right kind of humorous that we'd like to go for.

Please excuse the bad puns; they do not reflect our team's view of humor
but merely my love of bad puns

We've got a few good designs from going through this concept direction, ideas which could be channeled into a different art direction should we not choose to go this route.

One of the first is the idea of combinations of abilities 'mixing' and creating your super special abilities. Special abilities aren't limited to one set recipe. There's more than one way to make stew, for example. But some things just shouldn't be mixed and made into food...

Choosing certain combinations of abilities creates
certain special attacks; strawberry, chicken, and pumpkin a good recipe does not make

Players can interact with the level to avoid being harmed by it

The second shows a sort of 'spice' system we thought of where players could align their character with a flavor. This flavor could be thrown in the form of a spice which would be used to interact with things in the level. Having the most of your spice in that object, for example the chicken soup, makes it so that when the soup explodes, you aren't harmed because you contributed the most to the recipe.

This conceptual direction won out over the 'painting' direction, as can happen. 

'Hello Darkness, my old friend'

There was appreciation for the fact that these sorts of art styles aren't seen in games, but I came to find that might be for good reason; they're hard to reproduce successfully. So in the interest of our team and time, I decided to stop pursuing it. We shall spare a moment to shed a single tear for the melted clocks and Dali-esque long legged monstrosities that won't be given life this semester.


As much as I am fond of the chef fight concept, not everyone is totally on board with it. I made two quick sheets to see if there would be interest for the ideas. The first was an origami theme, with the abilities being based on animals and elements. And the second is based around a masquerade theme. The masks could possibly have some connection to upgrading abilities or affecting their properties, whether they be based on animals or maybe elements.

Sources for images on the bottom row: 1, 2, 3, 4

 I figured stages would be good for possibility for interactions with the players as a mechanic (i.e. the stage opening and closing to show new setups of platforms or introduce a mechanic similar to the enemy one in the chef theme). I also just really like masquerade masks and fancy ballroom clothes as an aesthetic. I thought it might be cool to go sort of Phantom of the Opera-esque. I'm hoping these aesthestics will be interesting for the player and something of a draw for the game.

I think this game's place in 'game culture' would be that of the interesting fighting game. There are many very fun fighting games, and while this one isn't a traditional fighter (focused more on platform combat than melee), I still want it to have the flair of games such as Skull Girls or the quirkiness of Power Stone, both games that I enjoy very much, for their game play, style, and characters.

The game that ours is most similar to would be Super Smash Brothers (Melee and Brawl), which were received rather well in gaming culture. In society, it seemed to garner a pretty good reputation, probably from the fact that all of it's characters are more or less pretty well known. People seemed to take on pretty easily to the mechanics of the game itself though. The base part of button mashing (as is wont for every fighter) was satisfying for those new to the genre, while there was still enough nuance and material for those who dug deeper into the game.

For our game, we want to have that kind of dual interaction. We want there to be enough for the button mashers and frantic fighters to enjoy the game while having depth and deeper mechanics for people familiar to this genre. 

I'm really enjoying coming up with these ideas and I feel like we're very close to deciding which to move forward with for the end.

Stay tuned for next week where we are possibly going to face Challenge 2 with our newly locked in game art direction and fine-tuned concepts!