In between Styles

Well, I was at a bit of a loss here. It's not that I don't do research, and when it comes to games it's not like I can't. But something about the direction here had been bugging me, so I suppose it's good I got it nailed down. With a little help from a friend I managed to get some direction. Woohoo. So let's get this boring introduction stuff out of the way so I can start actually designing characters. My main focus was on characters/games that have changed between styles. I said before I would talk about some characters, so here's me making good on that promise.

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda is the best example of a character changing dramatically because of style. Until the Gamecube came out, LoZ had a pretty solid 3D style. The older games were 2D and had a style of their own, but for the most part the style that Ocarina of Time set was the style LoZ set. Majora's Mask solidified this style even more.


So when the first LoZ game was announced on the Gamecube, people were shocked to see the style had changed dramatically to this...


Now this was a pretty significant change. Link's (if you thought his name was Zelda...welcome to 10 years ago) look changed so drastically along with the style of the game, it almost felt like it was something new. Despite the game play being essentially the same, the fresh new look brought new eyes upon LoZ. Just look at the concept art.


Holy crap! That's a pretty big difference. Not much design wise has changed, yet things had to change in order to accomodate the new style. Now, comparing Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker together isn't all that fair. Or at least, that interesting, the latest LoZ game, Twilight Princess changed the style again. While Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Wind Waker were relatively bright games (in visual style, more than content), Twilight Princess is a much darker game, mostly during the twilight sections. While these parts aren't the main areas they have such a strong impact that you can't help but feel how dark this game is. Even the concept art takes a change in style...


Link's design changes slightly as well. So ultimately The Legend of Zelda is my prime example for what to expect when taking a character through different styles. Link has evolved (Darwin would be so proud) from a simple 2D sprite to a strong 3D model. So you can clearly see the link between the games and the styles and you can see how the visual styles have changed.

Did you know: Link was left handed, but because of the Wii (and how most users are right handed) Link was made to be right handed. Would you believe this actually made people angry?

Batman

You might be a fresh onlooker to Batman's fame. Let me remind you that Batman was originally a comic book, a campy TV show (Oh Adam West, how I love thee), a dark cartoon and then a series of movies. Now, since I'm on a game's design course I'm going to be talking about the games primarily. But the movies and TV shows as well can be used in this example. Let's quickly look at the games.

Here is a PS2 game called Batman: The Rise and Sin Tzu and the newest game, Batman: Arkham Asylum.


Now, the styles here are pretty different. Arkham Asylum is gritty, dark and serious while the Rise of Sin Tzu is a lot brighter. Arkham seems like the designs were based more on the movies while the Rise of Sin Tzu were clearly based more on the cartoons (despite Arkham Asylum using the same voice actors from the cartoon). Batman as a character is very easy to translate to different styles and mediums, his original suit has a lot of wiggle room for the design to make it their own.

This is made even more obvious by the Lego games. You see, Lego likes money. They found out that Batman can make them money (even more so after the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight), so what did they do? They made a Lego Batman game. You might think me cynical (and you'd be right), but in all truth, Lego games are actually quite good. They have solid mechanics (well, they got better, we can ignore certain ones...) and a lot of charm. You see Batman here as a lego character, which exemplifies my rantings on how the style of the game can change the character's looks.


The movies made a very clear change to Batman's design.


The Dark Knight makes Batman into an armour clad superhero, while Batman Returns does similiar but certainly less intimidating (not a personal attack on Batman). Both are a departure to the Batman of old, with his skin tight tights and briefs (alcohol and gambling lead to stupid outfits, right Superman?) While things generally stay the same in terms of design (the bat symbol, pointy ears, cape etc), you can see between the pictures how much a design can change as the style changes.

Did you know: DC stands for Detective Comics, guess what Batman is?

So, I guess I could go on and on about this style bit. But writing makes me sleepy, and good lord I could sleep like the dead right now. I suppose if it warrants I could write more examples, but uhh, for now this will do.

Commitment TBD

Research, research, research. How I hate you, let me count the ways.

1. You're obscure
2. You're long-winded
3. You're complicated
4. You often say things that lead to other things that have nothing to do with the thing you originally said
5. You're boring
6. You've been done already and done better

I realise that it sounds like I'm complaining about a girl fiend, but you can break up with those. Leave 'em in a ditch somewhere and never call them again. But research is like a cold, it won't go away until it has finished having its way with you. It's never a productive subject for me, so that's how I feel about it. It's one of those things you need to get out of the way so you can have fun. Like washing the dishes so you can make food or doing the laundry so you can wear clothes or foreplay.

So when we were told about this group project I wasn't exactly enthusiastic. Most of the time when you read these briefs they don't actually tell you any thing. They spend a whole page, a lot of ink and some fancy dictionary/thesaurus work on telling you something you could sum up in a couple of lines. So after a boring and mostly pointless lecture ( [Russian Accent] can you Internet? No? I show you how to Internet [/Russian Accent] ), we finally got assigned groups and met the people we would be working with. The most noticeable members were Peter Beare (Graphics) and John Cooke (Ceramics). Other members included Julie Clark (Surface Patterns), Benjamin Hill (Games Design, ex-animation), Linda Johnston (Children's Book Illustration), Buffee (Games Design) and Andrew Plaskett (Animation).

So between us we had a pretty diverse team (ruined by those pesky Games Designers). We talked about a few different topics, including the docks, churches and an impressions about the town. After some discussion we arrived at some common themes and ideas - in the end we chose to expose the hidden/find hidden gems. So after selecting a theme, we all went away with a topic within our topic. Mine was about buildings and renovations, which was brought on by me ogling churches.

But what is "renovation"? Improving structures? Sure, but don't most, if not all structures go through improvements at some point? So narrowing that down, I decided to just look at buildings that had been rebuilt for a new purpose. Like how St. Walburge's church used to be near a leper colony (or it used to be a leper colony, most likely near it though). It was named after Saint Walburge who was renowned for healing miracles, so I think it's appropriate that this church was named after her. Especially considering the leper problem. But the history is only a part of my fascination with this place (being a strong use of words). It's also famous for having one of the tallest spires in Lancashire, as well as some beautiful architecture.



I guess on that note, my focus was less on hidden structures and more about architecture. I found a lot of churches and places. I looked at the church near the University Library. Would you believe that was a mass burial site for victims of the plague? I certainly didn't, so they certainly did a good job of hiding it. Some how, a church there is more than appropriate. There's also a church like building near St Walburge's church that seems to have been rebuilt into a bunch of flats or houses. That was certainly surprising the first time I walked past. It was like a group of houses that were disguised as a church. I think it took me 10 minutes to walk past it just because I wanted to make sure people actually lived there. Which probably justified the strange looks I got...



The other place I was interested in was the light house. I mean, I never realized it was an actual light house. There's a hairdressers underneath it... it's called the light house hairdressers! So one often wonders "why?", or "whatever, it's a hairdressers." So while it's very obvious, it's also well hidden, let's not forget that the docks used to be fully functioning. I really wanted to climb up to the top of the light house and take a look, but I couldn't. Safety hazards and all that, how boring. If they had told me the place was dirty and full of spiders, I wouldn't have went up anyway. I feared it would be like that anyway, but I was prepared to be brave enough to at least take a look. I'm not the type to suffer for art, so suffering for research is out of the question - yet, I was prepared for this. Oh well, at least I tried right?

I have a lot more videos than the ones I posted. I would post more but it takes ages for them to be uploaded, so when I composite the entire thing I'll post that...probably. I wondered what I could do that would be considered research, but I'm afraid that finding information is slim, or just not relevant. I'm much more of a practical person, so when the task switches from "find out this" to "do that like this" or something. I'll have more to write about, so while research isn't my strongest forte, I'm hoping my team is more competent about it than I am.

Character Design.

You see, the key difference between this entry and the last entry is a mere squiggly line. Profound don't you think? No? Well, moving on. I decided on a theme or... a goal? Something at least that told people what I want to do for my MA. This happens to be character design across platforms, styles and genres. My original intention was to design characters and model them in 3D. I fancy myself a designer as well, but displaying good design is like trying to show someone you have a good liver. It's messy and ineffective as it stands. So I decided to go with a path that's slightly easier to judge - art. My folly in this is that there are so many amazing artists around, I'm never satisfied with my own work. Give me a week or two and I'll start hating on my previous entry.

Moving away from that tangent, my goal was to get a character and see the differences between art styles (realistic vs cartoony), genres (platformer vs action game vs FPS etc), platforms (360/PS3 vs Wii vs DS vs PSP) and perhaps culture (east vs north vs south vs west or more generally, east vs west).

This is when my tutors the lovely Mr. Jim Thompson and Josh Tailor (god I hope that's right, if not I'm screwed), started making things more complicated and actually got me to start thinking. A practice I absolutely abhor, even more so when it comes to research. Ew, research. That's like asking me to touch a scab or a leper. The research was about what makes a good character, or generally what makes them appealing. I posted these thoughts on Game Artisans - the reason being that these people are in the same position as me, so it would be interesting to see their thoughts on the matter. It started off slow but eventually I got some discussion going, the thread is ever growing so there might be more responses when (hah, more like if) you check it compared to when I typed this.

What makes a good character?

Crazyfool posted this very enlightening picture about character design across a variety of platforms, genres and styles. I would love to say that with a straight face, but most of these are just bald headed, muscle bound space marines (note: they aren't all space marines).


Josh asked me to look at what makes a character appealing and posed a series of questions that I answered terribly. I'd like to blame it on a lack of sleep, but it was the wrong day to do so. Now don't get me wrong, this is just satire, a few of these characters are actually well designed in both look and personality (Kratos, Altair, Sheppard). I think the main reason studios go for this look is accessibility and possibly "cool factor." Maybe even technical reasons. I reckon brogamers (Xbox 360 FPS/Halo/Madden...fans) find it easier to connect with these blank slate characters and find them less embarrassing to talk about with other brogamers than say...


A cute little JRPG girl (I googled that exact phrase, and Tidus, amongst other JRPG heroes showed up...) Which, while not exactly a sad state of affairs, is a little close minded. The comparison is kind of an east vs west thing. The west prefers dull, muted colours and more realism than the east, which prefers a more colourful and vibrant palette with a more surreal style. In terms of game play styles, the west is all for FPS and sports games, while the east is for RPGs and other weird games (understatement, but don't you feel more enlightened having watched that?)

When cultures cross pollinate, you get something called Metal Gear Solid, which is the best example of east meets west. Hideo Kojima has always been more inspired by American movies, TV and comics, so as a director you can see the influence in his games. The story, characters and dialogue are all very "Americanized", while there are clear influences of eastern styles in the game (namely the Metal Gears - Japan loves giant robots).

The art style of Metal Gear Solid is also very eastern, as well as some of the OTT action sequences that Japanese movies tend to have (along with some Michael Bay explosions). I think this influenced the game a lot. This has a lot to do with their main character and vehicle designer - Yoji Shinkawa


These no doubt are key images for Metal Gear Solid's success (as a whole). Would these characters have been the same if drawn by an American? Would Metal Gear Solid be the same game if Kojima was born in the US of A? I wonder how the style helps people to relate. You see, Japanese people prefer young looking, colourful people so to speak. While MGS's main character is a rugged man with a mullet and a cigarette. This sort of alienates the Japanese people and more caters to western tastes, which is why in MGS 2, Kojima made Raiden the main character - because he's more in-tune with Japanese tastes. I remember reading an article where Kojima talked about his decision to make Raiden the main character in MGS 2, and one of the quotes was "Why do we play as this creepy old guy?"

Thankfully Kojima learned his lesson. Of course, design is just a starting point, something to get you to look at a character or a game. The real test is personality and backstory, which I think is much more important (or at least just as important) than design. There's also environment and the world the characters are set in as well. I guess the main points and focus of my research into good characters are:

• Design
• Culture
• Style
• Story and Background
• Environment (or Canvas, as Josh said)

I'm not sure how well I'll do, but this is a starting point after all. I guess the character's I'm interested in looking at are, Sonic, Mario, Samus, Ryu, Link/Zelda, Kirby and Master Chief (aka the Halo Dude). A lot of these characters have appeared across genres, platforms and styles (Mario has done it all, at least once).

Character Design?

Well, the first entry on this newly created bobblog happens to be about character design. That's probably going to be a recurring thing, which is good because that happens to be what I love doing. That and ... other things that shouldn't be named.

Anyway, the first project my class got was to design a character with a message as complex or silly as you wanted. When I first get asked to design or do anything I tend to think about context. Is it a game, movie, comic, cartoon or tv show? I'm on a games design course, so one of those mediums is an obvious choice (should I tell you and make this sentence pointless?)

I think a lot about genre and setting, how does the world look and how should things around it look? Colourful, dull and gritty (next gen-ish), realistic or cartoony? I also think about the character's personality and history, perhaps even how they relate to the world and how they see it. Then I think about abilities, powers and all that fun stuff. Then the actual art comes and I draw concepts, sometimes a lot, sometimes one or two. Most of the time I'll stop when I find a design I like rather than push it further and experiment more. It's a flaw I'll rectify eventually, but I think it's a waste of time to go past a design that works to find a few more that don't. I'll only ever change something if people think it doesn't work or looks stupid.

Anyway, for this project I did absolutely none of the above. Which is probably why you're thinking "What was the point of that then?" Well, because you've been fooled. Ha ha ha. Moving on, it's not that I didn't do it, I just did it out of order (so out of order that I may have skipped parts completely). Inspired by freaky things like cirque du soleil, movies like The Prestige and The Illusionist and other little things like a dance or Donnie Darko (it's a movie, but what the hell), I decided to come up with a character based on an idea. Later I would work around that to create a concept and possibly a game idea.

The idea was to create a rabbit who wanted to take vengeance on magicians (and humanity - or anything that hurts rabbits) who killed rabbits during their magic shows. It was a homage or memorial for rabbits that died in the hands or careless, incompetent or cruel magicians. I wanted this rabbit to take revenge in an ironic (situational) way by using magic tricks to cause pain. The rabbit was to be playful, sadistic and distrustful.

My first few concepts were basically thumbnail images I did to create a scene and personality. The first concept was the rabbit pulling a magician out of a hat, the second had the rabbit looking very crazy and evil, the third was a joint magic trick in which the rabbit(s) would crush the magician in a little cage and the last was a rabbit sawing a man in half.

After drawing those, I decided that he didn't look much like a rabbit, but that was fine since I was going to do a few drawings to get into the look and perhaps the style.

Around that time, I was messing with his clothes and actual look as well.

The name for these particular set of pictures happened to be Karma Rabbit, which is another theme I was looking at when drawing these. Eventually, I came up with a name and look I liked. The Rabbit's name is Domitius, which means "had been tamed" or... something along those lines. It was perfect, because it sort of told you what you needed to know. This rabbit had been tamed, but now he isn't.

Then finally came the quote or message. You can read what it says easily, but in the top corner of the picture is something else which reads "Die, v.: To suddenly stop sinning", which is the title I gave my picture (and the project).

So there it is, was that as boring for you as it was for me? Maybe, I don't expect many people to read this (or care). When was the last time you remember someone asking you to read their blog and you did it? I certainly don't remember, so I can't expect much else. This bitterness of blogging will definitely be edited out by the time anyone important reads it. Would you believe that I'm being shoe-horned into a social networking site as well? God, I prided myself on rejecting faceblab and mylifesucks, but you can't win them all, right?