I love witch witch

This week, I fleshed out some narrative to help the other team members understand what it is that they will be designing and concepting around.  For this quarter, we decided that we would have a level for each ability that the player has.  In other words, a basic knife level, shield level, water spray level, and wind level.  In each of these levels, a new ability is introduced, and each will showcase a variety of enemies.  In order for the designers to start coming up with level diagrams and things of that nature, I listed out a couple attributes of each level.  I also came up with a basic premise of the game to tie all these different levels together.

The general premise is that a collection of other witches have gotten together and sealed Dream Witch's power.  Dream Witch isn't too happy about this, and in retaliation, aims to capture all of these witches apprentices and take their power for her own.  Her ultimate goal is to defeat all the witches who went against her and regain her suppressed powers.

The four different levels then represent the domain of four witches.  It should be noted that it has not yet been determined the order that these levels will be played in.  These are just four general ideas that we are working with right now, and all names are tentative.

Spooky Forest, domain of Forest Witch
A forest comprised of bending trees.  Some of their forms imitate the female human body, which is not always readily apparent.  The forest is flanked by a burning village.  The forest is overgrown with mushrooms, worn paths pave the forest floor, and ponds are scattered throughout.  Mushroom clusters, broken wooden fences, and over-sized spider webs inhibit and direct a traveler on their way.  Forest Witch has mushroom monster familiars that patrol her spooky domain.  

Demon Festival, domain of Boss Witch
A lively festival full of demons and monsters.  Lanterns line the wooden pathways and illuminate the vast waterways.  A temple-like environment complete with Shinto gates and rope barriers with spell tags, bamboo, and wooden fences.  Boss Witch has demon familiars inspired by Japanese folklore.

Sweet Landscape, domain of Cake Witch
Giant cakes, macarons, and sweet treats sprinkle the landscape with creepy and cute motifs.  Rivers of chocolate flow with floating bones and skulls.  This land is filled with cakes and cookies (no candy!!) and the monsters who like to eat them.  Cake Witch has cake monster familiars.

"Clock Themed Fantasy," domain of Skeleton Time Witch 
This area has not been fully defined, but will have a strong clock motif inspired by Salvador Dali and the  Rococo style.  Grandfather clock face buildings line the abstracted environment, and crystals are sprinkled about.  A far stranger environment than those that come before it.      

That's about it for now!  Stay tuned for real art progress next week.

Crawling to the Start Line

It's been kind of a slow week on the Bala side of things because of my other class, but this week, I've been working on fleshing out the world of Bala ever so slightly.  I took David's Booty Paladin concept and, for example's sake, stylized it more closely to what we're going for in this game.  In addition, I made a character line up of our currently approved concepts to form size comparisons and start to see some character relationships. 

Above, from left to right, is the Booty Paladin, a Fire Demon, a "Boss Witch," Dream Witch, a child,  a Cat Wizard, and Meiosis; more information on most of these creatures can be found here at the project's main blog.  These sizes are of course tentative depending on how they look in the actual game, and we are very literally taking this process one step at a time in order to stay within scope.

Another thing I did this week was begin to come up with an asset list of what I would like to show off in the environment sample.  In two words: boobie trees.   

David initially proposed a concept of trees with trunks of female bodies.  I immediately thought the concept was really interesting and could easily fit with our witchy theme.  Therefore, I came up with a couple concepts of poses for the trees.  I ended up really liking the tree that has a root dipping into the water.  In addition, these lady trees will be mixed in with regular trees, so that hopefully noticing the boobie trees will not be so apparent at first.  But we will see. 

Last, but certainly not least, I've spent a good chunk of the last week overseeing Dream Witch being modeled.  I acted as an annoying second head peering over Hank's shoulder and it's a wonder that he didn't punch my lights out.  But I am happy to say that her geometry is officially complete, and she looks absolutely amazing.  Hop on over to Hank's blog to read more about it (whenever he decides to post her), but for now, here's a teaser!