Art I just notched up.

This is to make my Project Plan a little nicer:

North or South Pole

Putting in North or South pole into google comes up with almost no creatures so I think my project will now be based on the 'Arctic' to make it easier. So now I get Penguins, Whales and Narwhals. Winner.

16/02/2011,www.marriedtothesea.com

Doodling

I liked these but then I remembered I want to use a more realistic arty style as I'm using this style for my Honours project.

Thoughts from 24/09/2012

Looking deeper into the theme of Frozen planet imagery with a slight climate change theme.

Frozen planet imagery- Ethereal, pastel shades, whimsical sea creatures, seahorses, fish, turtles? – Check what fish live at the north and south, which has better? Keep it realistic in terms of what happens to the landscape and what lives there.

Feature actual/real natural occurring landscape changes?

Simplify it all?

Feature the beautiful ethereal side of the sea like the coral and fish then somehow show the darker side? More dangerous fish, effects of climate change?

Think about level progression, the more you delve deeper the more climate change you see? The bigger and more gruesome the enemies?

Sound? Light and complimentary of the settings, whimsical and dream like?

Research what music similar games use, could the music interact with the surroundings? Passing through coral? When certain enemies are near? But still always complimentary of the surroundings.

Research coral that are indigenous to the North/south pole, choose which location!

Depending on which coral the player is near locate the particular fish that usually like that coral there, research all this to get it right.

Different colour palletes for each level, suited to the fish and coral.

How to simplify an underwater themed game?

How to convey ethereal and dream like levels simply?

Perhaps more artsy concept design would work better than cartoon style to convey the feeling of the game without making an underwater game with tricky animation and level design.

The North or South Pole??

I chose to look at the animals indigenous to the two parts to decide which i'd prefer.
NORTH POLE:
Polar Bears, Harp Seals, Northern Fur Seals, Beluga Whales, Killer Whales, Narwhals, Walrus, Zooplankton, Shrimp, Amphipods, Arctic Tern, Snow Goose, Puffin, Snow Bunting, Northern Fulmar, Black Legge Kittiwake.

Unknown,www.fish bird.co.uk

In the regions of the Arctic:
Ermine, Caribou, Wolverine, Reindeer, Short Tailed Weasel, Musk Ox, Dall Sheep, Arctic Wolf, Arctic Fox, Arctic Hare, Greenland Shark, Snowy Owl.

SOUTH POLE:
Penguins-
Adelie, Emperor, Chinstrap, Gentoo.
Birds-
Albatross, Cormarant, Fulmar, Kelp Gull, Petrel, Sheathbill, Skua, Arctic Tern.
Whales-
Blue Whale, Fin, Humback, Minke, Orca, Southern Right, Sei, Sperm.
Fish-
Antarctic Cod, Patagonia, Toothfish, Icefish, Squid.

recycling news,17/04/2012,sperm whales being poisoned by plastics,www.cawrecycles.org

They both have pros and cons as i'd love to include Narwhals but the South Pole has more whales and penguin. I do want my game to be correct so merging them isn't something i'm willing to do at this time if I can avoid it.

So far undecided.

What we had to do and how I reached my theme:

To come up with a game theme chosen from a random word, so we are to design a game all from this word. To come up with my theme I brain stormed about films and books TV shows to try and look into them and pick apart what I like about them and what makes these things what they are, such as when I looked at Hunger games, Super 8 and Battle Royale. I thought these are serious themes but using children as the protagonists making it even more shocking, it has political and moral themes, which would be a unique theme to think of a game from. 

As the research started to look into many mediums, ideas that came across as a stand out possible theme, from which lots of imagery, characters and ideas could form was Frozen Planet. Which immediately was a compelling idea, it instantly brought ideas to mind such as the ethereal feel of the program with its fantastical imagery, creatures and settings. 

Inspirational Artists For Me

This guy created the art for Plants Vs Zombies:

http://www.richwerner.com

30 Day Art Challenge Day 11, 14/08/2012, www.richwerner.com

Frozen Planet

From all these ideas I like Frozen Planet the best. I think it would be relevant for this year to have in my portfolio as all the imagery I can think of for this idea suits the kind of games 'That Games Company' make. Such as Flower and Journey.

Simon page,16/02/2009,Flower On PS3,simoncpage.co.uk

unknown,02/04/2009,Flower(PSN),neogaf.com

Light and floaty with a pastel colour palette. Every level 

sticks to a pastel colour palette keeping in with the ethereal theme.

Brad Gallaway,28/06/2011,G-Rank Journey (PSN), Capcoms new scheme and explosive fanbuoyancy,drinkingcoffeecola.blogspot.co.uk

Lewis denby,13/03/2012,Journey hits PSN for all users today,beefjack.com

Journey has a more artsy feel which is what i want to achieve.

The game is very simple in its style, execution and story, but as its done so well even such a game as this got top marks from nearly every publication and website.

Im thinking an under water world with whimsical creatures all in a artsy style more like 'Journey'.
Some imagery to help kickstart my own ideas:

Joseph,23/05/11,wallpaper of the week,nerd-alert.net

unknown,14/10/2010,welcome to florida,elkaiwa-blog.blogspot.co.uk

Simone Preuss,unknown,Seahorses:worlds most romantic species,environmentalgraffiti.com

unknown,unknown,who thought sea slugs could look this cool?,photoink.org

unknown,unknown,who thought sea slugs could look this cool?,photoink.org

Sommer Leigh,04/04/2011,Cis for Creatures,sommerleigh.com

unknown,unknown,colourful jellyfish wallpaper,wallpaper4me.com

There are many creatures that are more creepy as they have adapted to living in the deep sea, these could be used as enemies in a game.

DB,11/05/2010,senses of the deep sea,fishschooled.blogspot.co.uk

unknown,unknown,giant spider crab,techedon.com

unknown,unknown,WCG's scary creepy spooky ooky thread,wecravegamestoo.com

unknown

Art that inspires me from games:

Lorenzo Winfrey, 13/08/2011,child of eden game details revealed for ps3,zoknowsgaming.com

The game Eden has a look that I really like and it really suits what I had in mind.
The complementary colour palette and dream like animations and sequences are what I aim for.

unknown,unknown,Machinarium,impulsedriven.com

Machinarium has its own quirky look like from a sketch book. This is also a look I could try with my game.

Adam Waddilove,23/07/2010,XBLA review Limbo,vg-reloaded.com

Limbo was praised for its unique look and gameplay. Adding an element of horror to such a simple game in terms of style and gameplay was pulled of brilliantly and is another example of how simple games can be as enjoyable as 40 hour open world games.






Artist who will inspire my work:

unknown,17/10/2009,making friends by bobby chiu,deviant art.com

Bobby Chiu's characters are cute yet look menacing and devious at the same time.

lyemium editorial,20/10/2010,dream like designs by dan may,lyemium.com

Dan May's quirky creatures look like fairy tale characters and are really ethereal.

Andrea Fermerstrand, unknown,Gallery,noukah.cgsociety.org

The way Andrea Fermerstrand conveys real life creatures but manages to make them look mythical is wonderful and a style I would like to adopt myself.

Photography:

unknown

April MacIntyre,18/03/2012,Discovery's 'Frozen Planet' a must see, begins  March 18,monstersandcritics.com

Marian Legutky,unknown,Underwater Ice,photography.nationalgeographic.com

Ichibu,unknown,Underwater Swimming, skyrim.nexusmods.com

Underwater imagery, especially where there is ice is so calming and beautiful, that kind of imagery would work wonderful in a game.

Initial Ideas for My theme

TV

unknown,unknown,Season6,supernatural.wikia.com

Supernatural, combining horror, drama and comedy. Would make a good game idea, the double team of the main characters would make a good co op idea.

unknown,unknown,BBC Frozen Planet,escape2creative.co.uk

Frozen Planet, slight climate change theme, beautiful imagery and fantastical creatures. Would suit a game because of setting and whimsical feel. Would be much like a game "That Game Company' might make.

unknown,unknown,V For Vendetta,wikipedia.org

Film/Comic

V for Vendetta, political theme, artsy and stylised, a game inspired by this could be comic book style as this is where this film came from.








Film/Books

Hunger Games, In theme with peoples appetite for reality TV, how far will it go? Using children to shock even more is a good idea within a dictatorship world.

unknown,unknown,The Hunger Games,imdb.com

Bernard Chung,17/07/2012,The Guide and Inception Explained,greenteamovie.blogspot.co.uk

Inception, surreal, using this to inspire a game idea going into dreams could present allot of themes in itself, going deeper into the mind the stranger it could get, could be a child like whimsical game or a realistic serious game.

unknown,unknown,Super 8 (film),wikipedia.org

Super 8, Using children in a serious setting is fresh in the game world if I was to use this as inspiration, the 70s setting is pretty cool as people love nostalgia such as the toys and games seen in the film.

unknown,unknown,Battle Royale,imdv.com

Battle Royale, again, using the shocking theme of using children in a very serious setting. Would make a controversial game. Inspiration would be used and changes would have to be made.

Van Jenson,09/07/2008,The Best Hellboy Stories,comicmix.com

Film/Comic

Hellboy 1and 2, The characters and settings, when in the fantasy part of the world create allot of good imagery to give me ideas for my own settings and characters for a game.

unknown,unknown,Pan's Labyrinth,imdb.com

Pans Labyrinth, With its dark setting in style and in story, using a child as the protagonist is a good addition and could work great as inspiration for a game. A little like Silent Hill 3 but more mythical and with a younger girl. Or even a boy.








The Green Mile, I like the idea of the setting being in the 30s, 40s or 50s. The setting for this film would create a great idea starter for a game as its dark, there's allot of moral choices and there's a slight supernatural element which always works well in a game as its often used.

unknown,unknown,The Green Mile,filmous.com

unknown,unknown,chicago(2002 film),wikipedia.org

Chicago, again the time frame this film is set in (40's) provides allot of wonderful imagery, the smoky bars, the dancing girls and showbiz jazz theme would look great as seen in LA Noire too. A musical idea might be interesting as thats not really been done before, combining a third person game with a bit of Sing Star and Just Dance thrown in could be really interesting if done right.