I've decided to make this blog post to show my presentation which I started when this project first took off, and have been improving as time goes on/ when my ideas change.

The Title Screen

I wanted the title screen to represent my idea with just a few images. I searched the internet for pictures of magical girls and found a piece which split off in the middle with a girl shooting an arrow. This gave me the idea of having magical girls on the right, and some sort of evil creatures on the left. I chose some artwork from the game Diablo which used dark, evil colours such as black, red and orange, skulls which can be seen as death, evil, danger in the world of semiotics, I also chose to really give off that the left side is evil. I finished the left side off with some smoke/mist to make everything look more blended together and to also add some extra spookiness.

Basic Plot

"Vaethillis, the evil god, has returned to the world and is unleashing his evil powers to destroy the universe. Fight your way through minions and bosses as a magical girl. Can you save the universe or will darkness consume you"

To be honest, I don't really like the choice of words I used here. Though it does get the point across of the game, I could of used better wording. As I now know I'm making an interactive character profile, I wonder if I should still have the "basic plot" worded as if it's a game. I'm making characters for a game idea so it would make sense that I actaully explain the game idea.

2D Platformer or Interactive Character Profiles?

"My original idea was to make a 2D platformer game, with 6 levels. There would be a choice of three characters to play from, and each level would visually represent the theme of the boss.

I wanted to do this as I thought it would make a really fun game, and would be challenging and push me to learn more skills.

But after thinking for a while I came to the conclusion I wanted to make interactive character profiles instead. I much prefer creating character and scenery design and concept art rather than making 2D games.

The university course I aim to go to is specifically aimed at Art & Design in Games, so having this on my portfolio would be more suited to that, and I can really show my creative side when it comes to designing characters.

My passion resides in creating characters and scenery, choosing different hairstyles, clothes, weapon designing, I feel genuinely excited to make this now whereas before, when I was focused on making a 2D platformer game, I was kind of dreading it. Making a 2D platformer is not going to give me the chance to create detailed characters and backstories."

I touch more on this matter in a previous blog post.

Interactive Character Portfolio

"I will be creating 4 character profiles in total. Vaethilis and Olmera are not included, though I will be designing concept art for them and they’ll have small bio’s explaining who they are and how they relate to the story.

I wanted to have more, but with the amount of detail I want to put in, I will not have enough time to do that. So I will be creating 2 magical girls and 2 deadly viles. I will be creating weapons, clothes, armour, hairstyles, jewellery, pets, magic powers, everything! Everything they like and dislike, their strengths and weaknesses, if they have any fears and so on.

I will be making this mostly in photoshop/illustrator, then transferred over to flash so there’s a bit on interactivity going on. I might have it so the four characters are displayed across the screen, then when you click you go on to their “profile”. When you hover over certain things text will appear related to the object. For example if one has a fear, I will display it on the page, then when you hover over it, it will explain the fear! I think this is a fun way to show off my characters, as there’s a bit of interactivity involved. I hope to have some voice acting and have them say their fave phrases. And different music will play to suit the theme of each character. There will be a separate page explaining the lore behind it all, as to understand the characters better you’ve got to know the backstory behind it all."

I am yet to make a blog post on what I am actually making (How the interactive character profile is going to work) and what inspired me but in this slide I explain the basics of what I want. It's changed a bit since I made this as in I'm making 3 magical girls instead of 2 magical girls and 2 deadly viles, but other than that I am still going to follow this idea.

Story/Lore Exanded

"Long ago, before the creation of time its self the only thing that existed were two souls, Vaethilis and Olmera. They were complete opposites, Vaethilis being seen as “evil”, representing emptiness, the void, and misanthropy and Olmera being seen as “good”, the ineffable everlasting light, full of creativity and the longing to create life. Although separate souls, they cannot exist without each other. They can be seen as binary opposites, and to make it simpler for people They can be seen as gods.

Olmera created time, and began crafting the universe to furfil her wish of creating life, though Vaethilis was not happy of this, as he wants nothing to exist. He finds fulfilment in emptiness, the void. Vaethilis began sabotaging Olmera’s work into creating the universe, destroying entire planets with civilisations and trying to undo the work that Olmera had done.

Olmera grew tired and frustrated of this and made a trap to imprison Vaethilis. She created a magical prison, that was disguised as a planet that appeared to have advanced technology and mass civilisations, which would peak Vaethilis’s interest. As soon as Vaethilis’s soul gets close to the planet, he would be absorbed in and imprisoned forever. He fell for the trap and found himself imprisoned for thousands of years.

That is until he noticed the magic keeping him in growing weaker and weaker as time went on. Vaethilis broke out of the magical prison and decided he wanted to get revenge on Olmera. His plan was to not only destroy the whole universe, but also destroy Olmera (which would also destroy himself) so that there would truly be nothing left.

Vaethilis created the “Deadly Viles” (monsters) each with their own realms and themes, to help him with his plan. He was NOT going to be tricked by Olmera again. A galactic war broke out as they started seizing and destroying planets.

In response to this, Olmera chose 3 of the most strong willed girls she could find and filled them with power. They became magical girls, with various magic styles and weapons. As they all come from such different backgrounds, (And planets) can they work together to save the universe from ultimate destruction?"

This was the first lore idea I had, heavily based off of The Elder Scrolls Universe but with my own twist. There are a few things to add to this; First of all the magical girls get offered a pact from the good entity, Olmera. They are offered the change to fix their lives and gain one thing they most desire, in exchange for saving the world. Why would they accept this pact? The girls have nothing to lose. Each backstory of each girl is going to have a crazy story, which ends up with them being near death. Who wouldn't take the opportunity of not dying, and they get to have the thing they most desire?

Say I were actually making this into a game. It would be a good idea, and it would immerse the player more to have them play as the character say, three days before they make the pact. They get to live out the characters normal life, get to know people, and get to play as the character as she is having this almost death experience. This would make the player become almost emotionally attached to the character, therefore more immersed into the game.

This makes me think I should make some sort of mini GDD, as I don't want these good ideas I have to go to waste.

Skills Learnt So Far

"Software/programmes I have learnt how to use:

I have learnt how to use construct 2 to around a level of 6/10. There is room for improvement but I defiantly know the basics and am able to work from that. I am not using this software in this project, but I’m sure will be useful for future projects.

I have learnt how to use Flash/Animate to around a level of 6/10. Again, I know the basics but more advanced stuff I find a bit tricky. I’m not doing anything too tricky in this project so I think I will be able to use it efficiently. This is helpful as it means I wont have to spend time learning things, which I find takes up a lot of time.

I learnt how to use Photoshop and Illustrator to a basic extent whilst doing an art and design course a few years ago. My skills using this have developed this year to a medium skill level, mostly in the second project, and my preferred way of working is to go back and forth with both of the software’s depending on what I’m doing. I like using Illustrator for making smooth lines, and creating shapes and I like using photoshop to colour things. Having skills in this software will be a tremendous help to me as a good portion of time will be spent drawing in these programs, and will cut the time down a bit as I know what I’m doing.

Other skills:

Working in a team. My skills have developed in working within a team, which will not be useful for this project but will be useful in the future when I have to work in a group again. I have more confidence to speak up with my ideas and generally find working in a group much easier.

Working alone. In the second project is where I developed skills in working alone and managing time so I get everything done. This will be helpful for this project as I need to manage my time very carefully to make sure I hit the deadline.

Problem solving. I have learnt to become efficient in problem solving and finding solutions to any problems I encounter with software, my ideas, managing time, ect. Knowing what to search google for, or identifying the problem has become easier as I have progressed in this course.

Time management. Something I’ve learnt from both projects is how long things take to do. I can use this to my advantage when planning out what I’m going to do when."

Is This Project Do-able?

Illustrator & Photoshop: I am only able to access Photoshop and Illustrator at college, but I am willing to attend open access rooms on the days I’m not timetabled to be in to make sure I get everything done. To make sure I’m not wasting time and recourses, I plan to draw the stuff I need to draw on paper at home, so when I’m at college I can focus on using these programmes. When making the characters I could do linework on paper, scan it in and just clean up the lines, the colour it in. It will save time working in photoshop/ illustrator.

Animate: The same goes for Animate, I have it at college and am unable to access at home, so will come to open access rooms. I’m happy to research tutorials if I get stuck as I am not a complete master at this program.

Preproduction

I need to produce concept art for the characters, a one sheet explaining my idea, character profiles/backstories, mind maps, and image plans for the layout of my character profiles in Adobe Animate.

Conclusion:

Creating this powerpoint has helped me gather my ideas in one place. It is a bit long, therefore I want to sum it up into a one-sheet as if this was a real job, no one would have time to look and read through an entire presentation.

Powerpoint Slides