Ng Ming De (0335594)
Art Direction (GCD62404)
Instructions
Lecture Notes
Week 1
It's a brand new semester and we met Ms Anis who will be our lecturer for this module. She gave us
a brief overview of what we will be doing in this module and this module will be done in groups of 3. In this module, what we are doing is basically giving a game a fresh and brand new visual take. We will be looking into free to play games from Steam and pick a game we would like to give a brand new Art Direction to it. She showed us some senior's work so that we will know what to produce by the end of this module. I am paired up with Maisarah and Siti and we are Group 5.Flip Topic
Just like in Information Design, we will be doing the weekly presentations based on the weekly topics for this module. After that, we will proceed with our proposal and executions for our selected Steam game to give a brand new art direction.
Week 2
For our first Flip Topic presentation, we have to research into what Art Direction is, Here is our slides:
Week 3
As for our second game, we have to look into an existing game from Nintendo or any other vintage games such as Mario Bros, Tetris, etc. We chose Sonic: Mania edition to analyse and see what makes it different compared to other Sonic games. This version is a recently re-designed version, but it was nice to see how the developers retained some elements that captures that old-school retro video game feel.
Here is our slides in Miro because we wanted to try out Miro:
Week 4
For our final Flip Topic, we will be looking into our selected Steam game: Knights & Dungeons. We picked this because of its horrible visuals despite having positive reviews, so we wanted to study it and try to take a brand new approach for it. We switched back to Google Slides because it's much more easier to navigate. Here is our slides:
Proposal
Week 5
In our proposal we highlighted the Is- Is Not Statements which will depict the type of game this is, we even made a positioning map comparing this game with other Idle, Fantasy, Medieval games. We even set up some visual pillars that best describe the brand new take we will be going forth for our art direction. We also identified the Must haves, Good to have and Nice to have aspects for this game that we will be focusing our art direction on.
Here is our proposal presented on Miro: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_kmkxWy8=/
Project Progression
We divided the tasks based on our strengths, as me and Maisarah are good at drawing, we took up on the environment and character design whilst Siti took on the UI/UX design.
Character Design (Maisarah):
Maisarah did an extremely good job in giving these mobs a fresh a cute look that Ms Anis wouldn't want to kill them xD
 |
| Fig 1.1 (From top) Rat, Bat, Werewolf, Bear |
 |
| Fig 1.2 (From top) Ninja, Snake, Evil Knight |
 |
| Fig 1.3 (From top) Skullhead, Minotaur, Dragon |
 |
| Fig 1.4 (From top) Wolf, Cobra, Goblin, Harpy |
 |
| Fig 1.5 Centaur |
UI/ UX Design (Siti):
Siti did a very good job as well in making new buttons and UIs for the game icons for a fresher cleaner look. She even changed the game's old logo to a fresher new one.
 |
| Fig 2.1 UI/ UX version 1 |
 |
| Fig 2.2 UI/ UX Final |
As for me, I am making the landscape for two places, the dungeons and the town because these two places are the most frequent visited places for players. I find the town to be quite boring and serves no purpose as the town is seen far away, so there was no sense of immersive gameplay.
 |
| Fig 3.1 Original Town |
 |
| Fig 3.2 Refreshed Town |
I added a signboard instead of having the menu on the right so that it enhances the gaming experience of picking a direction to go in the town rather than having it far away in the distance.
Moving onto the dungeons, it lacks perspective and depth, which makes it quite boring for a landscape we will mostly be spending our time at, so I gave a simple 1 point perspective and added textures to the walls to make it look appealing.
 |
| Fig 3.3 Original Dungeon |
 |
| Fig 3.4 Refreshed Dungeon |
After that is all done, Maisarah compiled all of them and made a gif to simulate the gameplay based on our new art direction.
 |
| Fig 4.1 Final Output (Bat) |
 |
| Fig 4.2 Final Output (Mouse) |
 |
| Fig 4.3 Final Output (Werewolf) |
With this, the gameplay mechanic was much more easier to understand as we had difficulties understanding what was going on. By adding deduction points in the hp bar, a clear and contrasting "Victory!" sign as well as a clear animation of showing the mob's attack/ death, it was much better and easier to understand what was going on.
Here is our Final Presentation:
Reflections
Experience
The overall experience is quite intriguing as we were tasked give a fresh new look to an existing game. It has really taught me how to identify problems or issues and come up with solutions to further enhance or solve the problems within the game.
Observations
I really enjoy looking at other group's take on their own style of art direction, as they too did a very good job in executing and solving the issues of the game that ranges from visuals, to typography and even game aspects.
Findings
I find this module enjoyable as I had a very cooperative group that delivers on time and are able to work together as a whole. I certainly find this module a little laid back compared to other modules and enjoy the opportunity of giving the game (Knights & Dungeons) a brand new look.
Comments
Post a Comment