Supervisor Meeting 03

Ryan spotted me in Whitespace and invited me over for an early meeting. I had just settled down on the couches to write out the meeting diary, so without it I stumbled a bit and wasn't as organised. As I went home after last weeks meeting, I haven't got much practical stuff done since. I worked on my blog, more on planning posts and sorting my notes. A lot of theoretical context was figured out too. Since the last presentation, my survey idea has been cut, and now I'm doing three pairs which have certain hierarchies, and this is what I was explaining to Ryan.

Image

These models cover all options for which character leads or is controlled by the player, except for a fourth which is nearly impossible to use. Follower-Follower is the one model that I didn't develop, as if neither character has a drive, how do they get anything done? In this case, they would both have to be following something else, either a third character (making it a trio), or a situation. Ryan thinks multiplayer/party games might fit, as the game itself is the driver. I'm focusing on platform games, and there's always a lead, so this justifies leaving Follower-Follower out. Ryan commented the models almost have a scale of difficulty: Leader-Follower is most common and easiest, Leader-Leader is less so, but Follower-Leader is the rarest and hardest besides Follower-Follower. He said he quite liked the idea of these models that others can use.

In common pairs with pets, the animal tends to be just added on, not fully developed, or passive, like in the Fable games. My Follower-Leader designs the pet to be a fully developed persona, with intelligence and speaking ability. I don't quite consider mine a true pet, as in an animal you keep and look after, but more of a companion you fully interact with like another person. However, my pet is the main drive of the game, and the PC is there to execute that purpose - it's a back to front relationship.

With my Leader-Follower pair, with the female human and Giant, I'm trying to implement the pattern of balancing with opposition: the Giant is made up of rectangular and triangular shapes, while the female human is rectangles and circles. The Giant is large and bulky, but is actually friendly and shy, where the female looks gentle but is really the fighter of the group. Overall, there's a hierarchy expectation switch, especially in gender. With the art style I've started to apply - using thick and thin line art - I've been partially inspired by Japanese art, especially from Okami. The Leader-Leader pair are equal in hierarchy haven't been as developed visually yet, but the aim is to have them linked together with visual hints. The fashion for all the duos will include colour co-ordination, as well as visual interest in patterns and shapes.

I worked on a few things in my sketchbook while at home, such as colour theory, perspective, and anatomy. I looked at different methods for drawing the human body, such as by using building blocks and shapes etc. I liked Solarski's idea of the basic character types leading with different body parts: with the head - thinkers, with the chest - heroes, with the pelvis - lazy, with the knees - cowards. Ryan pointed out it's nice to break these rules, such as the knees also being someone who is shy. We briefly looked at my blog, just to get an evaluation of its quality at a glance. I know I need to go back and analyse certain examples. Ryan said it was nice and neat, very detailed, and that my references lists will come in handy later on. Overall, he has no concerns even though I'm behind.

Action Points

• Finish Leader-Follower pair.
• Start Follower-Leader, then Leader-Leader.
• Start thinking of final images asap.