Some years ago I interviewed for a job as an artificial intelligence programmer working on the latest title in a well-known RPG franchise.  During my tour of the studio, the producer showed me the latest build of the game.  The engine was fairly far along and there was at least some content - a world with buildings, liberally populated with character models.  But lacking any AI, the characters simply stood around, unanimated, like so many statues.  It would have been my job to add the AI to drive animations on the models, and then game systems governing their interactions with the players.  In the end, I chose to go with a different company, mainly for real-life practical reasons.  But the image of those static characters, and the opportunity to breathe life into that frozen tableau, was very tempting.  It was difficult to turn down that job!  (They also had crab cakes in the cafeteria at lunch… very difficult to turn down that job.)

That particular road-not-taken was an example of what I’ll call “gameplay integration”.  Gameplay integration involves taking different pieces contributed from different areas of the team - art, design, and perhaps other engineers - and putting them together to create gameplay.  These programming tasks typically include a generous dose of artifical intelligence work, plus input processing/player control and often some user interface work.  It’s essentially where the end result, the player experience, is born.  For me, it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of game programming.  Our Thinglefin project has ample opportunity for this kind of work, and a recent task made me recognize two distinct pleasures that it can bring.

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Ahh, the characters.  :) 

When designing characters for videogames, it’s important to not only make a visually appealing design, but make sure it works within your technical limitations.  Sure you could make this super sweet illustration showing off your mad 2D skills, but you’re really shooting yourself in the foot.  Before picking up that pencil, you need to think long and hard about the bigger picture at hand.

So to kick off my first art post, I’d like to share a small glimpse into the world of the thinglefin art mentality.  Below is a picture of a simple concept for a generic dog and cat design.  Besides sharing strong sihlloutes (which is extremely important in our games), they are fairly simple in design.  However, if you look at the bigger picture you will begin to see why they were designed this way.

One word: “Customization“.

Imagine picking one of these base designs, then having the option to switch out the ears, nose, tail, etc.  What if you could add custom graphics or designs?  Switch a cat head with a dog head? The possibilities are endless.  With these options in mind, the player could really make some interesting combinations.  After all, who wants to use the same ol’ design that 50 other players are already using?

Before I go, please make sure to leave any comments you have about these sketches below.  We would love to hear your feedback as these characters evolve and will continue to keep you in the loop here on the thingleblog.

-Alan

Cat and Dog concepts