The World Map

Well, it certainly didn't take long for me to fail at the "update the blog once a day" promise.

BUT.

Some very important things did get done since the last time I posted, so I'll consider it an acceptable compromise.

What got done, you ask?

I'll tell you what got done, but first there's a bit of context for why it's a big deal:

See, for a while we've had a very basic world map drawn up showing where each part of the game world connects to the others. I'd post it here, but the only version we have is currently covered in details and story spoilers that we don't want to reveal just yet.

I CAN post this VERY old crappy version I drew in one of my class notebooks, though!

Like, so old it predates the official game logo.

The current version looks similar to that one there, but things have been moved around and some have been taken out entirely. The Airship Field is now directly above the city (which itself is no longer on the edge of a gigantic cliff), the mountains are directly east of the city, the caves and "deep caves" have been combined into one area, and the crashed airship is entirely underground and connected to the buried ruins. Also "air city" was a vague idea that never went anywhere. Just a "maybe, maybe not?" kind of thing.

Edit: I went ahead and just blanked out the story details from the current version, so here it is:

SO. Now for the important thing that gone done!

We have a lot of story ideas and characters already written out and drawn up. The problem we were facing was that we had yet to put an order to everything. Even though there's an element of exploration to this type of game, you still have to get the player to go from A to B to C and the story has to be experienced in a linear fashion.

The important thing I did was nailing down that order. We now know which characters you meet where, when you get each item and where you fight every boss right up to the final battle. And it took only a few minor changes to the map itself. As in, I switched the direction of a one-way arrow, and added a two-way arrow somewhere else.

Now, obviously I can't post that document because it tells the entire story of the game. But another thing I did recently was create rough color palettes for each of the areas.

So there you have it. The basic look of the game is coming together. Some day you'll see it all in pixel art form. But that's a looooooooooong way off. Still, I consider this a tremendous leap forward.

Location: Victor's Tower and Office (And old logo idea)

So Victor, being the owner of his own multi-billion dollar company, of course has his own private office at the top of a gear-themed skyscraper. I don't think it's apparent in the sketches, but that whole floor rotates, giving him a 360 view of the entire city.

At some point, the Gun Wizard will infiltrate the building and work his way to the top floor, fighting some bosses along the way. We've got some concepts for those guys too, but how much we show of them this early depends on how connected to the route we decide to take with the story.

ALSO, that's a VERY early idea I had for VV's logo. Not much else to say about it, really.

Enemy Design: Clockwork Soldier

Hey, look! It's the Steam Soldier's little brother. This guy is unambiguously a bunch of clockwork crammed into a humanoid shell. Without all the extra armor he's a lot faster than the Steam Soldier, but can't take as much damage before collapsing into scrap.

Also there's a concept for a spider Crawler Turret there for some reason.

Enemy Design: Steam Soldier

Depending on the direction we decide to go, this guy is either a mobile suit of armor filled with steam-powered clockwork mechanisms, or a person in a steam-powered suit. Either way, they can take a lot of damage and deal a lot in return using their weird gear-shaped revolvers.

And just because they're big and bulky doesn't mean they're slow. That steam power isn't just to fit the game aesthetic. 

This very early monstrosity is a classic example of "started drawing and forgot to stop."

I had to simplify it a bit.

Hopefully these will be the ones you run into and think "OH CRAP, NOT THESE GUYS AGAIN."

Enemy Design: Crawler Turret

The Crawler Turret is a spindly-legged little clockwork robot with a gun sticking out of its back. They will be fairly common enemies throughout the game.

The basic model has four legs and really just kind of scurries around at about knee-to-waist height looking for something to shoot with its fairly low-powered guns. They're pretty much mindless drones that aren't very well-equipped to handle anything that can actually fight back.

The idea is for this to be an enemy type, of which variations are encountered as the player explores different environments. For example, in forest areas, the turrets will be more shelled and spider-like. They'll be slightly tougher to crack, but fire their weapons more slowly.

Whereas the Industrial Turret is more likely to be encountered in a factory with heavier security measures in place. These guys are mounted on treads, deal heavy damage, but have a more limited angle for their guns to turn, and have a brief cooldown after firing.

Victor's Logo

Small post for today, just some logo ideas for Victor's company.

There are things I like about both, but I'm personally leaning just slightly toward the one on the right because the left one is a bit on the heavy side. I like the gear, though, so I might just try thinning it out a bit and see how that looks.

EDIT 9/8/15:

Apparently I don't have the PSD for it anymore, so I had to remake it from scratch. That said, I definitely think the left design looks better slightly thinned out.

And I completely forgot I saved it with transparency so you can actually barely see it. My bad.

The villain of our story.

If there's one type of person magic is guaranteed to tick off, it's the guy who makes billions by inventing things that work LIKE magic. After all, who's going to invest in steam-powered generators when you have dudes running around who can literally shoot lightning out of their fingertips?

Enter our main antagonist: Victor Valda. I guess technically he's not like EVIL, evil, but he's going to be the reason behind a lot of the bad things that happen to the Gun Wizard. 

He also has a gear monocle. Which spellcheck is now telling me only has two Os.

Also, hey look! He's the first character that I've done 100% of the concept art for. By which I mean I drew that first sketch, then did some quick colored versions. Then I did this one like 2 years later around the same time I did the previous ones, but it came out a bit more cartoony that I meant it to.