'shadow wolf' creation

So one of our enemies is this hound that i have coined 'shadow wolf'. It is really more of a pug gargoyle sort of creature but meh i like the name, that or 'shadow hound', maybe i just like the word shadow...

ANYWAY

i started off referencing a picture of a wolf (surprise!) but when i drew it it was kind of fat. I trimmed it a bit and made it a bit more puggy then added an angular style and finally some shadowy touches.

Then i took the concept image into maya and made a low poly angular model to fit our style.

END PRODUCT (with a bit of photoshopping for shadowy prettyness)

it could be cool if we just work the gui into the scene without displaying any numbers or score etc. the bottle is just shown up the top so you can see what it looks like

Gameplay and Mechanics hai!

Start/ Opening - Julia finds box with bottle and bracelet
- Julia opens bottle which releases fracture world and turns everything to poop
- Carson notes Julia is missing and finds the bottle and bracelet
- Carson goes downstairs and sees his bowstaff glowing, so he takes it and goes
to find Julia
- Goes into a shop to ask about Julias disappearance, but instead of people in the
shop it is filled with da evil creatures

There are charms all around Chicago that act as beacons for the power of the fracture world. Removing or collecting the charms causes the fracture to follow you and removes it from the area.

The fracture looks like a tear in the world and upon entering the world changes.

in the normal world the creatures are shadows and in the fracture world it is you who is the shadow and the creatures come to life.

In the normal world there are symbols on walls that indicate that you should go into the fracture world because there is something to see.

The main goal is to find Julia but you have to do this by restoring the world back to normal. You do this by collecting the charms.

Each charm is guarded by some kind of cool monster dude that will put your bowstaff skills to the test.

The bottle you have fills up like a meter to show how much fracture you have with you.

Charms near the bottle glow. This shows they are wicked important.

The surreal dimension of The Fracture

The Fracture or the shadow world as Max has put it, is another dimension or reality, a state of being that our hero can go into.

The following dictionary meaning for surreal helps explain:

having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream

Also as Cassandra has quoted in the first post, Salvador Dali referred to his surreal paintings as "Hand painted dream photographs."

Like the north American Lakota Indians "spirit world" and similar to "The Fade" found in the Game 'Dragon Age:Origins', The Fracture is nowhere in particular but is everywhere. It is the dark vision of shadow, the light that reveals the true form of the darkness and the crooked creatures that lurk in the underworld and at the same time covers our hero with a veil so that only his shadow is seen.

There is only one way to enter The Fracture, that is through rips or fissures that appear in the time space continuum, in other words just anywhere in the space around us, in the air looking like cracks that can be torn further and climbed into. These fissures can appear at any time and they are marked by beacons which are charms to be collected to put on bracelet. The bracelet glows when our hero is close an entrance to the fracture. Once inside The Fracture, the world is surreal but the advantages are stealth, the ability to see true form and heightened sense of where and how the darkness can be diminished. The weapons that are used are imagined and once they are imagined they appear. Only melee type weapons are effective.

Protagonists

Ok, so the two protagonists in our game are taken from my (max’s) assignment. They are a man and a woman, and in my assignment I gave them the names Carson and Julia, but that was for a Texan desert situated game so maybe the names could be reconceptualised for our new Chicago setting. The main is the main character and his overall quest throughout the game will be to find the woman who is lost in Chicago, with the sub quest of restoring areas overturned by chaos and darkness along the way.

I think we have agreed on two states of play, along the lines of a normal view and a surrealistic view of the world which distorts everything.

Ideas ideas ideas

1. In the Song of Songs game i chose to have characters consumed in a black texture, this could work as the surrealistic view if it was all blurry and warped too, with the normal view just being a realistic render of the action.

Ie:

2. Last week we discussed a simplified low poly style being implemented, and a surrealistic idea which i was quite fond of being the character turns into a shadow to drift through the world with enemies unaware of his presence. In the surrealistic view here the creatures and world would look the same, with just the character changing state.

Ie.
3. The surrealism ‘mode’ enables certain powers for the main character to use. Again here it is the player that changes not the world around him.

Ie.

4. In the ideas where only the character changes, a surrealistic wash will still go over the world, making everything appear just a little eerie-er and not quite right.

I think the simplified style works well, and another idea we had to have super real flashes, like in fear ties in well, the surrealistic aspect still needs more finalization. Silent Hill is a very good reference to the type of exploration we want in the game, with stealthy stuff being an influence too. Basically the world is consumed with darkness and weird creatures at the same time as your loves disappearance, and you must go on a quest to restore the world back to normal and eventually find and rescue your love.

Kthanxbai.

Day 1

First test post. That is all.

This is the game design Blog for the Group 'Song of the Dresden Memory'.
Our members are Sam Gorden, Max Ross and Cassandra James.

Day 1: The group has been gathered with Sam and Cassandra. Max, who isn't here is stuck with us.
So far, idea discussion has been stilted as there's only two of us so far and we don't wish to force Max into anything he's unhappy with. One developing concept is a combination of all our game treatments into one, taking the Main Player Character of Max's treatment and maybe using Cassandras 'Undertown' world. So far the genre is geared towards Adventure, with a strong sense of exploration. Maybe a strong sense of dream like surrealism or a surreal nether world that forms part of the game world can be included, or maybe surreal puzzles if the game includes such.
Idea: Heavy inspiration form the Fade Levels from Dragon Age Origins and the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Multiple endings ala Silent Hill. "Different Choices lead to different fractured realities"
The worlds not exactly all together and as the game progress it becomes increasingly fractured.
"Hand painted dream photographs." Erractic dreams/netherworlds/dreamscape/surrealreality/scape/the other/the fracture.

Sudden plot idea: Not only must the player find his love, but he must fix the Fracture.

What comes next is a logo.
Melting clock.... yeeessss.

Hurum.

FINALIZED TEAM ROLES

Cassandra : Concept Art Design/ User Interface (Heads Up Display) Design/ Soundscape
Sam : Environment maps (Game World Design)/ Environment Modelling
Max : Character Modelling/ Gameplay design/ Prototype