Now that the prototype is done, I want to just hammer out a bunch of art and effects to make it look pretty and take it to alpha. I had figured that it might be best to actually do some concepts before deciding on a design, but I don't think I'm going to come up with anything cool in a rushed lunch hour, so maybe it's just better to go with it this time? It's not like I'm trying to convey some kind of particular idea to a different artist or anything.
I do have some things in mind though:
- I have fallen in love with the idea of having multiple player characters that control differently and have different bonuses, but I'm also lazy and don't want to have to do multiple versions of the sprites. It's time to take a page out of the great ninja guidebook that is Mortal Kombat, and just pallete swap some sprites. The colour schemes and colour areas need to be easy to support in that respect.
- To keep things interesting, I want to ensure there are male and female player characters. But again, I'm lazy so I'd like to keep the base sprite fairly androgynous and maybe make a couple of attachments (Long hair, thicker arms, etc) to separate the sexes.
- I am extremely aware that I'm likely to be cheaping out on animation, but there needs to be some movement on the screen to make it look pretty. I'm looking at effects and stuff that can be reused but trailing objects (tassles, ribbons, hair, etc) might be an easy thing to add that can give a few more frames difference to the movement.
- I'm also a little torn between the over all theme. I was kind of working from a traditional stereotypical ninja type look, but I've also been thinking about scifi-ish cyber ninjas, or even something with a modern twist (like the anime Samurai Champloo).
Oh I've been told these posts can get a little depressing... I just figured that was my gimmick but I'll endevour to lighten the mood a little bit. So with that in mind, I'll try to end every post with a ninja joke, at least until I get bored of it and slump down the spiral of game development depression once more. So:
Q: Why did the ninja cross the road?
A: What ninja?
Thank you very much I'll be here all week.
I like contestant 6 on the far right. He's dreamy, but with a brutish gaze.
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