Keepin' It Imaginary

[justgotimaginary]

At long last, the mock-up for that Heist RPG I’ve been working on is finally done! Took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to handle those icons, but thankfully my 8+ years of MOBA experience were able to back me up on that one. 

And with that, I think I’ll finally consider this project “done” - I’ll still be finishing up the character illustrations you guys saw before, as well as throwing in another batch of enemies...But in the meantime, PAX South is hot on my heels and I need to get two other documents ship shape before then!

For those of you who don’t mind doing a bit of reading, check out that design doc and tell me what you think!

[justgotimaginary]

So with the card back designs finally down (and the borders all nice and shiny), I guess I can finally say these icons are done! I’ve been focusing on HUD stuff for the past while now, but I figured it might be nice to just get something done. 

Don’t worry though - there’s really just one last bit of HUD I’m stumped on, and after that, all that’s left is the background! I think I know what I want to do with it at last, so I guess we’ll see how things pan out once I start drafting it up. 

[justgotimaginary]

Oh, and if any of you guys were wondering what I’ve been making all these illustrations for...Behold! I’m whipping up a little battle screen mockup for 1,001 Capers, doing a little dabbling into UI design to give some context for all the odd mechanics that make the combat system tick. 

I’m pretty happy with where everything is (and what sort of things are being represented - there are some things better left under the hood, after all), and with the overall visual design of everything, for the most part...I’m still not quite happy with the Alert meter (middle-left) and am a bit stumped with what I’m going to do for the background, and on top of that I still have to design the cards themselves - but hey, I guess that’s all just part of the process!

The criticism I get almost every time I show someone my portfolio is something along the lines of “This looks really good, but until I clicked around a bit, I just thought this was an art portfolio.” Introducing some more utilitarian elements to the stuff I put out and doing mockups like this where it’s structured to actually *look* like a video game should help make my intentions a bit more obvious, and let me keep art as a big part of my advertised skillset while placing game design front-and-center. 

[justgotimaginary]

And finally, the last and most teary-eyed of the three Thief icons: the Ruffian! 

This one was easily the most challenging of the three for me: between the pose, and the patterns, and figuring how to make that mountain of hair look properly fluffy, I was more than a little stumped...Thankfully, things ended up looking alright (or maybe I’ve just been staring at it for too long?), so now I can finally get to tackling the battle screen UI and get this whole thing ready for presentation.

Of course, I’ll eventually get to lining and coloring those full-body character illustrations I did before, as well as creating a full illustration for the second set of enemies, but consider that on the back-burner for now.

[justgotimaginary]

My nose may be running the 10k right now, but that didn’t stop me from finishing the icon (sans cards) for the more charismatic of the two Burglar-class characters: The Phantom!

The costume and color scheme were initially meant to be a shameless reference to P5 protagonist’s facade as “Joker” - but I ended up changing the color scheme a bit to differentiate him from the other two characters I’m doing icons for, on top of making his sleeves a bit poofier and frillier to steer it a bit away from just being a suit with weird cuffs. 

(Of course, he did end up taking on a bit of a Honchkrow-esque palette, but hey, whatever works!) 

[justgotimaginary]

Phew...After a lot of going back-and-forth, I ended up reaching a point with these where I could lock down the details with lineart and not feel too bad about it. Thankfully, these are going to be a bit on the smaller side when they’re placed on the battle screen mockup, so the little details won’t matter as much as how well they read and what sort of attitude they get across. 

I guess it’s time to move on to coloring then - once I’m done with that, I’ll be able to put these in and finish up the UI elements, and then this whole thing will be ready for the portfolio site!

At this point, I think I’ve decided against giving each character an icon like these (for the time being). Since I’ve already gotten all the character sketches done, it’ll be a lot easier to line and color those, and they’re probably better to put on the character page than an icon due to them showing off the entire body.

I suppose that means I’ll have to draw pants on them, now... 

[justgotimaginary]

Finally started making some good progress on icons. These are the only 3 I’ll need to complete the combat screen mock-up, but don’t worry - each Thief will be getting the attention they deserve in due time. 

Gotta say though, considering how much rust I still need to work through, these things are proving to be pretty challenging. It may take a while, but I’m gonna grind away at ‘em until they’ve been done right!

[justgotimaginary]

Phew! Took me a little longer than I thought before I settled on something I really liked, but I’m pretty happy with how these ended up. Messing around with texture is a type of fun I really don’t let myself have often enough, so maybe look forward to a bit more of that in the future?

Anyway, again, here’s the Adjudicator (center), Preserver (left), and Engraver (right) from that one Heist RPG combat system I’m working on.

Enemies in this game are a bit tougher than you’d expect from your usual RPG fare, actively stalking the overworld in search the player’s party and requiring a few skirmishes to fully defeat (lest they start summoning lesser enemies or calling in reinforcements). 

The Adjudicator spells doom for any Thieves that cross it through a variety of Curses, which spend the Souls that it draws from its foes. It can summon Preservers that purge buffs from enemies while keeping their Adjudicator stocked up on Souls, as well as Engravers that extend Curses and pester those who have become afflicted with them. 

[justgotimaginary]

So, I think I’m starting to settle on the base colors I want for these (and I’ve decided to keep it simple for the most part, since these won’t be seen super up-close and they need to be readable)...but I started experimenting with brushes with the Engraver on the right, and I’m kinda groovin’ on it.

I think I’ll try a little something with each of these tomorrow, but for now, here’s this!

[justgotimaginary]

Didn’t quite get around to coloring these today (which totally had nothing to do with me going out to see the new Thor movie), but nonetheless, here’s the final designs and lineart for this set of enemies: the Adjudicator (middle) as well as the Preserver (Left) and Engraver (Right) it can summon.

Didn’t end up spending as much time as I would’ve liked in the research phase for these two, but I feel like I got to try some neat things I haven’t done before with each of them. 

I’ve got some errands to run tomorrow, but I’ll do my best to have these 100% done by the end of the day!

[justgotimaginary]

It’s been a hectic past few days, but regardless, here’s a sketch of one of the main enemy types for 1,001 Capers. I’ll probably be taking a bunch of small children to see the new Thor tomorrow, but regardless, I’ll try to line and color this and the two smaller enemies that accompany it by the end of tomorrow!

[justgotimaginary]

Actually, now that these are all done (or as done as they’re going to be), I figured I’d post the full thing! 

I might actually end up lining and coloring all of these sometime down the line, but for right now I’m dead set on getting the actual screencap mockup assets done, so that’ll have to wait for a bit.

[justgotimaginary]

And last but not least, we have the Veteran! Much like the Hacker, this guy is one of the Operator classes - he’s hung up his cape (or his cool jacket, in this case) and now spends his time offering his expertise from the sidelines. 

I’m surprised I actually got this one done before dinner, hopefully I can keep upping the pace on these and have the whole thing done by the 16th. And if I can’t, well, no sweat!

[justgotimaginary]

Here’s the first of the special Operator classes - the Hacker! While Operators only offer support from off-site, they fill an important role within the crew by allowing their more break-and-enter-y comrades to circumvent rules and obstacles, peek at otherwise inaccessible information, and more.

Just one more Thief left to introduce, and then we can start getting into the baddies that stand between these daring criminals and sweet, sweet loot. 

[justgotimaginary]

Took a bit longer than I would’ve liked, but the Phantom’s design is finally nailed down! I know that get-up makes him look like a bit of a joker, but this guy’s the real deal.

Still have the Operators and a few example enemy types left, and then I’ll finally be able to get the real work done...

[justgotimaginary]

Managed to get the Explosives Expert done tonight, research for the arm took a while but I think I’m happy with the results overall! 

If you’re wondering why nobody’s legs are really detailed, I’m mostly just using these as reference for bust-style combat icons, so I don’t really need to know what kind of pants anyone is wearing. (It’s still fun to play with the different leg shapes, though)

[justgotimaginary]

Didn’t get a lot of time to work today, so I’ll just leave you guys with the Magician tonight!