First Critique & initial ideas ~ Week 5

Because I have been on holiday for two weeks I had missed the lesson in which everyone presented their two main ideas to the class and received feedback on where to go next. So I basically spent this week getting up to date with the work I missed; making sure I had the mood boards for my two main ideas completed, write up a draught for my project proposal, and create a Power point presentation to help me show my ideas to the group for my critique. Though I knew I really wanted to go with my games concept idea because I already had a strong idea to back it up, I still had thought about the live Sonic the Hedgehog brief as it seemed like a fun and open project to consider.
Compared to my Games concept idea though, during my presentation most people said that it wasn't as strong idea compared to it, and it was obvious that creating concepts for a game was something that I was really passionate and interested in and it showed in my presentation. I talked about some of the influences that had helped me in with choosing the style of my game, the main one being Traditional Japanese artwork and culture as well as the game Okami which had utilised this style directly into the game.



The problem that I wanted to address by working on this project was to be able to create a game that could be created on any budget, as opposed to being restricted in creativity by large budgets or restricted in scale by small budgets. by creating a concept that could be adapted to work on any platform, I hope to address this issue.
It was considered that I try to push my concept into the realms of making the actual game itself, like for an application for the iphone as an example. This is so I have something challenging to try to accomplish as opposed to just the concept, which is a very strong area in which I am skilled in. If not possible to create a game itself, I would at least try to create some sort of animated/ interactive media that demonstrates the final concept of the game.

I've started to create a sketchbook to keep all of my artwork in for my concepts as well, the first thing I started in it was the designs for the main character. I thought this was an important place to begin, as I wanted to create a main character that is iconic and has a very distinct appearance, one that can represent the style of the game all by itself. so I have been sketching my ideas for him, as well as writing down the games plot, setting, style, etc. so I know where to go with the rest of my artwork. Basically been documenting all of the ideas I have had in my head for while down onto paper, so that i can move on with them and develop them into polished artwork.
In Fridays lesson, as well as sort out my presentation, i took my initial ideas for the games logo and developed that further into a final design. The original idea was taken from a painting I did of the games title 'Savior' using a thick paint brush to create the font. I then scanned this into Photoshop, where I manipulated it so that it was more polished in shade and appearance. I have also recently been experimenting with using a drawing tablet to use for digital painting, the first thing I did was digitally shade one of the sketches I did of the main character. I decided to take this artwork and implement it into the logo design, so that it stands behind the name 'Savior'. After much tweaking and editing I decided  on my final design, as shown below:

I was glad that I was able to get straight back into work again after getting back from holiday, and I just need to start compiling all of my secondary research together now and sort out how I am going to do my primary research (museum visits, contacting concept artists, etc..)