Here follows the story of my game, the book has many chapters & the final chapters may only be part written, but this book is ongoing....I will open with the synopsis of my MANMADe Mermaid Game, explaining my idea of what it is, & then following with the journey; from an initial seed & of an idea that has developed from other projects & loves, & unfurls like a chrysalis to grow into something else: MANMADe Mermaid:
Please see Pinterest for inspiration & research images.
A modern adult marketed game targeted primarily at women, albeit it has the possibility to grow & be used by both genders if the game develops into a 'social/dating' online game. The woman selects her character options, & uses these to travel/spy/follow the males on land, &, using her seductive tools/powers, has to attract & bring her 'catch' to her MerWorld.
Her 'men' are kept in her lighthouses, which she has to collect/achieve, along with other items, & she can have fun decorating the lighthouse; this can be used to attract her 'catches', ie humongous tv, games room, etc etc.
One of the top items to achieve, are 'legs', which have to be awarded once the player reaches a certain level, or finds them. This allows her to actually walk on land, making it easier to catch her prey. Other items include some of her features: breasts, eyes, lips, hair etc, shells as weapons ie a conch shell, magical potions, haunting music, transport items that allow travl betwixt both worlds, starfish & hearts; finding the top heart will award handsomely.
The UI will be colourful, but slightly at odds to normality/overexaggerated, with the MerWorld being more jewel-like & onlond more earthy. There will be pieces of factual knowledge thrown in, & beautiful imagery, as well as more fun & sexy games within. Advice will be offered by the MerElders.
MerElder - perfect person to seek 'matters of the heart advice'! From my Pinterest: source Vogue.fr
Created for the online platform, a sandbox game, with interaction with other players.This game could grow as a social media online platform, as the female game player is a growing market*, & MANMADe Mermaid will be targeted at the mid 20-40's, (& the young & fun 50!). *As Crucial Memory recently quoted: "A recent industry survey states that 45% of all gamers are women.
The Journey...
My ideas have developed into wishing to create a piece inspired from the ocean, the sea, the shore & beach, waves, movement, music, moulin rouge fetish/burlesque, dresses, mermaids etc
Below are a selection of postings I have added to my Blog for Neg 2. Initially I was creating a showcase reel to illustrate my technical & creative skills learnt in Maya. I wanted to create dynamic cloth, floating in water on a character, & thus would have also shown my apparel/fashion design skills. One of the learning tools/sites I was looking at was: Autodesk ncloth tutorials. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances & obstacles, this has not been possible, or at least not do-able to the level I would desire, or expect for my degree & portfolio.
Therefore, I reviewed my objectives, the brief, my skills & time-frame, & an extremely productive tutorial with Sonia, where we discovered a definite role within the games industry suited to me & my skills & experiences to date: Blitz Games Studios GUI Artist, & textiles; utilising my apparel/fashion design skills. This will allow me to develop, enhance, & up-date my technical & creative portfolio of work, ready to approach suited creative companies once my degree is finished.
Building on what I have already collated, created & designed, my idea for a Mermaid game has transpired.
A journey of blogs from the earlier days of this project...
The costumes in this are looking very inspirational, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Native American Indian & corseted outfits.....
My research has led to a lot of music video's, & I have been looking it using music in my showreel, & duplicates. It has been used in this video.
Looking at underwater scenes for my fabric; mermaids, burlesque/corset/dancers & the ocean are becoming strong in my inspiration.
Images that follow are a selection of inspiration, whether the character, colours, styles or shapes to help me create & design for this project. A lot of images are discovered & sourced from Pinterest, & Facebook, & unfortunately the original source to credit is unavailable. I have however, posted images on my Facebook requesting that if any readers know the image owner, to let me know so I can credit them; I have never had a reply thus far. (I temporarily closed my Facebook account to concentrate on my studies, however I soon discovered that I needed certain images, contacts, & information, that was only accessible on my account. Unfortunately this has resulted in some images I have used in my Blogs, that are hosted on Facebook, not showing on my Blog. With so many, & a long list of tasks with more priority, I will delete/edit as I see, otherwise I apologise for any empty images.)
Source for this image: Cartoon Doll Emporium; via search for images for Storm XMen on nectar.com
(When I originally found this image it had no source, but after further research I have found it on this site; although I do not know if they are the original designer, they are using it on their website, & have credited them! With contact to the company I am sure I could delve deeper, but with time-constraints, I am prioritising what actions I deem important/vital.)
The above are stills from Rhianna - Russian Roulette video, of the underwater shot scene, showing Rihanna moving elegantly through the sea, blood seeping through the water & dress fabric floating: I am looking at video's of fabrics under water as I want to create a showreel of dynamic fabric, & the flow of a silk fabric in water has the movement I want to emulate.
(However, this project has now developed into a more static piece; I won't be using Maya to create dynamic fabric. I have made this decision due to family commitments & developments that kept me away from my studies/University, & thus my time-scale & attendance have been dramatically reduced; I missed the latter few months of this final academic year. Fortunately I have since been awarded an extension to my deadline, & have reviewed my project, schedule & priorities, to ensure I create a portfolio of work in accordance to degree level, & yet still commercial to market myself for work; after a lengthy tutorial it has been decided that trying to create dynamic fabric, & learning Maya, plus my other projects is most definitely not viable. Therefore please read on with this understanding; it seems a pointless task to delete all work I have previously done for this project, & thus the latter parts will illustrate the developments in my project, & the journey & creation of designing a logo, HUD, characters & loading page for my MANMADe Mermaid game!)
I have also watched flocks of birds dancing in the sky & took some pictures with my mobile phone, however, due to the lack of zoom the images did not show the birds...but I saw this on MACKEENE Facebook, which I can interpret into fabric floating; in air or the ocean.
This was on Facebook but no source to credit, yet a great inspiration & detail for comic-hero attire!
Real fashion as inspiration, corsetry playing a large part of my attire design. Sourced did not show photographer. Fashion by John Galliano; circa 1980's
Looking at weapons used at sea:
Cheshire Gun Room
via Facebook: source unknown
Ocean textures:
& sea creatures.....
via Facebook: source unknown
...& this is how mermaid's see colours out of the sea, or, how males see in the sea - colours are offset:
I tried to fix someone's camera that was taking photographs with the colour affected. I searched for the problem online, looked at the companies website & at updating the software, & on forums, but nothing seemed to work; being a very cheap camera that was given to him, I advised to buy a better one, but the error created an inspiration in me for the colours in the game!
I cropped the image & can see the colours the photograph portrays/captured are inspirational & in tandem with my ideas for how mermaids see colours; a positive from a negative!
My own photograph of an Abalone shell, colours/textures/levels etc edited in Photoshop & 'offset' to create a texture; these are the colours of the Mermaid 's world & MerVillage.
Colours of the Mermaid's world; my own image
Colours of the Mermaid's world; my own image
Colours of the Mermaid's world, slightly subdued; my own image
A Selection of Development Notes & Working Ideas
Ideas for game
Branding ideas
Ideas of game characters
Starting to note ideas of female characters
Ideas of male characters
Ideas of the underwater/ocean MerVillage environment
Ideas of the land environment
Idea's for items & collections/prizes/tools etc
Ideas for game
Ideas for textures
Ideas for game transportation
Idea's for logo development
A selection of my lighthouse sketches for the logo & HUD/Icons
Review
This has been a long journey, a lot of obstacles, & a lot of new things for me to learn, but I have gained so much more knowledge, especially these latter 2 months, & I have loved creating. I am however, not the best at sticking to schedules & it can take a while for me to get into the 'head-space/mode' to concentrate fully on my 1 task; I tend to multi-task, & overtly so! (Whether this is down to Irlans Syndrome, as only finding out about it since being at University, I do not know.) I have learnt a lot of the software as I have developed & created, & I know this will continue. I do wish I had more completed artwork, I lost nearly 2 weeks work with my hard drive dying; having so many large files backing up took a long time & my external memories full . As I had kept my Blog fairly up-to-date, all was not lost, but the large files have gone, & characters/fashion design, & some HUD work have been lost.
I will carry on with the artwork for my MANMADe Mermaid game....this has been an experience, & I have gained a lot!
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