GR#122 - La Scaphandrier - Gameart

[Chris2balls]

My programmer is working on the overlays, so it should work, hopefully!
Here's a more advanced (but still quite rough) WIP of the mock-up:

For now I'm looking into deep see fauna, I'm soaking it in before I get to work. More progress coming soon!

[Psiweapon]

mockup on the right is beautiful.

i like the idea of some type of overlay or even just proximity flag which changes the palettes of the corals.

in order to make it less like night, you could consider using black nearby and blue at a distance; sorta like how Psiweapon says but also taking the black out of the far objects so that they're receding in "fog" (water).

the biggest thing you need is fish and bubbles and stuff though, i think we'll get that it's underwater then.

Ditto. Yay for "receding into the fog". The "you see the colors when you're near" thing could lend a hand for that mechanic of keeping track of flora and fauna.

edit: Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

[Chris2balls]

Okay, so I've done a first thumbnail for a fish:

It's what you'll see in your logbook when you find these guys, with a brief description.
Right now I'm wondering how I can implement the flora and fauna; I'd like to point out that the diver can't attack, but can be attacked.
How do the accounts turn out? I'll give it a think
What I know for sure is that the radar will reveal their position... I'll make a couple of sprites and see how they integrate to the mock-up.

You start in the Mesopelagic Zone, also known as the "Twilight Zone".
The point is to go further down, through the Bathypelagic, aka as the "Midnight Zone", the Abyssopelagic Zone, aka the "Abyss", and finally the Hadalpelagic Zone, the "Trenches". In order to go further down, you have to upgrade your suit to withstand the increasingly high pressure!
The diver you play as is disgusted by the world he lives in, and chooses to withdraw himself in the depths of the sea. He wants to contemplate its beauty whilst denying the reality of above. This state of denial, but also his detachment from reality, is reflected by his progressive descent. As he goes down, pressure-induced (and solitude-induced) fantasies of underwater cities, mermaids, etc. mark his way to the unseen underworld of the Trenches.

Here's a second fish thumbnail:

[Mathias]

Wait, are you saying the protagonist progressively descends into madness and the levels are basically modeled after his delusions? That's awesome!! What a sweet concept. Gives me many ideas. This'll facilitate each new level being more and more unique and interesting. Which compels the player to keep going. Think of Louis Wain and how it's said that his developing schizophrenia increasingly manifested in his artwork.



I don't know if you have it in you really do this type of game concept justice, visually, because frankly I'm not sure how I myself would handle it. But hey, what an original concept.

To be clear, I'm not doubting your ability to follow through with your own idea, I'm calling into question how wise it would be to attempt the slant I think I just put on your idea - which is basically to progressively alter the look of the game and even the game's feeling/attitude as you get further and further, things becoming more and more "crazy". It's a tall order, but done right would REALLY compel people to try out your game. I think it could make a splash.

[Decroded]

I'm on my phone so ill just say that  from reading the game concept it sounds really interesting and leads me to think of other really cool rewards like submarines for exploring greater distances off the oxygen/power feed. Eventually perhaps drone subs which dont require oxygen feed but still need to recharge batteries. And subs need little arms and cargo bays, oxygen tanks, power cells, hull plating etc so...upgrades :-)
Some of this may conflict with ur other ideas, but not necessarily.
Will there be any combat?

[Chris2balls]

Wait, are you saying the protagonist progressively descends into madness and the levels are basically modeled after his delusions? That's awesome!! What a sweet concept. Gives me many ideas. This'll facilitate each new level being more and more unique and interesting. Which compels the player to keep going. Think of Louis Wain and how it's said that his developing schizophrenia increasingly manifested in his artwork.

[Image]

I don't know if you have it in you really do this type of game concept justice, visually, because frankly I'm not sure how I myself would handle it. But hey, what an original concept.

To be clear, I'm not doubting your ability to follow through with your own idea, I'm calling into question how wise it would be to attempt the slant I think I just put on your idea - which is basically to progressively alter the look of the game and even the game's feeling/attitude as you get further and further, things becoming more and more "crazy". It's a tall order, but done right would REALLY compel people to try out your game. I think it could make a splash.

Thank you very much for this post. I hadn't heard of Louis Wain before but that's going to be a source of inspiration for this game.
I hadn't thought of looking for artists dealing with this subject, but Adolf Wölfli is somebody who sprung to my mind, being part of the oustider art movement:


I'm also interested in glitch art, so I could play with recurrent aspects of the glitches to get that feel:
(my personal favourite)
this is the kind of thing that I could do for the game, which is replicating a part of the image, or in the context of the game, the screen.
big image, enjoy
After the sublime, the grunge!


Thank you Decroded, interesting stuff!
I'm not so sure about submarines. You have to keep in mind that this guy you're playing at wants to get to the bottom of the sea in person, and alive. He wants to experience and and feel things as closely as possible (there's something a bit romantic about him now that I think about it, haha). The drone subs are a good idea: they sound cool and are actually more plausible than a diver going so deep, but... these are only adding more necessities, more things to find; I agree this would be good as a side-quest for the player, as the drones could act as an effective reconnaissance unit, which could save some time.
I do want to emphasise on the fact the diver's not playing it safe: okay, he has a radar and an oxygen feed; at least one can be compromised at all times, sometimes two. He's taking personal risks to progress.
I'm afraid there is no combat in this game. I might think of ways to defend the diver, but no combat so to speak in the game. The diver's a sitting duck.

I'll be posting some animations soon.
Remember- I'm more than enthused to know what ideas this game gives you, or what you'd see in this game.
Later!

[Chris2balls]

I have an update on the diver:


I also have this, which is part of a bigger (unfinished) piece related to the game:

If you've read my posts in this thread, you'll probably have a good guess at what this is!

[Candy Man Criminal]

i love the style of this and the idea behind it
this has officially rocked my socks

[Chris2balls]

Thanks man!

Alright, I've started re-doing the tileset, what I had before was quite complicated:
Still WIP, I'll probably have to add a few more tiles
Here's a quick example of what can be done with it:

Next step is to give the edges and stuff a bit more detail!

[Chris2balls]

i don't think he's walking, i think he's doing the cancan