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They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so if you like reading lots of words read my posts (1, 2) on the design development of Desktop Bomberkid! Otherwise stick around and scroll down to see the latest animations for the game! (Click on the images to enlarge and view animations)     Click to read more
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Some of you might know that my Desktop Bomberkid game is homage to the first game I ever owned, "Pocket Bomberman" for the Game Boy; hence why my game includes "Desktop" in the title since it's for the PC! The first two worlds I created were all about teaching. Teaching the player what the controls and mechanics are and who's who in this game's universe. A huge challenge was/is teaching players how Bomberman-style bombs work (a topic that deserves an exclusive blog post). Playtesting showed that many struggled with bombs and, as such, the difficulty of the second world took a dive to ensure players would learn, feel good, and continue to play. Interestingly, though many playtesters died over and over against the boss, all of them did not want his difficulty adjusted. People like a (good) challenge where appropriate!
I state all this to say the first two worlds are "boring", but not in a bad way. They were all about learning. But anyone who breezed through the first two worlds was sad that the game was easy. The third world has a lot of weight on its shoulders: At this point all players should be good enough at the game that their focus is less on "which button is to jump" and more on "why do I want to keep playing this". By the power of deus ex machina, Kidd and Fei are reunited in the third world and team up.This is also where I simultaneously shoot myself in the foot and jump for joy (and in pain) because I introduce a new mechanic: Dual Character Control (DCC). In other words, now you control two people.  Original "Duel Major" logo The original logo for Duel Major was cool at first, but then "at first" ended pretty soon after. So for the course of a year, I've been sketching a number of different logos for Duel Major. Most of these loose pieces of paper and napkins are either in the trash or bouncing along like tumbleweed. But just two weeks ago I had a burst of inspiration; they always seem to come when I'm diligently working on something else. Fleshing out this idea in Illustrator led to me meshing around with some effects and led to something completely different.   Reference put together by our lead programmer Conception Ah, the Aerospace Engineer. The third character for Duel Major. The second character in the game with glasses. And the first female I've ever modeled. To tell you the truth, all of my life I've struggled with drawing the opposite gender. That being said, I did get better at it with some life drawing classes; which marginally helped me here. The character design for Duel Major features limbless characters. This design decision was made early on with the expectation that this would make life easier. These past two years have taught me otherwise, but I'll save that for another blog post. The big thing here is that the team asked for a macho woman to be the AERO character, something akin to a drill sergeant. Who also wears a jetpack (cool!). Concept Art phase What I took away from life drawing was that the defining characteristics of drawing a female were the head shape, hips, arms, shoulders, legs, and breasts. Limbless characters can only have two of those. Well at least she'll look feminine with a ponytail or long hair! Wait, if we take a look at my reference, short hair is an absolute must for a "drill sergeant". And yup, those aviators will not let me show any eyes or eyelashes that would help. I was certainly scratching my head as I went into the concept art phase.  Click to zoom-in Conception
Mix one bored afternoon, a scarf, and an old game idea I've been kicking around and you'll have yourself the latest game I'm developing. My old game idea was a high-mobility 2D platformer with concealed weapons. The scarf provided me with the theme and motivation because hey, scarves are cool. The goal of the following components that make up this game is to create an intense, PvP experience with a lot of yomi that rewards reading your opponent, requires a moderate amount of technical mastery, and allows for a good deal of customization and play styles. With this mission statement in mind, here is my "Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) Fighter". This blog is dedicated (mostly) to my game development, which includes:
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March 2016
AuthorI am Reginald Franklin, a graduate of RPI and practitioner of game design and 2D/3D art. Be sure to check out the rest of the site for my work, as well! Categories
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