Building Feverdream

The bridge connecting Heel to the slums. (btw, sorry for the...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:50:39 -0800

The bridge connecting Heel to the slums.

(btw, sorry for the huge no-post gap! I found myself neck deep in work for a while)

Heel is a major gentleman’s club in the world of...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:45:00 -0700

Waitresses, strippers, staff; interiors

The Entrance and Bar to Heel

Cages. Dance cages

Heel is a major gentleman’s club in the world of Feverdream. Zappa works there as an entertainer and bouncer.

Hello again! Now, since this blog is about the game, Feverdream, I wanted to show some technical...

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:21:20 -0700

Hello again! Now, since this blog is about the game, Feverdream, I wanted to show some technical aspects too. So far, it has been all art.

So, even if I have a wonderful level drawn out, it means nothing if I can’t get that into Flash. I’ll start off by importing my items into the library, and organizing.

There are literally thousands of items involved in a full game, It’s great to organize your library. You’ll spend all your time searching otherwise.

This folder has everything I imported for the first level.

And, after a few hours of drag-n-drop…

It ends up looking like this in the Flash stage. All those shapes? They’re linked to code that tells the game what to do.

So, all that said and done, how does it look in game?

For all you who said ‘tl;dr’, tomorrow’s post will be more eye candy and less words. :)

Running the chain: Process

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:23:00 -0700

Deciding on how to compose this...

When I figure it out, I move to pencils

Then painting!

Running the chain: Process

A few more paintings I did at the beginning of the project. The...

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:05:04 -0700

Locomotive

The Traincatcher

A few more paintings I did at the beginning of the project. The main purpose of these was to establish a mood for the world, and to get my blood pumping!

A fight in Bridgeton. One of the first illustrations I did for...

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:41:45 -0700

A fight in Bridgeton. One of the first illustrations I did for Feverdream.

Zappa

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 01:35:30 -0700

For the longest time, I’ve had this image in my head of what Zappa should look like.

He’s a badass, right? In the story framework, Zappa was written to be a no-holds-barred vigilante. But as the story progressed, I saw a much more interesting version of him forming.

In many situations, he’s quite timid and hesitant. He’s kind of a shrimp (by video-game character standards). I liked him better this way because it’d be interesting to see how he gets around this in a world where everyone is a total beast. I wanted this behavior to reflect more in his design. So I started again.

Now it’s getting there! He’s not the biggest bad boy in town, but he sure tries hard. His silhouette isn’t defining enough,though, considering he’s going to be 150 pixels tall on screen.

so push!

Okay.

Now for the first segment of Behind the Curtain!

From here to in game:

1. turnarounds

2. layout - like a paper puppet

(credit goes to Andrew Mar for these inks, an incredible draftsman)

3. Sprite Animation Layout - run, Zappa, run

4. Building in Flash

And here he is, as he appears in game! Looks a lot different, right? An entire art in itself lies in the translation between illustrated character, and in game character.

Long post. Cya Monday! :)

Knefee

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:40:05 -0700

For real this time!

As I was coming up with characters, one gave me some difficulty. The girl who appears in the feverdream, Knefee, is the only one that’s not part of that world. But I wanted her to be fierce and independent, not the typical ‘Princess Peach’ female lead.

This sketch stuck with me for some reason. As a most basic design, I could already tell what kind of person she was. So I went with it.

She’s young, but she doesn’t trust anyone. Knefee was a thief in her own world, and uses this skill to her advantage while in the feverdream. Seeing as the entire world is trying to take advantage of her, she has no problem taking advantage of it.

Tomorrow, you’ll be meeting Zappa!

Trolling

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:53:07 -0700

Okay so I didn’t get to Knefee. I’ll just put that off until tomorrow.

Revenge of the Thumbs

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:49:00 -0700

So, now that you’ve had nightmares about all those thumbnails…

here’s more! >:)

So, now I’ve got a pretty thorough exploration of this world in the form of tiny images.

But I know what you’re thinking: What good is this big world if we’ve got no one in it to relate to?!

So tomorrow, I’ll introduce Knefee! A young thief cast into the Feverdream, knowing nothing about it.

Welcome

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:49:00 -0700

For new readers, I know you have this question: What the hell is Feverdream?

Well, Feverdream is a world, that exists inside my head. In fact, it’s been in there for a long time, but I’ve only recently become skilled enough to share it with you.

For now, let’s start exploring it through thumbnails!

Tomorrow? More thumbs!