Shovel Knight Project
Introduction
For this project I need to create a boss character for a new game of Shovel Knight based on an environmental theme. I also researched Shovel Knight and its developers to understand how each character was made and what ideas they portray to be able to help me when I create my own character based on Shovel Knight.
Research: Blood, Sweat & Pixels
The purpose of this task is to understand Yacht Club Games to further our understanding of the creators and their journey to creating Shovel knight. This was so that we could get a further study into the background of Shovel Knight and the ideas surrounding it, this helps us as it means we understand how Shovel Knight was created and the inspiration it came from making it easier for us to gather ideas and know the best way to style and create our own boss.
Yacht club was formed as they wanted to develop their own game and they knew that the company they worked for did not let them work together as it moved employees around each project instead of leaving them in the same team. The founding members where Sean Velasco the leader, Nick Wozniak the pixel artist, Ian Flood a programmer, Erin Pellon the concept artist and David D’Angelo the second programmer. Shovel Knight was developed because they wanted to create a Nintendo side scroll game that had the game name as the name of the hero like their inspiration Mega Man.They funded the game using a Kickstarter website to get money and they went to PAX East and had a table booked in an arcade where they spoke about Shovel Knight to people who passed by and spoke to other developers there that used Kickstarter websites and tips for how to get funding. The drawbacks for the Kickstarter website is that if it wasn't updated regularly then people would not see it or it would not be interacted with lots meaning the funding would not go up and there would not be lots of money made. However a good thing about this way is it is all in one place making it easy to find and meaning people can find what they want to know about the game in one area instead of having to go to multiple places to find information. Challenges the team faced is they quit their jobs which meant if Shovel Knight did not do well or their plan did not work they would run out of money and have no jobs another challenge is trying to find a game idea they liked and the game type, another challenge is trying to find a good game concept that does not exist or without copying someone else's work and ideas. The experience that the team had helped impact the final creation of Shovel Knight as their struggles helped them work harder to make the game as they wanted and to get it published, it also helped as if they did not go through the struggles they did they would not have learnt or gotten the tips and advice they were given which helped to better their product and gain more of an audience for their game.
Case Study: Yacht Club Games
The purpose of this task was to gather more information on Yacht Club games and create a case study for it so that we can have a better understanding of their game and company. This helps us as it means we have more information on the company which helps us to understand their process of creating Shovel Knight and the characters in it.
Character Deconstruction
Here our task was to deconstruct one of the knights to help us understand what's so unique about the knight and how it stands out and portrays a certain meaning, for this I chose Specter Knight.
This helped with my progress as it helped me to understand what the characters look like compared to Shovel Knight.
Character Demake in the Shovel Knight style
The purpose of this task was to choose a character that was not already a pixel art character and recreate them in the shovel knight style. This was so that we could get to know the style and help us understand the best way to translate the style.
For this I chose to recreate Loki from Marvel Avengers. This is because Loki is one of my favourite characters from Marvel. This version of Loki I decided to recreate in Shovel Knight style is from the movie Avengers, in this movie he is mostly wearing a grey outfit like armour with gold details and a green cape.
Shovel Knight Style Swap
For this task we chose three game styles and then chose one character from Shovel Knight to recreate in the three game styles chosen. The purpose of this was to be able to understand styles and how to change one style into another.
Game Analysis: Structured Play
For this task we got to play Shovel Knight to help us understand how each character looks, behaves and moves. It was also so we could understand the game, its controls and what it's like to play the game so that we understood the characters and style to make it easier for us when we create our boss. From this task I learnt how to analyse Shovel Knight and the meanings of certain characteristics and details.
Research and Development of my concept
To create my Shovel Knight boss character I did research on environmental themes to decide which one I wanted to use as the theme for my knight, I also did research on shovel knight and Yacht Club ,as the ones who developed the game, to help me gather an understanding of the other knights and characters in the game: how they were created, the idea which helped to lead to their development, how they move, their purpose, what they look like and the story around them. This research helped me with the creation of my knight as it helped me understand the style of the game and what my knight needs in order to fit in and be like the other knights. From this research it allowed me to develop my ideas on what my knight would look like and its attacks.
I also did research on the consequences of deforestation to help gather ideas of shape and design for Deforestation Knight, the consequence I looked at for ideas is the animals that live in the forest losing their habitat, the destruction of land and how it can affect the planet. This helped with the development of Deforestation Knight as it gave me the idea for Deforestation Knight to be tall and to have a type of antlers/horns to represent the animals that lose their habitats.
Mind Map on environmental theme
For this task we had to mind map ideas for which environmental theme we would choose for our shovel knight boss character and to get ideas of how we would turn that environmental theme into a boss. This task helped us gather an understanding on different environmental themes and what causes them and their consequences.
Moodboards
This task was to create a realistic mood board for our environmental theme and a media related one for this I found movies that portrayed my environmental theme and its consequences. This was to help us gather more ideas and more information from our environmental theme.
Research on environmental theme
For this task I did research on my theme deforestation to find out more about it and what colours and shapes best represent it.For this task we also researched our environmental theme to gather more of an understanding of it and use this research to create small thumbnails of the theme to help with ideas for our character.
Initial Ideas: Thumbnails
For this task we needed to sketch different ideas for our boss character however these were only meant to be quick and rough sketches as we would later choose our preferred design and use that as our final idea to create the sprite and concept art from. This was to be able to gather all of our ideas and designs we could think of.
Further Development: Sketches
For this task we needed to choose the thumbnail concept that we liked the most and sketch it out bigger. We also had to do this for the body swap version as well. This was so then we could get a better drawing and idea of what our boss would look like.
Design and Production: Key Art, Sprites and Animation
Idea sprites:
I had a different design for the body swap however I did not like the design and created a design I liked more. I disliked this design due to the outfit I gave the character and how it makes it look. I feel that changing the outfit for the body swap makes them seem like a different character.
Outcomes:
-Key Art
The one with the gold chest plate is the original and the other one is the body swap idea. The purpose of this is to have a more detailed and a developed idea and drawing of Deforestation Knight to be able to show my full design not in pixel art so that the detail can be seen better and so that I can translate this into pixel art.
Idle Sprite
Deforestation Knight has antlers to represent the animals that lose their habitats or their lives to deforestation and holds an axe which is supposed to represent a lumberjack.
Body Swap
The body swap for Deforestation Knight. For this I changed the shape of the antlers slightly and I changed the chest plate and gave them a battle skirt.
Attack Animation
The attack animation for my boss character Deforestation Knight. For the attack Deforestation Knight swings the battle axe he carries and it will hit Shovel knight if he is close enough.
Stretch Goal B: Boss Environment
For this task I created an environment for where Deforestation Knight would have his fight with Shovel Knight. I decided to make the environment look like a destroyed forest as it links to my environmental theme of deforestation and to show the effect of deforestation.
