Since I've been spending my game dev time drawing page after page of concept art, I might as well post the present state of evolution of "Jack", the nickname I've given the hero of "Project Jack" (I'll think of a better name once I get to actually writing the design)



As you can see, Jack has become a lot more rodent-like through the series of pencil drawings. This is the first time I've coloured him in, so I'm not sure if that's exactly the colour scheme I'll use. Things like the type of weapon will obviously depend on the design, and I might play around a bit with the character features (for example: I'm not sure whether the tail will be too difficult to animate or not), but I'm really liking the look of the little guy now.

This reply seems like it's better suited for an addendum to the journal, so I've posted it up here:

Quote:He's cute. What's the game like?

Good question. I wish I knew the answer [grin].

In the design in my head at the moment, the game will be a 2D side-scroller action adventure style game. Out the games I've played, probably closest to a more action based "Zeliard", but since that might be a bit obscure maybe "Ninja Loves Pirate" is close to what the game is like in my mind.

What I've definitely decided on so far is that the game:

• will be a 2D tile based side-scroller or top-down action adventure style game
  
• will be a personal test to see if I can design, code, draw and write sound/music for a full game by myself
  
• will feature some of the technology I need for building slightly more complex games
  
• will be sickeningly cute in aesthetics (I'm afraid that's a given by default [grin])

What is will probably be is:

• a test case to build a special animation system that I've been meaning to try out
  
• if I can manage it, have some dynamically generated levels, as a first step towards my ultimate goal of interactive storytelling
  

However, since the whole thing is really a test to see what I'm capable of, exactly what gets completed at this stage is unclear. February is my "animation testing" month, where I'm planning on building a prototype to see if I can animate Jack in a suitable way. If the prototype works well I'll start writing a proper design document, and I'll be more able to definitively describe the game!