Research – Ideas

Initial ideas:

Idea 1: 2D boss arena

As drawing buildings isn’t my strong point, one of my ideas revolves around the idea of a boss arena for a 2D platformer or metrodvania. Arenas for boss fights are important to design well to fit the atmosphere of not only the environment, but reflect the personality of the boss in the fight. The looks can be layered and diverse and a battle arena itself can be varied too. Just a floor, some platforms to maneuver on, walls to jump on, or maybe just floating platforms with no floor below to catch you. Hollow Knight has good examples of 2D boss arenas that does this and would inspire my work well. With it having an adorable art style, it helps my imagination flow with how to make something look unique.

The art style I would take would be inspired by the simpler but cuter styles of games like ‘Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening’ remake and ‘Hollow Knight’ itself, though with a heavier tilt to shows like ‘Gravity Falls’.

Idea 2: Pixel Art Diorama

Another idea would be a small diorama piece based on the western theme. I’m thinking something small, like a wanted board post or scene of sand with a cactus and creature skull. It would be done isometrically and due to the idea of it being a small piece and pixel art, the style of it will be a lot more simplistic and cartoon-est, though hopefully with highlights and shading and done at a two angles. Here’s the base idea for how big and how the detail for it would be done.

I would take inspiration from the pixel art used in ‘Scott Pilgrim vs The World The Game’ for inspiration. It’s a good blend of it looking at it and understanding exactly what you’re seeing but keeping a comic book look to it, making it unique.

Final Idea: Pixel Art Diorama

After going back and forth between my two ideas, I have decided to chose idea 2, the pixel art diorama. While I like the idea of a boss fight arena a lot- I also really enjoy pixel art and would like to explore using it more. It will be small, but hopefully detailed and stylised. I had a thought of instead replacing the initial scene idea with an abandoned oasis; so a small pool of water, couple of drooped trees and then some dying grass and skulls to help it feel unsettling and forsaken.

Proposal: Forsaken Oasis

The idea I will be taking further is ‘Forsaken Oasis’. This diorama will be pixel art done isometrically. It will be a small, contained diorama that will make up for its size in detail and shading. It will be a sand base with mounds surrounding a small pool of water. Stray dying grass is littered around it as well as a skull of a creature half buried in the sand. Two drooped palm trees will be casting a shadow over the whole diorama too and a lone cactus in the corner.

My design will meet my target audience of 12-21 year old women due to its more stylised and cartoon inspiration. Pixel art is really creative and will catch the eyes of my target audience more than a realistic set would. Also taking the look inspired by the comic book vision of ‘Scott Pilgrim vs The Wold The Game’ with bolder outlines and slightly exaggerated features, with make it look softer and safer as well as make it stand out.

The colour scheme will be fairly limited in terms of colours, but each colour with have 3 shades- one main shade and two other shades for highlights and lowlights. From my research, I learnt my demographic like blues, greens turquoises and purples most. While purple can not really work well in this theme, I figured out I can use blues, turquoises and greens well in my piece to help certain sections of it pop and stand out next to the pale creams and dusty yellows for the sand. Turquoises and baby blue will give the pool a relaxed and calm atmosphere around it. Whites and very light greys for the buried skull, pale dusty maroons for the palm tree trunks and vibrant green leaves to help pop some colour into the set; along with the pool. The main colours of the pool of water and the leaves will add some life to the piece as well as being the colours my target demographic like the most. Here’s a base idea for a colour palette for me diorama below.

The assets for my diorama are; the sand base and mounds, a few blades of grass, pool, two palm trees and animal skull. These are the assets I plan to create, and I will also make the detailed pixel image of either the skull, cactus or one of the palm trees.

Task 2.3 Research for final diorama

Now with my idea fleshed out, I needed to research specific elements of what i wanted to include, so I had a better understanding of look and design. I did this by making moodboards.

First things first, I made a mood board on oases, so I have a clear visual on what they are and can include. From research, oases are genuinely in the middle of large deserts, have some vegetation- some have large bushes and long grass but most have a few palm trees scattered around them. They surround a body of clear water. They are spots of relaxation and calm in such a harsh environment. They look to good to be true- which some are because they are mirages. This will help em with learning were to place the assets of my diorama and oragising the rest of the piece.

I next looked at palm trees. While my previous moodboard did show palm trees, I made a separate board for them so I can get better images of them, understand their shape and leaf pattern better as they are going to be a big part of my diorama. This will help me with shaping out the palm trees for my diorama and understanding their shape and how to apply it to pixel art.

I research what type of skull is most associate with the western theme, which turned out to be a steer skull. I found images of some steer skulls to see how they looked. The general bone structure is pretty mucht he same through all the images I found. Main differences are horn sizes and crack in the skull, which add a more deteriorating and abandoned effect to the skull. I will try to subtly add some cracks in the skull I’m planning to put in my diorama, and I like the look of the longer and more curved horns so will try to apply those too.

Cacti were fun to research as there are so many different varieties they can come in that I really like. So I will most likely try drawing out a couple different cacti variants and seeing which one I like most to add to my diorama. I feel I will have a lot of fun trying out the many shapes and sizes of cacti and a fair amount of my time will be dedicated to trying to both draw a cactus well, and translate it to pixel art.