Week fours theme was Patterns so we created a game based on Amy's idea of a pattern constellation game. A pattern appears onscreen and you must repeat the pattern, once you do that you unlock the constellation in your "starbook" and you can read up on the history and the stars that make up the constellations. It's a casual game for aimed at an older audience and something you can play on your commute to and from work. 

I've wanted to try some pixel art out for a while now and I felt like that aesthetic suited this game and thankfully Amy agreed. We took a lot of inspiration from more modern pixel games like Celeste and Hyper Light Drifter, the colors and level of detail is gorgeous in those games.

I worked mostly on backgrounds on UI and background this week and Amy did some great work on the constellations and converted the logo beautifully into pixel form.

Amy did this great little gif to show how the game intro would play out. The logo and foreground art was done by Amy

Week fours theme was Lost (at Sea) and we decided to make a tugboat game but instead of setting it in space we decide to set in space. The basic set up for the game is that you play as a space garbage person who flies around picking up contracts from a variety of weird characters. You get rewarded for doing these contracts and experience. Along the way, you have to avoid pirates and meteors that can damage or destroy your ship. The game is pitched as an entry point for more hardcore simulations games like Elite Dangerous.

We wanted a friendly game aesthetic with a nice balance in colors and design. The idea of a tug boat floating in space did most of the leg work. That visual sold the game idea to everyone and helped inform the tone and gameplay. 

• The towing mechanic. Gather clumps of trash and deliver them to your contractor.

• The Pirate ship chase. Once seen the pirate ship chases you down and attempts to swallow up your ship

• Character island. Meet colorful characters on trash islands and they will give you jobs to complete.

• 3D tugboat Model

They're loads other stuff that I'll share at a late date so for now just enjoy this lot. 

• Character based on Amy's original concept

Week three's theme was Gaslighting, so to avoid the obviously shitty meaning of the word we decided to go with a cuter approach to the word. Our game idea is you play as a cute ghost that is too cute to be scary on their own so they must possess objects around the house to scare the new owner out of the house. 

Aesthetically we liked the idea of 3D backgrounds with 2d sprites. We took inspiration from games like Fallout Shelter and DuckTales Remastered. The house design was closely inspired by toy houses. I think we'd need to spend some more time to develop a style that evoked the cute design of Amy's original ghost sketch. Overall I think we did alright with the time we had to create this.

• Ghost by Amy

I worked primarily on the 3D background of the house. I built the house, textured and animated the objects. Kept the detail to a minimum because of the time and we thought it would be less distracting to the player. 

• House overview

• Example of haunted room

• Images on tv and in frames by Amy

Back next week with the next theme Lost (at Sea)

• Credit to Amy for this gem 

So at work, we are currently taken part in a 6-week rapid prototyping program at the Pixelmill. The idea of the program is to develop new game ideas based on the themes given, this week's theme was climate disruption. Our game idea is a 

An idle/incremental web & mobile game.

Premise: Save the world by receiving contracts from Big Bad Corporations who need to dispose of their toxic waste.

Create neutralisers to make the toxic barrels safe again!

I worked closely with our new art intern Amy to create a visual design that best suited the game we were creating. My goal for the 6 weeks is to try and create a unique visual design for each project so with this game I felt like a comic book aesthetic best suited the game. Initially, we wanted to create something more modern in the line work but after picking up my copy of Watchmen again I felt the artwork of Dave Gibbons added to the game design and theme. The color pallet for the game was heavily inspired by the work done in classic Marvel comics from the 1960s.

• Initial Concepts based on discussions with Adam and Amy

• Background I illustrated

• Game sprites I illustrated based on Amy and I's concepts 

• Final game layout made up from elements illustrated by Amy and I

Overall I really enjoyed working on this little game prototype, the work done by the whole team was really impressive and I wouldn't mind returning to it at a later date. 

Back next week.

Matt