Fun sprite work this week, crammed between meetings and feedback on first very rough full playthrough. Woohoo have a great weekend all! 
Indie game Concept Art
Some concept work on group of enemies called the Elgon, for Indie game Mecromage.
Art by Joshua Keyes – Characters and scene inspired by Castlevania, owned by Konami.
I decided it might be fun to submit a piece for Jazza’s Contest of the Month: New Resolution. The goal was to take a scene from a game that was made for a 1990 or prior machine and redraw it in a higher resolution. *placed 2nd – Runner up in open category*
I’ve been trying to finish up the basic thumb sketches for each of our now decided on 9 stages for the game. I was the areas to be recognizable much like old school SNES and NES games were. As soon as you saw a screen shot of any, even a super small one, you’d instantly know the area by the color pallet alone. This is the feeling I’m striving for atm.
There are some story elements that are fairly well worked out, and that provides me with a starting point for the area. This is an extremely rough draft, but its my day’s work and it does start to capture a bit of the feel that I am looking for in the Stage.
Heres a 2 min snap shot part of today’s work.
NEOBLON LOREPLEX: Large Invasion Assault Mech was part of great Invasion on Eblon untold years ago. The technologically powered race invaded the planet, thinking the target easy pray for resources. They were mistaken, and with Eblon’s combined mystic might they destroyed the invading army. Still, one could chance upon the site where the remains of one of these Titan’s has been buried by time and spite.
Neoblon’s culture and peoples should be well thought out, but the realm will always be rich with mystery. Using the most simple of medium reminds me of how important it is to leave the canvas’ door open, welcoming the viewer to enter by their own accord, and participate in imaging of the fantastic.
Its incredibly freeing and relaxing to sit with paper and pencil after a long day of digital grinding. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys any creative endeavor. There is just something about thee ‘ol analog that allows you to so simply focus on the art. I have gone months without putting pencil to pad and those times have hurt my development, surely. Pencil is forgiving, but not so loose as a digital canvas. The real world is full of imperfection, and the imperfection is what often leads to the most interesting path of ideas, what so tempts the imagination..
© Unchosen Paths LLC
We are two man Indie dev team. This means production time is a big deal. When creating a game that is to be released on the PC platform primarily, its pretty important that you take into account what happens when players run your game on the vast variety of monitors and resolutions available. More assets means more time. This is the eternal struggle of Men. Well, mostly just us two.
