Concept Art and Illustration

Having done all the research I needed to do to start my game design (although there will still be a lot of research throughout the project), I felt it was time to draft out a design in note form.

The first thing I worked on was the Monster creation at the begining of the game, which takes the form of probability based gene selection. Upon starting the game, you will be taken to a menu, resembling a laboratory where they will be shown a straightened out helix with four selectable genes. These genes will then have four options as to what that gene should be. The player can then choose, based on a brief description what body, limbs, mouth and sensors they want their creature to have. The option they chose will then have a 70% chance of being a part of the creature. The other 30% will then be distributed amongst the  other genes, with 10% each. This ensures that the player is kept surprised by their monster. I think this will greatly help keep the players interest. To add a bit more randomness to the process, I have added another two, completley random and unadjustable genes. These genes are for the monster's growth and a gene that simply deals with "other" features, such as wings and extra limbs.
I am pretty much completely happy with this design. However, I would've liked to have added a lot more gene options to the game. Unfortunatly time does not permit. I think that the amount of variables I have added so far are more than enough to created plenty of interesting and sufficently weird monsters. Also, there is always the possibility of adding downloadable content to add more genes later on.

The next stage of play is the pet mode. Where the player can look after and be entertained by their unique and personal monster. The player can feed, train, entertain or clean up after their pet. Despite it being a personal pet game, I do not want there to be too much focus on feeding and cleaning up after their pet. This will merely be a necessity that helps the player bond a little bit more with their monster. As shown in the deliberatly frustrating adultswim game My Lil' Bastard, this can cause the player to actually hate their pet. My solution to this is to have only one kind of food which is fed to the creature once a day, and to have the creature created mess and waste slowly so that the player doesn't have to constantly think about cleaning. I have, however, taken one lesson from the game My Lil' Bastard. In order to clean, the player must drag the waste over to the bin, which is provided in every habitat. This adds a small personal touch to cleaning up by adding a small amount of labour. In terms of entertainment, the monster can be encouraged to, or simply try on it's own, four different activities. Television and video games, reading, juggling and piano. Each activity effect the monsters later appearance and behaviour in different ways, giving your monster a slightly more diverse and unique personality.
The monster, if left unchecked will roam around the environment freely, playing with the various items scattered around the game. The creature will also continue to do so when you are not playing the game. However, the player can punish or reward the monster by interacting with it in a few ways. Taking influence from the Lionhead Studios classic, Black & White, you can reward and punish your monster by stroking it or striking it. If you stroke it too much, however, your creature will become needy and ask for attention from you constantly. If you strike it too much, although it will stop doing what you punished it for, it will become more violent towards you and attempt to attack your finger when you touch the screen to interact with something. These forms of positive and negative reinforcment should only be used in extreme circumstances. Otherwise there are less harsh ways of conditioning your monster, but they will need to be done a few times before the monster gets the idea.

This is all I have in terms of design so far and have not yet started work on the "Rampage" mode. I am happy with what I have done so far, although I still needs a fair bit of spit and polish. Although it is difficult to see which areas need work without testing, there are a few holes in the design, such as environments and how to tell what your monster needs and wants.


I have also started on the visual design. I have created a couple of pieces of quick pencil concept pieces (Fig 1), along with a fair few illustrations for the design document.

Fig. 1 Quick pieces of colourless concept art to show the kind of attitude and style I want the game to have.

I have most the artwork done, in terms of line work. The only problems I have had so far with the artwork are getting the monsters to look like a single, unique creature, as opposed to some sort of frankenstein creature where loads of animals have been stitched together to make one creature, and mammals. For some bizzare reason, I have have had trouble getting the form of mammals to look right and is the only thing I have needed more than a quick reference picture from Google Images to improvise around. The best help I got was from a book called DragonArt: How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures by J. "NeonDragon" Peffer. I used her excellent instruction on drawng dragons and claws to create my own mammillian body and claws.