Character production

Character concept.

Brain storm

This is what I first did to find an idea, for my character, I did a brainstorm of different ideas, where I came up with the idea to create a butcher, an angry character from a game, if he was a game character his background would be him being a boss and then you as the player you would hunt him down and destroy him, he has a large clever and rugged clothes, but he looks after himself to a point. his bio then has come from the traits and personality which has he. angry, poor orphan, confused, these traits all create this character vibe and give him emotion. You do not feel for him but, you want to see him. 



I have collected a bunch off images, and they are from films and TV series which relate to my character. They show different types off a psychos, some have two separate lives and then others are just off there head.  



































This character is called Dexter from the TV series Dexter. He was a character working for the Miami police department, he was a blood expert, but in his spare time he takes the streets and selects victims which have done wrong to people, so he killed ex convicts and murders etc. He isn't a large man but is clever and can get the job done.




This character is played by Christian Bale in American Psycho. His character bio was he worked for a large accounting company, but in his spare time he would kill anyone in anyway he could, even though he kept it quiet he was more off psycho in the sense that he would kill people in the streets and leave them there instead off being careful and disposing off bodies.

Freddie and Jason, they are both characters from different films but then bought together and had a fight in Freddie Vs Jason, but they are two different villains, Jason was a large angry character who used brute force and power, and didn't think much into schemes, unlike Freddie who thought about stuff before he killed, he was a dream killer but would use a characters fears against them instead off causally butchering them like Jason would off.

So these two different evil characters, both have a different way off doing something but are both effective characters, which are designed to strike fear into the audience.





















Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lecter and he was a character which also used his brain and hacked people up but he also cooked them up and eat them.



Then there was The Joker who was played by Heath Ledger and his character was the arch nemesis off Batman, He was a psycho in a sense off he loved to just blow stuff up and kill people, the Joker was and still is one off the best characters in the films and comic books. He was thin and slim, and still a very effective villain.






But in all from films or games, psychos have come in all forms and different sizes. Some can be a large brute which kills people from nothing but being angry and being massive and brute force helps them but then some are clever and have weird little schemes.

Kane from WWE in see no evil.

Silhouettes

All of these psychotic film characters have been played well, I have gone for the brute force from Kane in the film see no evil, but then all of the characters have the strange wide eyes so i will use that from them and apply it to my own character, Dexter clothing is something that i liked the look off, the apron look has suited my character very well.

Selection of weapons 

A butcher tool is normally is a meat clever as that is most effective when cutting through
 bone and flesh so I have chosen to use this for my character as has that role.

Kitchen Knives collection.These are silhouettes off my character design, I have done 5 different character bodies and then copied them and but on items off clothing. 

The character with the green circle round is a character concept that just doesn't look right for the character concept that i'm going with, so then I then went with the character highlighting in yellow and then after putting clothes on him i changed his body slightly and then the blue that I did first was slightly to big but even though he was smaller, and then then one highlighted in red is the more finished body shape to what im thinking off doing, it has a large pot belly but then a thin top half. 
The character will be a thin surprising arch nemesis type character who has a lot off intelligent ideas about how to butcher someone.

These are a quick couple off sketches on different sizes. They show the different body shape ideas before i came up with the final one which was the broader shoulders and a large over weight belly, but with that it slightly changed to a character with a double chin, and large chubby arms and legs.
The character looks a lot better as large character as he is a slow sluggish boss character.

These are concept shots of my character. They show the character from different perspectives. These rough shots show the colour scheme of the character and what he will look like.

These 3 images are some other rough designs to what the character could look like and what he could wear.





The black and white image was just plain paper and pencil and then i went over the colours with water colour and then i flicked red paint on to the apron to create the blood splatter effect.





This shot is of the character and he is at a finished stage of what size he is and what weapon he will be holding, He will have an old style top without a collar, and then welly boots which are east to wash blood off, and then old trousers which are dark and plain. Then he will be wearing a hat and apron covered in blood. 

Here is a orthographic shot of my character.

This is the digital version of my final piece of art work, this is an A3 sized image.

Character background

Name : Jack

Age : 32 

Bio : Grow up in a bad town, called Billstown, a  town full of corruption and death, Jack, was a small boy who grow up in a children home and he was kicked to the streets when he was 16 and then he got bullied and beaten up while living on the streets. 
After his distraught, he became confused and starting killing everyone as he blamed the world for his misfortune and then he went on to constant killing of people, he took it upon himself to move into an abandoned slaughterhouse and make his presence there known, he wonders the streets looking for people to kill to fill his thirst. 
When he gets found out a young detective seeks him out and then they go toe to toe as they fight each other, but Jack the Butcher has his slaughterhouse covered in traps and weird looking ornaments, like peoples heads on a stick and peoples corpse stuck onto to the walls and the fridges and are covered with animal and human meat which are hanging on the hooks through out the large building.    


Character 3D modelling stage. 

This is the stage where I have begun to make the model in 3ds Max, he has had clothes made for him. The apron and the meat clever are separate objects. The hat he is wearing is extruded from top of the models head and will always be attached to him.  

My history of games

History of Games

History of games.

One of the first platforming games was Donkey Kong which was released in 1981/80 and it was on the arcade machine. Shigeru Miyamoto was asked to come up with a game idea for the arcade machine and his idea was Donkey Kong and from there it was a hit as it had a introduced a unique character known as carpenter. Donkey Kong was created buy Nintendo and originally they were a card game company before going into the electronic games business. Miyamoto was a strange Japanese bloke as most Japanese people didn't really like the idea of western products like clothes or music etc. This is why Miyamoto was different as he liked western products like the beetles.

This was the first part of the game you would see on the screen. The image on the right was the game play shot of the game.
They introduced a new character which was a carpenter character, but strangely enough the character design was originally a plumber.

 This is a link showing the game play of Donkey Kong, you were the little man climbing up the screen to find the women or item. This was the start of multi-levels and it was a good success.
The game has a simple goal, get to the end of the level and beat the enemies along the way. Donkey Kong shows you the item, or women that you need to rescue or collect. This is shown on the same screen as there is only one screen per level as it was a arcade game.
But finding the end of levels can be difficult to find but with the help of a big castle or area where you need to find is usually shown in some games like Zelda, as you can look in the distance you travel the path and it takes you there. Games with bigger open worlds use signs to show you which direction to go in. A funny thing about Donkey Kong is that the title was actually going to be called "Stubborn Gorilla" but none the less the game did very well selling up to 67 thousand units. With Donkey Kong, the multi-levels gave games a new look especially as it continued to be a success in other games, in Mario there are a few different multi-level game play levels as well as a lot of platformer games.

Another iconic platformer was Super Mario Bros(Nintendo). which was out on the NES and it was released in 1985, Super Mario Bros. was a game which had a lot of hidden gems hidden within the game. As you continue down levels the levels normally have secret hidden items that you can look for, this gives a sense of exploration. Super Mario Bros. was on the NES and with the NESif you was to make a game for this console you would need to get in touch with Nintendo before being able to start developing one and this means that Nintendo had license protection, and then Nintendo would test the games before releasing them. The strange thing is, that you was only able to make 5 games for the NES. When the NES was released it came with a gun and then ROB which was a small robot, it was also marketed as an entertainment system. With Mario it gives you a high score going through each level but Golden Axe never did even though similar style, especially as they are both platformer games, but with Super Mario Bros. The character changes size when find mushroom. The visuals of most early platform games are similar as they are bright and colourful. Even though the very early games were actually black and white with a gel screen in front of them which made them appear to be colour. The music can vary from the different styles of games. This link is to Super Mario Bros.
















In 1989 Golden Axe was released on the Sega Genesis. This game was a platformer fighting game. A thing with this game is that it you can ride beasts while fighting and commencing through the different levels, it is very similar to Super Mario in a sense as you explore the level and the level HUD shows you which way to go with arrows (the arrow is a golden sword with go above it). This gives you the direction you need to go in. The music of Golden Axe is dark as the theme of the game is dark, so with that they need to be similar. Other game points is that you have a choice to kill a enemy and then take his pet (or the beast he is riding)

 That link is video footage of Golden Axe and it shows the fighting and music etc. The fighting and music can relate to Jurassic park as it has the same style of fighting in it, just a couple of moves to kill the enemies, the music has the dark effect as I wrote before and in Jurassic park it has that same style theme.











Jurassic Park : Rampage edition was released on the Sega Mega Drive in 1994 and it was an action based platformer, the whole level design was tropical and had a distinct vibrant colour theme, It has bright blues and greens which have been related to the film which was based on a tropical island. The HUD design can relate to Prince of Persia in a sense as it only has a health and power bar at the top left hand corner which powers up when you kill enemies. This can be related to all games as most games incorporate this special power idea when you do certain stuff on a level. Other visual content was character and enemies which had a darker look to them, in the game there was only a few different enemies, weather it be a dinosaurs or a soldier. When you fight it only gives you a couple of options as the Sega Mega Drive only had a few buttons to push as shown in this image.



The link below shows the player as the Raptor, and with this you start at the bottom of the level. The platformer shows how the multi-level gameplay has come forward since Donkey Kong, There is multi-platforms rising up and down in the levels and it gives you the option to choose how to get up the level.










In 1997 Oddworld : Abe's Oddyee  was released on the PlayStation 1 and this game was a platformer. It had cinematic shots in the game.

Abe's Oddysee was a game released in the late 90's and the game was based on Abe rescuing his native friends and kin, along the way, you see many different enemies. You are a slave and aim to get away from the bosses and the main boss was Molluck the Glukkon. 
Oddworld : Abe's Oddysee was a very basic game especially when it came to the HUD side of it, as the HUD wasn't really there. It had no heads up display, the screen on the game was what you saw. The attack system was different especially when you are Abe as you hold two of the trigger buttons to take control of enemies, but when you are in control of other species they have different attacks.

The visual feel of this game was dark, it had a slight humour to it in cinematic, but the overall look and feel to it was dark, one species slaved one in charge.

there are so many different levels with different environment designs and they go from dark buildings to bright orange levels like in the image.

The game I have chosen from the past few years is Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands. This game is a platformer hack and slash adventure game and it has features which you can see that have come from older platform games. Prince of Persia is a game which has monsters from the dead and huge creatures from the past. The enemies you encounter can be seen in games like Golden Axe which was released in 1989, enemies like skeleton soldiers with ranged attacks like swords and ones with bow and arrows.

As in both images you can see similarities to the enemy design, the classic sword and shield and the sword has a slight curved tip with the sense of a Arabian sword style.



To the gameplay of the game. The platformer genre has been around for years, it has been seen in a simple arcade machine game known as Donkey Kong which had you following a path up a series of levels to rescue the women or item and even though you don't rescue anyone like you would in Donkey Kong it has been used slightly as you progress through the levels you find secret doors and boxes with items in like health, Health in games has been used massively through out the history of games. In 1984 health bars where used, and the two games that used it was Dragon Buster (1985 Namco) and Gemstone Warrior(1984 SSI), and these two games where the first to represent the health bar in a game.
Other game play features that are used in Prince of Persia are the ability to jump up walls and climb onto different levels.The link shows what I mean, at 1:04 it shows the character climbing a wall and jumping across different surfaces. The use of multi-levels in games has been around for years, it has been around since Donkey Kong the multi-player levels which allow you to progress up different levels, it has been used in that and has been used through out different games, not just platformers. A game called Super Mario Bros. and Abe's Oddysee These two games were made years a part. These two games allow the character in the game to jump on to different levels by pressing one button. This has been used in Prince of Persia as it allows you to do the same thing by running and jumping. The HUD (heads up display) is very very basic as it just displays the health bar on the top left hand corner. Most platformer games don't have a huge complicated HUD. Some have a target count like Super Mario Bros. which shows you how well you are doing, they may have a special skill, time limit or what stage you're on.
The Prince of Persia character design has a standard look and feel about it. The fighting system is complex in a way that you can get perfect combo's when fighting several enemies, this wasn't done in early games from the 70's or 80's or some games even in the 90's. This was because of maybe the game engines or consoles, but games these days all have combo's.

The character concept has a prince feeling to it, the character looks like a Persian/Arab prince, the dark hair and complex, the weapon and armour you wear is dark filled with white highlights. The characters from other platformers that I am comparing to has a different style approach. Mario is a small Italian guy wearing overalls, Abe is an alien, Golden Axe characters are quite different as they are basically naked. Then Dr. Grant is a palaeontologist, so you can see that there is a huge difference in the character designs even though they have a lot of similarities in other areas such as game play features like the multi-levels or game visual styles.

One feature that was in Prince of Persia was that you had been given the option to solidify water, you also had wind dash and earth memory recall. Each power gave you a different option you can freeze water, to get to places, like if you needed to climb up, wind dash was to jump across long distances and earth recall gave you the power to see the environment what it was like before. This is how it relates to older games because most games give you powers. For example in Oddworld : Abe's Oddysee as you chant and have a magical force when then lets you control the enemy,

Prince of Persia design

Golden Axe Character design.

Dr. Alan Grant.

Abe.

Mario

Conclusion.


To conclude this essay platformers have been a success will be around for a lot longer. The early ones that i have wrote about have built small foundations on this genre, Donkey Kong and its mulit-level design has changed the way levels are designed now as the play doesn't just have to go forward on one level, he can jump on to a few more levels and finish the level on a hgher ledge. Games which have included slash and dash fighting in them like Golden Axe has been put into so many other games like Devil May Cry (2001 Capcom) even though this isn't a platform game it still uses similar features, like progressing down a path or fighting enemies. Super Mario Bros. has created a huge open succession in platformers, since the 80's they have only got bigger with littlebig planet (2008 Sony). The killing the enemy way by jumping on them has been used in sonic and rayman for example.
So I think that they willl only go forward and they are still being developed and released today with a recent one called  Rayman Origins (2011 Ubisoft). It was given a 9.5 my IGN, So maybe platform games won't ever stop, they may just keep getting better and more realistic with re-makes of old games like Rayman Origins which was out in 1995 and was just called Rayman and it was out on PS1, Atari Jaguar and the Sega Saturn.





References websites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park:_Rampage_Edition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddworld:_Abe's_Oddysee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Axe


http://uk.ign.com/games/rayman-origins/xbox-360-77706