Game Logo Design

With the game logo, I felt it was really important I got across the rivalry of the characters in the game.  For this reason I decided the fonts used for "Jocks" and "Goths" in the logo should really contrast.  I explored a range of different fonts - I looked at thin, elegant and somewhat horror-esque fonts for "Goths" and strong, bold, blocky Letterman style fonts for "Jocks."

I then selected my favourite fonts and create some quick layout mock ups.

I decided the typography looked too bare without a background and I thought the lined paper inspired pattern here fitted the theme of "high school" rivalry without being too distracting.  I was also initially going to added some illustrations to frame the text, however after some feedback I was advised "less is more."

Final Character Designs

Character Colour Palettes

I've been exploring different colour palettes for my characters.  Each "stereotype" will have a distinct colour scheme in order to be easily recogniseable and more unified.

For the Goths I focused on dark, gritty, dreary colours - lots of dark shades and blacks with the occasional tint to create visual interest.

The Burn Outs have palettes consisting of dirty, grungy colours such as khaki and maroon balanced with pastels like lilac to mimic their earthy, laid back personalities.

The Nerds were a bit trickier.  I wanted to get across their tech-savvy but somewhat timidness.  I used metallic cold grays with pale, pastel tints and splashes of energetic reds/greens/blues.

Finally, the Jocks palette needed to be vibrant and energetic to communicate their athleticism. I used lots of loud, vibrant and fresh colours such as orange, lime and turquoise and also looked to sports teams for inspiration - For example the purple and yellow was inspired by The Lakers NBA team.

Thumbnails

Some rough thumbnails for the mock screenshots I'll be creating.  From left to right I'll be mocking up the title screen; main menu; loading screen; VS option character select; stage with gameplay; player x wins screen; player x wins options.

My final result will only concern the VS option pathway for the game, but I'll work up a more in depth pathway diagram for the game as a whole.

I've been focusing mainly on character design lately so these thumbnails aren't an accurate representation of the game's final graphic design- their purpose is to get a better idea of what will need done.  Will update as I go.

Character Silhouettes

Ideally I would have a lot more silhouettes for each character design, however as I've tasked myself with designing a total of 10 characters (female and male counterparts for Jocks, Hipsters, Goths, Nerds and Burn-Outs) I've stuck to 4 silhouettes each for now.

Sketches

I've been doing some rough sketches before I move in to the silhouette stage of my character designs.  I find this is the best way to get rid of cliché ideas and get a feel for how the characters' shapes, proportions and poses will be pushed.  This post is a work in progress so I'll be updating it with more sketches shortly.

Figuring out how the styles proportions will work.

Sketch compliation

"Goths Vs Jocks" Mood Board

Mood board for "Goths Vs Jocks."  I've been looking a lot at contemporary illustrators such as Alessandra Criseo for inspiration for the character designs and I want the game itself to have the cartoony feel of Skullgirls with the humour of Scott Pilgrim The Game.

2D Fighting Game Research and "Goths Vs Jocks" Game Brief

After looking in to different game genres, I noticed that pretty much all modern 2D fighting games were done in an anime style, usually featuring scantily clad female women.  

Skullgirls (Lab Zero Games, Reverge Labs, 2011) features all female characters in an anime-esque style.  The game was criticised for its inappropriately dressed  characters and "juvenile animations."

Mortal Kombat 2 (Midway, [arcarde] 1993) is a rare example of a 2D fighting game in a non-Anime style.  The developers strove for realism however as this was developed in 1993, the graphics are obviously not as advanced as today.

BlazBlue:  Calamity Trigger (Arc System Works, 2010) is a traditional anime style fighter.

Persona 4 Arena (Atlus, 2013) is a fighting game based on an Anime television series.  As a result it is heavily story driven with a story mode that can be difficult to follow.  However the game has some fantastic, edgy UI and beautiful environments that will be worth looking in to further.

After researching this genre further I have decided to design a 2D fighter for my game concept, avoiding the previously addressed trivialities.  A 2D fighter also allows a lot of scope for interesting character, environment and UI design.

My game idea revolves around the concept of high school stereotypes and is entitled "Goths Vs Jocks."

Brief:

You are the lead artist for the upcoming game "Goths Vs Jocks" - a 2D fighting game for the gamers of Generation Y (14+) and fighting game enthusiasts.  The game will feature a range of bizarre characters inspired by the subcultures of the millennial generation's high school years.  A tongue-in-cheek comment on the exaggeration of these stereotypes in our culture.

You are in charge of conceptualising the over all feel for the game, including environments, GUI and characters.  Character designs will be based on caricatured versions of the following stereotypes:

Goths; jocks; burn-outs; hipsters and nerds.