Player Character

Introduction

This is the document detailing the character assets added to the game by Team 4, covering the visual style of Runtime's player character and the basis for animation.

Design Considerations

The studio met to discuss the potential directions for the design of this character, the following guidelines and considerations were set to guide the general style of the character.

• The aesthetic of the character must align, and be consistent with, the context of the full game.
• The character should be created using vector-art-based software, and an 'svg' file should be stored for a backup.
• The character should be based on, or heavily inspired by the original concept art made by Kyle in Team 2.
• The character should have some resemblance to a theme of electricity/glow/ghostly concept art.

Concepts

Inspirations

Whether in the form of concept art by studio members, or pre-existing characters seen on a DVD production of Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase, multiple inspirations were factored in to the character's design.

The Phantom Virus

Concept Art by Kyle (Team 2)

Concept Art by Nicole (Team 4)

Mock-ups

Following the inspirations, an overall theme and style was decided on, and mock-ups were further designed and created using InkScape and Illustrator.

Below, are two examples of mock-ups created. These were then posed to the studio during one of our weekly meetings, in which the general direction was chosen. Both mock-ups applied the ground rules set at the beginning and were within the colour scheme/theme of Runtime. These were both well-received but the general decision was to go with the predominantly red-electric character shown last below.

Implemented Assets in Game

Method of Implementation

To add the character to the game, a single high-quality png was developed and added into the source/core/assets/images directory. This was then implemented into the game by changing the existing instances of "leaf_boy.png" (the original player character) to the newly implemented, and well-named, "virus_man.png". This was done in the AssetRenderer and PlayerFactory classes.

Additional Elements

Along with the single png image of the developed player character, a framework has been made to allow for animations in the future of Runtime, possibly in another sprint. This included a total of 6 spritesheets, and one atlas file. Currently, the animations have not been implemented in their entirety, however almost all of the required assets are there to do so.