Final Project: FPS Character #6- Cyclops

A manned mech from the not-so-distant future, armed and ready for war

Unique Character Identifiers: 

Spherical Cockpit (H), X-Shaped ‘Eye’ (H), Blocky Shoulders

Colour(s): 

Yellow

Design Notes: 

Unlike most of the other characters, the Cyclops bears very little resemblance to its original prototype, as I ended up going for a completely different design during the development process. Its armaments are intended to be customisable, with players being able to swap the guns and missile launchers for other weapons if they wish

Final Project: FPS Character #5- Wanda

A young witch living in the modern age armed with magical powers

Unique Character Identifiers: 

Scarf (H), Coat, Boots

Colour(s): 

Red, Black

Design Notes: 

My initial idea for this character came from wanting to design a FPS character who used magic instead of a weapon. After messing around with other concepts, including one very stereotypical wizard, I eventually had the bright idea of basing the character in a modern setting. Her facial features are based on those of actress Emma Watson

Design and Development sketches for Wanda

Wanda Final Concept

Final Project: FPS Character #4- Panther

A jungle warrior living in a prehistoric world, hunting and stalking her prey

Unique Character Identifiers: 

Skull Helmet (H), Leopard Pelt Clothing

Colour(s): 

Black/ Dark Brown, Yellow, Bone

Design Notes: 

Panther’s design is the result of two game concepts. The first involved traversing a rainforest-like setting and hunting animals, while the second involved the character using a bow and arrow and a spear as opposed to a gun. Interesting of not is her race; during the development stage, I had actually planned for her to be Caucasian, but during the final stage I realised a darker skin tone would better compliment the leopard pelt clothing she wore.

Design and Development sketches for Panther

Panther Final Concept

Final Project: FPS Character #3- Jurassic Soldiers

Genetically-engineered dinosaurs, bred for combat and armed to the teeth (sometimes literally)

Unique Character Identifiers: 

Dinosaur Head (H)/ Features, Bone Armour/ Weapons

Colour(s): 

Blue (Tricertops), Red (T-Rex), Green (Stegasaur)

Design Notes: 

A similar idea to the Dogs of War, only with dinosaurs, guns built from bones and a more brutish, mercenary look. As with the previous characters, I started by designing the primary character, which in this case was the Triceratops, and then used him as a template for designing the others. However, due to the radical differences between the dinosaur species, the other designs are not as uniform, resulting in each one having their own unique look

Design and Development sketches for the Jurassic 

Jurassic Soldiers Final Concept

Final Project: FPS Character #2- Dogs of War

A squadron of canine soldiers, ready to fight for freedom and liberty

Unique Character Identifiers: 

Tin Helmets (H), Dog Features, WW1 Uniforms

Colour(s): 

Olive Green

Design Notes: 

These characters are based on a simple and fairly obvious idea: dog soldiers wearing army uniform. I started by designing the Bulldog, who I used as a template for the others. I had intended to also design some cat soldiers to serve as enemies, but unfortunately I never got around to it

Final Project: FPS Character #1- Astrid

An explorer lost in space, wielding a gravity-warping alien artefact

Unique Character Identifiers: 

Contrasting hair colour (H), Space Helmet, Alien Orb

Colour(s): 

Teal-Green, Magenta-Red

Design Notes: 

Astrid was designed around an old game concept from my university years. It was intended to be like Portal, but with gravity manipulation instead of portals. Her facial features are based on those of model Susan Coffey

Design and Development sketches for Astrid

Astrid Final Concept

Final Project Brief and Prototype Characters

So, onto the final project. As I said in my last post, it's all pretty much done, so this is just dotting the i's and crossing the t's.

As I've also said a couple of times, my final project focused on designing new original gaming icons based on what I'd learned from all the redesigns I'd done. I wasn't originally sure about how I'd go about doing this, but after talking with Jim (one of my tutors) it was decided I'd design a group of characters based around a couple of game genres. 

3 Genres, 6 Characters each. 18 Characters in all

The characters I chose for this were all ones I felt had grown stale and could use a new, original 'icon' or two to reinvigorate them. The genres I chose were Platformer, Horror and First-Person Shooter.

I started by creating several pages of prototype characters for each genre and then picking a slect few to develop further. You can see these prototypes below:-

Platformer Prototypes

These characters were each designed with their own specific game mechanic in mind

FPS Prototypes

These characters were each designed around variants of having a projectile weapon of some kind

Horror Prototypes

These characters were designed as enemies and are intended to be scary as hell

The next 18 posts will be about each of the 18 characters I chose and designed. First up is the Platformers. I'm going to try and keep them relatively short, so don't worry about having to read several walls of text.