Extended Practice Main Character Initial Ideas and Development

I then moved into starting the design process into my character and this was a really exciting stage as I could see my character come to life in the flesh. I start off by trying to get onto paper some really rough initial ideas so that I could get an idea about what it was that I wanted to create in the end. These designs were very sketchy but did help me to think about the next stage into what I wanted to create.

I then looked further into the design of the head of the koala, taking note from reference images that I had been looking at. I wanted to ensure that I had looked at a range of different styles before finalising on the one that I found worked the best. I wanted to look at lots of different head shapes and sides along with looking at different ear shapes and sizes and found that the best one was a very round face with very round perky ears. When looking at Koala's I couldn't seem to find images of older looking Koala's so during the final stages there will be some things added to make him seem older.

I then moved onto looking at different bodies that would be on the character and again wanted to look at a range of different ones before settling on a final design. While doing this I again looked at a lot of different ranges of shapes and in the end really liked a certain few, especially the first two and the fourth as these where all designs that looked cute and gave off a very childish theme. But the design that stood out the most was the seventh one that had slightly shorter legs, which koala's do have. I really thought this looked a little more unique and gave the opportunity to give the character more of a small pot belly as well.

This is then the final look at the moment, and I really do like it. I think the head works well with the body and once the character has clothing it will add more to the character as a whole.Overall I think the kind look to the character works well and the shape of the ears at the moment give a very friendly and childish appearance that when clothing is added will be accentuated further.

I then wanted to look at how the colour of the koala can be changed slightly. Koala's natural come in a very limited colour range, which usually goes from grey to a brown-grey so I first wanted to look at the colours in between here to see how the colours could range. I then wanted to go a step further to see what he would look like and although unrealistic they do look bright and colourful, but in the end I will be sticking with a traditional koala colour scheme. Out of the colours explored here the middle top one is looking more favourable as it isn't all grey and has a hint of brown in there as well.

I then moved onto looking at lots of different costume ideas that could be used for the koala character and be featured throughout the whole game. The ideas that we came up with range from getting inspiration from existing games, to getting influence from the locations that have already been researched. I started by thinking of some generic designs before exploring some slightly more interesting ones. We also had the idea that he could wear a different out for different locations that he explores which would produce a really dynamic clothing range. This is a great idea, but due to time constraints on the project we decided to go with the first shirt idea as it gave off a more tourist meets elderly appearance, which is what we were trying to convey.

I then wanted to experiment with designs further and looked in detail about the shirt design, and first looked at how we would wear it. I looked at a buttoned up shirt with a big collar, no collar, unbuttoned and tied around his waist but in the end I decided that the one which was buttoned up but slightly incorrectly worked best, giving off a messy but cute appearance. I then wanted to experiment with colours and found that the brighter the shirt the better it looked and decided to settle on the hawaiian shirt idea in the end as it produced the ultimate tourist look to the character.

I then looked into the short design and looked at how there could be different ways the character wore then, normally, a slightly shorter look, long but wearing them really high, pantaloon style and then ripped. But found that the shorter design worked the best and again I experimented with colour looking at the different colours that would work with the red shirt but found that the blue worked best in the end.

I then looked at his sandals and looked at how these could be developed. I again looked at a range of different ideas, looking into different sandal design that could be on the character and eventually settled on the first one again that had more of a jesus sandal design to it and had the socks underneath as well. This to me creates a very grandad looking appearance.

I then lastly wanted to look at the backpack design and looked at different shapes that he could carry around with him for the level and store the collectibles in as he gets them as well. I wanted the backpack to be fairly small and compact on his back but still wanted it to be key to his character. I then experimented with different colours and thought that the yellow would work well with the rest, keeping the design bright and colourful and appealing to children.