Project: Burger Blast
Type: Game Art
Role: Pixel Art
The art below was created for a proposed mobile game with a major fast food brand. The game would be from a first-person perspective; the player would launch burgers from a "burger cannon" at hungry customers as the camera moved the player along. When the player reached the end of a level, the company mascot would replenish their supplies and the next level would begin. Photo reference was used to create a pixel version of the company mascot; the rest of the art was created from scratch in Photoshop.
Project: Zarkon the Destroyer's Intergalactic Smackdown
Type: Game Art
Role: Pixel Art
The pixel art for these gamescreens was created from scratch. The spaceship designs and fish guy were sketched out on paper first before being translated into game art pixel by pixel. These screens were then placed on the Spoof one-sheet as gameplay samples.
Project: Bull Run / Ragin' Rapids
Type: Game Art
Role: Pixel Art
The art below was created for a proposed mobile game with a major energy drink producer. There were two concepts batted around; one was that the player would be the bull, chasing down bullrunners in Spain. The other was that the player would be trying to escape a horrible death at the hands of the bull. Both concepts are imaged in the screens below.
These next screens were created for a white water kayaking game, where the player would race down a river and engage in small battles along the road to victory.
Project: Telly Sullivan's Parabolic Assault
Type: Game Art (Nintendo DS)
Role: Pixel Art
Below are screen layouts for the two gametypes in Telly Sullivan's Parabolic Assault for Nintendo DS. On the left side is Brawl Mode, where the player uses the bottom screen (the grid area) essentially like a mousepad. Moving the stylus on the bottom screen during Brawl Mode moves the circular reticule on the top screen, allowing the player to aim his selected weapon. The right screen shows Artillery Mode, which plays out like any of a number of classic artillery games. To launch a projectile, the player presses down on the bottom screen, drags down and away with the stylus to set angle and power, and then lifts the stylus to fire.
The icons below appear on the bottom screen during a Brawl game, when the player first spawns into the arena. The player is prompted to choose one of the weapons below before the game will continue. Photo reference was used to pin down the details of each weapon.
Weapon Selector, in-game:
Project: Telly Sullivan's Parabolic Assault
Type: Game Art (Mobile)
Role: Pixel Art
Each character for Telly Sullivan's Parabolic Assault was drawn in pixel form to match their Illustrator counterparts. Shown below is the character sheet with each character at actual game-size. On the far right is a screenshot with Telly in-game, surrounded by the game interface. The interface, like the characters themselves, was designed and painted in Photoshop.
What's pictured below is a sequence created for this game's design document. The moon is one of the games 'special' levels, where the player is faced with a few options for defeating their opponent. Instead of aiming for the bad guy on his platform, the player can choose to destroy the enemy's structure to bring him down to the terrain level.
Here's another special level where the player can destroy Vinnie Gambone's HQ.
Project: Telly Sullivan's Parabolic Assault
Type: Game Art (Mobile & Nintendo DS)
Role: Pixel Art
These backgrounds were created pixel by pixel in Photoshop for the mobile version of Telly Sullivan's Parabolic Assault. They were also used as the basis for the DS background art, which ended up simply having more sky, so the camera could pan around. For the mobile version, each of these was designed at 176x220 with an emphasis on being able to tile them horizontally. This game was an updated version of "Artillery", so during gameplay, terrain would be drawn procedurally over these images and the player and his enemy would be placed on the terrain.
Bone Desert
Earth Core
Great Wall
Moon
Olive Garden
Great Plains
Rainforest
Windy City
Frozen Tundra
Galactic Cashier
Above is a mockup of a small video game project that I'm not sure I have the skills to actually make. I like the art, and have no trouble putting those assets together. But I need to learn a lot of coding to bring this into existence, so expect it to be released some time in 2256. Maybe someone out there will steal the idea and make it. If you do, hit me up so I can help with the art. The game idea here is that you're behind the register at a quickie mart located on a space station. The goal was to combine my experiences as a WaWa cashier with my love of classic pixelated games.
The gameplay itself is inspired by Lucas Pope's excellent "Papers Please" as well as Vertigo Gaming's "Ore No Ryomi 2". You'd help customers one at a time, and each customer would have a specific set of requests. You'd scan each item by dragging it over the scanner, then dragging and dropping into the bag below. Then if they asked for "Free Range Snerdlings", for instance, you'd click the "Free Range Snerdlings" button and enter into a mini-game where you'd corral a bunch of skittering creatures and put them in a container. Then you'd scan that container and drag it into the big bag at the bottom. Dragging the full bag over the customer and letting go completes the sale. Once a customer is finished, he walks/slithers off either happy or sad, and depending on how nice you were or how accurately/fast you completed the order, you'll be paid some amount of money. Once you've saved enough money, you can buy a spaceship to leave the station and the game ends.
There would be "Rush Hours" where you'd see spaceships at the top zooming into the station and creating long lines of customers, so it's harder to get every sale correct and accurate. I was also toying with the idea of robberies, and upgrades to the store that let you bag faster, etc.
Regarding Henry - NES
This is an idea that came to me while watching Regarding Henry for the 1057th time on cable. I also hadn't done any graphic design or pixel art for a while so it gave me a chance to practice those.
Screens:
Die Hard: The Game
In my continuing mission to bring my often bizarre game ideas to life, I conceived of a new Die Hard game and began to make 3d models for it. It would take the best chunks of past games, add in a Rainbow Six: Vegas style cover system, and killer enemy AI to recreate the tension of the movies.
I first thought that a game simply based on the first film would be pretty cool, but then I discovered and played through Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza. I felt that that game was a bit too faithful to the movie in some respects, and there were too many terrorists. I wanted to have to bide my time and wait for the right moment to nail each terrorist, instead of simply shooting through wave after wave. Next I picked up Die Hard: Vendetta, which was actually really good, except that its graphics and animation work appeared very dated. The best part was the dialogue and voice acting. The smartass remarks and swearing really gave the game a Die Hard feel.
It was around this time that I also became addicted to the Terrorist Hunt levels in Rainbow Six: Vegas. I thought that an entire game could be built on the concept of having to clean all of the terrorists out of an area, and in Die Hard: The Game, I envision that the levels would be immense. If loading needed to occur it would happen as transparently as possible, such as in the brief pause in games like Half-Life. The player could backtrack, and terrorist supply boxes would be spread around so the player could save and get ammo. But the terrorists would be smart. Think Counter Strike: Condition Zero smart. The terrorists would follow set routines, moving from one area to another to complete objectives of their own; and the only way to take them out would be to wait for the right time and place, or even to use the right item. In certain instances, the player would be prompted to hit special button combos (similar to the button combos in Resident Evil 4) to dodge, sprint, break through doors, etc.
The levels would be Nakatomi Plaza, Dulles Airport, various urban landscapes, and maybe some other, more original levels such as a crowded football stadium, a cruise liner, a bank. Really the possibilities are limitless; and as more levels are created they could be offered in sets of 3-5 as an expansion or on Xbox Live for about 10 bucks.
In the near future I'll do some animation exercises and maybe mock up a few screens. Once again, this is a simple graphics and animation exercise; at present I have no programming ability. But, maybe a Die Hard fan with some bucks will stumble across this page and help make this game happen. I'd buy it.
Star Trek II: The Game
II've recently been working on a Star Trek II game mockup that's been bugging me for the last several months. I just finished a model of the Reliant:
The gameplay could best be described as Star Trek: Bridge Commander meets Star Control II. In fact, I envision that the combat portion of the game would play out in much the same way as it did in Totally Games' Bridge Commander. You'll see obvious similarities in the first screenshot below. One feature I added was a little 'warp' button that would allow the player to flee combat and enter warp.
While the story of Wrath of Khan would be the main thread of this game, the player could actually go to a starmap, select a destination, and warp there. Certain destinations would trigger alien encounters and the player would be given side-quests.
The player could also do planetary/system scanning from the bridge, select an away team, and beam down to the surface of planets. This would trigger a switch to a third-person view behind Kirk or whoever the team leader is, with tabs on the left side of the screen with the other crewmembers' faces; the player could then switch between members of the away team, or give the whole team larger orders like 'attack', 'evade', 'search', etc.
The starmap would be Star Trek authentic and have the appropriate charted borders for the Neutral Zones and other Alien-held territories. Players could venture into those territories but risk being stopped/attacked by the native species.
While warping to different destinations, a mini starmap would be displayed next to a large image of the Enterprise flying steadily through stretchy starlines. A menu to the right would have game options as well as an option to 'explore the ship' so the player could run around the Enterprise doing small quests and gathering information.
Khan could pop in at any moment, like Jaws, wreak some havoc, and then escape before you kill him. Naturally the famous episodes of the second Trek film would be faithfully re-created in-game.
I'm planning to mock up a few more screens to get a better idea of the different areas of the game, and I may even put together a brief mockup video of some gameplay (using Maya). This is all just an exercise really, since I have no programming ability, no money, and no access to the Star Trek license. It feels good though to scratch this itch and get it out of my system.