At the beginning of the game Sam is looking for Dean of course. For that, I wanted some graphics that contrasted with the Purgatory graphics that make up most of the game. So I did two things to that end. One, I sent him to the Nevada desert, so the ecosystem looks very specific and different, and two, I sent him into a convenience store full of colorful junk food. Here is the Nevada landscape:
I made (hopefully identifiable) Joshua trees, sagebrush, aloe, and yucca along with some random scrubby stuff. I also made the ground pebbly. Yay, internet research! ^_^
The convenience store is probably not finished yet. It was pretty fun to make all the little bags of chips and other items on the shelves. I've also included some pre-made convenience store shelves that come with the game. You can see them in the picture -- their quiet colors stay in the background and don't distract from the action. But I wanted MY consumer products to be attention-grabbing since most of the game will be set in nature. There are no Gas-n-Sips in Purgatory! These are graphics of all the delicious junk that Dean cannot have! (And Sam doesn't want. Except for maybe the cartons of salt.)
If you are familiar with American products, you can probably recognize some of these brands. But at the same time I wanted some plausible deniability. Where the writing would actually be legible, I changed it. So, for instance you would be able to read the "C" in Cheerios, or the "JIF" on the peanut butter jar, so I altered those letters. Here is a blow-up of some of the products. I like how they have the illusion of detail.
I worked hard on the Gas-n-Sip attendant's braided hair. Making the little sprites is definitely not my biggest talent but I don't give up!
I've set up my battle system specifically for Purgatory, so at this point I'm planning for Sam to not have regular fights on earth, but rather do some mini-games and puzzles. So in order to advance the plot in this location he has to dig up a bunch of graves and burn the corpses while the ghosts chase him around.
If they touch him more than three times it is game over. To make it tricky, the ghosts can pass through everything while Sam has to go around obstacles (like the spiky plants).
These ghosts are just place-holders; I'm going to make better ones later, but the mini-game is operational. Ghosts are a good enemy for Sam to tangle with on earth since there presumably aren't any in Purgatory.
Have I forgotten about poor Dean and Cas in this update? Well, I've been making lots of progress on the game mechanics in Purgatory, just nothing to show off visually. You can see here part of an "event." This kind of work is just as important as the graphics!
Thanks for reading! Comments and suggestions always welcome!
