So, in previous posts I talked about drawing the graphics for the maps, and making the little sprites of Sam, Dean, and Cas, who walk around the screen. Without finishing any of that ^_^ I have now begun working on the enemy graphics. The enemy pictures are large and not animated. They just stand there. They don't actually bite you. You have to suspend your disbelief. The text will tell you when you've been bitten. ^_^
I made a list of monsters who would likely be wandering around in Purgatory, where the game is set. Here is my list at the moment: Leviathans, Wendigos, Vampires, Shifters, Wraiths, Werewolves, Djinn, Rugarus, maybe Vetalas and Skinwalkers. Also, for the scenes that are not in Purgatory, ghosts and demons.
Most of the monsters in Supernatural look humanish, and the distinguishing eyes/claws/fangs wouldn't really show in the relatively small pictures that will be used in the game. But that's okay, they will be labelled with text. So far I've drawn two kinds of monsters, the Leviathans and the Vampires. I looked up poses on the internet for help since I am not a master artist. I am, however, much more confident drawing these bigger pictures than making the tiny pixel art sprites.
Here is the Leviathan:
I have a drawing tablet which I love and which is much more responsive than drawing with a mouse. The way drawing tablets work is you draw with a stylus on a black rectangular device, and the lines show up on your computer screen, in whatever drawing program you are using. Cool!
Once the "battler" (technical term) is drawn, it's fun to change the colors of the various elements. That way I can have different strengths of Levis that appear, so players can learn to fear the one in the brown pants the most. ^_^ This picture shows a background that's made of two parts, a top and a bottom. The bottom, the ground they are standing on, is my in-progress attempt to make the Purgatory forest floor. I have yet to start on making the top, which will be the trees in the background, so what you see there is a default whimsical forest pic that comes with the game. It's just filling in for now. Anyway, it's cool that the tops and bottoms are separate so I can mix and match. (If I make a bunch of different views of Purgatory. Go xoferew!)
Here is the Vampire:
Yeah, nothing particularly vampiric looking about her but anyway. I like her. I may eventually make male vamps too, but right now I am just having fun doing a little bit of everything. In this screenshot you can see more of the background (battleback) through the transparent battle menu.
Here is what it looks like while I'm working on the drawing:
You can see the photo I'm using as a pose reference, and you can see I pasted another reference photo, the tank top, on top of the model. On the right you can see all the layers of the drawing. For example, I have one layer for the line drawing, one for the flat hair color, and one for the detail of the hair. That way I can change the hair all I want without messing up the rest of the picture. This is the program FireAlpaca. It's free! Seriously, if you like to draw and you don't have a graphics program that does layers, download this today. Alpacas are the greenest animal.
These big monster graphics can't roam about on the map with the little sprites of course, so I guess I'll have to make some cute little animated sprites for them eventually. *Whimper.*
What else have I been tinkering with? Here is what the status window looks like at the moment:
I did these character portraits a year ago and I'm kind of worried about them because I need to use them AND OTHERS for when the characters converse. Sam and Dean should each have at least six expressions. That will take me a million years to do, but it will add a lot to the game.
The status window shows Sam and Dean both as "Hunters" but I wanted a different designation for Sam. I thought of Hunter/MoL, but the whole Men of Letters plot is AFTER the Purgatory storyline, so that doesn't fit. "Hunter" is a "class." In this kind of game, "class" determines what types of weapons you can equip, what skills you can learn, and what strengths and weaknesses you have. I can have two different classes with the same name, so even if Sam and Dean are both "Hunters," they can have different skills. I think during certain circumstances I will have Sam temporarily switch class to "Special Child." Then he will have different abilities. Mwa ha ha.
Also, I've been working on a fishing mini-game. All video games should have a fishing mini-game! Dean can catch the fish. Cas can cook them. Delish. The fish pictures here are icons I made. Icons are tiny graphics, 32 pixels square. I need to make an icon for every item, weapon, and tool in the game. Well, it was kind of entertaining making twelve different kinds of fish.
So that's my update. I welcome constructive criticism about the artwork, the list of monsters to include, anything. Thanks for reading!
