Monday, August 26, 2013

Pingouin & Raptor: Tiles (part 2)



New tiles!
I also changed the red tile into a purple one.
49 done, 41 to go!

Friday, August 16, 2013

Pingouin & Raptor: Tiles (part 1)

Time for tiles!
There are 90 different tiles to make, fortunately I can divide them into 45 pingouins and 45 raptors.
Still that's a huge lot! ^^
With Pingouin & Raptor: Katakanas, I made a lot of costumes for them therefore I already have a nice list of ideas.
For Hungry Cat Mahjong we used 3 categories of cat (kitten, young and old cat), and declined them into different colors and  costumes. And there were 4 tile colors. Here I cannot use this trick the same way. I have 2 categories of animals, so I will use 6 different tile colors. I can change the colors of the outfits, but not those of Pingouin & Raptor... Well, even though I can cheat a little on this, making the Raptor sick or angry, for example.
Here are the 24 first tiles: 


A quick mock-up:

It seems I will have to decrease the saturation of the backgrounds.

Only 66 new tiles to go!

Monday, August 12, 2013

Pingouin & Raptor Mahjong: Backgrounds

It took some time but I finally have all the backgrounds ready!
All are Japanese typical sceneries: 
- 2 for the menus: Mt Fuji and Tokyo tower
- I made 7 in-game backgrounds and I must chose 6 of them. 3 are very traditional, a cherry tree, a Hiroshima Torii and a little temple. The 4 others are urban: Akihabara, the Skytree, the famous 109 building and Harajuku station.



For the in-game backgrounds, I worked on a generic dark frame and I balanced the colors and brightness. I added a wave pattern on some of them. I will probably have to work on them later with the final tiles.
In the end, I didn't select the 109 building :/ Of course I can always change my mind :D

Friday, August 2, 2013

Pingouin & Raptor Mahjong: Final Mock-ups

A quick update today:
I finally have all the mock-ups ready \o/

And a new background \o/

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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Pingouin & Raptor Mahjong: Backgounds time!

Finally it's time to make backgrounds!
There's 2 for the main menu and 6 for the in-game part.
I want to make some geek, cute and fun Japanese scenery XD
As I already mentioned, I have in mind all the issues we faced two years ago for Hungry Cat Mahjong.
Regarding backgrounds, the first pictures I made were too bright and colorful (you can see them here)
It couldn't work because the tiles needed to be enhanced for they are the main gameplay element, and they were drowned into the pictures.
In the end, a generic frame in a single hue was placed upon each picture to darken it.

This time, I try to make those pictures fit as background elements immediately. The 2 main screens are the easiest to make as I know exactly what will figure on them. Some hue changes and we're almost done! (Yes I did forget Pingouin & Raptor on the Tokyo Tower picture -_-)
But for the others... First attempt proves me that it will not be so easy, and I'll probably have to use the same trick with a generic frame on top of those pictures.

Next: more backgrounds \o/

Friday, July 26, 2013

Pingouin & Raptor Mahjong, step 3

Today is HUD and in-game elements.
With the result screen and in-game tutorial I can finally make up my mind on the generic text frame: beige is fitting well.
The victory (or defeat) scroll is standing out too much, I will have to find something more neutral like a pattern or a brush stroke.

Now the HUD: 
I use the usual lacquered boxes for the pause and melt icons, and I find out that the blue background color is too similar to the fish can icon. Information must stand out and it's time to test different colors! Maybe the red background that I so hardly try to use will match?! There's something to dig there :D

Tiles:
Well I worked a lot on those tiles with Tuesday Quest two years ago. We had to find the right size, angle, depth and pattern (a sardine can ^^) to make the game fun to play on small screens. For Pingouin & Raptor I wanted toy-like colorful bright plastic tiles. I used one of my very first tile test to get the new version. And then I quickly draw a few different sets of Pingouin & Raptor for the mock-up.

In the end I have the whole set of screens ready, a few improvements and I will be able to start the UI assets production. 


Next: backgrounds and a lot of cute Pingouin & Raptor ^^


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Pingouin & Raptor Mahjong, step 2

Now that I have some kind of artistic direction on the main menu, I can start working on the other screens.
Theme and level selection are quite easy to make: I can't move or re-size the buttons so I just change the wood boards into scrolls. Colors are different depending of the theme or the difficulty; I will stuck to those used in Hungry Cat Mahjong.
I still ponder if the scroll on top of the screen (which contains only information) and the blue generic (clickable) buttons are too similar and therefore might confuse the player, both are wood boards in Hungry Cat Mahjong and it's working well, so...
Now the tutorial screen gives me more of a challenge: the big scroll in the center is re-sizable depending of the screen and used in several different cases. The red frame is quite impressive, and I like how it matches with the  background and other elements, but well, it's red...In the end I chose the beige one, more neutral.
With the "next" button I encounter the same issue than on the main menu, but this time, I obviously cannot use red for the icon. Green's working well though.
The victory/defeat screen to come will help me make up my mind! Well I certainly hope so.