A storage of the enemy creature’s animation for my submission.
Prototype snail walk
Final snail idle and walk
Unfinished Jellyfish swim
All were animated by me. None of the enemies ended up in the game due to their AI being broken and unplayable at time of submission.
A storage of Stellio’s animation for my submission.
the original Stellio idle, drawn by me
Stellio’s run drafts, by Achi
Stellio’s final run, by Achi
Stellio’s jump draft, by Achi
Stellio’s final jump, by Achi
Any good game has cutscenes. Some games have dialogues. This one happens to have both. That doesn’t necessarily make it good though.
DIALOGUE
To make dialogue flow easily and appear visually aesthetic, I am employing the plug-in named Dialogic within the Godot engine to make these scenes possible. In the case of dialogue between characters, I employed a visual novel style look.
What Dialogic’s interface looks like in the Godot engine
What the end result looks like
There were two (and a half) cutscenes planned in the game, with the opening cutscene and Stellio meeting Ictus cutscenes being most important.
These storyboards of the opening cutscene were created by Sen, who studies animation and storyboarding. I illustrated the first of these boards to get a feel for what the cutscene will look in game.
These are included within the test cutscene inside the game!
Originally, I wanted text to appear borderless and float along the images, but the Dialogic engine is kind of hard to figure out for someone who has 0 knowledge in coding like me… So the text shows up the same way as the visual novel text box.
You will be able to see a video of the cutscenes below as well as on the PDF.
Aside from the two main characters, I planned for a total of 5 more non-playable characters to be featured in the full story of the game. Currently, there are only sketches done for them as they were not part of the starting chapter of the game and therefore will not be needed for implementation.
The five Retainers are based on the five stages of grief, as they are all victims of past Moon children regime in one way or another. Stellio has to face each character and confront the horrors of his ancestors’ past actions, trying to make things right with them in what little ways he can.
The retainers are Lunarians, the race of people who live on the moon. They have a much longer life expectancy than their sovereigns Moon Children, which means most retainers shown have experienced at least more than 1 monarchy change over their existence. For more information about Lunarians vs. Moon Children, read previous blog posts.
THE CHAMBERMAID: Lysithea
(“Released by the Goddess”) (Calls herself Ly)
Maid of the royal estate, somehow stayed behind after everything crumbled down around her. Swearing oath to the monarch to be forever faithful, her contract (or maybe her singleheaded drive) binds her to the palace even as others flee. After the royal palace was deserted, she still wanders the halls alone polishing already crumbled pillars, remembering only the name that her late master called her by. Lysithea was likely introduced to the palace after the moon princess’ passing, so she has only experienced very harsh regimens and power-hungry rulers that focused on war and conquest. She kept up her routine after the last monarch passed, perhaps half in fear of being punished for deviating.
The maid is Denial, she doesnt want to believe that Stellio is the new prince as in her mind, she is still waiting for her master, the previous moon monarch, to return.
Lysithea is designed with classical french maid silhouettes in mind, with a fabric ornament the shape of an exo-skeleton around her torso to showcase her closed-off nature. She’s also meant to formerly be a frontline nurse during war eras, so her hair is pulled back and she has a stern expression. If I were to develop her design further, I would like to incorporate more nurse-related elements as well as make the paneling of her outfit more fantastical-looking.
Lysithea featured in an early mock-up of an in-game screenshot
THE CARPENTER: Velair
(derived from vela, the Sail)
A wood worker from the city, the only one in the 5 Retainers that’s been a working class throughout the war era. War devastated her hometown while she was taking refuge in the city, and she has taken it up on herself to rebuild the town she used to love — brick by brick if she has to. She has an overall kind disposition and gentle demeanor, but her big heart often leads her to be frustrated with her lack of power to help others. Kindness turns into over-exertion and further distaste towards herself and towards those who put her fellow Lunarians in dire positions.
The carpenter is Anger, towards the collapsed government and also towards herself. She appears amiable but her dissatisfaction with the monarchy boils underneath her skin, mirroring the suffering of the people around her.
Velair works with a lot of construction, so her outfit and silhouette are all boxy and sturdy– giving her character a down-to-earth older sister vibe. She is one of the weaker designs in the cast in my opinion, I feel somewhat uninspired when I try to think of what her uniform may look like, her hair, accessories, etc. It makes sense for her to look more plain compared to other characters due to her more humble upbringings, and there are only so many references to working-class people in the Victorian age. The issue is: How do I balance the feeling of simplicity and commoner attire that Velair has with the more whimsical nature of the rest of Lumiron? This is something I will need to ponder further.
Velair and Rigel sketch(see below)
THE HERBALIST: Polaris
(The Guiding Star)
A herbalist with a foul temper living somewhere in the mountainous ranges of the moon. Former personal assistant of the late moon princess, and went into seclusion after her death. They became emotionally attached to the princess, and took on her passion for herbalism after her passing. Polaris rejects their past identity and name as they see it as a failure of their character, hence they never introduce themself with their name and instead their occupation. Used to vaguely be coworkers with Sia (see below) back when both of them were still in the palace.
The herbalist is Bargaining, they are overtly “helpful” to the point of being somewhat overbearing, whilst putting pressure on stellio to mend things that arent exactly his doing. they want the kingdom to thrive and pins all the responsibility of it on stellio because of his role, as if he could change the past with his arrival.
Polaris’ design is based on green witches, featuring a myriad of florals and the recognizable silhouette of a witch hat and dress. The crinoline below their attire is meant to resemble a cage, keeping them trapped within themself. Their face and especially eyes are hidden from view under a garment that resembles a mourning veil, making it impossible to see clearly through their grief. I originally had planned for them to have a design resembling more like a plague doctor, which I haven’t ended up incorporating. I’d like to experiment further on that if given the chance.
THE LIBRARIAN: Celestia
(“Of the Skies”) (lovingly known as Sia)
A resident of the underground Royal Library. Probably doesn’t know the whole kingdom collapsed while he’s stuck in his books. He used to be an astronomer fascinated with the trajectories of stars and planets visible from the moon– After an encounter with the Moon Goddess, ends up learning of forbidden secrets that slowly drove him insane. Sia quit his position and holes himself up in the library to study so much that he’s become the honorary librarian now ? It didn’t used to have staff but now he’s there I guess.
The librarian is Depression, his vast array of knowledge petrifies him in place and makes him believe that none of his actions will matter in the grand scheme of things. He tries to dissuade Stellio to continue with this pointless venture and just be comfortable in the current state of things.
Sia is deliberately designed to look like a socialite woman despite his position as an astronomer– it’s a choice on his part to appear ‘superficial’ and ‘helpless’, like a damsel in need of rescue (In fact the reason why his hips don’t match the shape of his legs is due to deliberate padding). He doesn’t want others to take him too seriously and enjoys playing the role of a “librarian” as he self-isolates away from the state of the kingdom. He’s shaped like a flower vase, decorative and fragile, decorated with pearls and ruffles like a noble lady. I’d like to revisit the incorporation of assymetry in his design– as I find it interesting but have a hard time grappling with it in a way that looks elegant and well-structured.
Old concept art and sketches from before the FMP started of Polaris and Celestia
I had an idea that Lunarians could, as a last-ditch attempt, power themselves up by consuming their physical selves to fuel their mana cores, then die right after that burst of magic. The concept is similar to a bee’s sting. This didn’t end up making it into the current story of Lumiron but is something I’m shelving for future ideas.
THE TAILOR: Rigel
(“Foot of The Giant”)
The youngest of the current cast, created in a time after the death of the moon princess. Rigel has a birth deficiency regarding their mana core (being situated in their leg instead of around their torso area) and therefore could not fight on the frontlines of war. In order to still contribute to the monarchy, they became a blacksmith to forge weapons for a failing war regimen. Eventually they would try to adapt to the peace era Stellio brings about by becoming a tailor, but is still very paranoid about violence breaking out. Rigel has something similar to selective mutism / speaks very little, instead choosing to use actions to show what they mean.
The tailor is Acceptance. The capital city they reside in is lively despite the lack of mana barrier around the moon, yet the people make the best of it regardless. They acknowledge the pain and suffering that have transpired and are trying to be kind to one another to build past this hurdle. The return of a monarch doesn’t affect the tailor or the city as much as everyone else, as they already have each others backs throughout the fallout.
Rigel was an interesting challenge to tackle design-wise, as I am mostly used to (and prefer) drawing elogated figures when it comes to character design. Making a shorter character not look like a child while at the same time keeping them coherent with the rest of the cast was something that I struggled with when managing their proportions. Aside from that, Rigel mostly follows the fashion of a Victorian tailor, and has similar issues as Velair in that their designs may not appear fantastical enough. Something about these working-class people……
an old concept for Rigel that I may revisit in the future
silhouette of the NPC characters (featuring an animal tamer design that was scrapped)
A group photo of all the characters, with Stellio and Ictus in the middle
The NPCs are definitely nowhere near done in terms of concept design, as my focus drastically shifted away from them to take care of the rest of this project’s neglected aspects. Otherwise, I would love to do much more exploration of them as characters: Interactions between one another, with the world around them, etc. And color, of course…!!!
After finishing Stellio’s design, I spent a week or so waffling trying to figure out how to animate him before I remembered I literally have someone who studies animation working for me.
Achi is doing a BA in animation, so he and I swapped tasks– he would take care of animating Stellio while I focused on doing scenery. Sen is currently taking care of the flora, so my main goal in March was to create buildings.
There are three buildings that I wanted to put in the game: The altar the player spawns on, the ruined outpost where Stellio meets Ictus, and the castle that Stellio is heading towards.
I ended up cutting the part with the outpost due to time constraints. It’s okay, probably.
Lumiron is meant to have an underwater kind of vibe to it, so I wanted the architecture to follow suit. Aside from taking inspiration from Neo-Gothic styles as per previous posts, I also wanted things to look weightless and spiraly — like each structure is based on the shape of a sea shell.
The altar looked a lot more grand in concept sketches than the final sprite it got, mostly due to my style limitations (because I couldn’t figure out how the stairs would work in game either ahaha). I wanted it to have a flowy, somewhat organic looking shape, with the moon featured at the very top. I would have liked to add vegetation along the cracks if time permitted.
I leaned into the weightlessness of the moon with having debris floating in place instead of being piled at the bottom, making it look like it’s being held together by weak magical sources. This is something I intend to carry into other buildings in the future as well.
The rough blocking for the castle was created before any other buildings. While finalizing it into pixel art, I notice that my sense of scale seems somewhat skewed in this drawing. The connecting pieces of the castle look way smaller and lacking in details compaored to the main building, making the scaling look off and weird. I hopefully managed to mitigate this in the final version, although there are still a lot of places I want to improve on.
The color palette of the buildings are purposefully monochromatic, but it makes me wonder if adding accent colors would help with cohesion. I’d like to try adding tapestry or similar splashes of colors when i continue to develop the concepts.
Allow me to start off this segment with a little vent, I think I deserve it. It’s been, what, four months since the start of the project?
Shuli has not contributed a single thing.
This is my mismanagement to bear, I suppose. After one or two months of inactivity, I should have kicked them out and started looking for alternatives. But I stubbornly believed that maybe, just maybe, they cared about this project at least a little bit. But I was proven wrong, it seems.
My ultimatum for Shuli fell on deaf ears, despite all the promises to do better. They can alwayss type out a storm when apologizing, but just never anything else. I still regret having given them the benefit of the doubt.
So, it’s the end of January. There’s no tiles in the game yet. UGH!!!
My first and second attempts were total failures. Too dark! Doesn’t match the vibes of the moon at all, the circles are messy and don’t read as craters. Into the recycling it goes. Or, I guess, this blog post.
Then I came up with this atrocity. Genuinely don’t know what I was thinking. It looks like sludge. The worst thing is I really did spend a lot of time on each one, too, because I tried to make everything connect in seamless ways.
Here’s my first victory: the grass. It’s separated into three different layers: the part you walk on, the part that overlaps with the player, and the farther part for perspective. It still isn’t a perfect system, but at least it looked presentable. I think.
Here’s how the grass looked with one of the older tile sets. It felt revolutionary that some bits of it could cover Stellio’s shoes.
The battle with the rock ground continues. I kind of had a vague idea forming now, what with the craters and whatnot, but put together it just looked disgusting and weird.
Here I tried to use a plain grey base with the craters on a separate layer, but turns out I couldn’t figure out any clipping mask layer options on Godot, and also this looks awful.
This was the final version I came up with in the end– It leaves a lot to be desired for sure, but at this point I’ve spent probably over a month working on this with not much progress. I really need to move on and take care of other things.
It looks somewhat passable now, no longer nightmare inducing at the very least. Still flat looking, but I couldn’t care much about that at this point.
This looks kind of okay now, right? Right?
Moving on. I have so much to do.
While I was designing NPC concepts and enemies, I passed the work of designing the two main characters, Stellio and Ictus, onto Viridian. It may seem like a silly thing to do considering the importance of the role, but I swear I have my reasonings!
When Lumiron was first created, it was a world to put our self insert OCs into, something teenagers did online for fun. Shion (Stellio) was Shuli’s self insert, whereas Hero (Ictus) is Viridian’s. Mine are irrelevant at the moment….
Because Shuli is more or less absent from the project now, this leaves Viri and I being the original creators of the world. I gave Viri the role of reimagining the characters into the current narrative, because I know that they were very important to him.
Viri has done good work so far, but everything is a little disjointed. Plus with the addition of his own school taking priority, I took over and finished designing Stellio based on his concept sketches.
Above: Viri’s concept sketches for Stellio
Stellio is the main character of the story, so having his design lagging behind like this will hinder progress with the rest of the game. From here, I took over the design process and attempted to give Stellio a final design so we could begin asset creation for him.
left: Viri’s Stellio design; mid/right: iterations on the design
Stellio’s fashion is based on the modern Ouji Lolita fashion, a style that combines Victorian elements with cuteness of Lolita fashion with a princely twist (Ouji means “prince” in Japanese). While I liked Viri’s Stellio design, I found the fashion choice to be slightly too mature for him. Instead, I opted for shorts and a cloak instead of a full cape to symbolize youth and inexperience. I kept the idea of the floating crown as it looked quite whimsical and appealed to my tastes.
Final linework for Stellio + Colors (right is final)
I think my interpretation of Stellio differs from Viri’s. He seems more lively and innocent in Viri’s work, whereas I depict him as gentle with a more tired smile. I like to view him as someone who , while not equipped to handle the responsibilities pushed onto him, will still try his best to right anything that has been wronged (even to his own detriment).
Stellio’s color palette is straightforward. He is the prince of Lumiron and a child of the moon, so blue is featured primarily in his color palette. I also chose to make him brighter than his surrounding grounds and flora to signal him as a source of life/mana in the world, whereas the rest of Lumiron is paler and less saturated.
Ictus was mostly designed by Viri, as the origins of this character is important to him. Due to this, I felt as though Ictus’ style and design philosophy differs slightly from the rest of the cast, which I tried to mitigate by editing him slightly.
Viridian had a lot to say about Ictus lol
Due to previously being an established character, nailing Ictus’ desisgn while still trying to keep the original vibe of him became a big challenge throughout the process. He appears much more muddy and dark compared to Stellio and the world around them, which could be explained away with his backstory of coming from a different planet… But I still thought there was room for improvement.
Ictus after I edited him
Ictus is based on a Lunar moth, which I thought was not represented well in the design that Viri submitted to me. To fix this, I gave him fluffier hair to emulate the moth’s neck fluff as well as added more fuzzy parts to his design. I also introduced a pinkih maroon to his color palette, reminiscent of the Lunar moth’s bright pink limbs in a more subtle manner. some tweaks to his cape and belt were done to make the overall design look more cohesive.
I drew Ictus in my style and put him alongside the rest of the cast. It seems like he belongs here more, right?
Overall, I believe it would have been more beneficial time wise if I had been in charge of designing all the characters… But then I wouldn’t be able to find anything for Viri to do. Plus the exercise of trying to integrate Ictus into the cast was very interesting– It made me think about exactly why our designs looked so different and what had to change for them to be cohesive together.
We welcome a new artist onto the team: Sen!
Sen is a friend of Achi and specializes in storyboarding and character art. Unfortunately for him I and Viri are already working on characters, so he will be helping storyboard cutscenes as well as creating different flora for the environment.
Shuli has been MiA for the last month or so and I’m extremely worried about progress. Currently no progress has been completed on tilemap, which is a long and tedious thing to do– Shuli said there were complications due to family issues and therefore could not have completed anything.
This is kind of what I have been afraid of for a while. Shuli is rather flakey and to be perfectly honest, I dont particularly buy the excuse of family issues. They should have told me earlier on that they weren’t available to work so that I could redistribute the work onto other artists.
Shuli swears this time that they’ll be on time and do something for once. I suppose this is my ultimatum to them. I’m not really sure what I’ll do if this doesn’t parse out again.
I’m still working on the enemies, I feel like I’m taking too long on something that shouldn’t be that important.
Viri is doing okay. He’s somewhat busy with medical school but still contributes decently in terms of concept art for Stellio, the main character. I think I may need to take over after a while because he isn’t exactly familiar with the pipeline of character creation, and doesn’t have enough time to dedicate to it.
Achi is killing it on background concepts. No notes. I guess the only thing I’m worried about is how to turn those visions into tilesets.
Aurora seems to be getting busy with work and stagnating on coding. I’ll check in with her more often.
Overall it seems like our progress is slowing down, which is worrying me.
I wanted to have enemies with different functions in the game; IE: one that serves as a moving platform, one that does AOE damage, one that patrols, one that follows the player… Of course, all of these can overlap into different creatures, but figuring out their attributes will help designing easier.
Some creatures
A test gif of the snail as a moving platform
I feel somewhat dissatisfied with the creature design, they lack the sort of… vibe that I wanted to go for. I’m not exactly sure what it is yet, so I asked Achi for help with feedback.
This is Achi’s full page of creature design notes, that I will be employing as I continue to develop my creatures! Talking with him about visions and silhouettes really helped me see what I was missing in terms of the surrealism vibes I wanted to give.
I landed on these two creatures for now which I will hopefully employ in the game. Animation is not my forte, pixel art even more so– but I managed to make some simple animation for the snail.
respectively, the snail’s idle animation and movement animation. Aurora should be implementing patrolling and following behavior into the snail soon.
The jellyfish design is much more complex in terms of movements and therefore harder to animate. This is my best attempt for now– I think I may omit them from the demo, but this is here for keepsake. I tried my best to study the movement of real life jellyfish when animating, but the restriction of pixel art makes it hard to mimic.
Overall, I think the creature section still needs a lot of work, but I should probably focus my attention elsewhere at the moment.
Moving past the E1 deadline squarely into E2 has me somewhat nervous. While most team members seem to be on track with what is expected of them, I have less faith in some to be able to check in regularly.
I was absent from the November 16th meeting, but I left my team members some notes to go through, as follows:
From my understanding the showing was pretty bad. It’s okay we ball I guess.
Currently Shuli is working on tilemap with Aurora, with Achi doing environmental concept for the first level, Viridian on the main two characters, and I’ll be working on the enemy design.
I think I will stop updating the blog every week unless something happens during production. Toodles