A Little More Detail

So, per a request from an artist friend of mine, here's a little bit more detail on what I'm kinda looking for:

Point of view and level of detail in mini avatars (I think I forgot to mention before that for character designs, try to include a larger more detailed version and a smaller version that does the actual walking around on the map): ici. Designs with a few more pixels than the original Mario, much appreciated.

Medieval-ish times (but remember, it's a fictional world with magic and dragons, so bizarre-ness welcomed as well)

No guns, missiles, non-magical explosions.

Classes are all human. No pointy elf ears or fuzzy tails unless it's equipment.

Mix of simplicity and complexity (i.e. elegant and flourishes decorating a skin design that is just a simple box frame for the buttons and controls. Something like this might be more your style of art? Same idea for gear and character designs--ethereal long, straight hair blowing in imaginary wind in contrast with colorful mage's robe with strips and scarves and ribbons and extra fabric draped all over the place.)

Any style of dragon (fat, lumbering Western dragons or snaky Chinese dragons or wyverns).

Mix and match animals, real and mythological. Your version of mythical creatures wanted too. (phoenixes, centaurs, griffins, tiger bats, pigators, bandits, dwarves, ogres, squirrel monkeys)

Try to avoid copyright infringement. :]

Cute or dark. Maplestory or Diablo II.

No overly large shoulder accouterments (just a pet peeve of mine). Some spikes are ok, but not so much that a real person wouldn't be able to see/turn his or her head for fear of taking out an eye.

Women should be properly covered, cut off shirt and short shorts areas covered at the least, and no massive knockers, please.

Fine:


Borderline:


No:

(Just another pet peeve of mine)
(Major thanks to the artists whose work is shown above)
Above images are just examples. You're not being judged on skill, just ideas. Written examples accepted too, but be explicit, and images are preferred.

I hope that helps a little bit. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at drakenrpg@gmail.com. And don't forget! January 16th, 2011!


Have fun. ^^

The Deadline Looms...

So, to add a little fuel to the fire, here's what we're going to do. Much as I hate to say it, I'm imposing a DEADLINE on the artists out there biding their time to submit for the art competition.

But fear not (too much)! Do not be discouraged for the competition will be held in several rounds! For each round, new and returning artists can submit their work to be integrated into the game design. Multiple entries are encouraged. We're not necessarily looking for a finished product, just an initial design to work with. I'll of course be bringing each chosen artist into the loop to critique and hopefully more concept and finished art to the project.

THE DEADLINE FOR THE FIRST ROUND IS

JANUARY 16, 2011 at 11:59PM.


Good luck to everyone!

Concept Art Competition!

Yes, we are indeed having a concept art competition!

We're looking at all styles, all designs, and all subjects!

• character designs
• armor
• weapons (anything except weapons invented after the discovery of gun powder. No guns, missiles, etc.)
• summonings
• fonts
• text boxes
• creatures
• landscapes
• trees, plants
• buildings
• dragons!

Submit your artwork in 3 easy steps!

1. Check out the Introduction!!! post for a rough idea of the world and gameplay. Also check out the character class descriptions below!
2. GET INSPIRED! Design, sketch, draw, scribble!
3. Submit your awesomeness to drakenrpg@gmail.com!

Thanks for your submissions and have fun!


Starter classes:
Summoner--summons elemental motes to aid him in battle. Can retain and train some types of creatures, allowing them to evolve and grow with the Summoner. Can specialize into a necromancer, beast master, or spirit master.
Range--primarily uses ranged attacks. Can specialize into an archer, assassin, or trappist.
Melee--primarily uses close/melee attacks. Can specialize into a holy knight, neutral knight, or dark knight.
*All names and features are subject to change.

INTRODUCTION!!!

Welcome to the new DevBlog for the amateur RPG game, Draken!!!

Draken is the tentative title, but since "Dragons Are Good" is a pretty darn lame game title, we'll just call it Draken for now. As you may have guessed, the premise of the game is that dragons are good, or rather, dragons can be good or bad just like humans and animals and other living things. For the purposes of the game, plants are included in the above list.

My name is Celine Wu and I guess I hold the prestigious title of being the head of this endeavor and the lead developer and concept person for Draken. I started planning out the game about 2 years ago in 2008 and have been working on the concept on and off ever since. Progress is...slow, to say the least. I'm a full-time student currently adjusting to the rigors of living alone, so basically, life's gotten in the way of really working on the game. BUT I'm determined that this game will be released before I hit the age of 40 (hee hee, real tough deadline there, eh?)!

Written a while back for another site and edited to include updates:

"Players play as one of four types of mages (air, earth, water, wind). At the beginning, players fight very low-level monsters spawned/corrupted by the Evil-Being-Of-Undetermined-Name-As-Of-Yet. Players are given one house and get to choose their house. Starting town is determined based on element.

When the monsters get to be too tough to fight alone, even with weapons (weapons at shops will be limited, and more powerful weapons have stat limits to keep Low-levelers from buying high-lvl weapons and defeating the purpose of the game), players will be given a quest to explore the four elemental regions in the Dragon dimension (a small town is found at the start of the dimension for supplies and refuge) and find an egg (choose which regions to hunt in according to the type of dragon desired). Retrieve the egg, bring it back to town, hide at home (houses are locked by number combo set by player). Dragon eggs sell for a lot, so if a player is attacked, defeated, and the egg is stolen, too bad, get another--however players can opt out of p2p battles and are only attacked by monsters they click on, so there is little chance of losing the egg. The same npc who gave the quest is the Dragonsmaster of [insert town's element] (at the stables where dragons are housed and treated for wounds), who will give a quick tutorial on how to care for the egg, birth the dragon, and care for the dragon. During this time, most player activity will be in finding resources to care for the dragon, and less fighting for fighting's sake.

When the dragon is born, the player is instructed to battle low-level monsters, but the dragon will be the only one fighting until its HP is at 1/3; then the mage can step in and save his/her dragonlet. This sparks even faster growth than before. A teenage dragon is ride-able. Quick tutorial from the Dragonmaster on how to ride and fight or fight side-by-side (if mage wants to use melee). The dragon is fully playable, like a second simultaneous character, and is the mage's life partner. Repercussions of a dragon's death TBA.

The game is being developed as a Flash game at the moment, but that will not diminish the quality of the art or animation at all.

Dialogue is full of puns/humorous (see Dofus again).

Some rough feature ideas:

-Turn-based combat (comme Dofus) for now

-Video sequences w/ voice actors and more complex art

-Omni view? 3rd person view?

-2D for now

-Color scheme? (Cute and colorful? Dark and serious? Bright? Soft colors?)

**Need: Programmers, animators, modelers, concept artists, composers, script writers, ANYTHING! I'm only one person and I'm almost completely self-taught! Help!**"