mailin's character design project ogr

Character Design Project OGR

By Mailin Berg, Year 2 CAA

Outline of Game idea based on cards

My three cards are Robotics, which I have interpreted with metal prosthesis (like Iron Man or Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, they have better than human functionality); Disease which I have interpreted as corruptionwhich is done by the metal and medicine or cure which in this case is interpreted as cleansing of the corruption by a crystal in possession of the heroine.

My game will be a single player console Role Play Game in which the player has to interact with NPC's solve riddles / puzzles and kill enemies, earn money (or some kind of currency) on the way to upgrade her and the sidekicks armour and weapons with gear becoming available as the story progresses.


Summary

The world, altered by a dark event that all people refer to as “the accident” is a dark place being corrupted over time by an unbeknown force.

The Heroine, damaged in the accident causing her to have surgery to replace her limbs with metal prosthetic replacements receives a cleansing crystal from a mentor. The crystal is designed to keep her mind clear from corruption which comes from the metal itself. Unbeknownst to the Heroine, her best friend has also suffered damage in the accident and has a small piece of her head replaced with metal, which slowly alters her personality, as she has no crystal to cleanse her of the corruption.

The best friend decides to leave her own home to escape the constant memories of the accident and seeks an internship in a different town and says goodbye to the Heroine, who is understandably upset by the experience.

The Heroine decides to embark onto a long trip with her sidekick, to get to know the world they live in and get a better mastery of her new prosthetic limbs.


After visiting a few locations they hear a rumour about how the accident has

changed some townsfolk, and after several further villages they realize that it's

getting worse, so they both decide to get to the bottom of things and

investigate. They come upon corrupted animals that they have to fight,

uncorrupted villagers have found their own way to fight the corruption

(through a blessing or something similar) but other villagers are very hostile

and need convincing by heroine and sidekick by solving puzzles, riddles and

talking to them before they are allowed to cleanse the villages with the

crystal.


One of the hostile towns has the best friend living in it, who's mind has been

considerably altered by now; her choice of friends and allies has also shifted to

those of a rogue like nature, so interaction turns into confrontation, arguments and

accusations between heroine and best friend. This village is the first the heroine

can't cleanse by letting people see reason and allowing her to do it, so when they

leave she has her first existential crisis in which the sidekick slowly manages to build

her up again, but the next few scenes are filled with bleak hopelessness.

The villagers hostility increases which in turn makes heroine's and sidekicks lives

harder, during which the puzzles they have to solve become much harder and

some villages have to be left uncleansed as the tasks given by the corrupted

villagers become near impossible to solve despite improved gear and weapons.


As the heroine fails to help more and more villages, she is near to giving up, going home and leaving the mess for other people to clean up, but the best friend (now villain) appears again and by now the changes in character are very visible in face and clothes, and her state of mind is very different from what it used to be. Heroine and now-villain erupt into an argument with sidekick in the middle, trying to get both to calm down but it eventually leads to both drawing their weapons and fighting it out. Sidekick jumps to heroine's side but they both very nearly get killed by villain, but manage to defeat her. Heroine cleanses unconscious villain which leads to the country being freed from the tight grasp of corruption, and after making up with best friend they decide to cleanse the rest of the world together and embark on their next big adventure, to create a brighter future.


Key Scenes

Heroine and sidekick embarking on their own travels while waving

goodbye to best friend, melancholy, hopefulness, new start, adventure,

excitement

Heroine and sidekick having to deal with the first corrupted village,

uneasiness, cautiousness, helper syndrome, fear

Heroine and sidekick seeing best friend again, disappointment, anger,

fear, hopefulness crushed

Heroine and sidekick fighting now-villain, rage, despair, all-or-nothing

mind-set


Statement (what I will be submitting)

By the end of this project, I will have designed a heroine with a metal prosthetic leg, metal prosthetic arm and in possession of a crystal, her sidekick and her best friend who will over time turn into the villain and has to be defeated as the root of corruption that grasped the whole world. I will be designing two or three different stages of all three characters throughout their journey to demonstrate their growth of character and their props and two or three environments, one that is home, a friendly place but right after a harmful accident that impacts the whole world and one as the most corrupted village/town/place depending on what exactly it turns out to be. This place will show great signs of corruption and hostility but will be welcoming the villain, as this environment and character mirror each other. I may also include a stage in between.

I may draw a scene of the first meeting of heroine and best friend-villain after both have embarked on their individual journeys, as this will change the attitude of the heroine from then on.


Design explorations of all three characters

Main character, cyborg like, due to prosthetic limbs which put her at risk for corruption, held at bay by crystal. Heroine used to be light-hearted and naïve but has turned more serious since the accident but is still very excitable with a can do attitude.

Sidekick who is faithful to heroine, embodies companionship and loyalty, likes to talk about events they've encountered to understand the world better, helpful and loving towards anyone and always up for a laugh.

Best friend is loyal but traumatised by the accident but tries to hide it, wants to get away from where it happened and start a new life, is sad to leave her friend (heroine) behind.

Villain on the other hand embraces the corruption of her mind and doesn't listen to hero's attempts of talking to her, pushing heroine away from her, emotionally shut

People of different factions heroine encounters, some friendly and helpful, some not


Heroine


Sidekick and Best Friend / Villain


Environment Designs

Home - friendly place, warm, welcoming colours, a bit chaotic after the

accident but nothing serious

A friendly village - very much like home but different colours (like tribes)

slightly different architecture

A corrupted village - metallic shine to houses that shouldn't have it, wood

for example, colours are mismatched and everything has a dark, hostile

feeling about it - villagers staring openly, shouting, throwing things at

heroine and sidekick


Home Environment Sketch


mailin's character design project ogr

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