WK05 title screen concept phase

For my title page, i used two pictures to create the background and midground. The background was a nice picture of the serengeti desert and for the midground i stole an elephant from a picture of an elephant herd to stand looking at the camera. For animation, i plan on adding some sort of wind making the tree sway and leaves flutter. The elephant will move his trunk back and forth, flick his ears a bit, and occasionally blink.

WK04 mood board final phase

 I liked the general desert oasis feel to my colour palettes so i just changed the colors slightly to better reflect the african plains feel. I also touched up the color rectangles by making them all uniform size and giving an outling

mood board 1

Ellie TD concept

The game will be about Ellie the Elephant as she tries to protect her herd from waves of threatening predators and various other enemies. the gameplay will be a top down tower defense game with wide lanes for enemies to travel down, purchasable soldiers to fight off enemies, and a controllable avatar.














The main character will be Ellie an Elephant matriarch. the story will be about her drive to protect her herd. she will be playable as an avatar and have individual controls to help fight off enemies. Her sprites will be top down during the gameplay but story panels will include graphics of her standing up.

The tower defense gameplay will feature wide lanes so that multiple enemies could enter abreast of eachother. enemies will come in waves of various sizes. the player will have to fight off 5 waves in a row before being able to buy more troops. this is to keep more immersion and keep the player focused on controlling Ellie and fighting off waves as her.











Every 5 waves, the player will be able to purchase a variety of animal soldiers that will be placed outside of the lanes and help the player fight off enemies. soldiers will have different strengths and powers. an elephant will spray water at enemies and push them back a large distance. another elephant will hurl boulders at enemies dealing area of effect damage. birds will drop coconuts onto enemies stunning them for a brief time. cobras will be able to be place in the lanes as mines. if an enemy steps on a cobra, they will be poisoned and slowed for  along duration.

I drew inspiration by asking my friend if she had any ideas for a game. She aptly cried "make a game about elephants!". This got me thinking about a game that centers around a matriarch elephant "Ellie" defending her child and her herd from angry predators.

I started with two concepts as to how I would flesh out this game. The first concept is a 2d action fighter game. The layout I imagined was a flat battleground in which you directly control Ellie and have a variety of attacks and freedom to move back and forth. In the center of the battleground would be Ellie's baby elephant child. Enemies would move in from both sides and try to carry off the baby and you would need to control Ellie to fight off waves of enemies and stop them from carrying off your baby elephant. In between waves, you would be able to spent your points earned by killing enemies to buy upgrades to your elephant such as trunk spikes, stronger attacks, greater movespeed, and armor for reducing damage.

The second concept I had would be similar to a castle defense game. It would be a top down castle defense game in which you fend off waves of predators from getting to your herd. You would control Ellie a hero character and move her around the battlefield killing enemies and earning currency (probably peanuts). In between waves, you would be able to upgrade your walls and arm them with animal soldiers with various different weapons with different uses. One soldier would be an elephant who shoots water at the closest group of enemies and pushing them back to the edge of the level. Another soldier would be a snake that spits debilitating poison to slow and/or poison enemies. At the same time that you are building soldiers to defend your herd, you can also control Ellie herself and fight the enemies in person while your towers rain down on them.

RPS presentation final

I eventually decided to go with the landscape view because i just liked the aesthetic of it. I also decided to use the same graphic because of its good colors and very straightforward demeanor. I liked the idea of having one large graphic in the center the draw focus and give direction to the presentation so I stuck with the same thematic feel of having the one large graphic as the centerpiece. I also added some color to the headers just to lighten up the presentation in general 

RPS Presentation

          As I drew my thumbnail sketches, I started to like the idea of having one large space in the middle filled with one or multiple graphics. I felt as if it game the presentations somewhat of a focal point where everything pointed to the center. I also played around a bit with using a landscape orientation for the canvas. I didn't have a scanner available to me, so I just took a picture with my camera and used that.

        When searching for pictures, I looked for diagrams or visuals that showed what the individual hand gestures looked like and also showed the order of who wins in certain situations. While the circular graphics have a nice aesthetic and are quite simple to understand, I liked the appeal of the real pictures depicting the result of all possible matchups.

         What I ended up going with was a design that put all focus one one central graphic and putting the intro and rules at the far top and bottom of the canvas. I put some little star graphics in the corners just to spruce things up a bit and add some life to it.