Wandering Eye Preview

Preview of art from a planned future project.

Coyote City

Some backgrounds (in a new, more minimal style) which I decided to turn into a standalone art piece. Pretty happy with the results!

“Cliche Killers” Mini Design Doc

A brief write-up for one of my pet projects. May do a more in-depth design document at some point, if time allows…

I. Overview

“Cliche Killers” is a retro beat-em-up with RPG elements and randomly generated levels. Players form bands who use their musical instruments to attack enemies with rhythm game-like combos, in a surreal and self-referential video game universe. 

II. Story

The game’s story involves a small arts college which is one of the last places on earth not infested with abstract otherworldly creatures called Cliches, who alter reality to form familiar video-game style settings. Cliches are weakened by original ideas, and creating new and original art in their presence is the only way to defeat them. 

III. Level structure 

The only permanent level of the game is a college campus which functions as a central hub, where players can talk to each other, form groups, trade equipment, and access information about the game world. By entering a subway station below campus, they can transport to a randomly generated level. These levels resemble classic beat-em-up sidescrollers, but with doors at the bottom or top of the screen which lead to other areas. Each level starts with a summary of the level’s unoriginal plot (i.e. “the president’s daughter has been kidnapped by ninjas”), which is revised to become increasingly outlandish as the players progress through the level (as the Cliches become weakened). Each level ends with a surreal battle with a cliche core, which are larger and more abstract than other enemies.

IV. Combat

Combat is based on rhythm, with attacks that are synchronized to a level’s beat stunning enemies and allowing chain combos. If a combo reaches a certain number of hits, the player will receive cues to perform more powerful attacks by pressing buttons simultaneously, with longer combos creating more powerful attacks. The sound effects associated with each attack double as musical notes in the same key as the relatively sparse background music, meaning that the soundtrack is fully interactive and is largely improvised by the players. 

V. Equipment

By equipping different instruments, players can change their character’s moves, as well as the musical tones made when attacking. Most weapons are differently colored variations on guitars, drums, and keyboards, but some less common instruments, like trumpets or violins, might be incorporated later on. Weapons do not have statistics like damage, instead the differences between the items are limited to combo types and sound effects.

Wandering Eye Early Version

Early draft of some designs for yet another in-progress idea.

Meta Gods samples

Artwork samples from another eventual project, plus a brief rundown of the story after the break.

Yet more previews

This is the story of a young blob, who has only known life inside of a small room, under the watch of strange, giant creatures.

Our hero finds a small hole in the wall, and fights his way through a series of tunnels, losing his way home in the process.

Eventually he finds himself in a room far bigger than anything he could have imagined, full of bright colors and exotic creatures.

As he travels, he grows larger and stronger, and discovers that parts of the big room are devoted to the colorless world of the giants who had once been his jailors.

Trying to find his way home, he travels back and forth between the city and the forest, slowly learning about the giants and his own existence in the process.

By the end of the game, the player will have grown to the size of a giant, which will allow him access to new areas while closing off old pathways (unfortunately I still have yet to draw his larger forms, which also grow in complexity – the addition of arms, armor, etc). The idea is to create a game with a number of stylistic shifts – while visually, it resembles a cute, old-fashioned side scroller, the story is fairly dark and complicated, taking unexpected turns and keeping the player guessing.

More Previews:

Some previews from the first level of yet another future project:

I won’t talk too much about this one, suffice to say the story involves four edgy twentysomethings engaged in a war with the “Cliches” – interdimensional parasites which feed off of uncreative ideas. Each level takes place inside of a different cliche, where the players must use their unconventional fighting abilities to steer the initially derivative plotlines into less familiar territory.

The gameplay is more or less in full arcade “beat-em-up” style, but with an in-depth plot and some light RPG elements. Ideally, one level will be released every month, making the game along the lines of an interactive comic book.