ART
With character concept sketches done, the next step was creating character sprites, animations, and background assets, but I unfortunately didn’t pay close enough attention to resolution throughout this part of the project.
The software I used for character sprites and animations was Aseprite. It provided an easy way to create spritesheets which were used for the animations and this is where paying attention to resolution was important - because in the end, all characters were created at low resolution and looked blurry in-game at the 1080p resolution as seen here. I also didn’t have a set framerate for the animations and a lot of them had to be manually adjusted in-engine. That’d be 2 things I’d fix for next time.
Coming up with character designs was a straightforward process. I decided that I wanted a protagonist, trader, generic enemy, and main antagonist - since I went with a medieval theme, I created concept sketches to fit it in Photoshop.
Knighborn was the name given to the player character since you’d be unnamed throughout the game, several features unimplemented for the final prototype was wielding a glowing blue sword that would grow brighter when enemies got close and the use of magic spells for combat.
Reprise is the main antagonist who caused the chaos throughout the land and is the last boss you’d fight. His body mass was mostly replaced and held together by a purple energy source that allowed him to break apart his limbs to attack.
The trader, Fable, was unfortunately never created because I simply didn’t have time with classes going on, but he would’ve been the main trader that the player would barter with.
Knightborn
Idle Animation
Resolution: 100px by 100px
14 Frames
Time Spent: ~3 hours
Reprise
Idle Animation
Resolution: 50px by 50px
8 Frames
Time Spent: ~4 hours
Knightborn
Attack Animation
Resolution: 100px by 100px
11 Frames
Time Spent: ~5 hours
Shadow (Enemy)
Attack Animation
Resolution: 100px by 100px
14 Frames
Time Spent: ~5 hours