GRAD PROJECT
Kojiki54%
A tale of creation and destruction, of warring Gods and tribulations. This chronicle, known only to man as the Kojiki, regales the tale of Izanagi and Izanami, the once-married divine beings whose divorce brought one to the pits of hell. Izanami swore to bring destruction upon humanity as she rotted, and Izanagi resolutely swore to forever protect the Earth. It is now 21xx, and Earth is in a predicament. Izanami has returned, and has summoned the comet 5454 Kojiki to wipe out all existence, once and for all. You must take up the mantle of Izanagi—can you save the Earth from its demise?
A non-traditional fighting game with a resource management aspect, bringing depth unseen in other games in the genre. Kojiki54% is a student project that spanned 8 months of design, development, and production. Below, I highlight some of the work I've done over the duration of the project.
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My role: art director, character + concept artist, illustrator, game designer, UI designer, animator
Personal devlog: Fight! available on WordPress
Team Twitter: atomspacefrogs@twitter
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Character designs
Our game went through multiple iterations before we settled on what we eventually created at the end.
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The characters in kojiki54% are based off of two gods in the Japanese creation myth, Izanagi and Izanami. Initially, we wanted to have multiple characters with their own "resource management system", such as a Mongolian eagle huntress who manages her eagle, or a break dancer who also uses a baseball bat and baseballs as her resource. However, this created the need for too many separate UI elements, and we had difficulties coming up with one single, unified way that encompassed every character's unique mechanic--not to mention way too big of a scope.
When designing characters, especially in a setting where realism isn't the visual goal, silhouettes play into a large part of identity. In fighting games, it's important for the characters to have very readable silhouettes and draw attention to all the right areas--such as hands, feet, and weapons.
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I referenced many fighting games, as well as drew inspiration from various cultures found around the world, when designing characters for our game. Pictured right is the hawk huntress inspired by one of the nomadic tribes of Mongolia. I was inspired by an article I read years ago about how hawk hunting was a dying practice.
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A part of me wants to increase interest for these lesser-known traditions through my designs and work.
The "resource-management" aspect of our game went through numerous iterations. We didn't know how to blend the mechanic with the context (you can read more about it here). Briefly, we toyed with the idea of "faith as a resource" where gods of different beliefs and mythologies participated in a holy tournament that would decide where their subjects, the humans, would put their faith.
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Inspired by this, I played around with a couple of character designs with their roots in mythology. I had Nezha, a divine messenger of the gods in Chinese mythology, and Hermes and Apollo from the Greeks.
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Although these designs didn't fly, eventually they became what we eventually settled on: Izanagi and Izanami, the Japanese God and Goddess of creation.
To make things visually interesting, and to have a new spin on an otherwise classic tale, we placed our version of Japan's creation myth in a Neo-Tokyo setting. In the story of Kojiki54%, Izanagi and Izanami are giant mecha versions of their former selves, their spirits transported into the far future to continue their battle.
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With Izanagi, I had a very strong image in my head--of a pose, specifically. He took a certain shape in my mind, and I designed around this silhouette I envisioned.