I like the old 16-bit games that made amazing visuals and presentation their top priority. The games were fast, didn't waste their audience's time and pushed their hardware to the limit. I'm referring to Metal Slug, Thunder Force IV, Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes, and many more. I wanted to do something that looked similar.
Pew pew pew
First of all I needed an image. A glimpse into what a rich, colorful setting could be. BAM! How about an island?
Aaaah.
You got the beach, palmtrees, regular trees, nice houses, the sun and a blue sky! Great! You also got the sea. And who rules the sea? Pirates! This sounds better and better! What should those pirates look like? How about characters with instantly recognizable silhouettes? How about making one large pirate, and one short pirate? And for even more distinction, how about making the large one an Ottoman general type of character, with an amazing moustache? And the short one should be a fox, and he should wear an eyepatch with a smiley on it! Amazing! Oh, how about the bad guy? Well he should be this huge, genius admiral type! He should invade the island with an army of robots and zeppelins, there would be a treasure hidden on the island, and our pirate heroes would storm through the island to steal the treasure first, and save the island from the mad admiral along the way!
STOP RIGHT THERE
There would be boat and motorcycle chases, a seaside stage, a palace stage, an ancient temple stage, bosses covering half the screen and lots of explosions. BAM! KPOW!
Makes you stare, huh?
I wanted to incorporate everything that had visual appeal and somehow worked together with the rest of the setting. I ended up mixing mosques and zeppelins and palmtrees and those white Mykonos houses and whatnot. I like it.
Here are some sketches.
Here are some sketches.
Those are delicious, but where are all the video gamey visuals?
Also, explosions.
I wanted to showcase graphics in a fun way. So here's a faux trailer.
The catchy piece of music you will hear in the video is titled "My skateboard will go on" and was composed by Anamanaguchi.
The catchy piece of music you will hear in the video is titled "My skateboard will go on" and was composed by Anamanaguchi.
That's it. Now take me to your leader. OR ELSE.
