character-design
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Heroes of the Storm is now in closed beta
If you've paid attention to the people in the early testing for Heroes of the Storm, you likely saw a lot of feedback that amounted to surprise that the game was just in alpha. Of course, a game that feels polished and fun in alpha testing is in a good spot, which is why it should come as no huge surprise that the title moved into closed beta yesterday. Players who wish to test and have not already opted in should be sure to do so, as beta invitations are being sent out regularly. The team behind the game also took a moment to explain a bit more going on behind the scenes with character design by looking at Thrall -- specifically, looking at top-down design for Thrall as he exists within Heroes of the Storm and bottom-up design using Thrall's Warcraft III abilities as a starting point. It's an interesting look at how the same basic character could wind up inspiring two different designs in the end and well worth a glance if you're crossing your fingers for that closed invitation. [Thanks, Dengar.]
Take a good look at the leading lady of Beyond Good & Evil 2 [update]
Update: Ubisoft claims the art is an early concept of Jade, pre-dating Beyond Good and Evil. Whether or not she'll appear that way in Beyond Good and Evil 2 is unknown, but this tease suggests a return of that old, graceful appearance (which matches leaked screenshots). The article below has been updated to reflect the image's origin. Original: While Beyond Good & Evil 2 remains in the same nebulous development limbo it has called home for the last half-decade, creator Michel Ancel recently offered fans a look at a design for series protagonist, Jade, seemingly as she will appear in the game. Below the break you'll find footage of a recent Q&A session broadcast via YouTube. At the 2:05 mark, Ancel unexpectedly produces a glossy poster offering a very clear look at Jade's conceptual aesthetic. While Jade maintains the laid-back, almost "grunge" style of her debut in the original Beyond Good & Evil, there are definite differences in the character's design. This version of Jade has almost samurai-esque elements, combined with the kind of DIY aesthetic you'd expect from a hero living a hardscrabble life in an unfriendly world. Unfortunately, Ancel offered no information on when we can expect Beyond Good & Evil 2 to reach store shelves, so we'll all go back to waiting patiently - at least until the next tiny nugget of information reminds us all how long we've been waiting for this sequel. [Image: Ubisoft]
Longtime Square Enix artist Akihiko Yoshida joins Unsung Story team
Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians, the tactical RPG from Level-5 and Square Enix veteran Yasumi Matsuno, will feature the character artwork of Akihiko Yoshida. The news comes from an update on the project's Kickstarter page, which revealed an excerpt of the game's story as well. Yoshida departed Square Enix in December after an 18-year stint during which he provided art and character designs for games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story alongside Matsuno, as well as Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy XII and Bravely Default. Unsung Story is seeking $600,000 on Kickstarter by February 14 in order to continue development. With 16 days left to hit its goal, more than 10,000 people have pitched in $438,947 to the project, which has multiple $1 million-plus stretch goals to reach platforms like Vita, PS4 and 3DS.
Vagrant Story character designer Akihiko Yoshida departs Square Enix
Square Enix character designer Akihiko Yoshida is leaving the company, ending an 18-year tenure that saw him produce iconic designs for Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, among other classics. Yoshida announced his departure in The Art of Bravely, a Bravely Default art book released in Japan this week. Yoshida explained that he will continue to work with Square Enix on the upcoming Bravely Second, but will no longer be directly employed by the company. Yoshida's distinct artwork defined games like Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy XII and the 2006 Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy III. One of his most recent projects, Bravely Default, is due for a North American release in February.
The Daily Grind: Is it game over if you can't design your own character?
Because the superhero genre attracts both people who like designing comicbook characters and people who are fans of existing icons, Marvel Heroes' implementation of playable Marvel characters has had a polarizing effect on gamers. "People will not want to be like the characters; they want to be the characters," declared one of our commenters back when the game was first announced. "As much as I love Captain America, Spiderman, and Wolverine... I'd not want to play them," mused another. You almost have to feel sorry for Gazillion: The studio can't please everyone. So today we're wondering which side you take in the debate. Would you rather play the real thing than play your own invention or a cheesy knockoff (after all, existing superhero MMOs are overflowing with Hulk, Iron Man, and Batman clones anyway)? Or do you agree with the Massively reader who posted that "the whole point of an MMO is to play your own creation"? Is it game over if you can't design your own character? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Know Your Lore: What exactly is up with women in Warcraft lore?
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Between Rossi, myself, and those who came before us, there have been a metric ton of Know Your Lore columns. If you're wondering exactly how many, I suggest you take a look at our lore guide for a categorized list of them all. Occasionally, I'll go back and look through the list just to see what we've missed and what needs to be filled in or updated from old columns. And I've been looking at that lore guide and going over the things in it, and I keep noticing one really particular thing about it. There are hardly any women on that list. There's a scant handful compared to all the other heroes and villains and history and everything else on it. And it's not that women don't exist in the Warcraft universe -- they're all over the place, honestly. It's that there is only a handful worth of them that have enough character development and story to warrant dedicating a column to them. To which I say wait a minute, what is up with that?
Is height a requirement for a serious character?
I'm 5 feet 3 inches tall. When I wear heels, I call them my tall shoes because they make me tall. Not taller, because that would indicate that there were some degree of tallness to begin with. Trying on platform shoes is an exercise in seeing the world through the eyes of someone tall enough to see all the things without standing on their tiptoes. My kitchen is organized by "things I need", "things I don't use often," and "things I put on the top shelf because I'll never use them anyway." There is an upper third of my closet that is nothing but stuff I should save but will never pull out and look at in at least five years. That said, it's not bad being short, either. I never hit my head on door frames or overhead lights. Low ceilings don't particularly bother me, aside from design aesthetic. I can fit into literally any car on the market; there's never a problem having to squish my legs under a steering wheel. Plane seats have plenty of room for my legs, which is great on long flights. I have smaller hands, so my dad constantly asks me to pull things out of tight spaces, thread needles, or mess around with teeny-tiny wires and screws. That said, it's continually kind of weird to look at all the short races in video games and see characters that aren't taken particularly seriously.
Storyboard: Not in control
One of the weird parts of roleplaying, at least for me, is the fact that I'm not really in control at all. I don't mean in the narrative sense, although that's also true. I'm talking about the simple fact that my characters have minds of their own, and that's half of the entertainment value. I see something happening, I know it's going to be bad, and I find myself thinking that the best thing my character can do is keep his or her mouth shut. And then I'm hammering away at the keyboard because even though I think otherwise, he or she has a very different opinion. Writers are familiar with the idea, of course. Characters wind up talking to you, even when you don't mean for it to happen. But it happens with roleplaying just as surely, and you wind up with a character driving in a totally different direction than you had planned, with your main-line character sitting on the side while some C-list concept takes center stage. And the funny part is that it all feels right, all the way through.
Guild Wars 2 developer explains updated cinematic conversations
Guild Wars 2 fans are starting their morning with an interesting update and some entertainment, thanks to ArenaNet's motion capture and cinematic guru Chuck Jackman. Chuck is the mind behind the newest ArenaNet blog entry, all about the recent improvements to Guild Wars 2's cinematic conversations. The cinematic conversations in Guild Wars 2 are the brief cutscenes that take place between player characters and NPCs at significant points in the story line. Until now, players trying the demo have only seen the placeholder versions of these cinematics, which consisted of a lot of seemingly-random emotes and what Chuck describes as "some very basic lip-synch that resembled more of a duck's bill than a human's mouth." The team has been hard at work on improvements, though, and today's blog entry unveiled two videos of the new cinematics. It's a fairly lengthy read, with plenty of explanation of everything from emotes to facial animations to voice work. If your eyes glaze over at even a hint of tech-speak, fear not. While we have our doubts about Chuck's claims of blotting out the sun and tearing code from the minds of ancient gods, it's definitely an entertaining and informative read for any gaming fan. Check out the full entry at the ArenaNet blog.
The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: Climax's Warhammer Online
Let's begin with a little personal history. Back in 2008, I decided to get into the blogging scene by jumping on board the latest MMO hotness -- in this case, Warhammer Online. As I was growing increasingly tired of World of Warcraft, WAR seemed to offer a refreshing alternative: a darker world full of brutal PvP and awesome new ideas. So I joined the elite ranks of bloggers (hey, stop laughing so hard) and spent the better part of two years jawing about Mythic's latest fantasy project. And while Warhammer Online was, in my opinion, a solid product, it certainly failed to live up to the extremely high expectations held by both the development team and the players. No matter how it turned out, I really enjoyed talking about WAR, especially in the days leading up to its launch. One of the first articles I ever wrote for my blog WAAAGH! dealt with the first attempt to bring Warhammer Online into the MMO genre (as a fun aside, it was one of the first times I got my name on Massively!). It's a "what if?" tale that's tantalizing to consider -- an entirely different studio, Climax Online, creating a much darker version of Warhammer than we've ever seen online. The tale of the game's rise and fall (and subsequent rise and fall again) captivated me, and I wanted to expand my old article as part of our recent series into exploring MMOs canceled before their launch. So what if Climax had brought Warhammer Online to bear? Would it have eclipsed Mythic's vision or been its own animal? Hit the jump and let's dive into the pages of ancient history!
Firefall art lead builds battleframes
Firefall isn't being marketed as a traditional MMO, and in fact there aren't many traditional MMO staples in this Red 5 Studios creation. For instance, the class system is series of battleframes. These are armor sets that any player can wear, and they define what role he plays in a group. Another way Firefall is attempting to carve its own gaming niche is found in the art style behind this third-person shooter. Art Lead Adam McMahon takes a few moments in the latest Firefall dev blog to talk about the evolution of the battleframe design. Some of the original designs for the battleframes conjured up scenes from Alien or Starship Troopers. But the art team quickly realized that it was "making a game for the global market," and therefore, as McMahon explains, "the art needs to be special and it needs to appeal to that broad audience." At that point, the design took a totally different direction and eventually became the look you see in the promo art now and you will see in the game. If you'd like to read more about how McMahon and the Firefall team inspired the look of the game, be sure to read the whole developer diary. While you're there, take a moment to sign up for the beta. %Gallery-126195%
Visceral on the believability of Dead Space's Isaac Clarke
In its continuing series on profiling character design in games, IndustryGamers has posted a chat with Visceral creative director Wright Bagwell on Dead Space 2 protagonist, Isaac Clarke. According to Bagwell, it was very important from the beginning that Dead Space's main character was a "normal everyday kind of guy" and that he made logical sense in the game's universe. "We didn't want you to play a superhero, and we didn't want your character to be a space marine as well," said Bagwell, which led to the idea of an engineer sent to help an abandoned space ship. Not only did this help players identify with Isaac, but it also gave him "a lot of interesting things to do in this world as well." Dead Space 2 presented new challenges, thanks to Isaac's newfound ability to speak. According to Bagwell, the team at Visceral tried to prevent Isaac's dialogue from pulling players out of the game. Thus the team "focused a lot on having him say things that [the team] thought were situationally appropriate." Speaking from personal experience, we can certainly identify with Isaac hurling expletives during the more shocking moments in Dead Space 2. Head over to IndustryGamers to read the whole piece, which includes insights on the characters of Nicole and Stross, as well as Visceral's insistence on using creepy nursery rhymes.
ArenaNet artist talks human character design for Guild Wars 2
Human week continues for ArenaNet and eager Guild Wars 2 fans as character art lead Aaron Coberly delves into Character Art in Guild Wars 2. Aaron covered everything involved in character design from the technical to the lore-based, explaining why overall design decisions are made as well as what technical upgrades the team is working with, but there was much more too. Some new art provided a further look at armor and clothing in Guild Wars 2 (and possibly our first look at a GW2 Mesmer). We also got some new details on how armor classes and character customization will work. Check out the new ArenaNet blog post for yourself, and don't miss next Monday's Flameseeker Chronicles for our detailed analysis of Human Week.
Meet Aero, Mega Man Legends 3's new heroine
The final character design for the new Mega Man Legends 3 Project character, now named "Aero," has been revealed on Capcom's Devroom site. Designer Tokiko Nakashima took Shinsuke Komaki's winning character design and altered it with the intent of making it fit into the gameworld ... which apparently means different leggings and shorter hair. Capcom plans to show off the 3D model for Aero in December. This "progress report" coincides with the launch of the Devroom. If you want to take part in the discussion about Mega Man Legends 3's development -- and make sure nobody does anything stupid -- you can sign up now.
Street Fighter IV's Abel before he bulked up
The official Super Street Fighter IV development blog has revealed some unused character art for the first game, revealing a different take on Abel than the giant amnesiac in bike shorts we know now. Before he was beefy and uncomfortably pant-less, he was wispy ... and pretty much only in pants."With Abel," battle planner Taisaku Okada explained (as translated by Andriasang) we wanted to make someone representative of 'the weak can beat the strong,' and so he was originally a small judo character who could be mistaken for a girl." Eventually, it would appear, they opted for someone representative of 'the strong can beat the ... also strong."The post also reveals E. Honda's skeleton, which, like all the characters', is rendered in full 3D. The other characters' hairstyles probably don't have bone structure, however.[Via Andriasang]
In Development: APB
It seems I spoke too soon regarding the lack of a Crackdown MMO! APB is Realtime Worlds' action MMO, and judging from the awesome character concept artwork, it's going to have a lot in common with Crackdown. And I'm interested because in at least one way it's going to feature something I wrote about: criminals vs. law enforcement. More to get interested in: 'The game itself centers on player vs player combat and will be the first massively multiplayer online title where player skill determines character progression as opposed to the traditional model of time investment." That's a tall order, and one I'm keenly interested in seeing how it's going to be implemented. That aside, the art direction on this game is gorgeous -- I'm happy to see that the 'good guys' (law enforcement) are just as visually interesting as the 'bad guys' (criminals). Check it: the photo there? That's a cop. Uh huh. The Artwork section of the site has a bunch of great pics; go check 'em out now. It's not gameplay, but it's enough, by gar. APB is coming out in 2008, according the site, and let's hope this is the hit the Crackdown could've been.[Thanks, Chris!]
